Witches!

I'm going to deviate briefly from the beads for this post, right over to the other part of my blog name, the SONG in Songbeads. Tomorrow, I'm off to Uttoxeter to play '1st Witch' in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas. It's a great wee opera, especially if you're not used to listening to opera or even classical music - nice and short, lots of good melodies and witches plotting, love and of course, death! What opera would be complete without love and death?! Cheery stuff. It's one of the very first operas written in English and is probably the earliest one that is still performed regularly. Last year I was 2nd witch (slightly lower rather than secondary) in Opera Hesperia's production in Chester so I'm hoping I won't get confused with the two parts as they are fairly similar! Anyone else enjoy the combination of beads and music? Two of my very favourite things.

Lorelei's Giveaway

Lorelei is having a giveaway! She has made 3 super cute pendants and is giving them away to one lucky reader. If you have a minute why not check out her blog? Leave a comment before tomorrow morning to be in with a chance of winning!

Moogin

I've already told you about my slight obsession with lampwork beads so I thought I might start a new regular (not quite sure how regular as yet!) blog posting about my favourite lampwork artists and beads. If nothing else it will keep me entertained.

So, to kick it off, I'll begin with my all time favourite lampwork artiste extraordinaire - Mindy MacGregor, otherwise known as Moogin. You may have seen her profiled in Beads and Beyond recently (can't remember which issue off the top of my head) or perhaps at the Scottish Bead Fair where she regularly has a stand or perhaps you've also bought some of her amazing artwork. I first 'discovered' her in Perth at the SBF last summer. Wow! Before that, I was all about the organic, botanical lampworks. No more! Mindy really does create miniature glass paintings, I can see Miro, Klimt, Kandinsky there in the background behind her tiny masterpieces (three of my favourite artists anyway) to mention but a few;


but beyond this, she does things with glass I've never seen elsewhere. She has recently taken a move towards folk art which I never thought would be my cup of tea but, surprise surprise, it is!


Her love of colour is always evident whatever style she is working in and this is one of my favourite aspects of her work. There's so much more I could (ineloquently I'm sure!) say about Mindy's work but for now I'll let the beads speak for themselves.

My all time favourite Moogin bead - so far!

More RABs...

One final set of Right Angle Bangles....perhaps! These went to their new home yesterday - they were my friend Pip's birthday present. I LOVE orange and pink...

New purchases

As some of you may or may not be aware, I am a bit of a lampwork-aholic. I have a rather large and ever-expanding collection of these beauties and no plans to reform my habit! Now I of course have my own favourite lampwork artists (more about them later!) but recently I have seen more and more jewellery artists using beads by lampworker Clare Scott, not least Eve Smith who I have blogged about before. And, checking that blog post for the link, I see I even blogged about Clare before!



One of my favourite ways to buy lampworks is a 'destash' - where the artist is selling off a bunch of beads not necessarily related to one another - maybe orphans or pairs that didn't quite make it into full sets. I love these as you get loads of variety and often (can you tell I'm Scottish?!) at a very good price. So I was delighted to see Clare selling off three destash sets on her website! The above picture is of the set I chose and I have to say, I'm totally and utterly in love with it! I don't know that I've quite captured how gorgeous the beads are BUT believe me, they're stunning. I'm a real turquoise girl so...

...THIS ONE immediately jumped out at me but they are all stunning. I believe it's the reactive silvered glass that Clare uses which give her beads such a mystical sheen. You can see this with the other beads I've close-upped below. Completely wonderful.

Now, if only I could find something to do with all these lovely beads...!

Better Photos!

Here are some better photos I snapped this morning!

I'm back!

It's been a while! My plans to blog more frequently in 2010 went slightly awry (clearly, as it's now April!) for quite a few reasons which essentially boil down to the fact that 2010 has so far been a fairly crap year for me and my little family. I won't go into it all now as not wanting to write about it is one of the main reasons I've let this blog slide but suffice to say it involves a lot of illness and hospitals! Things are on a bit more of an even keel now so that's something. But I decided today to get blogging again and reclaim my little piece of internet space. Above is a (slightly rubbish) photo of my most recent design - an embellished RAW bangle which I've become a bit obsessed with making, over and over and OVER again! These are the first five that I made; I must be up to at least 20 by now. They are great fun and I love playing with different colour combinations within each one. Currently on my bead mat is dark fuchsia, galvanized cocoa, coral opal and matt dark pinkish salmon.