The Return of Beads To Order

Hello, Beadfolk

Seeing as I am in the midst of some kind of highly annoying Beadmaker's Block I have decided to let you - yes you - choose what I make so I've just added some beads to the Beads To Order section.

I'm off to clean and pack up beads now.

Have a great Sunday!  

Odd

I wrote two posts yesterday - one about snow and one about sock yarn.

I've just noticed that I posted the snow one at 11.56 and the yarn one at 23.56. How odd that I published posts at both 11.56s in the same day. A truly bizarre coincidence.

There is a lack of beads ..... but then you'd already noticed that, right? It would appear that I have started the year with a bout of bead funk. Long-term readers will know that this happens occasionally. There's nothing I can do about it - I just have to ride the bead funk wave and wait for it to disperse. I used to stress about it but I've learned that doing so just makes it worse so please bear with me and I'm sure that in a few days I'll have some glass pretties to show you.

'Orange & Blackcurrant'

I know things have been quiet on the bead front and rest assured I have been melting glass - I just haven't been producing decent beads! I was giving Chris earache on the phone the other night whinging to him that 'I've made beads but they're rubbish!' and he said 'Yeah, but I know what your idea of rubbish is. Are they really that rubbish?'. He has a point. Sometimes I make a bead and put it to one side because I think it's got something wrong with it only to pick it up a few days later, study it and not be able to see why I discarded it in the first place. I admit it - I do suffer from occasional bouts of Bead Dysmorphic Disorder but honestly, these past few days I've made some seriously heinous beads.

So I was mighty pleased when this batch came out of the kiln today. A strand of orange and deep pinky-purple loveliness! And no, your eyes don't deceive you. Some of them - the ones with the bumps - are actually, shock horror, asymmetric! That mucks with my mind, I can tell you. My eyes say 'Hey - they look nice like that, Laura!' but the bead department of my brain screams 'Aargh! The designs are all lopsided and not matchy! What the hell were you thinking, woman?!'. Well, I'm going to ignore the bead voices in my head because I like their lopsidedness. (Yes - I hear bead voices in my head. I know, I'm odd.)

What became of the heinous beads? Well, after Chris's are-they-really-that-rubbish question I sorted through them and no, not all were as fugly as I first thought. As a result the not-so-bad ones are now hanging around in the Lonelies jar waiting for more to join them and the oh-so-bad ones ended up in Robyn's bead bag. She loves to sort through my reject beads, thread them together to make necklaces and bracelets, unthread them and then sort them out all over again. My sisters and I used to do exactly the same thing with the contents of Mum's button jar. A love for shiny, sparkly beads and buttons must run in the family!

Refreshed

Last week I literally ran out of energy. The past few weeks have been so mad what with all the tarting-up-the-house stuff, people coming for viewings and me trying to fit beadmaking in with all that. Plus there's the emotional side of things - selling our family home is something that I always thought would be done a couple more decades down the line. Then there's the thought of moving to a brand new place away from my sisters and my friends. I hate uncertainty and it plays havoc with my general mood and bead creativity.

So when I got on the train for Cambridge on Friday evening I breathed a huge sigh of relief. A weekend away from house stress and sitting next to my torch literally forcing myself to make beads seemed very inviting.

And what a lovely weekend I had! The weather was great and on the Saturday Chris hired us bikes and we cycled to Waterbeach and had lunch at a really nice pub/restaurant place. The cycle route went right along the river - very picturesque. I took the photo above with my mobile phone.

The weekend break seemed to help with my beadmaker's block. I went down to the shed this morning feeling quite refreshed, armed with a sketchbook full of doodles of potential bead designs. I put some of them into practice and I'm pretty pleased with what's in the kiln. I'll post a photo of the resulting beads here later on this evening.

New Beads & New Bead Ideas

Recently I've had a bout of beadmaker's block. I find this so frustrating - sitting at the torch and not being able to make a bead that I like really gets to me. After many hours sat doodling in my sketch book and studying art books I came up with a new design. The design was inspired by the work of Kandinsky and I have taken elements of his 'Composition VIII' and stylized them to create a new form of bead decoration. The beads above are an example of this.

Although beadmaker's block does happen from time to time after it has passed I always feel that my beadmaking has taken a new step. I know that sounds all la-la but this new Kandinsky-esque design has got me thinking about even more designs and I have an idea for a whole new range of beads. Just got to make the idea a glass reality now!