Bracelet upgrades

As I was sat making one of my bead quintets (five decorated beads plus coordinating spacers) for a bracelet, it struck me that if I came up with a standard, simple bracelet design incorporating a quintet then I could offer it as an upgrade to a strand of beads. So if someone likes a set of beads but they don't make jewellery, I can make the beads wearable for them.

I've made a couple of bracelets as examples, one in lavender rose, which is the set I was working on when I hatched this plan, and the other with the Mulled Wine beads from a few weeks ago. They haven't sold so I thought I'd make them into something.

The beads are strung with coordinating glass seed beads and sterling silver beads. All findings are sterling silver and the bracelets have an extender chain so they can be adjusted from a six and three quarter inch inner circumference to just under eight inches.

The bracelet upgrade is £15.00 on top of the price of the beads. I've added it to the three quintets that are currently in my shop - Maple Syrup, Lemon Sorbet and Milk Bottle - and I'll add it as an option for all future quintets.

The Lavender Rose and Mulled Wine bracelets are both available to buy in my shop.

In other news, I'm struggling with plantar fasciitis in my left foot. It came from nowhere a couple of weeks ago. No injury, no footwear change. The pain is so bad some mornings that I can barely walk. I'm pretty sure it's some hormonal nonsense. Did you know that diminishing estrogen levels can mess with your feet? No, nor did I. What a complete thrill ride this time of life is. So now I own two pairs of Crocs, one for the garden and shed, and one for around the house because apparently walking barefoot is a no-no for plantar fasciitis and even though Crocs are some of the fugliest footwear ever created, they do have good arch support. I'm also doing foot and calf exercises and stretches that actually do kind of help.

I'm going for a walk every day so that I exercise my foot but I have to go careful not to anger it too much. This is annoying because autumn and winter walks are one of my favourite things and I'm having to limit them but some walking through the fallen leaves is better than none, I suppose. Hopefully the plantar fasciitis will eff off as quickly as it arrived. It'd better do.

In knitting news I'm just coming up to two thirds of the way through the cabled yoke of the jumper I'm working on.

The pattern is Sculpt by Unwind Knitwear and I'm knitting it in a 4ply wool and alpaca mix in a porridge colour. Tiny needles, complex cables, nice and soft. I'm thoroughly enjoying it, even if I have had to rip it back several times. I'm using lifelines, though, so it's not been too bad. A lifeline is where you thread a strand of yarn through all your stitches every few rows so that if you have to unravel you can do so all the way back to your lifeline and it'll be holding all your stitches from that row in place ready for you to pick them up and try again. It's like the knitting version of a Windows system restore point.

Another riveting post

Nothing has changed since I last blogged except for the fact we went to see Dawn French live. Her current show is called Dawn French is a Huge Twat and it's stories from times in her life when she's done daft stuff. It was SO funny and at several points I had to wipe away laughter tears. Wonderful woman.

But yep, Dawn French aside, it's just been beads and bracelets and bracelets and beads here. Oh hang on, I tell a lie; we did get a new kitchen bin because the lid broke off the old one. Very exciting times.

Anyway, here are some shimmy bracelets...

First up, 'Autumn' which is shades of amber, yellow-orange and terracotta with some bronze Czech glass rondelles:

Then 'Fall' which is light turquoise, teal, terracotta and light brown:

Next is 'Lavender' which was inspired by my actual lavender bush:

And the final shimmy is 'Berry' which is various purples with a dash of cranberry:

I've also made this 'Halloween' bracelet which is finished with a Jack-o'-lantern charm.

At the time of typing, 'Autumn', 'Lavender' and two 'Halloween's are available in my shop.

And yes, I'm fully aware that right now the beads in my bracelets are just plain spacers, except for the ones that are spacers with spots on, but I don't care. I'm enjoying the simplicity of them and playing about with colour combinations. Sometimes I like to make beads that are just about the glass rather than anything fancy. I don't know why I'm feeling the need to explain myself but explain myself I have.

I've not forgotten the next giveaway. I need to rethink how I do it because the winner of the last one still hasn't got in touch so I need to figure out a way round that and some kind of back-up plan with regards to potential non-claiming of the prize.

Jewellery. Beads. Hair.

I can see my blog post views slowly going up so that's pleasing to me. Hello to anyone out there reading (I'm actually waving at you) and thank you for popping by.

I spent most of Sunday making bracelets. I'd made a heap of simple spacer beads and a few spotty ones, all in whites and clear, and I had no particluar bracelet designs in mind for them so it was nice to sit and faff about. I ended up with what I've always referred to as a 'shimmy' bracelet.

These take quite a while to make due to all those wrapped loops but the end result is always worth the effort.

Shimmy bracelets feel so lovely when you're wearing them and they make an amazing glassy rattle as you move.

And I also made a very simple, quite dainty bracelet by stringing a few of my beads with some seed beads and Preciosa crystals. 

Both of these bracelets are in my shop.

I had a sort out of one of my lonelies jars and I've added a strand of those to the shop as well.

I do like a strand of lonelies because they make me put beads and colours together that I never normally would and this can often spark new bead and jewellery ideas.

In non-bead news, I had my hair cut last week. I last had it cut a year ago and it was far too long and was taking me an age to wash.

I'm going greyer and greyer and I love it. I've had greys since my early twenties and I dyed my hair for years to cover them but I stopped dyeing it about six years ago because I just couldn't be arsed. Two days after the mess and time of a dye job a grey hair would be sat there laughing at me, so I gave up. My hair is how it's supposed to be at this moment in time and that's fine by me.

In crochet news, I finished the doily I was making and I just need to block it. Chris is currently using the available floor space to take photos of Blake's 7 spaceships that he's made so I'll have to wait for when his photo set-up is away until I can deploy my blocking mats. Our house is very small, you see. Both of us are in making mode all the time so we take it in turns to clutter the lounge up with stuff.

Right, I'm off to make some mandrels and then beads. Have a good Monday!

Even more bracelets

Cutting down on my Instagram usage is doing wonders for my beadmaking. It's been ages since I've been eager to get into the shed in the mornings but this past week I've really enjoyed myself in there, planning out bracelets in my head and then making them a reality.

'Petal Pink'

'Dragonfly'

I've just put these two in my shop. I've also put a second 'Seashore' bracelet in there too.

On the walk to my foodbank shift this morning I listened to a YouTube video by Julia Bausenhardt. Julia is an illustrator who quit social media and her reasons for doing so really resonated with me, especially as far as Instagram is concerned. Click here to watch the video but if you prefer reading words, Julia has also written about turning her back on social media on her blog.

I'm off to continue working on a crochet doily now. It's been far too hot for working on the two crochet blankets I've got on the go and I finished knitting a pair of socks last week and making those was hard work in the heatwave. I've not made a doily for a couple of months but Draiguna released a new pattern called 'Sunvale' and it's so pretty I just couldn't resist crocheting it.

This'll be another one for my ever-growing doily stack but I don't care because I get so much pleasure and satisfaction from making them. Making stuff for the fun of it is fun.

Yes, more bracelets

Oh, I am enjoying myself making all these bracelets. Bracelets are my favourite item of jewellery to make and wear. I think it's because you can see and admire a bracelet when you're wearing it. You can't do that with earrings, can you?

After I turned the grey beads into a bracelet the other day, these orange and blue 'Summertime' ones that had been sat with them in the beads-for-sale bowl looked forlorn so I made them into this bright and cheery one.

The spotty beads and orange spacers are strung with green-blue seed beads and a few antique copper rounds.

The bracelet fastens with a copper-plated pewter button that features a pretty flower design. 

I had quite a bit of silvered ivory stringer left over from the 'Seashore' bracelet beads the other day so I used some of it to make some beads for this 'Strata' bracelet.

The streakiness of dark ivory glass has always reminded me of golden syrup stirred through Ambroisa rice pudding. I've wrapped a band of silvered ivory around the middle of each ivory bead for a geological, strata-like effect.

I've kept this bracelet mighty simple, just adding some plain sterling silver rounds between the beads.

Both of these bracelets can be found in my shop.

I said on Sunday that I wanted to add a jewellery repair service page to my wesbite and this afternoon I did just that. If you've got an item of jewellery that needs mending do have a look here for further information and maybe I'll be able to help you.

Turning beads into things

Eighteen years I’ve been making beads. That’s ages. I was twenty-six when I started lampworking! At the beginning of this I was already making jewellery and the idea was to make my own beads to use in my own designs, and I did and I do, but the whole way along I’ve been thoroughly sidetracked by making and selling mostly just beads.

'Blue Confetti' bracelet

'Elephant' earrings

Oftentimes I'll have been making beads and thinking about how I would put them into jewellery and what other beads and components I'd put with them, always telling myself that I can make more of those beads and make that jewellery another time, but I never did. Turns out I don't even like doing bead remakes for myself!

'Lustre Dapple' earrings

'Pink Spotties' earrings

So I’m trying to steer it back to my original plan. I’ve been increasingly disillusioned with lampwork – not the actual act of it – but the constant trying to make something new and the feeling of pressure (from myself) to always be making what I think people will buy.Those are two really great ways to stress yourself out!

The other week I decided to make beads that I would like to turn into jewellery. The photo above of a little dish of beads from a few weeks back was the result and I turned pretty much all of them into wearable things, and I really enjoyed it, so that’s what I’m going to focus on doing for the time being. That’s not to say I won’t have any loose beads for sale – I’m sure I will – but there is going to be more jewellery than loose beads. For now. Until I have another beadmaking paradigm shift. Or retire. Who knows? I’m not a planner, I just do stuff.

'Wood Sprite' necklace

'Spotties' earrings

I've got a few pieces of jewellery in my shop now, including all of the pieces pictured throughout this post. I need to make some more bracelets and necklaces as I currently have only one of each for sale, so do stay tuned.

Rant, jewellery, lovely calming strawberry flower

Occasionally I get an urge to make jewellery with my beads. I often feel bad about this because a while back some delightful Facebook commenter told me I should stick to making beads and leave the jewellery-making to other people. Wasn't that so very lovely of her? Yeah yeah, love, I know the jewellery I make is the basic-looking, plain-strung, unfancy, not silversmithed, no PMC, no clever knotting, no additional stones or crystals or whatever kind of jewellery, but I make the sort of jewellery that I like to wear, and I have always loved wearing simple and unfussy jewellery, OK?

*clambers 'pon soapbox*

Seriously, people need to think twice before giving unsolicited advice, or passing 'helpful' throwaway comments on the work created by craftspeople and makers. Whatever you think of it, that person has made something with their hands and their heart and they've had the balls to put it out there for the world to see, and therefore judge. Unless the maker is asking for advice or a critique on their work, people shouldn't give them negative feedback. If you have nothing nice or encouraging to say to someone about what they've made, hush up and move on. The brains of creative people are often weird things and they can be pretty flipping sensitive and over-analytical, making their owners doubt themselves and their abilities. Creativity is easily damaged or affected by thoughtless words, including ones about pricing.

*gets off soapbox*

Anyway, I pushed that commenter's words aside in my brain and this weekend I let myself make a couple of bracelets.

For some reason I made even more of those spotty red lentils (I think I'm just in love with their redness) so I decided to turn some of them into a bracelet and matching earrings.

I also made some little 9mm diameter spacer beads in sea glass colours of pale aqua, pale green and clear.

I used hair-fine grey stringer to wrap each one with a trail of glass. The beads were then tumble-etched to a satin finish before I turned them into a bracelet.

All of these pieces are currently in my shop.

Sorry to have got a bit ranty on you there. I didn't intend to. I only sat down to write a blog post to show you my jewellery but I let my fingers type out the festering irkedness I had in my brain about the whole jewellery making thing. Ah well, better out than in and all that.

May your Tuesday be as sunshiny as the one I'm currently experiencing here. I think I'm going to mow the lawn, carefully avoiding the wild strawberries I mentioned in my last post.

I've been reading about how to transplant wild strawberries into pots so I might give that a go too. *Carol Klein face*

Have a good rest of the day!

Buzzzzz

They're back! The constantly perturbed Bumblebeads have returned and they've settled in various sections of my bead shop.

They're available as ... 

... single loose Bumblebeads (£4.50) ...

... Bumblebead and spacers sets (£7.00) ...

... charms (£5.50) ...

... knitting stitch markers (£5.50) ...

... crochet stitch markers (£5.50) ...

... stitch marker sets (8.50) ...

... and as part of a 'Honey' bracelet (£50.00). This bracelet features five Bumblebeads, half a dozen honeycomb-esque rounds and some honey-coloured spacers. The two in the shop are silver plated ones but I can do a sterling silver version if you'd like.

I've had a little shop clearout and switch around. Nothing major but you can now find all of my beads-with-eyes in one place.