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.

How is it March already?

I've fallen off the blog again, haven't I? I mean, between my previous post and this one we've had Christmas and are into the third month of a new year, so that's quite a large blog pause.

I had a sad start to the year with the death of my maternal grandmother. Nannie was my last remaining grandparent so her death feels like a generational chapter closing.

Nannie and Mum (holding a very tiny me)

It sort of feels like the year hasn't really got going yet. I've been crocheting doily after doily. The doily stack has reached insane levels of ridiculous but round and round I go, adding picots and pineapples and shells and mesh in a soothing, increasing, concentric fashion.

'Concentric'

'Pinwheel Mesh'

I keep trying to design my own doily but it involves maths which always defeats me and I end up throwing part-crocheted lace circles across the lounge in frustration. I will get there with a doily design, though, for I am human and will not be conquered by hooks and string.

'Sunvale' - a design by Julia Hart

I've added a crochet page to my online shop, not because I want to become a doily merchant but because whenever I post a photo of a doily on Instagram someone will always comment and tell me to sell it. I know that nobody really wants doilies - I don't even want bloody doilies - but they're there in a section of my shop anyway, just in case there actually is someone somewhere who is on the lookout for a doily.

'Whirl' wall hanging

Some doilies lend themselves to being mounted within a ring as a mandala-style wall hanging and I've got a couple of those for sale in the shop too.

'Radiate' wall hanging

I'm still a bit in the bead doldrums. Sales are very slow and hot on the heels of the pre-Christmas postal strikes we had the barmy Royal Mail 'cyber incident' that stopped anyone posting anything outside the UK for almost two months. Both events have been a right kick in the teeth to many microbusinesses and several people I know shut up shop for good because of it.

But still I plod on, making the beads I feel like making, when I feel like making them because making beads is what I do.

'Vintage' Tendril bracelet

'Orchid' Tendril bracelet

I've been working on some jewellery pieces combining my lampwork beads with wirework. At the moment I'm working in solid copper because A) it's a fraction of the price of sterling silver and I can make as many muff-ups as I like without feeling bad about it and B) I just love copper. It's such a gorgeous metal, whether it's left shiny or allowed to build up a natural patina, or if you hurry that patina along. I've been patinating the jewellery I've made with liver of sulphur, or 'egg water' as I call it. (See this post for explanation.) After the piece has reached the level of patina I'm after I polish parts of it back to a shine using fine steel wool which brings out the detail of any fancy wirework and creates a lovely antique shop style finish.

'The Blues' bracelet

'Sand & Sea' Tendril necklace

'Sand & Sea' Tendril necklace detail

Solid copper can react with some people's skin, particularly with sweat or lotions, but any skin discoloration is totally harmless and can be removed easily with soapy water. I wear a copper chain maille bracelet and have had no skin discoloration issues but then again I don't wear jewellery to bed, in the shower, or all day every day. Basically, what I'm trying to say is don't let the copper put you off. Embrace its warm tones and vintage, bohemian look.

'Lemon Curd' Tendril necklace

I've not abandoned sterling silver totally. I had a toadstool moment a few weeks back and I turned them into pendants.

Toadstool pendants

All of the jewellery in this post is available in my shop. I also have a few beads for sale and a few of these, along with some older pieces of jewellery, are available at reduced prices. Head this way to the shop.

It's snowing here today. It's wet mushy snow that isn't going to settle but that doesn't matter because even at forty-five years old I still find the sight of falling snowflakes magical.

I'm going to stay in the warm today and work on a crochet shawl because I'm doing a pattern test for another crocheter. I've never tested a pattern nor crocheted a shawl before so it's an adventure. Always be making, always be learning.

Headpins

I made a little batch of headpins this week. My propane was running low and that affects any stringerwork or surface design and makes it go a bit feathery so I made a couple of fancy headpins until the feathery thing started happening and then I switched to plainer ones until the gas ran out.

Yesterday I turned the headpins into a pendant and some earrings.

The pendant was made with the fancier headpin which has a petal-like design on it:

Then there are these lavender earrings:

I love the way the CiM Wisteria reacted with the Effetre Lavender Blue 247 to create that purple band.

The other three earring pairs are made with headpins and globes of glass that are one third Effetre Light Turquoise 232 and two thirds CiM Fjord Milky. Again, the two glasses reacted with one another, making the turquoise go all mottled and cloudy. I kept one pair really simple and hung them from flower earwires...

...and I paired the other ones with copper findings and hypoallergenic niobium earwires.

The remaining pair aren't really headpins at all - no pins, so just... heads? I attached some sterling loops to these and dangled them from sterling drop shapes. These earrings are really light and swishy.

All of these are in my shop at the time of typing.

I still haven't been able to track down the winner of the prize draw so Tina G, if on the off-chance you're reading this, please contact me so I can get your beads to you. If I've not heard back from you by the end of November I'm going to do the draw again.

CiM Testing: Luzern

This cloudy transparent is called Luzern because its colour matches the logo of Crea-Arte who are located in Luzern/Lucerne in Switzerland. Crea-Arte will be the main place you can get this particular glass.

And what a glass it is! I love it. It's a gorgeous, rich orchid pinky-purple and judging by its original number it's a variant of CiM Heather.

It melted with no trouble and I only wish I had more of it to play with. Beautiful glass!

The beads were photographed indoors in natural daylight.

CiM Testing: 2020.11.17 60203

In rod form, this unnamed glass* is a very nice tanzanite blue colour but upon heating and after annealing it turns into a very intense cobalt blue. The glass is a cloudy transparent.

The glass worked fine and I had no trouble with it.

The beads were photographed indoors in natural daylight.

* There's only a very small amount of these glasses that have a number instead of a name. Because there's only a tiny amount of each one Kathy at CiM didn't feel it was worth naming them.

CiM Testing: Pink Lemonade

Pink Lemonade is another cloudy transparent. It's a soft, rose quartzy kind of pink.

Its pinkness and its cloudiness puts me in mind of candyfloss.

Another trouble-free glass with no usage issues.

The beads were photographed indoors in natural daylight.

CiM Testing: Pink Dogwood

Pink Dogwood is one of the new Creation is Messy cloudy transparents. It's a pale pink glass that has a lovely haziness to it. The glass was unfussy to use with no shocking.

Really pretty. I like this one very much.

The bead was photographed indoors in natural daylight.

CiM Testing: Surf's Up

Surf's Up is the misty opal version of Peacock Feather and its a really lovely bright blue with a touch of green about it.

The glass was really well-behaved with no shocking. I also had no 'blue fussiness' trouble with cooling and reheating and was able to do so without any troublesome scumming occurring.

The beads were photographed indoors in natural daylight.

CiM Testing: Sea Glass with Dichro

This is CiM Sea Glass but with added sparkle in the form of silvery dichroic inclusions.

The glass was pretty shocky and I had to warm it very slowly and even then it popped and cracked. When I eventually got it molten enough to work with it was fine. I tried to make a second bead with the glass that was left and I got off to a good start but then I encountered a line of trapped air within the rod and it produced such huge bubbles that it was impossible to work with it any further.

In my opinion, aesthetically, this the most successful of the CiM dichroic glasses and the resulting bead glimmers prettily when it catches the light.

The bead was photographed indoors in natural daylight.

CiM Testing: Daydream

Daydream is the translucent opal other half of Adriatic, with Adriatic being the misty opal.

Daydream is a rich, bright blue. It is a very well-behaved blue and it doesn’t scum or pit. No shocking either.

The bead was photographed indoors in natural daylight.

CiM Testing: London Fog

London Fog is the misty opal version of Unicorn. It’s more transparent and has that really beautiful opalescent colour flash thing when the sunlight hits it.

I encountered no shockiness, bubbling or pitting, but I found it is quite soft so don’t get working it too hot. The heart bead kept losing its shape as I was working on it but the glass stood up to repeated heating, cooling and shaping really well. Very pretty glass!

The beads were photographed indoors in natural daylight.