Must be the Virgo in me . . . . .

I get many an email asking me how I do my stringerwork. My answer is always the same. It's just practice and patience. I know that sounds like a terrible cop-out kind of answer but it is totally true. When I started making beads my stringer control was virtually non-existent. I wanted to be able to create lines, scrolls, stripes and zig-zags but I just couldn't do it. My stringer went all globby and it always seemed to snap or melt when I didn't want it to.

So I left it for a while and stuck with dots - I made many dotty beads! Every now and again I'd go back to the stringer and try again. Then I'd leave it for another few weeks and I'd try again. And again. I had piles of crappy stringer beads. Then one day it clicked. My stringer was thick (like 2mm thick) but I managed to get spirals and scrolls on a bead. Over the years I've pulled my stringer finer and finer and now it is about the same thickness (or thin-ness, depending on your point of view) as dental floss. Actually, I don't think I could pull it any finer.

But, and here's the bit that you may be pleased to hear, I STILL make crappy stringer beads. Lots of them. And I have evidence of this to show you. The picture above shows the water jug that sits next to my torch. Inside it are over thirty mandrels with 'bad' beads on them. By 'bad' I mean that I've made mistakes on them - either dots aren't aligned properly, scrolls aren't 'scrolly' enough or my stringer simply snapped while I was applying it. On the right hand side of the jug are fifteen beads. The water jug was empty when I started making them and that is how the jug looked by the time I'd finished. Now, maths never was (and still isn't) my strong point but by my reckoning that works out that for every three beads I make only one of them is good.

That photo illustrates a typical beadmaking day for me. Two out of three beads die a fizzly-crackly death in the Pyrex jug and never see the light of day. People say I'm over-critical of my work. I say that I'm a perfectionist. Heck, I am a Virgoan after all!

So my water jug picture is surely proof to you that stringerwork (and all other elements of beadmaking) is indeed practice and patience and now you know that I'm not just fobbing you off with a terrible cop-out answer!

Girly Pink

I was in a pink frame of mind yesterday and ended up making this set of soft pink beads - very girly, don't you think?!

I'm in a grey frame of mind today. Nothing to do with beads but the fact that I have a dentist appointment this afternoon. I can't stand going to the dentist. It's not a fear I have - it's just sheer dislike. I had braces for over four years when I was younger which involved monthly trips to the orthodontist to have wires tightened, replaced, studs re-glued and all that malarkey. My old dentist retired last year and I have a new one now who is first and foremost a cosmetic dentist. Last time he tried to sell me a fixed brace to close the gap in my front teeth. Yeah okay, like I'm going to have another brace fitted for the flippin' fun of it! And anyway, aren't front-teeth-gaps supposed to be lucky? He also explained how I could have them whitened. No thanks - pure white teeth look a bit odd in my opinion. I'll leave that one to pop singers, soap actors and movie stars . . . . . . . .

So today is just a check-up. No doubt Mr Dentist will find something that needs doing or renewing. Then he'll recommend a visit to the hygienist and I'll leave the surgery fifty quid lighter and in an even worse mood. Oh the joy of the dentist!

Rain

I've been a busy beadmaker these past couple of days. I've even managed to get some new pendants made including the 'Princess' one pictured above.

I'm not going to complain about the wet weather because quite frankly the incessant rain we've got here is nothing compared to what's happening rain-wise elsewhere in the country. All those poor people who've been caught up in the floods - it's just terrible.

Abingdon has been very badly affected. My Grandparents live there and at the moment they're alright. Apparently the river very near to them could burst its banks at about one o'clock in the morning. The police visited them last night and told them to pack their bags just in case they have to be evacuated so it's just a matter of wait-and-see. Fingers crossed that the flood waters don't reach them.

Globbles

These are a bit of a break from my normal round beads. In case you haven't noticed I do like making round beads! A lot of people ask me why I don't do many pressed beads. Truth is I just LOVE round beads. Beads want to be round. When the glass is molten it pulls to the centre of its mass (ooooh, get me getting all technical and scientifical) and makes itself round. Now don't get me wrong, I like other bead shapes and I do like pressed beads - it's just that I prefer making round ones!

These beads started off round but I flattened and shaped them here and there to create a nuggety-pebbley-rocky kind of shape. I made a set of un-decorated beads shaped in this way yonks ago but I decided to give these patterened ones the nuggety-pebbley-rocky treatment. I love the effect so much that I'm definitely going to make more and I've given the shape a name. I can't keep calling them nuggety-pebbley-rocky beads so I'm going to call them 'Globbles'.

I've got another blog award! Jennifer has given me a 'Rockin' Girl Blogger' badge - wahey! Thanks Jennifer. I shall pass this on to five other RGBs - I'll be back later with a list.

Saturday Night Clapping

The beads above are called 'Retro Polka' but by rights they should be called 'Boyfriend's Flat' because a large number of items in my boyfriend's flat are brown and light blue! Brown and blue together always remind me of him.

So, it's Saturday night and the TV's on in the background. 'DanceX' is on (why did they call it that? It always sounds like 'Dance Sex' whenever anyone says it!) and there's the same old fame-hungry-saturday-night-talent-show-I'm-meant-to-do-this-and-my-life-will-be-rubbish-if-I-don't-win contestants throwing themselves about all over the stage while people clap. Saturday night clapping. What is it all about? Is there any other night of the week where TV studio audiences clap in time to opening/closing credit music and any other music in between? Crazy.