A Collaboration

A new month, a new resolve to blog more often. I have to admit that last month was a harder one than I expected. I expected to come back completely refreshed after the Christmas break and bounce back into everything with lots of energy but I forgot a couple of things - firstly I was ill over Christmas so why on earth did I think that I was going to get refreshed?! And secondly - it was January! I didn't have the January blues, but with all the grey weather it was too easy to feel a bit flat after the boys' birthdays and Christmas. It was also an extra busy month in that I had a lot of private tuition students booked in - three last week plus a whole day teaching one of my college classes last Saturday plus my usual Tuesday and Wednesday night classes. Good for the bank balance, lots of fun while I was actually teaching but very little time to do my own jewellery making. I got everything done, met all deadlines, but I did have a lot of late nights in January!

Anyway, a new month - and a new collaboration! If you've been reading my blog for more than a month or so you must have picked up on just how much I love Mindy Macgregor's beautiful lampwork. The colours she uses frequently challenge me, which I need as I can easily get stuck in a colour rut, and the detail she puts in her beads is amazing. And thankfully Mindy likes what I make with her creations too! Before Christmas Mindy emailed to ask if I would be interested in a collaboration. She was keen to see some of her new, smaller cabochons set in silver to form a bracelet, and wondered if she sent me some, would I be interested in making a bracelet with them? Can you guess just how many seconds I thought about it before saying yes please?!

If you haven't guessed already, the beautiful lampwork in these photos are the cabochons that Mindy sent me last week. I can't decided which I love the most! I love the size of the set of smaller cabochons and I know that I will be buying as many of this size as I can from Mindy! They are perfect for bracelets and smaller pendants. The colours in the larger cab are just amazing, colours that I would not have considered putting together but work perfectly together. The smaller set will form part of a bracelet, and I have a pendant planned for the larger cabochon. I will post updates to show you how the designs are progressing!