Cloud 9

I have been told today that I have won the Flame Off Artist competition, and will be demonstrating on Friday, 16th April, at this year's Flame Off in Towcester. And whilst the thought of being on the same list as Sharon Peters, Diana East, Teresa LaLiberte and Lorna Prime fills me with absolute terror.........I'm rather excited!

Getting there!

I'm slowly catching up! I've been having a number of fun commissions recently, which I'll hopefully be able to share soon - the personal kind, where you tailor a piece exactly to the recipient. I love those kinds of commissions! I just made another batch of butterflies, and since they seem to be flying out of the shop, I think it can safely be assumed that spring is on the way. More soon!

57 Channels and nothing on

...sings Master Springsteen. For me, read: so many toys and no time to play! I have until the end of the week to write four tutorials and complete a few commissions...not to forget a meeting tomorrow night, and two evenings 'toddler duty' when hubby is out. Did I forget to mention work during the day?

On the other hand, I received no less than four toys today, and, I'm sorry, they demand to be played with! If I'm a really good girl, maybe I'm allowed to play with them this week-end? Pretty, please?

What lurks in that cupboard?

I'm spring cleaning. Well no, not really, but I'm getting very annoyed with my ineptitude to keep my findings in one place, so every time I make a piece of jewellery, the search starts - where are the jump rings? They jumped away! Ceramic Spacers? Lost in space! Loose chain? Unchained and gone walkies. Don't get me started on head pins, my pliers, or my bead reamer! So (once again, trust me, this is not the first time) I vow to do better, and start little boxes. And come across a little bag of scrap silver. It doesn't look familiar. Hang on...I've got another bag of scrap silver...somewhere. Forget tidying up, I'm on a money-making mission! After unearthing two more small bags of scrap silver, I find a piece of jewellery that I made in my beginner's silver smithing class back in 2005. Okay, I was proud of it in week 2 of my course, but let's be honest - I'll never wear it. Neither will I ever wear (or have I ever worn) that huuuuge cuff I reticulated towards the end of my first year, or the bangle that I engraved so wonkily. Hang on!! This is starting to look promising! Out come mis-shapen castings (at which point, I find a pair of tiny 'blob' earstuds made of casting scrap, and put them to one side - they will get worn again!)

I'm still looking, but I've gone over the 200g mark. Now all I need to do is send it off, and the order I just placed at Cookson Gold will be - for want of a better word - free! Recycling, kind of.

In honour of the 'heavy metal' theme, a metallic rose topper:

The Three Ps

I like playing around. I normally have very little time to play around, and, if I'm honest, little time to do the whole PPP thing, you know the one, practise, practise, practise. And that's okay...sometimes. Sometimes, it's okay to just do what you find easy for a while, to settle, to gain confidence, to establish yourself. Sometimes, you need to play. Nobody will ever see those beads, they're colour combos that you thought might be worth trying, the first goes with a new press. If you try it once or twice, then move on to something else...that's playing. And sometimes, you need to play.

But sometimes, you have to practise. There is an idea in your head, a bead that you see so clearly, you are convinced if only you lit your torch, you would hold it in your hands the next day. How can you not - you see it so clearly?

First, I made the murrini. And I have to say, hurrah, it turned out pretty much exactly as I wanted it. Apart from the fact that I'd done a black outline on it, which grew ad infinitum on the bead - blob-headed geishas! So, I ground the edge of my titchy-tiny murrini, to see if that would work in principle. Huzzah (this is why the face is a bit grimy, but at least now I know it's worth to do another one! And thus started the PPP - colours for the cherry blossoms, for the dress, the obi (belt). Research into layers of dress, right over left, left over right...translating these into stroke order. What to melt in, what to leave raised. Which colour for a background.

This is the bead I'm happiest with. It's not perfect, but it's the result of a lot of PPP - don't be surprised if there aren't too many beads newly up for sale this week-end! I've got some more PPP to do ;o)

Let the sunshine in!

Thank you to everybody who nominated me for a sunshine award - I got four of them!! So, in no particular order, thank you to

Louise - http://louisebroomhead.blogspot.com/

Jean - http://aboxofbeads.blogspot.com

Mel - http://kookiedesigns.blogspot.com and

Lesley - http://coburgcrafts.blogspot.com/

Thank you all so much, it's lovely to know that I'm spreading sunshine. Having had a look around, though, it seems so many people already have one of these, so apologies if I'm re-nominating.

http://chatelainejewellery.blogspot.com/

http://saffieandherblog.blogspot.com/

http://helen-mitchell.blogspot.com/

http://katrin-myworldasiseeit.blogspot.com/

And because I cannot resist showing this one off:

What a lovely week-end!

On Saturday, a group of lovely people descended on my studio, bearing biscuits, chocolate, homemade fudge, and lots of other goodies! We had such a fab time, playing with the torches, demo-ing to each other, and...hmmm....expanding our horizons. Dawn brought her grinder, and June brought her Koil Cutter...and now I have tool envy ;o) No, seriously, thank you all for a fantastic Saturday!

On Sunday, I had a bit more time making beads, and since the first two rose ring toppers sold before I could even take a proper photo of them, here's one:

I am liking these very much, and I hope the ring system will take the UK by storm, lol!