Happy Dance!

I know I've been quiet here over the last week, but it has been for good reasons, promise! I've been really busy working on magazine articles (can't show you anything to do with those yet though, sorry!) and the ebook that I mentioned last week. That's been coming along really well (well, I think so anyway, and even T thought it was looking good!), and I'm hoping to be able to release it in a week or so. In the meantime though, here's a quick sneak preview of one of the projects that's in it....

But anyway, I want to tell you why I've been doing a happy dance, or rather happy dances, around the house over the last couple of days!

A while back I posted that I'd was one of ten designers nominated by the Beads and Beyond readers for the Readers' Designer of the Year. This afternoon July's issue of the magazine arrived ......and I won!! I am so amazed, and so chuffed!! Thank you so much those of you who voted for me! It means so much that people actually like the projects I write. As much as I love working in my shed, hammering away, it can be pretty isolating, so this really does mean a lot to me. Hopefully you can see from the (poor, taken with my iphone) photo that my lovely friend Rebecca Anderson came second out of the ten - personally I think her projects are more appealing to a wider set of readers as they don't need soldering kit etc to do!

And the second thing - yes, there's more! If you can remember back as far as last June I wrote that I'd submitted a project to a book for the first time and that it was accepted - and the book is now available to pre-order! 30-minute Bracelets is one of Lark's lovely books, and has over 60 projects by some fantastic designers such as Erin Prais-Hintz, whose blog I love to read. I haven't had my copy of the book through yet as it's probably still flying over the Atlantic, but I've seen the front cover on Amazon, and that's what started the happy dance, as you see the smoky quartz bracelet with the oak leaf clasp on the front cover? That's mine that is!!

Well, I think that's enough excitment for one day. I'm off to give Jamie his late night feed - that'll bring me back down to earth!

BTW and Lark Books!

I haven't actually got any pictures of finished jewellery to show you today. It's not that I haven't been making any, it's that the jewellery I've been putting the finishing touches to has to stay under wraps for a little while, so for now you'll have to make do with pictures of parcels waiting to go up to the post office!

The first parcel is for Becky at Beads and Beyond with a couple of magazine projects inside, one using a beautiful poppy heart focal bead by Mindy Macgregor and a pair of wirework earrings. I've got a sketchbook full of possible projects that I'm working my way through. I couldn't make anything while I was in hospital (they might have disapproved of me soldering on the ward) or for a while after I came home, but that didn't stop my brain from designing!

And the second...well, that's flying off to the States, to Lark Books!

I linked to Lark's blog yesterday for the Tutorial Tuesday and mentioned their 30-minute jewellery project books. What I can tell you now is that I've had a project accepted into the 30-minute Bracelets book due out next spring! I am so excited to be part of this book. I love Lark's jewellery books, and the thought that one of my projects is going to be one of the sixty in this new one when so many talented jewellery designers submitted their ideas is unbelievably exciting! It's my first project in a book rather than a magazine - and hopefully not the last!

P.S. The giveaway clasps were posted today too!

Tutorial Tuesday - 30 minute rings

A trio of tutorials today! I love Lark Books - their photography is beautiful, and the books are wonderfully presented. One of their series of jewellery project books is the 30 Minute series - so far there are books on rings, necklaces and earrings, and a bracelet book is also in the pipeline. Each book contains 60 projects, and Lark has just posted pdfs of not one but three of the ring projects here on their blog!

My favourite is Kenneth C. MacBain's project below.

I've started to make my own version, turning it into a pendant. I used 1" discs, the largest that my disc cutter can cut, and didn't want as many holes as the ring has. I'm going to oxidise the pendant and then remove the oxidisation from the outside, but that's going to have to wait until tomorrow. I think that it makes a lovely contrast, and as the inside of the pendant will get tarnished over time and will be difficult to clean I thought I may as well make the colour difference deliberate!