Sound the Klaxon of Ennui

What noise would the Klaxon of Ennui make? I reckon it'd be a big, long, loud sigh or maybe just the sound of someone going "Urgh" in a really mopey way.

I've wanged on so many times before about how my apparent 'maladaptive perfectionism' affects my beadmaking but it's reached crazy levels to the point where more often than not I think I'm actually sort of afraid to make anything. I think my brain is saying "What's the point in making beads when you won't be happy with any of them?" and I simply don't know how to overcome that feeling.

When I'm having a particularly naff time with beadmaking I look at photos of beads I made years ago in the hope that it'll spur me on but I usually just end up despondent at how past me made so many different beads in such quantities and I get quite doldrumsy again.

* S I G H *

Anyhow...

I dragged myself into the shed on Monday and decided to make lentil beads. Years ago I had a lentil press made for me that does 8, 10 and 12mm lentils but I asked for it to be made to take a 1.6mm mandrel and that is the exact size they made the mandrel groove which is no good when you've got a dipped 1.6mm mandrel in it because the bead release cracks when you press the bead, so the press has been sat there literally gathering dust for about nine years.

I've been a fan of tiny lentil beads ever since I bought a strand of eight of them about two decades ago. They were transparent ink blue and white ones made by Corina Tettinger and I turned them into a bracelet.

Bracelet made with Corina's beads

I was, and still am, wowed by how Corina decorated such small (about 11mm) lentils. These beads are not easy to get right, even though they're pressed. Too much glass and you'll get a lip around the edges and too little and you'll get a misshapen bead with sharp hole edges. When you're adding decoration that is melted flush with the bead's surface you have to take into account the extra glass that this will add, so all in all it's a beady tightrope walk. 

I decided that Monday was the day to dust off my tiny lentil press and have another go. After recently working with and getting used to 1mm mandrels I decided to see if they'd cooperate with it. They do but blimey, remember all that stuff I just said about them being not easy to get right? Yeah. A whole day in the shed should not result in only a dozen correct beads but that was what I ended up with. The photo below shows my water jug at the end of the day. That's a lot of lentil failures.

Interesting fact: 'lentil' rhymes with 'mental'

And I can't fully blame my bead perfectionism for all of these rejects because some of the beads were just bad in that they had sharp holes or too much glass. Sharp bead holes are my number one pet bead peeve; if I see them for sale anywhere I get really annoyed. (My number two pet bead peeve is people describing random spots as polka dots but that's where we really are entering the realms of my pedantry and nobody wants to go to there.) What also didn't help is that I chose to use Effetre Light Red 428 for the lentils. Don't get me wrong, this is one of my favourite reds but it goes a bit streaky and you can end up with darker and lighter reds within one bead. This isn't a huge problem but sometimes it can look a bit jarring, especially as such a small and simple-looking bead, and because of this I rejected some of the beads after I'd cleaned them.

Pleasingly tiny lentils

Anyway, I turned the twelve 10mm red lentils into a bracelet. What I like about this shape is how comfy they are to wear. The beads sit nicely and not too high so you get a sleeker lampwork bracelet look than you do with round beads.

Can you see the light and dark red variation?

The smaller bead hole definitely makes for better-behaved beads when you're making jewellery too as the beads don't wobble about as much on your thread or wire.

I've got a few strands of smaller-holed beads for sale in my shop.

Blue 'Spots & Dots'

Black and yellow 'Spots & Dots'

'Light Sapphire' Spotties

These were all made on 1mm mandrels so with bead release and cleaning the holes end up at about 1.2mm.

I've still got more leaf beads to photograph but my eyes had enough of doing that yesterday. I got new glasses on Saturday so I'm trying to get used to a new prescription plus the fact that they're varifocals and it's not going well. To say I hate them is an understatement. I'm keeping going with them as they say it can take a couple of weeks for your eyes to get used to varifocals but I'm constantly seeing things as out of focus and I have to keep bobbing my head about like a pigeon to see properly. Things like washing up and chopping vegetables have suddenly become challenging tasks as my depth perception is out of whack. It's very tempting to go back to my old glasses but the one thing the varifocals do well is that they allow me to knit and see the telly at the same time. Before, I'd have to choose the glasses that would enable me to see the television clearly but that I'd have to peer under or over in order to see my knitting clearly, or to opt for my readers so that I could see my stitches but have to put up with the television picture as a blur. The varifocals do a great job of letting me do both so that's a win and it's why I'm persevering with them in the hope my eyes will soon adjust properly to everything else.

Talking of knitting, here are those finished Dear Björn socks I mentioned last time.

The pattern is by Nataliya Sinelshchikova and the yarn is Malabrigo Ultimate Sock in shade 214 Magenta. The pattern is in the 52 Weeks of Socks book and it's also available on Ravelry. The socks are a tricky knit but the results were worth the effing, jeffing and many instances of ripping back and re-knitting.

I've got another pair of socks finished but I'll save them for next time as I think I've droned on for quite long enough today.

Have a good Wednesday and I'll see you soon!

The one with all the photos

Oh knickers! That's a big gap to have left betwixt blog posts. I shan't try and fill you in on everything that's happened between then and now as that would be highly boring for both of us, so I'll just skip through some highlights using the medium of photo-plus-caption. Ready? Here we go...

Chris had a birthday that made his age start with a '4'

Chris' family came down to visit and we took a trip to the Cambridge University Botanic Garden where we saw this beautiful pinkus flowerus. (I didn't catch its actual name so I just made that one up but I can totally imagine Monty Don saying it on Gardeners' World.)

It was a very warm day and the greenhouses were mighty hot. See how this tendril dangles and curls.

This crazy-beautiful Jade Vine looks like something out of Avatar

Jade Vine close-up. Definitely a match for Effetre Light Turquoise 232.

I finished up the last of the Bumblebead orders. Are they whooping for joy, whistling, or horrified at the bead cleaning process they'd just endured? You decide.

Finishing bee beads meant I could faff about so I made Whirly-Go-Rounds with a finer 'whirl' than usual

And then I entered my bead happy place and pulled a load of white stringer and made 'Rococo' beads that I'd not made for eight years

I offered the option of tumble-etching on the 'Rococo' beads and everyone opted for it. Behold their satin silkiness.

When I made this set I 'designed' them to be etched, layering two transparent shades to achieve a pretty 'glow'

After the 'Rococo' beads were done I had a desk full of stringer scraps, so I used it for spots on little lentils made in one of my favourite glasses - CiM Sepia Unique 2

I still had a load of stringer bits left so I made more spotty lentils, this time in glorious transparent red

And that, dear patient person reading this, brings you up to date with my goings-on.

The Cambridge University Botanic Garden really is great and I'll definitely be going back there soon. It's so relaxing and it makes you feel like you're a million miles away from the bustle of the town centre. (I sound like Judith Chalmers.) (I've just Googled Judith Chalmers to find out if she's still alive. She is and she's eighty, you know. Go Judith!)

If you'd like to see more of the flower photos I took at the Botanic Garden, you can see them on my personal Instagram feed.

Stuff is also happening in my own garden. Things are growing, especially daisies and dandelions, but I don't mind them. I hate that weeds have a bad name. They're lovely little things and the bees seem to like them, especially the dandelions.

Dandelion clock, taken with my iPhone 6s and Olloclip macro lens

I've got some strawberry plants that have appeared too. I'm assuming a bird 'planted' them via the act of plappage (yes, I mean poo) as they are down by the fence and I definitely didn't plant them. Cheers, bird! I'm growing chillies, munchkin pumpkins, micro sunflowers and catnip in a little plastic greenhouse and they're all coming along nicely. Maybe I'll do a garden-based blog post. That won't be at all boring for you, will it?

I'm off to make beads now, I've still got a bazillion scraps of white stringer to use up. Will I use them or will I bin them? We shall see... 

If you like the spotty red lentils, I have four pairs of them left in my shop. They're £4.00 a pair and if satin-finish glass is your bag I can etch them for you at no extra cost. I've also reduced the price of all remaining jewellery so you might be able to grab yourself a wearable glass bargain.

For full details of all glasses used for the beads in this post, please have a look at my Tumblr.

Have a super duper Saturday!

'Beach'

I'm being superquickfast here because my broadband connection keeps going all skew-whiff but yes, there are two sets of these periwinkle and ivory 'Beach' lentils in the shop right now.

'Blackcurrant Jamboree' & 'Bluebell'

This is a quick pre-shed post to show you the beads that I've just added to the shop. 

The 'Blackcurrant Jamboree' ones up top and these 'Bluebell' ones ...

... are priced at £18.50 per strand and they're available to purchase here. There's only one strand of each so if you like them, nab them.

See you later!

'Kimono', baking, baking and baking

The bright colours and stylised design on these beads remind me of Japanese kimono fabrics.

These comfy-to-wear lentils are made in translucent purple glass, dusted with purple enamel and decorated with dark brown branches and orange blooms and blossom. They are only decorated on one side so they would be lovely turned into a bracelet.

The 'Kimono' beads are for sale right now over in the usual place.

So, Christmas is nearly upon us. My fridge is empty, bar three jars of pesto, half a pint of milk, a jar of horseradish sauce and the guinea pigs' lettuce, carrot and apple. This means I have to go and do THE food shop of the year. Chris is currently in Manchester but I'm hoping he'll be home later and then the Chrimble preparations can finally start.

I've got to marzipan my cake today. I'm also going to make a stollen and some biscotti. I've been baking like a mad thing recently, with good reason; I have an audition for The Great British Bake Off in January. It was supposed to have been this week but a mix-up with a double booking by the audition venue meant that they had to postpone it. But yes, I've been baking like a crazy baking person.

I've made some hand-raised pies that I've been really proud of. Hot water crust pastry is a doddle to make but flipping heck, shaping it into a pie case is not easy. That ceramics module of my Art A-Level finally came in handy! This chicken and bacon pie with homemade sage and onion stuffing (which is a Mrs Beeton recipe) was my second attempt and my goodness it tasted yum!

I have become addicted to baking sour cherry and almond biscotti.

I've also been making cinnamon bread and Chelsea buns. These ones are quite Christmassy as they contain orange and cranberries. The icing is orange too. Tell you what, though, they weren't half sweet and it's not often you hear pudding monster me utter those "too sweet" words. Nice, though.

So yeah, I've been drowning in baked goods. I've sent some to friends, Chris has taken some to work and I even took some to Slimming World for our little Christmas party thing. I KNOW. That makes zero sense but when you cut a pie into very small pieces and you halve slices of biscotti it becomes less naughty to eat. Or something ...

I keep thinking about what Mum would say about my baking. I honestly don't think she'd believe it. She'd find it hilarious that I'm having a go at entering a cookery competition, I know that!

Right, time to get on and DO something. I have a to-do list as long as The Nile and I need to be crossing things off it.

Have a good Saturday!

'Poppies'

I made some poppy lentils like this a good few years ago. Since then they have been one of my most requested bead designs but I've never remade them ... until now.

The 18mm clear lentil beads are decorated with bright red poppes. The use of enamels gives the petals a variegated, almost painterly effect. Each one of these lentils takes me about half an hour to make and they are such tricky beads to photograph. Red glass, like lavender glass,  hates artificial light. They look best taken in bright sunshine but alas, there is none of that today. 

These would look beautiful as a bracelet and lentil beads are so comfy to wear. I've teamed these pretty poppies with some small spacer beads.

They are available over on my Freshly Baked Beads page now.

Bracelet-O-Spottiness

Lentil beads are so comfortable to wear.  I've teamed these spotty black and white ones with some cranberry pink spacers and some sterling silver to make a striking bracelet.  This bracelet is £45.00 including gift box and worldwide delivery.  If you'd like to buy it please email me.

However, if you fancy just the beads on their own, I have some for sale over on the Freshly Baked Beads page right now.

More Powder & Paint Lentils

Some striking grey, red and black ones .....

..... some soft yellow, peach, pink and purple ones .....

..... and some vibrant bright green ones.

Powder & Paint Lentils

I had a moment yesterday while I was melting glass where I just decided to go crazy and do something out of the ordinary. So I dusted off the lentil press and got some enamels out and I had a play about. I started doing some scrollwork but my mind just wasn't firing on all perfectionism cylinders and I eventually ended up making these pretty lentils which I'm calling my 'Powder & Paint' beads - powder because of the enamel and paint because of the splodgy, not-as-orderly-as-normal stringer.

These and more like them will be for sale on my website tonight at 8.30pm (UK time).

Some new beads

I've just been taking advantage of the bright sunny weather and I've been out in the back garden photographing yesterday's beads.

The ones at the top of the post are made from CiM Pink Champagne, a glass that begs to be photographed in natural light in order to show off its wonderful pinkness. The beads have a core of CiM Heffalump cased in the Pink Champagne and the spots and spacers are CiM Lapis which is actually a gorgeous indigo. Such a girly set of beads!

The lentil beads below are a rich warm gold-yellow with metallic accents and subtle pink touches. They have a brilliant glossy shine to them.

Both of these bead sets and more will be available to buy on my website at 8.30pm (UK time) tomorrow evening.

'Rusty' Lentils

I visited my Grandparents yesterday and in their garden is a tree which has the most amazing autumnal orange leaves and red berries. I knew immediately that I wanted to capture those colours in glass bead form, so voila - here are my 'Rusty' lentils.

'Poppies'

Here are the beads that I was excited about earlier!

On the train home from Cambridge last time I looked up from my book and outside were the most amazing fields of beautiful poppies. Just carpets of red as far as the eye could see. I knew right there and then that I would have to make some poppy beads.

So here they are. I was going for that kind of painterly, Impressionistic look. I wanted to convey the fragile, floatiness that poppies have. I decided on a clear base bead as I love the way the red shows through from one side of the bead to the other.

I'm really chuffed with them - they pretty much match the bead vision I had in my mind.

These will be for sale on my website at 8.30pm tonight.

'Down By The River' Lentils

These colours remind me of woodland walks down by the river - earthy browns, leafy greens and watery blues.

'Van Gogh' Lentils

There is an increasing number of magical silver-rich glasses available that produce beautiful multi-coloured, variegated and metallic effects. I buy the odd rod of silver-rich glass every now and again and I have a play and then I get bored with it quite quickly. I think it's because it has a bit of a mind of its own and therefore I can't have total control over what it does. You never quite know exactly what colour will develop and where. I'm such a control freak when it comes to glass!

I was sorting through a messy, cluttered drawer of glassy things the other day and I found a rod of R4 'Van Gogh' lurking in there so I decided it was time for one of those playing-about-with-glass moments. I came up with these pretty lentil beads. They're all a bit different but they go together, if that makes sense.

Do you like? Should I make more?

Glass Weirdness Afoot

Hmmm. I wanted these beads to be a soft, pale yellow. I'm all out of the pale yellow I would have normally used so I used a Vetrofond oddlot one that I've had for years. The first bead did indeed start off looking pale yellow, just like I intended, but there must have been some strange glass chemistry happening between the oddlot and the base colour because the more I worked on the bead the darker it got. It ended up this stone-like khaki colour which I actually quite like so I just went with what the glass wanted to do, kept on making beads and now I have this set of un-yellow lentils!

I've had so many lovely comments and emails about this particular style of bead. Thing is, the design has no name as yet. So I thought I'd ask for your comments and suggestions as to what I should call this particular type of bead. I'm not looking for a name for this particular set of lentils with regard to colour - I'm looking for a name for the design itself. Please click here to see more lentils like the ones above but in different colours. People have said that these lentils remind them of rose petals, rolled up fabric and coiled ribbon.

If you have any name ideas please jot them down in my comments section or if you prefer you can send me an email and I'll add your suggestions to the list. Please feel free to add as many names as you'd like and I'll pick my favourite one at 7.00pm on Thursday 22nd January. The person who provides the name I like most will get a lucky dip bag of my lampwork beads.

'Candy Floss' Lentils

Yes, yes, more of these. What can I say - I like making them! But if you're bored of seeing them, fear not - I have different beads to clean and photograph for sale later. Check back tonight for photos .....

'Nimbus' Lentils

I think I had grey on the brain when I made these. While I was looking at glass colours last night I was repeatedly drawn to shades of grey. I reckon it was the train journey home from Cambridge yesterday that was responsible for my colour choice, or lack thereof. It was a dismal day and the sky was full of rainclouds. It was pretty much the same today. Grey is nice for beads, though - a subtle hue that looks fab with silver and can be worn with anything.