All ready!

All the photos are edited, all the descriptions are written, and the new products are listed! Well, some of them anyway - there are more coming tomorrow. There's a mix of new made-to-order pieces and some limited editions. I'm particularly pleased with the ones below.....

Lovebird hook clasps, each with a different hammered pattern. The middle one is my favourite with it's dotty pattern! They've been curved to bring them to life more, and hooks and loops have been soldered underneath. These are in the Limited Edition section as I'll probably make more but they'll all be different.

I've been working on these made-to-order designs a while, and I'm so pleased with how they've turned out! These paisley designs come in three different embossed patterns, and with your choice of a drilled hole top and bottom or just one at the top. As you can see from the photos, the embossing gives the paisleys are lovely depth, giving a different pattern on each side. Although the embossing makes the shapes strong they can be bent either by hand or with nylon jaw pliers, like I've done for the pendant below, based on Heather Power's Berries and Leaves pendant on the ABS blog.

All of these and more can be found here - http://www.etsy.com/shop/daisychainextra

Spotted and Pinned!

My clasps and findings have been featured on both Art Bead Scene and Rebecca Anderson's Songbeads blog this week. Rebecca is one of the ABS blog team, and has written both a tutorial (using my poppy and daisy clasps, silk and macrame) and the Studio Saturday post over there this week - head over to the ABS blog and leave a comment on her Studio Saturday post to be in with a chance of winning a set of my poppy headpins and charms, and to get a code for my etsy shop that will get you 15% off until the end of May!

And the "pinned" part of the post title? I've set up a Pinterest board for designs made using my Daisychain Extra bits and pieces - you can find it here, and if you've got pictures of jewellery made using them please let me know where they are and I'll pin them. All the photos get linked back to your website/blog/etsy shop or wherever the pictures were pinned from, so it's an easy way of getting some more publicity.

There will be a shop update later on this evening - some new made-to-order designs that I've been working on for a while and some limited edition pieces too. I'll post here again when they're in the shop!

Beach Day

My poor boys are ill at the moment - Jamie started coming down with first of all a tummy bug at the end of last week, had a couple of days when he was tired but ok, and now has a horrible cough, and I had to go down to school to pick Ben up early yesterday as he's got the cough and a slight temperature. There's so much going round at the moment!

All this and being busy with orders and teaching (more of that later!) has meant that I've barely had time to turn the computer on, but all week I've been wanting to show you the photos I took on the beach on Sunday. Yes, the beach! In March!! The weather is so fantastic at the moment, more like June usually is, but not quite warm enough to go without a jumper on the breezy beach.

Ben and I met my parents at West Wittering beach on Sunday, leaving Jamie with T. It's not too far from where my parents live, and I really should take the boys there more often. Although Southampton is right on the coast, we don't have any decent beaches here as the docks take up most of the water front but there are beautiful beaches in both directions from us along the coast and we need to take advantage of them more! The Witterings are perfect for sand castle building, so that's what we did - and watch to see how well our castle defended itself against the incoming tide of course!

Tutorial Tuesday - covering crimp beads

I don't use many crimp beads in my jewellery but when I do I have to admit that I don't cover them up, I don't think about how they can be hidden. This is mainly because until now the only way I knew of covering them up was by using crimp bead covers, and I really don't like how they look! Lorelei Eurto has solved that problem for me though, with a great post on some imaginative ways of hiding those sometimes ugly squashed bits of metal. You can find her tutorial here.

Thank you!

Rebecca's the cover girl this month with her gorgeous romantic spring bracelet!

It's voting time over at Beads and Beyond again! The finalists to the Jewellery Maker of the Year have been shortlisted, and the readers have also nominated their favourite Beads and Beyond Designer - the lovely Rebecca Anderson and I have both been nominated, thank you so much it everyone who sent a nomination in! It's so lovely to know that people like the projects I send in. And congratulations to all those who have been shortlisted. There are some really beautiful pieces of jewellery and lampwork in the finalists again this year - I have my favourites, but I'm not going to tell you who as I don't want to influence you!

To see all the finalists and to vote for your favourites in each catagory, visit the Beads and Beyond voting page here - you have until 1st April! I know I'm probably slightly biased, but I really do think that B&B is the best on the UK market, and one of the best available in the States too as there is a really good mix of materials and techniques, and a far better ratio of projects to adverts than many craft magazines.

BTW

Sitting in my workshed, sun shining in through the windows, working on new pieces for my Etsy shop. 

Hope you're all having lovely days too!

Happy Mothering Sunday!

A little late in the day, I know, but Happy Mothering Sunday to mothers, grandmas and anyone else who mothers anyone! T and the boys gave me a lovely day today. A lie-in this morning then T took both boys to Ben's swimming lesson so I could have a leisurely and uninterrupted breakfast and shower (bliss!), followed by lunch out. After lunch while Jamie was napping and T and Ben raced round the Mario Kart tracks I went out the shed and just played, tried out a few ideas that I've been wanting to have a go at for months. One of them worked even better than I'd hoped for, so at one point I was dancing round the shed! I'll be able to show you the results of it in a couple of days. All in all, a lovely day!