Look what the postie brought me today!

The other day, while playing on personalising the settings and transferring the files over to my new laptop, my fingers accidentally typed in the web address of Designer Cabochons. Then my eyes, ignoring my orders to them, spied a beautiful picture jasper cab.....and then another one......and then a goldstone cab...... and then conspired with my fingers to add them all to the shopping cart and pay for them. I know! The traitors :)

I know I should have resisted. I have a box full of beautiful stones just waiting for me to make them the perfect setting, some with the bezel collar already made, but I knew if I let these slip through my fingers I'd regret it as I usually only see cabochons on this website after someone else has bought them and the "sold" sign has gone up! And you have to agree they are beautiful - the photos definitely do not do them justice as they were just quick snaps taken on my workdesk, and the jaspers have such a high polish that it was difficult not to get the reflection of the windows and the camera in shot!

I was only going to get one jasper but I liked the shape of the lozenge one and the pattern on the oval. And the purple goldstone is such a gorgeous colour and an unusual shape - I've got quite a simple setting with an unusual handcrafted chain in mind for that one. Now I just need to find time to create it!

BTW

I've only been able to spend about an hour in the workshed over the last couple of days, partly due to the fact that the school Easter holidays thankfully have started. I say thankfully as Ben was getting really tired the last week or so of term. He's taken to school so well that I sometimes forget that he's only done two terms of full time school, and everyone gets tired towards the end of term - I know I always did! He was telling me that he didn't like school last week, but still running in the classroom door with a big smile on his face. He's not really old enough to understand that he wasn't as enthusiastic about school as normal because he was tired and needed a break, not because he didn't like school any more. Anyway, he's having a break now - he and T have gone to see T's dad in Spain for a couple of days. Jamie and I have stayed here as it takes up to 6 weeks to get a new passport for a baby and 6 weeks ago we were rather busy with other things! We dropped them off at Bournemouth airport yesterday, which was the main reason I didn't make it out into the shed yesterday. Monday's reason was a mammouth shopping trip - new summer clothes, school trousers and school shoes for a rapidly growing five year old.

Anyway, I finally made it out there (with Jamie in his red bouncy chair) for an hour this afternoon and started setting the stone in this pendant. He sits and bounces and giggles as I explain to him exactly what I'm doing and why - I've started his training already! I actually did the silver work before Christmas but haven't had the chance to finish it off until now. My first jobs were to file out a couple of stubborn pieces of solder inside the bezel and I still need to give the bezel a final checking over and burnish. Then it'll be time to take several dozen photos before choosing just three or four to put on the website! My lovely new laptop will make editing the photos sooo much quicker than my old dinosaur :)

The stone, by the way, is far more beautiful that the photo shows. I hope that the photos I take of the finished piece do it justice  - blues and purples are so much harder to capture accurately for some reason. It's just over 75cts of blue apatite, and has a hint more of soft turquoise than my monitor shows the photo. It's a substantial 48mm by 32mm, but it's not the most dense of stones and I've cut away as much of the silver behind the setting as I could without affecting the strength of the piece so while it'll be a beautifully big pendant it'll be surprising light for it's size. The only thing I can't decide at the moment is whether to leave it as a pendant on a nice medium weight bought chain or to handcraft a chain for it and turn it into a necklace rather than a pendant. What do you think?

Tutorial Tuesday - Pulling Stringer

I'm yet to have a go at making lampwork beads, mainly because I've used some of the best lampwork in the UK the world and I know I'd get very impatient with myself as my feeble efforts would be nothing like the beauties that Laura Sparling and Mindy MacGregor make! That doesn't mean, though, that I'm not fascinated by how the beads are made. I've mentioned Laura's tutorials and videos before now, and she posted a new one at the weekend. This one is on making stringer, the very fine threads of glass used to decorate the beads. Laura's stringer work is amazingly precise.



Laura has also posted the out-takes of the video on youtube. Go visit her blog at www.laurasparling.blogspot.com to see them - they're hilarious!!

A Perfect Picnic Weekend

We've just had a wonderful weekend - great friends and great weather, two picnics and a BBQ! Well, in this country you really have to make the most of the good weather as it never lasts long! Our visitors, Hellie, Jamie and baby Eliza are moving to New Zealand in a few weeks time, so this was the last time we're going to see them for a while. Hellie and I were at university together - same course, same hall of residence in the first year, same house in the final year and then we shared a house again a couple of years after graduation, and we graduated 15 years ago  - although in some ways it really doesn't seem that long ago. Hellie, I'm going to miss you so much, but I'm determind we'll get out there to see you some how!

BIke Racer Ben

T set up a rope slide between two trees at our local park yesterday!

My favourite photo of Jamie so far

Mummies and children!

The perfect April blue sky!

To-do list

My to-do list for yesterday read something like this:

• take Ben to school - check
• feed Jamie - check
• go to B&Q to get a couple of plumbing bits and pieces so T can finish putting the new sink in the bathroom - check
• feed Jamie - check
• washing, ironing, cleaning kitchen - check, check and check
• feed Jamie - check (you get the idea!)
• plant new hanging baskets - check
• work on latest magazine article - check
• catch up on emails - check
• go to PCworld to investigate new laptops because doing the last two items on the list on my five-year-old laptop was driving me crazy - ummmm.....check.....and I ended up buying a new one.....oops!

To be completely honest with myself it was pretty likely that I would end up buying one rather than just looking. In my defence I've been promising myself a new laptop for nearly a year as my old one if painfully slow - think over 10 minutes just for the laptop to load up properly plus another 10 minutes to get the internet loaded up, and editing photos on it is a nightmare.
 
Anyway, I love this one! For those of you interested in these things it's a HP Pavilion dv6 (I think I've got the right name!). For those of you who are more like me it's a dark metallic red, does everything I need it to, has a built in web cam so I can Skype my friend who's moving to New Zealand (what happened to moving to Reading Hellie?!?) and is lovely!

BTW

It has been the most beautiful day here - sunny and bright from start to finish! I love doing the school run on days like this. Everyone is so much more relaxed, mainly as there's no trying to encourage children to walk a bit faster through the cold and wet!

I'm always a lot more productive when the weather's nice. Jamie had a couple of good naps today, so I was able to get my jobs done round the house in record time and then head out into the workshop with the baby monitor. My main task today was to finish a couple of magazine projects, one short project and another with six pieces of jewellery in the set. The project including the necklace above includes two of my favourite things - hammering and making findings!

Tutorial Tuesday - Spiral Wire Clasp

I thought it was about time that I revived Tutorial Tuesdays! I don't think I've done one since well before Christmas - oops!

Photo copyright Cindy Wimmer

It was seeing Cindy Wimmer's Spiral Wire Clasp that started me off again. If you haven't visited Cindy's blog Sweet Bead Studio yet, go and do so now (and come back to me afterwards, pretty please!). Those of you who buy Beads and Beyond magazine will hopefully remember the beautiful necklace that she had on the front cover of the magazine last July. I always try to use handcrafted findings in my jewellery, especially if I can make them to match the rest of the piece I've made. Cindy's Spiral Wire Clasp is quick to make, strong and, of course, beautiful - and you can find the photos and instructions here.