When a Whirly-Go-Round becomes a Vortex

These beads are what were once my Whirly-Go-Round beads but with so much more twist they no longer qualify as Whirly-Go-Rounds and are now 'Vortex' beads instead.

These blueberry-coloured ones are made with Effetre Blue 220, Lavender Blue/Pastel Ink Blue 247, Light Violet 041 and Super Clear 006. The beads have a nice depth to them which is hard to catch in a photo.

Earrings with French earwires

Pendant

I've turned the Vortex beads into earrings and pendants. The earrings come with French earwires but if you prefer more secure leverback fittings I can add those for an extra £2.00 per pair.

Earrings with leverback earwires

All of these can be purchased in my shop.

In other news...

I walked up to the Impington mill yesterday.

I like to wander past it every now and then and whenever I do I vow to attend the next open day so I can have a proper look inside and around it, but I've still never been. Maybe this year will be the year?

I've been doing a lot of walking this month. My foot has finally got better after that bout of plantar fasciitis and I've been enjoying my daily walks. I normally do about three miles and I do a longer one on a Saturday or Sunday. Granted, the January weather doesn't make for what most people would consider ideal walking conditions, but I like it. I love being out in the cold air and even when it's raining. Of all the weathers wind annoys me the most but when you're out walking in it it can be really invigorating. On my walk back from the mill yesterday I was walking into quite a strong wind so I had to put more effort in and I arrived home rosy-cheeked with my hair all over the place, looking like Neanderthal woman.

I've been reading a lovely book called Trees in Winter by Richard Shimell.

Richard is a printmaker and I've followed him on Instagram for a while now. He makes the most beautiful linocut prints of trees. The book is part about his craft and part memoir and it's full of Richard's wonderful tree images. His accounts of walking and just taking in nature, particularly the trees, really chime with me. You can see Richard's work on his website, his Instagram, and his book is available on Amazon.

I'm off down to the shed now. I've got an idea that I want to try out but as with many of my bead ideas it may well end up fizzling away to a nothingness so we shall see.

Have a good Monday and I'll see you soon.

A big old batch of bead recipes

This post is mainly bead photos with details of the glass I used to make them. This is mostly for my own reference but occasionally people ask me what a certain colour is so it's also for anyone interested.

All clear glass is Effetre super clear 006.

At the time of typing all beads pictured are for sale in my bead shop. More of that in a bit...

Purple & Yellow Humbugs: Effetre lavender blue/pastel ink blue 247, Effetre light violet 041 and CiM Hollandaise.

Blue & Pale Lavender Humbugs: Effetre dark perwinkle 222, Effetre dark teal 027 and Effetre lavender blue/pastel ink blue 247

Latte Spotties: CiM Butter Pecan and CiM Toto

Ozone Spotties: CiM Dirty Martini and Effetre light turquoise 232

Teal Spotties: CiM Quetzal and Effetre copper green 219

Black & White Spotties: Effetre black 064 and Effetre white 204

Blueberry: CiM Zachary, Effetre light violet 041 and Effetre violet 272

If you fancy rehoming any of these beads they can be purchased here.

I've never had so much bead stock gathering dust in my life but I do understand that expensive lampwork beads are a luxury item and I'm also very aware that a lot of my past customers no longer make jewellery. I'll keep making beads but for a while I think I'll turn most of what I make into jewellery because loose beads seem unwanted right now.

In other news, have you seen that Tracy Chevalier, author of Girl With a Pearl Earring, has a new book out? It's called The Glassmaker and it's an historical novel set on Murano. It's full of glass and beads and it spans several centuries telling the story of a beadmaker called Orsola Rosso.

I spoke with Tracy last year about the quirks and wonders of working with translucent glass and she kindly gave me a mention in the acknowledgements.

I was so excited to see my name in the book I felt the need to point it out to the book shop assistant when I went to pay for it. (What a tit.)

I haven't shared any yarn stuff recently because I'm working on Christmas gifts so I can't really post pictures of anything in case any of the recipients see it.

I'll be making some jewellery this weekend so hopefully I'll have some photos of that to share with you next time.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a good weekend!

Ditsybeading

I've always said that you never stop learning a craft. There's always new knowledge to be had, skills to be honed and new materials and techniques to try. Whenever I make a bead design that I've not done for a while I enjoy applying my current knowledge of glass to it. Oftentimes this knowledge is minor but it's knowledge that the me of three years ago didn't possess and it allows me to understand the bead better. I am aware that I'm probably sounding really wanky but I'll carry on anyway.

With these Ditsybeads there are several things required to get the effect I'm after. The most important of these is the dot placement for the petals and making sure they're arranged correctly so that when melted flat the petals stay in a nice neat flower shape and don't end up like a vague splat. The dot-melting part is also really important and it's not just a case of bringing the bead to an all-over even heat; I concentrate on one flower at a time in a very particular way.

Adding the flower centres is also carefully done so that the dot touches all five petals and then it's heated to be slightly raised but not too flat. If it sounds fiddly and time consuming that's because it is. I worked out the Actual Price* of one Ditsybead the other day and almost laughed my tits off at the thought of asking that much for it.

Anyway, all of the Ditsybeads scattered throughout this post have new homes now but there are more on the way.

*By 'Actual Price' I mean what the bead price tag should be if I paid myself minimum wage based on time taken, and also taking into account materials, gas and electricity. I don't factor in the cost of nineteen years of skill because that would be the Actual Actual Price and I would never sell anything at that rate.

In crochet news...

I finished this blue shawl last week. It was one of those patterns that was so straightforward it kept catching me out. You can be lulled into a false sense of comfort when there are so many unfancy stitches involved and it only takes one stitch too few or too many to muff up an entire row.

This pattern is called 'Destination Unknown' and it's by Lisa Cook of LisasAttik. I really love Lisa's designs - all those straight lines and blocks of pattern are right up my street.

The blue shawl is available in my Etsy shop.

This week I've been mostly...

Listening to:

Cast On by Brenda Dayne. This is a knitting podcast that I adored back in the day. I kind of stopped knitting when the whole knitting-is-racist thing occurred in 2019 and then I nuked my Ravelry account a bit later when they decided that only 50% of their users could talk about politics (Trump supporters weren't allowed to voice approval of him, and no, I'm not a Trump lover but I am pretty flipping fond of free speech) and those two things combined with the behaviour of certain knitting people I'd formerly greatly admired kind of shat on knitting for me. I think I've knitted three pairs of socks since then and crochet has filled the knitting hole. However, discovering that Brenda has got back to podcasting after a six year hiatus was wonderful. She restarted Cast On during the pandemic but I only realised this last week so I've got many episodes to catch up on. Brenda is even making me want to fish out the old pointy sticks. Maybe. We shall see.

Watching:

Ashes to Ashes. Every now and again I need a dose of DCI Gene Hunt and I do a Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes rewatch and right now I'm halfway through season three of the latter.

We cancelled our TV licence about a year ago so now we live in telly-gone-by and it's marvellous. Anything from the now that we do want to watch (rare) we get as a DVD, digital box set or download. I do not miss live television at all.

Reading:

Wild: Tales From Early Medieval Britain by Amy Jeffs

Metal bubble bath

Yesterday afternoon while I was tidying away my jewellery making stuff  I found a bag of tiny anodised aluminium jump rings. At just over 4mm diameter they're smaller than the rings I used for the shaggy loops earrings in my previous post and I wondered if the smaller rings would work for the same weave. A few hours later I'd made this bracelet.

It's unbelievably light and it has a wonderful fluidity and texture to it. Chris said it's "like metal bubble bath foam" and that's a really good description. It's frothy.

I've put it in the chain maille section of my shop.

The three pairs of chocolate 'Acorn' earrings I had have all sold but all is not lost; I've added them to the Available to Order page. I don't know how long they'll be there but probably long enough for anyone to buy some as Christmas presents.

In non-bead/jewellery news, I've just finished reading another book. I read and listen to a ridiculous number of books, of all different types, and I only ever think to mention the occasional one here on my blog. Maybe I should do more book blogging? Anyway, the one I've just finished is called Dark Folklore by Mark Norman and Tracey Norman.

This is a fascinating read about the darker side of folklore, myths and social and cultural beliefs from all around the world. I particularly enjoyed the chapter on urban legends. Mark is a folklore researcher and author who writes and hosts The Folklore Podcast which I highly recommend to anyone who likes a bit of social history, folklore and information about ancient beliefs, customs and festivals. Marvellous stuff.

A quiet bead week

I've made beads this week but I'm only just getting round to doing anything with them. This morning I made this bracelet which I've called 'Thames'.

The beads are smooth pebble-type ones in a transparent greenish-grey, each wrapped with a band of silvered ivory.

The bracelet fastens with a magnetic clasp (always feels space age) and it's in my shop as I type.

I spent last weekend in Hedge End celebrating my niece Robyn's eighteenth birthday. At the risk of sounding like an old biddy, I cannot believe how fast those eighteen years have gone. I was even more incredulous when she was waiting for me at the railway station. In her car. Which she drove me – her forty-four year old auntie who cannot and will not drive – to my sister's house in.

I can never resist a roundel

It took me two full days to recover from my weekend away. The trains were all to cock which made my outward journey over five hours. I had to go via Liverpool Street rather than my beloved King's Cross. I'd planned to go for a quick first journey on the Elizabeth Line but nope, that plan was scuppered for time reasons. But yes, ten hours of travel and doing the socialising get-together thing really knackered me out. That makes it sound like I didn't enjoy myself but I did; I had a lovely, lovely time. It's just I've become so used to it being just me, Chris, Nigel, and seeing three other people every Friday at the foodbank warehouse, that all that going places and seeing many people was very different.

All that travel did give me time to get a chunk of The Ink Black Heart listened to, though. I finished it last night and I absolutely loved it. I've seen a lot of people complaining that they can't get on with the formatting of the book as it contains a lot of transcripts of tweets and chat room exchanges. Reviews for the audiobook are similar but I honestly didn't have an issue with it. I've already started my second listen.

Many of the tweets and transcripts of online discourse in The Ink Black Heart are uncomfortable to listen to or read. If you're at all familiar with any of the threats and abuse that JK Rowling herself has been on the receiving end of these past couple of years, it makes the listening to or reading of parts of the book even more uncomfy. Social media is a problem. It has its uses but what it is doing to some people, and the knock-on effect that it has in real life, is deeply concerning. Never have I felt this more than I have the last couple of days on Twitter. I knew the social media problem was bad (and I could elaborate and go on forever here but I won't because it's just me and about two other people reading this blog) and that some people's moral compasses are truly broken, but the atrocious takes on the Queen's death and the way in which some people have spoken to others about her and the Royal Family is utterly disgusting. Personally, I find endless news stories of royal weddings, births, scandals and arguments quite tedious and I barely pay them any attention so yeah, I'm pretty much indifferent to all things royal. However, I was moved by the news that Queen Elizabeth was gravely ill and when it was announced that she'd died I felt sad. Many people have said it but the Queen has always been there. She was a constant, and for that to be no more feels slightly unsettling.

What really bothered me on Thursday and Friday, though, was seeing people second guess themselves with regard to showing how they felt about the news. I saw many tweets along the lines of "I'm not a royalist but... I'm upset she's gone/I feel sorry for Charles/it's the end of an era" etc and I saw people liking tweets but clearly not saying what they wanted to say for fear of being jumped on, ridiculed, unfollowed or blocked by people who had zero qualms about voicing their opinions on the matter. These people are so sure of themselves and the fact that they're on The Right Side of History™ they feel that they can abuse and belittle anybody who doesn't agree with them and who isn't a subscriber to whatever ideology they are. I say ideology because whenever I looked at the Twitter profiles of any of these shouty, righteous types, they all displayed labels – be it an identity flag, an '-ist' of some kind, a symbol like a red rose (socialist) or purple, white and green hearts (gender critical feminist), vegan, preferred pronouns, 'FBPE' (anti-Brexit) or the dreaded '#BeKind' – that show they are in thrall to some particular set of beliefs. I know a lot of people will consider some of those things I've just listed to be harmless, but I don't see it that way. The need to label yourself and others as belonging to this group or that way of thinking is dividing society into little factions who cannot accept any way of thinking that doesn't one hundred percent match theirs. Anyone who does think differently to them is called a bigot, far right, Nazi, white supremacist, TERF, bootlicker, and so on. The very fact that I can predict with very high accuracy the phrases and insults that one person will chuck at another after they've written something really edgy like "RIP Queen Elizabeth" shows that these are indeed dogmatic belief systems and my word, am I sick of it. 

And for what it’s worth, the only things I'd label myself are 'atheist' and 'realist' but I don't feel the need to state them in a social media profile.

Technology has evolved way faster than our abilities to cope with the sociological results of it have, and we aren’t equipped to interact with as many people via social media as we are expected to. As a result, quite a few people seem to have forgotten how to be human. If you feel sad about the Queen dying, say so. Don't back it up with a disclaimer about not being much of a royalist. And if you are a royalist and you have a large collection of corgi ornaments and commemorative Diana plates, that's cool too. Just say how you feel. If people disagree with you, let them. Just be you. Honestly, those three words are my life advice to anybody. Just be you. Some people will like you and some people won't and that's just the way it is, both online and offline.

Anyway, that's enough of me wanging on about the ills of social media. And if you think it odd that I clearly despise what Twitter is doing to us all yet I'm on there joining the noise, that's because the only way to fight this shite is to push back against it at the source. It's not always fun and I have to be in the right frame of mind to do it, but do it I shall. Well, until I get my account suspended for wrongthink, that is.

Beachy wearables and new Strike excitement

There's a definite change in the light. I noticed it on Saturday; the morning sun had a mellow glow to it, rather than the bright peak-of-summer glare. I do so love the end of the summer and that gradual slide into autumn in late September.

I made a batch of beachy beads on Sunday and yesterday I spent a few hours turning them into jewellery.

The resulting 'Seaside' bracelet is very similar to the 'Seashore' one that's in my shop but this time I've used antique copper baeds and findings instead of sterling silver.

I also made a long necklace with some of the beads.

I used pearly ivory-coloured seed beads and oval sterling silver spacers for this 'Beach' necklace.

It measures thirty-three inches long and could also double up as a wrap bracelet.

Both the necklace and bracelet can be found in my shop.

I'm off down to the shed now where and I will lose myself in beads and the new Strike book.

The first thing I did this morning was download the audiobook of The Ink Black Heart and devour chapter one. I was like a child on Christmas morning! It's so good to have a new Cormoran and Robin story.

Pictures of nice things

First up, beads. These ones are called 'Fiesta'.

I absolutely hated these when I took them out of the kiln. I was like, "What the hell was I thinking with these colours?!"

I still disliked them as I was cleaning them but when I’d got them all strung together I changed my mind. They're very bright and zingy.

Those were all the beads I got made this week. I've had one of those wasting-a-lot-of-gas-and-glass weeks where I sit there trying to make something but my mind doesn't know what to make so I end up making rubbish and getting annoyed with myself. Hopefully next week will be different.

I'm still pootling about in the garden. Things are growing and doing stuff.

The sweet peas have produced their first flowers:

One of my sea holly flowers has got a definite blue tinge going on:

Remus, my dwarf lupin, has yet to flower but I reckon he'll bloom any day now. The wind snapped his first flower clean off so he's a bit behind, you see. Anyway, his leaves are very pleasing to look at, especially after rain:

My tomato plant is doing a tomato:

My little lavender plant that I got from the local greengrocer is looking and smelling lovely:

And the Hungarian Black chilli plant that I got from the local health food place (a lovely little cooperative that smells of hemp, dried pulses and smugness) has a few chillies on it which start off as these fabulous glossy purple flowers:

I've also got various seedlings growing in trays on the windowsill and I've become ridiculously obsessed with them all, making sure they're happy and warm and not too dry or too wet. I have been reading SO much about gardening it's untrue. I said I was taking gardening seriously this time and I am; I'm determined to create an actual garden. 

When I'm not concerning myself with my garden I'm nosing about at other people's gardens. The lady who lives opposite us was in her front garden planting out some seedlings last weekend and then she went away somewhere. (Yes, I’m one of those people who notices things like neighbours going away. I like to think of it as ‘being vigilant and observant’ because that sounds better than ‘being a nosy cow’.) Anyhow, yesterday morning I was doing the washing up (our kitchen looks out onto a footpath and then her front garden) and I noticed all the new plants she'd put in were looking beyond droopy. I went and fetched my watering can and headed over the way to give them a drink. I don't even know what this neighbour's name is but I felt so bad for her plants, and I felt weird for interfering in her gardening matters, but I couldn't bear to see those little seedlings dying of thirst. After I watered the neighbour's garden I popped out to Homebase to get some pots for my lavender and rosemary and by the time I'd returned all of the neighbour lady's wilted seedlings were upright and looking happy again. Hurrah!

In crochet news I'm still working on the Twister blanket. Nigel, who never used to be a lap cat but is now sometimes a lap cat, likes to come and inspect the blanket proceedings from time to time.

I said I was reading lots about gardening, and that's mostly reference books and websites, but I'm also currently reading a non-fiction book about gardening called Rhapsody in Green by Charlotte Mendelson. Marian Keyes mentioned it at the end of her last book Again, Rachel (which is absolutely wonderful, by the way) and I cannot put it down! Charlotte's book is so engaging and funny. If you like gardening, and even if you don't, I highly recommend it.