Why have one shop when you can have two?

I'm not a huge fan of Etsy. Its fees are too high and I have issues with some of their policies and biases. However, I'm at a point where I'm selling very little and I need to get my work seen. Instagram algorithms don't help with this unless you're willing to become a videographer who spends seventeen hours a day creating Instagram content and I refuse to do that. Also, PayPal seems to be playing silly buggers with my website checkout for some of my customers, and Etsy has many alternative payment options, so I've reluctantly reopened my Etsy shop. However, I'm keeping it to just UK sales at the moment. I'm keeping my website shop open too so right now I'm Laura Twoshops.

I'll add new items to both platforms for the foreseeable and I shall just see how it goes for the next few months.

Newly added items include this 'Sweetness' bracelet:

I made some matching earrings for it. I have two pairs of these.

There's also this very groovy 'Retro' tassel necklace.

All of these can be found in my web shop and my Etsy shop.

In crochet news...

In the previous post I mentioned that I was crocheting a shawl as a pattern test for another crocheter. The shawl is all done and is currently blocking.  I'll post a photo of the finished item when the pattern is released, which I think will be towards the end of the month. In the meantime, here's an in-progress shot of the shawl.

The yarn is Scheepjes Stone Washed in the shade Coral. The yarn reminds me of when I stir salad cream into Heinz spaghetti hoops. (Yes, I do actually do that and I've done it since I was a child and yes it sounds vile but no, in actual fact it's a taste sensation.)

I'm currently working on the border of another blanket which is made up of fifty-four of these mosaic crochet squares.

The pattern is the Terrazzo Afghan by Tinna Thórudóttir Thorvaldsdóttir. I bloody love Tinna's work. She's an absolute genius.

I'll post a photo of the blanket when it's done.

See you later!

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.

Glass Grump

My glass grump is ongoing. This one is lasting a long time and if I'm honest, this is the closest I've come to giving up lampwork in the eighteen-odd years I've been doing it. However, I'm a stubborn cow and I actually do love melting glass so I'm determined to hang on.

What's making me feel this way? I don't quite know. I mean, I sort of know, but it's hard to admit to myself.

Maybe people don't want my work like they used to?

There, I admitted it. 

I don't know the exact reason/s for this. Perhaps people simply no longer like my work? Or me? Oddly, I can deal with the latter better than the former. Or perhaps the current financial climate has meant people can no longer afford handmade jewellery and beads? Maybe it's because I refuse to play the social media game and become a content creator? Perhaps it's a combination of all of these things.

I can see other beadmakers are creating and selling less, though, and recently I've seen others retire from their torches. I don't blame people for doing that; sitting in a shed for hours, making beads and not knowing if anyone will buy them is pretty demoralising and it's the main driver of my bead grump.

If I make a set of very time-consuming, detailed beads, most people do not want to pay what they are worth. If I make spacers or 'simple' beads, which are also time-consuming, even though I can sell them for less, people might not want to buy them because they aren't fancy enough. If I make jewellery, people might buy it or might not, or even buy it to take it apart to get to the beads that they actually do want and let me tell you, that is even more demoralising and annoying than making beads that you're not sure anyone will buy. Trying to guess what people might want is a nightmare.

It could be that the answer is to be more active on social media, but I don't want to make Instagram stories, reels or videos. Do you have any idea how much beadmaking time that eats into? I don't want to be a YouTuber, a Facebooker or a TikTokker (absolutely screw TikTok). I don't want to give away my skills and knowledge for free in exchange for follows and likes because why should I? And I don't want to sell in Facebook groups or auctions because I cannot stand Facebook.

I am a beadmaker, not a content creator. So I'm going to carry on hanging on and just make the beads I feel like making whenever I sit down at the torch.

And besides, I've got so much glass and so many jewellery findings that I have to carry on because the idea of sorting, selling or chucking all of it makes me feel uneasy. And sad. And the sad thing is why I know I'm not ready to throw in the towel just yet.

ANYWAY...

Headpins. I made more headpins. These are all made on 20 gauge (0.8mm) copper wire.

And beads. Polka dotty ones, because polka dots are my favourite.

The headpins and beads pictured are in my shop and if you fancy 15% off anything in there, including jewellery, just enter the code XMAS15 at checkout. The code is valid until midnight (UK time) on Sunday 11th December. I'll be adding a few new bits to the shop between now and then so do have a check back later in the week.

Headpinning

I've been headpinning. At this point I'm in that zone I often find myself in where I keep making the same thing to find out why sometimes the outcome is this and other times that. This is resulting in an enormous amount of headpins. The daft thing is, I don't even know if people want to buy headpins.

Are some of you thinking "What is a headpin anyway?" and wondering what I'm droning on about?

Headpins are not hat pins or hair pins, neither are they finished items of jewellery. Headpins are used by jewellery makers to create pendants, earrings or charms. Beads are threaded onto the wire of a headpin and the glass part acts as a stopper and decorative end. The jewellery maker then finishes the piece with a loop and attaches it to a bail, earwires or whatever other finding they fancy dangling it from.

In most cases I melt the glass straight onto copper wire. Other times I make the glass component on the end of a mandrel and then epoxy in the wire afterwards. This is because some wire doesn't like being in a flame and also because sometimes it is easier to make the glass part on a sturdy mandrel end rather than it bouncing about on the end of a wire while you try and shape it. For example, my acorns and oak leaves are headpins; the acorns have their wires (copper with an antique bronze coating that cannot go in a flame) glued in after and the oak leaves are made directly on pure copper wire which I make darker with patination afterwards.

As you can see, I've been making a lot of leaf headpins. There's something very pleasing about the shape; it's very tactile, transparent ones catch the light beautifully and they would make great earrings.

For the leaves pictured throughout this post I've been using a set of mashers which I bought from LampworkTool on Etsy.

They're really good mashers and I highly recommend them.

I've also been experimenting with making hollow headpins.

These are quite tricky but it's ever so rewarding when they turn out well. 

These hollow ones would be perfect for earrings as they are nice and light.

Right now there are some green leaf headpin pairs in my shop and this weekend I'm going to sort out the big pile of assorted headpins that I've gathered over the past week or so and put some mixes of them in the shop too.

I'm feeling a bit lost with the glass right now, to be honest. I'm just making what I feel like making. I've totally given up trying to predict what people might like or what they want. And when I do make what people have asked me to make ("Damn, I missed them, please make more!" etc) the stuff just ends up sitting there. So yep, I'm making what I want to make and if someone wants to buy it, then bonus.

Do I sound like a glass grump? That'll be because I'm being a bit of a glass grump. It'll pass. *sigh*

A trip down muscle memory lane

Up until Thursday I'd not made an oak leaf headpin for five years. I approached the task slightly nervously because I was pretty convinced I'd forgotten how to make one but within two attempts my brain and hands had remembered exactly what to do. It was almost like I was watching someone else dab on the glass here, swipe it there, shaping and coaxing everything into an oak leaf kind of shape. Then I was off and away, muscle memory well and truly jogged.

I make my headpins in different ways, depending on what wire I want to use for them. The acorns I make on the end of a mandrel. This is because I'm working with a glob of glass that requires shaping by gravity and for that I need something sturdy to work on rather than a thin bit of wire which results in the acorn bit boinging about far more than is desirable. After the acorns are cool and cleaned I epoxy in non-tarnish antique bronze finish copper wire. I make my oak leaves straight on the wire because the shaping and clean-up of them is easier that way. Because the wire I use for the acorns has a non-tarnish finish I can't put it in the flame so I use bare copper wire for the oak leaves. (This already feels like way more information than anyone wants to know about this process but I've started so I'll finish.) This results in acorns with brownish coloured wires and oak leaves with bright, shiny copper ones. To make the shiny copper wires less shiny I give them a bit of a patina with some liver of sulphur. This darkens the copper and makes it less blingy. It's a very simple process but my word does it stink! It's like being stuck in a lift with a group of people from the Hard-Boiled Egg Sandwich Appreciation Society conference who’ve been eating egg sarnies for the whole weekend. Honestly, I cannot describe how egg-farty the stench of liver of sulphur is. It does the job, though, and fear not, the offensive scent gets washed off in the clean-up.

This morning I turned the finished acorns and oak leaves into necklaces.

I've only made five and they're in my shop at the time of typing, but if they sell out I'll make them available to order for a while.

I made some actual beads this week too.

These are CiM Little Boy Blue encased with a thin layer of Effetre Super Clear 006, decorated with spots in Effetre White 204. I never tire of the 'floaty' spots thing. There's one set of these left in my shop.

And I've also made another chain maille bracelet. This one is the 'Sweet Pea' weave which creates these little clusters linked to one another.

The bracelet is pure copper and it's available in the chain maille section of my shop.