Hello, and other ramblings...

 Hello there! It's been a while since I carved out a little spot of time for blogging - even though I frequently think to myself "I must blog about this or that", somehow the time slips through my fingers like so much sand. I am now feeling like my blogging muscle is a little rusty, so I am just going to do one of those rambling posts; lots of pictures, telling you a little bit about the pieces and what else has been going on, in no particular order. Ok? 

If you follow me over on Facebook, you'll have seen that I recently returned from a fab surprise holiday in Tenerife. I know a lot of people are a bit snotty about the Canaries, but I absolutely love them! Sunshine, gorgeous coastal climate, great food, lovely people - what's not to love? We stayed in the north-east of the island, doing the Air BnB thing, and this meant we were in a totally non-touristy thing too - an added bonus, as far as I'm concerned. As usual, I packed up a shit-ton of beads (I have problems...!) so that I could sit in the evenings, and make away to my heart's content. All accompanied by a glass or 4 of local Sangria! I say local in that way that local somehow makes it classier, but what I really mean is local i.e. from our local supermarket. Like a glass of local Lambrini here in the UK. (Although I'm sure you will agree, local Sangria over local Lambrini EVERY TIME.)

Sometimes when I go on holiday, I must admit, my eyes are bigger than my bead belly, and I end up coming home with a pair of earrings and half a bracelet, but not this time. I was seriously productive! We were in a lovely wee apartment, complete with a mountain-view balcony (we were very lucky - right on the edge of the capital, Santa Cruz, which is all industry and skyscrapers, but the from the block of flats we were in you would never have known) and so we ended up eating in most nights - fresh veg, fresh bread, local (ACTUALLY local) cheese and the occasional Gambas Pil Pil (a long-standing family favourite), all washed down with the aforementioned Sangria. Slurp. 

Anyway, this wee bracelet is one of the first pieces I made on holiday. I've made a few of this design lately, and I do love it - the combination of the larger elements with the double-stand of more petite beads - artisan elements here from Soul Silver, Something to do with your hands and myself, along with a heavy helping of freshwater biwa petal pearls.  I'm really enjoying using those teeny tiny seed beads more in my work - linking my handwoven {song}beads with the rest of my designs in an organic way. 

Another holiday piece here - a really easy-to-make, easy-to-wear piece. Birds, flowers, artisan quirky beads and my favourite red and turquoise palette.  

I bought a whole bunch of different sterling silver clasps from a new favourite findings supplier, TH Findings, as I'm finding with my own metalwork, I'm using silver more and more. I still love my patinated copper and brass, but it's great to have silver as an option too. This is such a simple bracelet, it would be easy for it to be a little nondescript, but I think that wee heart clasp really makes this piece work. 

 As you may be picking up, I'm going through a bit of a bracelet-y phase. I know, I know - what's new?! - but I'm just going with it. The bead shop, it's fair to say, had a fairly slooooow start to the year, but things started to pick up in March and April, and so my time for making became a little limited. For that reason, I'm just going with my gut when making at the moment, rather than imposing my brain upon the process too much - must make more necklaces! must make more links and earwires! - and such like. The ebb and flow of Curious is back to a bit of an ebb again, and so I am anticipating having a little more time over the next week or so - which is always the silver-lining of a bead shop ebb :-) This bracelet is one I've made since getting back from holiday, but I feel it's got some of the lightness that a good holiday always leaves you with. 

That cool bottle bead is one I snagged from Lorelei Eurto's recent destash. No idea what Nehi is but I love the colour and design of the bead nonetheless! Again, you can see those seed beads doing multiple jobs here - my beaded beads, spacers between the larger beads, and forming a wee extension chain. I can't tell you just how long these take compared with popping a bit of chain or a few links on the end of the bracelet, but I love the visual texture of them, and how they keep the colour going within a piece. 

I know on the other side of the pond - and Australia too, I think? - it was Mother's Day last Sunday. We had ours a while back, but Sunday *was* my Mum's birthday. Mum is a great supporter and wearer of my jewellery and whilst she of course has a great deal of patinated pieces (which is own my preference for most of the time), she is a shiny silver girl at heart. It was the push I needed to get back to the torch - sadly neglected by me this year, despite the acquisition of a proper bonafide jewellery bench. The torch came out, the hammer and block came out, the pickle was switched on - the tumbler did its magic, and so Mum ended up with some shiny shiny earrings and a shiny shiny necklace. 

Shiny!

 A break from my bracelet addiction....

More beads acquired from Lorelei here - I just love this soft Spring colour palette. I made those tiny peach {song}beads just for this necklace - just the right shape and colour to go with these sweet pink/purple freshwater pearls - as well as that gorgeous bouquet on the ceramic pendant. 

 More pearls here - I go through phases - quite long phases(!) - with pearls, and this phase shows little sign of waning - more peachy, subtly textural pearls in this new bracelet below.

Another bonus of the holiday was the amount of swimming I did over there. Ok, not all swimming, there was a lot of obligatory bobbing around in various pools in the sunshine, but also swimming. I made a point of starting the day by having a bit of a lie-in, but as soon as I was awake, getting into my costume and hitting the pool attached to our apartment block. I really wish my flat here in Edinburgh had a pool out the back! Although I think indoors would be vastly preferable here in Edinburgh. I did a short blast of 20 lengths each morning, but the routine of it reminded me just how much I enjoy swimming. Believe it or not, when I was in primary school, I went swimming 4-5 times a week with Heart of Midlothian Swimming Club . Over the past fifteen years, I've tried again and again to get into running, going to the gym, yoga, pilates etc. and all without real success i.e. being able to stick to them. (I actually really enjoy yoga and pilates, but find that I am a quite intimidated by the idea of joining a class - I imagine everyone else will be lean and beautiful, and live off green smoothies and little else - you get the picture. The type of class where I'd stick out like a sore thumb, in my mind at any rate!). I don't know why, but I've never really given swimming another go - not properly. But on the Monday after our return, I went along to some local swimming baths and joined up for a month. Not cheap, but not too pricey - and since then, I've gone every day but two. Slowly but surely, I've been building up the distances I've swum - I'm now doing a mile every day. A brilliant thing about the membership I've bought is that it allows me to use any of the ten council swim centres we have here in Edinburgh. So the past two+ weeks, I've been working out where these pools all are in Edinburgh, and fitting my swims into whatever I'm doing on a day - the pool near my acupuncture clinic, the pool near the parcel office, the 2 pools near my wife's work where I can get a lift to in the morning if I'm feeling like a super-early morning dip! I am not making any promises to myself - I don't want to let myself down and feel all the guilt that that leads to - but right now, I'm really enjoying it being part of my day to day routine. Which pool today? How many lengths today? Sadly, I'm not a size 8 already (what? Two weeks of daily swimming - WHY NOT?!) but I am feeling really good about it - and *actually* enjoying it. Long may it continue!

The last little piece I have to share with you today is really a pair. One of my lovely regular customers wrote to me and said that these two would go well together, and of course when I looked at them I knew that they would. I am never sure what I think about sets though. I like jewellery collectors to be able to pick and choose what they wear together - but yes, I would definitely wear these two as a pair. 

As you'll see, I'm continuing with my love-affair with gemstones, as you may have spotted from several of the pieces above. A couple of weeks ago, when I was in the throes of a horrible throat infection which floored me for several days, I scraped myself out of bed and onto the bus to the Knitting and Stitching Show, which I knew from my Mum's visit the previous day had several bead stands. Including a really, really awesome gemstone stand - Ilona Biggins - and, well....let's just say I went to town a bit there! She had very kindly passed on a free entry ticket to my Mum for me (otherwise entry would have been £16 - outrageous!), so she'd saved me a fair bit of cash already, PLUS I got a wee discount - probably because I spent so much it would have been rude not to. Oops. But just look at all the beautiful gemstones and pearls I snaffled! Well, you can't most of them - but have a look at those you *can* see! The gorgeous agate above, but more than that, the rough-cut amethyst. SO AWESOME. It is part of a mixed strand of amethyst and citrine (you can see a spot of that in the necklace above) and I could NOT leave it behind. Could I?! 

 

Just look how fantastic they look with the ceramic shards in these earrings! They came as part of a small set from France, with the bird in the bracelet above. Oh, and I should mention another bead in that bracelet above - the amazing lampwork disc beneath the bird. Look how *glowy*. How magical and otherworldly. All from the subtly wondrous hands of Julie Wong Sontag of Uglibeads. Seriously, if you didn't notice it a minute ago, take a wee scroll back up and have a peek. Yep, see what I mean? 

Anyway, you've made it through this epic post! Well done, if you're still with me. I'll be back SOON with slightly shorter posts, when I don't have approximately 2 months so gallop through! Thanks for sticking with it and I promise, I'll see you soon. 

Stacked Earrings Challenge - Chapter 4

Hello! It's time again for our little creative group challenge again, and my goodness, it's been a while since our last round. Hands up, it's all my fault! I had such a lot on over the summer - multiple craft fairs, working down in London for several weeks and the continuing saga of the poorly sick bunny rabbit, that it took me until DECEMBER to get my little bead selection out to everybody. When checking through to see when my last blog post was from this series, and I'm ashamed to say that I've held us up since last May. Eek! So sorry guys! 

This exchange is the brain-child of Swedish jewellery designer-maker, Malin de Koning, who invited Heidi Post, Leah Curtis and Claire Lockwood and myself to join her. Here's the lowdown in Malin's own words:

"The idea is that I give each of us the same set of beads. Beads that I believe would be nice to use in earrings. Nothing exclusive, and no art beads. Just a group of different beads that I myself believe can be used in fun and interesting ways in earrings in a stacked style.

I am longing to see how we all use the same things but in different ways. I am thinking we could all make at least one pair of earrings, but hopefully more. And that we are free to add our own extra beads and/or other components, if we at least use three (3) of the beads from my set in each design."

Since Malin began this challenge back in January 2015, we've taken it in turns to send out little curations of beads, and all turning them into our own creations. Here's what I selected for the group:

Photo curtesy of Leah Curtis - please note the super-cute bunny plate!

We're a pretty diverse bunch of designers, all working with beads and found objects, and so it's been fascinating seeing what everyone comes up with each time, from exactly the same selection of beads. I have to say, I had a great time digging through my bead boxes to make this little collection - some beads I'd totally forgotten I owned (the rubber rings on the rh side) and some which I use all the time (ceramic rondelles and pressed glass flowers). When I'd finished gathering everything together, I did feel a little like I should perhaps have included a few neutrals and darker tones in there - you might need your sun-specs for this vibrant a selection! But then again, I adore colour and so it's pretty indicative of me, this little bunch of beads. 

And so without further ado, here's what I turned this little lot into:

I did have one more pair which I started on, but I had used one of my handwoven {song}beads and didn't have enough time to whip up another before photographing these (and it was a rondelle - one of the more time-consuming styles to make), so 5 pairs will have to do. And all in all, I'm pretty pleased with these! Especially because on completion of this collection, I realised that all I'd added to my original bead selection were my own handwoven {song}beads, and findings (the metal bits and bobs!). 

Spice Trail - a true stack of beads here, Czech pressed glass, nickel-free brass, Greek ceramic discs, vintage carved acrylic, handwoven {song}beads and handmade sterling silver earwires. 

These might be my favourite from the set of five. Stacked high with an eclectic mix of beads - ceramics, pressed glass, carved acrylic and of course, some of my own handwoven {song}beads, these are long and luscious. Just look at those vintage carved acrylic rounds! I am so glad I rediscovered these when hunting out beads for this round's little collection.  

Mojito - handwoven {song}beads, Czech pressed glass, handmade sterling silver pins and earwires and vintage acrylic rounds.

This pair also contain some awesome vintage acrylic rounds, and I've paired these with some of my handwoven {song}bead rondelles, and a stack of Czech pressed glass, topped and tailed by my handmade oxidised sterling silver. These are a bit of a departure for me colour-wise - lime green or chartreuse, as we are calling it these days (yep, I know they're technically different but chartreuse sounds so much nicer than lime, doesn't it?), isn't necessarily my go-to green, but here I've paired it with dark silver and teal to tone thing down a bit and it works! (I hope!) 

Favorit - Czech pressed glass, antiqued copper, vintage acrylic rounds, handmade sterling silver earwires.

There's a bit of a story behind the title here. Long-time readers may have noticed that 'Favorit' is a name I tend to use/borrow again and again - and yes, there's a reason behind that. In my late teens/early twenties, I left Edinburgh to go and study down in England, but when I returned to Edinburgh for the holidays, my friends and I always used to meet up in a late night cafe, Favorit. Despite it serving alcohol, we always opted for teas and coffees, and the occasional humus and pitta bread, which I'll freely admit, given the option of wine was unusual for us - even if we stayed there until the wee hours. I have some of the BEST memories of nights there - being silly and daft and laughing, laughing, laughing - Favorit is no more, but I'll never forget the good times had. It has a slight 'retro dinner' feel to it, and so whenever I see my favo(u)it(e) colour-scheme of red and turquoise (pretty retro in itself), I always think back to those good old days. I think this title will keep repeating on me! 

Moon Landing - Peridot, rubber, bone, handmade sterling silver earwires.

These beads were a bit of a wildcard in the selection I sent out. I love gemstone chips, but I must admit, I don't always know what to do with them. And those tiny rubber rings - I'd completely forgotten that they were something I had in my collection, so they were almost like new to me. The craggy surface of the peridot remind me of the rugged landscape of Harris, an island in the outer hebrides which I visited a couple of years ago. My host compared the rocky, barren landscape of part of the island which we were driving through with the surface of the moon, which has really stayed with me. It's a tiny island, but so full of contrast, as so much of the Highlands and Island of Scotland are. The idea that some of the landscape of this tiny island was comparable with the moon blew my mind! So the connection here is an other-wordly one. These earrings are some of my favourites out of this little bunch - perfect for those who like really dainty earrings.

Spring Meadow - handwoven {song}beads, Czech pressed glass, Greek ceramic discs, rubber, handmade sterling silver earwires.

Last but not least, these stackers are fairly classic Songbead. Light bright Spring colours, topped off with some of my handwoven {song]beads, I feel like these earrings are guaranteed to make you smile. Step out into the countryside in a month or two and you'll see these colour popping up everywhere! These are the happiest earrings from the bunch - I'm definitely tempted to make myself a pair of these too. 

And so that's it for this round! Please hop over to my friends' blogs and check out what they've created with exactly the same materials. Looking forward to the next instalment already!

Malin de Koning

Claire Lockwood

Heidi Post

Leah Curtis

Three Bracelets

Three wee bracelets for you today, all quite different from one another. 

Most frequent readers will know that I *love* colour in general, but I think it's fair to say I tend toward to vibrant. I reached for the softer tones here though, and I'm pretty pleased with it's gentleness. We can always do with a wee bit more gentleness in the world.

Ceramic bird - Something to do beads

Polymer rondelles - Alison Sachs

This bracelet seems very 'me' to my eyes. I love flowers (especially in bead-form, it must be said!), I love turquoise and orange/red and I love birds. And if you add in a piece of vintage brass chain from Paris, it can't hurt, can it? Unfortunately this bracelet is an absolute pest to photograph. The chain section just doesn't behave when sat on a flat surface. Much better on the wrist. I hope you still get a good idea of it nonetheless.

Polymer birdie - Tree Wings Studio

This last one is a bit different in more ways than one. It's a return from Stringing magazine, where it was published in the Winter 2014 edition. The first issue with some of my designs featured - I was pretty chuffed! It was part of the issue's 'delicate femininity' section, and I love, love, love the palette which Stringing selected, part of which you can see below. Hand-cut tiny gemstones, a bit of organic rusticity alongside it's delicate palette and general dainty-nature. My quandary now is that I just don't know how to price this type of piece. It's unusual that I would use quite so many gemstones in one piece. I get most of my gemstones from Precious Sparkle Beads and honestly, the quality is second to none. So I am keen not to undervalue a piece like this with the wrong price. It may be that I just *have* to keep it for myself.....oh well, it's a hard life and all that! 

&

Yesterday, I blogged about these delicious hand-woven beads from Sally Thake Jewellery.

Let's all take another look at them:

 Mmmmmmhhhhhhh...yum! 

One of them snapped into a new design pretty quickly. 

Featuring more handmade beads from Something to do beads, some lovely lampwork artist (sorry, one of those spacers that lost it's set and so I have forgotten where it came from) and Jubilee. 

It's actually longer than it looks here, at around 28 inches, and slips over the head easily. 

 I'll be listing this beauty over in my etsy shop today. 

Mismatched

Although I whole-heartedly embrace asymmetry within most of my work, the one thing I can't quite wrap my creative mind around is mismatched earrings. It's not that I don't think that they work, it's more that I don't think *I* can make them work. 

Here's my one real foray into mismatched earrings so far:

Not terribly wild!

So when I saw Something to do's ceramic spikes, I genuinely had no idea of turning them into earrings. Some kind of cluster pendant, perhaps. 

But instead, they demanded to become these. What do you think? Have I made the mismatched thing work? I'm on the fence....but leaning towards *whispers* loving them...

Love Light

I spoke on Friday about my new year's resolution to take better care of myself - not (hopefully) in a guilt-inducing manner, but in a gentle, kind and above all holistic manner. I think this thought was on my mind when I created this bracelet. 

I've said this before, but I am an absolutely terrible hoarder. I'm not quite ready for 'The Hoarder Next Door' yet (thank goodness - please somebody shoot me before they come knocking at my studio door) but I have the most ridiculous stash of beads. I know I'm not alone with this, and that does make me feel a little better, but really, it's time that some most of my beads saw the light of day, and fulfilled their beady destiny. The two art beads featured here are 'only' 2014 acquirements (I have beads going back....WAY back...and back....and back......) but still, they are both beads that have been preying on my mind for some reason. Kylie Parry's beautiful blue firefly in particular - Kylie does previews over on Facebook for her very, very limited edition bead collections, and I spotted it there and knew it had to be mine...You have to have fingers of fire to snag any of her beautiful handmade ceramics, so I was extremely lucky to pick this one up, exactly the one I was after. It's been to cafes on working dates with me, to and from craft fairs, it's been down to England with me for Christmas, and then finally, it's found its home with Something to do's heart. Something about the word 'here' - I loved the idea of this glowing firefly being drawn to the heart, and the quietness and stillness of that word. 

Here. 

Still. 

Be. 

Can't you feel the quiet flutter of her wings? 

Putting Kylie's firefly with Claire's heart put me in mind of one of my favourite Abba songs. (Yes, I love Abba. No apologies.) This bracelet has a much quieter feel than the song, but the title and some of its joyful spirit are definitely there. Love light. Drawn to the light of 'here'. 

You can find this sweet piece here. 

PS As an aside, when I first got to know this song, it connected very definitely with a specific person at that point in my life, not that they knew. Not someone I'm in touch with much anymore, but isn't it funny how songs retain those connections years on? Like a particular scent or taste, songs take you right back to where you were when they first resonated with you. And no, I'm not telling you who ;-)

Happy Post

Hello all! Here are some of the gorgeous handmade lovelies that have arrived or will be arriving with me soon. Don't you just love a good post day?

How sweet is this little guy? I love his sparkly turquoise ploominess. He's from Elukka.

Scorched Earth spiky droppers, in the most fantastic swirly red glaze. My Scorched Earth earrings have definitely been one of my best sellers this craft fair season. Got a few more on the way but I don't think they will be here in time for my last show, unfortunately. Ah well, all the more for my etsy shop!

Claire Lockwood has been making ceramic beads for a wee while now, and I have amassed a miniature collection (there are never enough ceramic bead artists in the world for me - I always have room for another in my collection - Bo Hulley, Kylie Parry, ChelleV2, Mary Harding, not to mention the ladies featured in this post....I could go on, and on and on....). These beautiful bead caps will be joining my others soon....

...as will these beautiful rustic roses. I have a thing about roses - in real life too. I always have - my Grandma had some absolutely beautiful old-fashioned roses in her garden, and bead roses always remind me just a little of them. Check out Claire's etsy shop - she had a huge update recently!

I hope you've enjoyed seeing the little treasures I've been acquiring recently!