Encased Frit Beads

These may look basic but getting that encasing just right so that there's zero base bead 'bleed' onto the encasing layer around the bead holes isn't quite as easy as it seems.

I'm off to Cambridge this afternoon. I wish someone would hurry up and invent a teleporter. One of those has got to be better than a three hour train journey!

Have a great weekend!

Cloudy Thinking

I took this lovely photo of the sky on Monday evening. Are you wondering why I'm pointing my camera skywards?

Well, for about three years I've been trying to make beads that are evocative of clouds. I get an idea, try it out, it goes wrong and I shelve the cloud bead plans. I do this every few months and never end up with anything vaguely cloud-like. Until now.

I was twiddling about with the cloud bead idea again and came up with these. They're very subtle but I think they have a definite cloudy fluffiness about them. They're quite reminiscent of those altocumulus clouds in the photo. Oooh, get me getting all meteorological!

Now I have a basic cloud bead that I'm happy with I can hopefully develop the idea further. Stay tuned for cloudy progress . . . . .

Love the lovely polka dots!

I'm a bit polka dot crazy at the moment. There's something quite soothing about making these beads. Must be the repetitive dot placement - I kind of get into a polka dot trance . . . . .

I went for a mooch around the shops in town on Saturday and a most excellent thing happened! The other week I had to buy new jeans because my old ones were too big. Yay! The no pudding thing is really paying off. So I had to buy one size smaller than I usually do. I thought that maybe that was a bit of a fluke and perhaps the size was wrong. But on Saturday I found a skirt that I really liked (yes, that might be shocking to you because you may know that I normally avoid dresses and skirts like the plague) and I instinctively picked up my normal size 14. I did have a quick look to see if there was a size 12, but no. I trotted off to the changing room and tried the skirt on . . . . . and it fell down! It just would not stay on my hips. I got changed and when the assistant said 'Any good?' I proudly replied 'No!' with a big grin on my face. I think she thought I was a bit loopy.

Could it actually be that after about a decade of size 14-ness I may actually be a size 12? It was a shame about the skirt because I liked it but to make it all better I bought new shoes instead!

No wonder I've got hayfever .....

. . . . . with all these flowery beads about! Even more Floratabs, this time in a gorgeous dusky pink.

An here's an actual proper real flower. This is about the only flower currently brightening up the garden. During the summer I normally have pots of vibrantly coloured blooms all over the show but after last year when every flower carked it due to a combination of slugs, snails and Dad forgetting to water the garden one very warm weekend when I was away in Cambridge, I really can't be bothered!

I love the colours of this rose and I reckon that they would be great for summery beads. But whenever I make yellow beads no-one seems to want them! I guess yellow is one of those colours, isn't it? It looks great on some people and awful on others. If I wear yellow I look all pale and washed out. My sisters wear it and they look fabulous. Mind you, they both seem to have permanent suntans which probably help. They just need to look at the sun and they develop a golden tan whereas if I spend more than five minutes sat in the sun I turn a lovely shade of pink . . . . .

'Classic' Floratabs

Floratab beads in the classic colour combination of ivory and turquoise with just a dash of black.