New light tent

My new light tent has finally arrived! I've been finding taking photos rather frustrating over the last couple of months as I've been relying on sunshine, and that hasn't been around that much recently! So, I decided to buy a light tent. The one I bought folds up into a bag and basically has 3 thin white sides that allow the lights to shine softly through so that whatever you want to photograph is lit but not harshly lit. I haven't had time to have much of a play about with it, and I think it's going to take me a while to become confident with it but it should, in the end, make my life easier. I do have one problem though - the cat thinks that it's her new hideaway!

The photograph below (taken with my new toy, obviously!) is of the pendant my friend Katie made at my October workshop. I oxidised it for her a coupl eof days after the workshop but kept forgetting to take a photo of it to show you the 'after' oxidation effect. The oxidation has really made the stones stand out.

B is at his childminder's tomorrow as it's my work day. My main job is to catch up with my admin (such fun) and practice with my light tent, so hopefully by tomorrow evening I'll have lots of new photos to show you and to put on the website!

A busy afternoon with the camera

B had a really good nap this afternoon ( I think I wore him out playing and going to the supermarket this morning!) so I used the little bit of sun we had between the rain storms to catch up with some photos for my website.

I made this necklace yesterday. The beautiful egg-shaped bead is by Anna Pilgrim (Beads on Toast), and when she posted a picture of it on UKBeaders I knew I just had to have it! I wanted to keep it simple and not really add any more colour to it so I've had to wait for my new supply of leather cord to arrive. Part of me hopes that no one buys it and I get to keep it for myself, but only part of me - every now and then I have to remind myself that I'm not buying these beautiful lampwork beads for me to keep!

I made the necklace below last week but I didn't have the chance to photograph it until today. I've called it "Starry Starry Night" and it uses stunning beads by Laura Sparling, silver bead caps by Kutuu (Hannah Salomon), Swarovski crystal and, of course, chainmaille. I love doing chainmaille - it's time consuming but very relaxing!

Anyway, I'd better get back to uploading all the photos I've taken today to my website! I hope you're keeping warm and dry this rainy November evening!

A successful day!

I've just tidied everything away after the annual Southampton University Arts & Crafts Fair. My feet ache, but I'm smiling as it was a very successful day! It was good to catch up with fellow Wessex Guild of Craftsmen members, and good to see some people I send my newsletter to. I had quite few empty spaces on my stall by the end of the day despite getting more jewellery out as things were sold, so I've got the perfect excuse to spend plenty of time beading this week. I've also got a few commissions to do, not to mention the Christmas presents I want to make, so I'm going to be a busy girl.
The necklace and earrings below are made using chainmaille and beautiful rosy beads from Mindy . They were on my stall for the first time today and haven't even been put on my website yet, and they sold on their first outing! Don't worry though, I've got another set of Mindy's beads to play with, so watch this space!

Workshops & jump rings

I've had a busy week this week. A youth group workshop on Tuesday, my sterling silver pendant workshop on Wednesday and a workshop for Spice Art Gallery Thursday evening. I really enjoy teaching people to make their own jewellery - it's definitely more enjoyable than teaching at a school! I really enjoyed Wednesday's in particular as it was the first time that I had taught a full workshop on this technique, and I was really pleased with what the girls made. My friend Katie was one of the students, and has asked me to oxidise her pendant and earrings. I thought I'd take 'before' and 'after' photos to show you, so here is before:

The photo definitely doesn't do her work justice as the light was really bad today - I'll be so pleased when my light box arrives! I'll show you the change in the pendant once I've oxidised it!

Most of my beading time this week has been spent cutting jump rings and weaving chainmaille, partly for a commission and partly for up coming craft shows. I thought I'd show you some photos of the process - I start with a reel of sterling silver wire, coil it round mandrels, cut the coils using my lovely koil kutter, tumble the cut rings (the wire through the middle of each bundle is supposed to keep them together in the tumbler, but one of the wires broke and so T and I spent far too long last night picking tiny jump rings out from the steel shot in the tumbler!) and finally weave them together. The weave here is Byzantine. It whole process takes a while, but I enjoy it! Mind you, I didn't enjoy it quite so much before I had a koil kutter as sawing all the coils by hand hurt!

Well, I'd better go and get B's tea ready - he's got a cold, poor love, but I bet he's feeling warmer than T who is on a canoeing weekend - yes, I do know he's mad! My brother is due over later for a visit. He's staying until tomorrow afternoon, and I think he's really coming to play with B rather than to see me!

have a good weekend!

At last!

Well, here it is at last! I have been thinking about starting a blog for a while and playing about with the template for a few days, so I thought that it was about time that I posted something! I can't promise that I'll write anything wildly entertaining, but I plan to post pictures of the jewellery I've been making every couple of days. So, to start things off, here are a couple of things I've made today while T was looking after our little boy.

I made the frames for these pendants ages ago but couldn't decide which stones to use on them until today. The spiral uses various shades of faceted carnelian and the abstract pendant aquamarine and labradorite. I spent ages trying to photograph the blue flashes in the labradorite! They will eventually be on my website, but I wanted to get them finished today so I could use them as examples in my pendant workshop tomorrow evening.

And a dainty pair of labradorite earrings too...

That's it for now - hopefully I'll be back in a few days!