Earring Pairs

Hello you! Did you have a good weekend?
I had a bit of a busy Bank Holiday weekend and as such I only have these few beads to show you. These silvered ivory and fine silver earring pairs are for sale over in my Etsy shop as I type .....
Eagle-eyed readers may notice that if you click my blog header a different web address appears in your browser bar. That new URL is www.beadsbylaurablog.com and it is my new blog address. Fear not, you don't have to change a thing as Blogger will redirect the old address to this new one so the transition should be nice and smooth for you. However, if you find things aren't showing up as they should on the old Blogspot address (such as the Followers displaying incorrectly) I suggest that you re-bookmark the new URL instead.
Have a good Tuesday! I'll be back later with beads.

'Purple Passion' Bracelet by Janine Byrom

Isn't this bracelet just wonderful? It features a selection of my beads and was made by the very talented Janine of Cherished Trinkets. If you fancy treating yourself to this gorgeous bracelet it is available here.
Janine is known for her Alice In Wonderland jewellery and she has just started selling her handmade Alice charms so that other people can create Alice-themed jewellery too.
If you get a chance do go and have a browse around Janine's webshop or have a read of her blog.
Have you made jewellery with my beads? I send beads off to new homes all over the world but get to see very few photos of how they end up being used. If you have got some photographs of work featuring my lampwork please do email them to me. I'd love to have a look!

Breezy Beads

The weather has been really angry today - lots of dark moody clouds and really blustery wind. I had to have the door and window open as it does get quite warm in the shed and the breeze made beadmaking quite tricky. My torch flame kept blowing about at crucial moments.

This little quartet of blue beads was going to be a larger set but I gave up trying to apply tiny dots upon tiny dots in the breezy conditions. Annoying. But it was just as well as I'm not really happy with the yellow on these. I used Effetre Opal Yellow which is great but it's one of those slightly unpredictable difficult-to-get-consistent-results-with glasses. You don't really know what you're going to get until the beads are annealed and cool because the colour changes and develops in the kiln.

Some of the dots are cream, some are primrose yellow (which is what I was aiming for) and some are peach. Hmmm.

Although the windy weather made melting glass a tad irksome it did wonders for the washing. I pegged a load of laundry out on the line and it was dry in about forty minutes. At one point I did see a sock and a pair of my knickers fly across the grass but fortunately I managed to grab them before they took flight and left the confines of the garden!

Laura Random Giveaway

*** THESE RANDOM GIVEAWAY BEADS HAVE BEEN CLAIMED ***

Up for grabs today were these four brightly-coloured beads. Two rounds, a square and a triangle. Vibrant and fun!

The lucky winner of them is Karen from Gloucestershire, UK.

Please keep an eye out for future Random Giveaways. The best way to do this is to add yourself as a follower or subscribe to my blog. Follower and subscription links can be found over there on the right hand side.

Note : For full Laura Random Giveaway details please click here.

More Keys

Here are a couple more key beads. This pale green and pink floral one is another fixed bead - it doesn't move on the key. As I said in my last post, the bead design and whether or not you make it fixed is dependent on the shape of the key.
I've made some co-ordinating beads to go with the key. I know that some people like to add bead charms to the bow of the key so I thought that I'd provide some matching ones.

I reckon that the keys would look great hanging on oxidised silver chain or maybe some pretty ribbon.

The next key I used had a long shank which lent itself to a movable bead. I can imagine that jewellery fidgets would appreciate the twiddle factor of this key bead!

I'm really looking forward to seeing what people do with these key beads. I'm picturing them as necklaces but maybe you have different ideas?

All of the key bead sets will be for sale on this Wednesday at 8.00pm (UK time) on the Freshly Baked Beads page of my website.