Daisychain Designs

BTW

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 23:02:00 +0000

First on my list today was some organising - a few jobs that didn't actually take that long, that I've been meaning to do for ages and will save me time now that I've actually done them! The one that's going to save the most time was finally organising the index cards that I write out the "recipes" for the clasps and pieces of jewellery, such as my Golden Collection, that I make to order. Although each piece turns out slightly differently as, afterall, they are handcrafted, the recipes help to make sure that they are made in the same way. However, the cards have been just bunged into the box for the last couple of years so that I've had to search through them each time - such a silly waste of time! I don't know why I'd put off organising it for so long, as it only took me 30 minutes! Tidying up the table it's sitting on is a constant job though......

And the rest of the day was spent on etsy orders. Something else that I've been doing to be more efficient is getting a supply of customs labels from my local friendly post office so that I can fill them in at home while I'm wrapping up the parcels rather than hold the queue up and fill them in at the counter.

Tutorial Tuesday - adjustable silk necklaces

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:19:00 +0000

Janna got me started using silk ribbons in my work after gifting me some beautiful silk ribbons in the Bead Soup ingredients she sent me for the last party, so I was really pleased to see Jennifer Cameron's tutorial for her beautiful coils that turn the silk into an adjustable necklace - such a simple but brilliant idea! You can find the step-by-step photos here (and have a look at her beautiful lampwork while you're there!)

Giveaway Winner

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 21:52:00 +0000

Thank you so much to all of you who entered the voucher giveaway - I'm just sorry that there can only be one winner! Until the next time, anyway. It's been great to read through all the comments. I'm so relieved that I'm not the only one with a messay area under a desk or table full of things you keep meaning to put away! It seems as if we're all too busy creating to have time to tidy up - or at least, to keep things tidy when we're in full creative mode!

Anyway, the winner as chosen from the hat (well, bowl) by Ben before I took him to school is.......

Jean A. Wells

Sorry there's no picture of little pieces of paper today, but T took my camera to work for a project and left for work before Ben did the draw!

Congratulations Jean! Please contact me (email address is on the left!) so that I can sort out the voucher for you!

While you're waiting...

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:27:00 +0000

...for me to post the winner of the £20 voucher, there's another giveaway to tempt you here!

Lesley Watt from Thea Jewellery woke up to her 100th sale in her Esty shop this morning and is celebrating with a giveaway! She makes beautiful jewellery and makes a lot of her own components, and the giveaway is either a beady goody bag or something to tempt those of us who prefer to buy jewellery than to make it. You can find her blog here and her jewellery on Etsy here.

The Poppy Challengers!

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 22:07:00 +0000

Thank you so much to all of you who left such lovely comments on the poppy challenge. It's always so much more fun with more people playing along!

I wrote everyone's names on pretty lilac paper and Ben picked five out for me and they are................

Jennifer Cameron
Kristi
Seaflowerstudios
Molly Alexander
Fiona

Congratulations! I will be emailing you tomorrow to get your addresses.

Thank you again to the rest of you - I wish I could have sent you all something, but I will be doing more challenges, promise! By the way, there are still a couple of hours to enter my £20 voucher giveaway - leave a comment on this post to enter!

There's still a little time left....

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 23:16:00 +0000

Thank you for all the comments entering the challenge and giveaway lotteries! It's always more fun with more people! And it's lovely to see so many new people (or de-lurkers?!) too - I'm looking forward to visiting your blogs next week.
There's still just under an hour left to enter the lottery for the Poppy Challenge, and the giveaway comments can be left until midnight tomorrow (GMT that is).
Good luck!

Made with love

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 23:59:00 +0000

Every halfterm Ben's class has a different topic, and all of the subjects are then taught around that topic. In the past we've had Superheros and The Night, and this halfterm the topic is one that has really caught the imagination of the parents as well as the children - Old Toys! The children have been comparing new and old toys, what they're made from, how they work etc, and had to interview a grandparent about their childhood toys. That homework came home the weekend of Jamie's birthday, which was perfect timing as Ben had four grandparents to ask!

Mum and Dad had a search through their loft and found some of my old toys for Ben and I to take into school yesterday. My parents moved six times (I think!) in about 9 years due to Dad's job so they've had to have a few clear outs, but they found some things I have very fond memories, including some Sindy clothes that my Mum and my Grandma made for me. Mum made the knitted jumper and skirt below, and Grandma sewed the rest. Grandma served an apprenticeship at a fashion house before the war, and it really shows in all the beautiful details in the clothes. Just look at the shaping on the bodice of the pink dress, and the layers in the skirt!

There are clothes for Sindy to wear during the day, made from material that Grandma saved from a yellow dress Mum wore as a girl and a pair of Grandma's trousers, party dresses made from a nightie and Grandma's and material from the suit she wore to Mum and Dad's wedding 40 years ago. How wonderful is that? And of course, every Sindy has to have a wedding dress, complete with veil! I remember Grandma giving me dolls clothes for several Christmases, and although I do remember loving them and thank her for them it's only now that I really appreciate just how much love and work she and Mum put into making them. I know that I have them to thank for my love of crafts and for teaching me to crochet and knit and sew - even though my sewing skills are very limited!

I don't have daughters to make dolls' clothes for, but I do have a God-daughter, two nieces and friend's young daughters who I consider to be family, so as they grow older (they're mainly preschool age at the moment) I will be adding to their dolls wardrobes. I made a start at Christmas with some knitted clothes for our eldest niece's Baby Annabell, and she loved them! She's already put her requests in for her birthday present!

This is the least blurry picture I managed to take of Katie at Christmas!

Special Giveaway

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 23:46:00 +0000

It's been a strange kind of day. I spent the first part of the morning finishing off my 2010/11 accounts and taxes - there's nothing like a deadline with a £100 penality for missing it to concentrate the mind! I then had an hour or so before I was due down at Ben's school to talk to his class - more of that tomorrow - and I had planned to spend that working on a commission but then the electricity went off. Today is the second time in just over a week that we've had a power cut. The first one started while I was picking Ben up from school and lasted until gone 10pm, and the whole of our area of Southampton was out, not sure why. Thankfully our stove runs on gas so I was still able to cook the boys their tea by candle light, and Ben thought it was brilliant! Today's power cut was caused by workmen cutting through a cable. It didn't last for long, but it was long enough to stop me working before visiting the school. So, what's a girl to do in her workshed when she can't make jewellery? Why, rearrange and tidy up the shed of course, completely ignoring the fact that it's raining and she can't put things outside out of the way! I've been meaning to take a book shelf we don't need anymore out of the dining room and use it to house my ever-growing book collection. The original, smaller bookshelf has been turned on it's side and put under the table my photostudio set up is on to try and organise my "I'll just put it there for a little while" area properly. Everyone has one of those, don't they, a place where everything that you haven't quite organised a home for yet is put, just for a little while until you get round to it? Please tell me that it's not just me! I gave the rest of the shed a bit of a tidy too, and came back from school feeling organised and raring to go!

From chaos to some kind of organisation. Any bets on how long it will stay this tidy?!

Anyway, I promised a giveaway earlier in the week and meant to include it in my 500th post yesterday, but it's probably a good job I forgot as trying to run a challenge and a giveaway in one post would have only got me confused! I've been thinking about what to give away - jewellery or clasps? And if jewellery, earrings or pendant? Too many choices! In the end, I thought I'd let you decide, and so I'm giving away a voucher, and the winner can decide whether they would like to spend it on my Daisychain Jewellery website or in my Daisychain Extra shop.

So, does anyone fancy a chance to win a £20 voucher?

To enter, all you need to do is leave a comment on this post before the end of this Sunday, 22nd January. Tell me what you'd like to organise better in your work area, whether it's a separate room, a corner of the dining room table (that's where I started!) or a set of storage boxes piled up in the corner. What would you have in your ideal work space? To get a second chance at winning blog, facebook or tweet about my giveaway and leave me another comment telling me that you've done that. I'll post the winner next Monday!

I'm looking forward to hearing about your ideal workareas, and remember, you've only got until midnight GMT on Sunday! Good luck!

My 500th post and a challenge!

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 23:10:00 +0000

Who would have thought it? I've waffled enough over the last few years to have written 500 posts! As promised I have finally uploaded some the new designs I've been working on over the last week, mainly daisies with a few baby poppies thrown in the mix for good measure.

There are toggle clasps, hook clasps (and connectors are on their way) in two different sizes and with a different texture than the ones I listed before Christmas. I love this texture - it's made with my favourite hammer (yes, for those of you who are relatively new or who haven't come to one of my classes, I have a favourite hammer!), and I don't know why it I didn't think of using it on the daisy clasps before now!

The poppies I listed today, and a week or so ago, are lovely little baby ones. There are poppy headpins and dainty poppy charms, and the challenge I promised you earlier today is on the poppy headpins. There are 5 pairs of poppy headpins, a mix of silver, oxidised silver and oxidised copper, available to 5 people willing to turn them into lovely jewellery. I'm running the challenge a little bit differently than the Oak Leaves Challenge - this time I'm going to take a leaf out of Lori's book and run a lottery - although I expect that it'll be a lot smaller than the Bead Soup lottery!

To enter the lottery, leave a comment on this post before the end of Saturday 21st and on Sunday I will pick 5 names out of the hat. If your name is picked out:

grab the poppies button on the left to put on your blog with a link back to this post
make something beautiful with it and post pictures of what you have made on your blog on the last day of February, Wednesday 29th February.

You will also need to tell us a bit about your design process, what other ingredients you used etc, and link to the other people taking part. I'll be taking part in the challenge too. You don't have to make jewellery - if you think of some other creative way of using your poppies, go for it! As before, the challenge is open to those of you who are overseas as well.

Woohoo!

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 15:20:00 +0000

I had convinced myself that there was no way I was going to win, afterall, so many people had entered, but I did!! I've won the lottery! Ok, not the Lotto or the Euromillions (not surprising really seeing as I've never bought a lottery ticket!), but I'm one of the lucky 200 who have won the lottery to take part in the 5th Bead Soup Party.

My partner this time round is Michi, Michaela Pabeschitz, who lives in Austria not far from Vienna, a city I've always wanted to visit. She makes really gorgeous lampwork beads, and I just hope that I can do whatever she sends me justice. I've got a few ideas of what to send her, but I'll probably change my mind a few times before I actually post her parcel.

The full list of participants in this party can be found on Lori's blog here. We've got to send our parcels out by the end of the month, and the blog hop is on 3rd March. I'll blog some more about the party and some teaser photos before then!

I've been a bit quiet on the blog over the last week as I've been beavering away on some new designs, some for my daisychain extra shop on etsy and some for my Golden Collection as this is the set of jewellery that galleries seem to like and I put on NOTHS as well. It's taken me ages to take and edit the photos and write the descriptions, oh and price everything, but I'm just about there! I had planned to list at least some of the new clasps on etsy over the weekend, but we were doing too much DIY, so I'm going to start listing them tonight. I'm also going to run another challenge using one of the new designs. It'll be run slightly differently than the Oak Leaves challenge I ran last autumn, and because my next post will be my 500th (!!) there will be a special giveaway too - so come back again tonight!

A strange kind of day

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 23:56:00 +0000

Well, a strange kind of week really. My mind has been playing the "this time last year" game - you know the one, your mind keeps thinking back to what you were doing at precisely that time a year ago despite you trying to keep occupied with something else. Last Thursday night and Friday I was holding Jamie and thinking back to how wonderful his birth was. As this week has gone on, however, I've been dwelling on different things - this time last year I still thought I just had bad mouth ulcers, this time last year we were sitting in the waiting room waiting to see the consultant, this time last year I was told I had cancer. I'd been feeling a bit gloomy over the last few days, and to be honest I hadn't been looking forward to today. I know I should have been focusing on the fact that the operation and treatment was successful, that I no longer have cancer, that I am very, very lucky, and I do know how lucky I am.

In the end, though, today has been good as it started with Ben's class assembly. His school is wonderful at celebrating the success and progress of the children, and at involving the parents, and the teachers and children work so hard on the assemblies. Ben gets so excited about taking part, and I always come out of the assemblies smiling - so, the perfect start to today.

My main jobs today have been to complete a gallery order (lots of keum boo) and to make some more designs for my etsy shop. I listed some more poppy designs in the shop at the start of the week - smaller clasps and some sweet baby poppy charms - and today I've been mainly working on daisies and hearts. I'll leave you tonight with a quick look at some of the new designs. They'll be uploaded tomorrow and over the weekend - and there's a new challenge coming tomorrow too!

Oak leaves and owls from the Bahamas

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 22:43:00 +0000

Well, one oak leaf and one owl anyway - and a cute birdie too! One of the oak leaves that I sent out for the Oak Leaf challenge in November took nearly two months to arrive safely in the Bahamas. I was just about to give up on it and send another when Kim emailed before Christmas to say that it was finally there. Now that the holidays are over she's had the time to make it into a piece of jewellery, and she's used it with a cute lampwork owl that she made herself. I love it! You can see more pictures of Kim's necklace here.

In case you didn't get a chance to visit the other blogs taking part in the challenge you can find them here:

Melissa Meman of Art, Life, Love

Niki Sayers of SilverNikNaks

Amber Boorman of Larksong Studio

Rebecca Anderson of Songbeads

And you can see what I made here!

I've got another challenge planned - and I'll be posting more details on Friday!

5th Bead Soup Blog Party!

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 12:32:00 +0000

One non-birthday and family thing that I did manage to do over the weekend was to enter the lottery for Lori Anderson's 5th Bead Soup Party. She's running it as a lottery with no more than 200 participants this time round to keep it all manageable, and if you'd like a chance to take part follow this link before the end of today - I can guarantee that you'll have lots of fun!

My Birthday Boys

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 12:24:00 +0000

My little boys are growing up. I know that's only to be expected, but it is still a bit of a shock to the system to realise that my baby is now one year old and my big boy is six! The problem is, you see, that I'm certain that I'm still 27, and T says he's sure that he's 31. Never mind!

It was Jamie's first birthday on Friday, although in many ways late Thursday night and early Friday morning when I went in to his room to feed him were more special to me as I kept thinking about that time last year. I had a very quick labour with him - contractions started about 11pm and sped up dramatically, we got to the hospital about 1am after phoning a friend to come and look after Ben as we realised that there was no way that my Mum could get over here in time. I was holding Jamie in my arms by 1.40am, and then we were able to get home before Ben woke up for school! Jamie and I had quite a quiet day on Friday as it was a school day, so Saturday felt more birthday-like with family over for a party. Both boys had a great time with both sets of grandparents and my brother over to make a fuss of them! Jamie, of course, didn't realise what was going on, while Ben had been excited all week. They are so wonderful together - Jamie adores his big brother and definitely saves his biggest smiles and laughs for him, and Ben is so patient and loving with him. How long that will last is anyone's guess, but I'm making the most of it!

We're definitely going to have a quieter weekend next weekend. The last four weekends we've either had visitors or been visiting family for Christmas, and we had T's Dad here between the Christmas and New Year weekends too. That's what happens when you have two children born so close to Christmas! Lots of fun, but I'm definitely more relaxed now it's over!

BTW

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 22:23:00 +0000

I've been busy today - lots of shiny silver just out of the tumbler! This is a mix of etsy orders, bits and pieces for new designs and some new designs for my etsy shop.

Thank you for all the orders of clasps during my sale - it's on until the end of Friday, and I've got new designs to list tomorrow.

Happy New Year!

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 22:24:00 +0000

I know, not the most imaginative of titles for a post at this time of year is it? The sentiment is true though, I wish each and everyone of you a very happy and healthy New Year. Did you stay up to see the New Year in? If any of you have read far enough back in my blog to reach this time three years ago, to this post, you'll know that I tend to find New Year's Eve a bit of an anti climax and my favourite way to spend the evening is to invite some friends over, cook them some good food, open a few bottles of wine and have a great evening of chat and silly games. This year my friend Kate and her family came to visit us from Suffolk and our friends from across the road came over too. The children were great - Jamie and Kate's Emma settled down really well and the three older boys were settled down with a Scooby Doo video and snacks for a sleepover.

No resolutions this year (there's no point, I always get stressed about them and then break them!) but lots of aims. The main aim for the house/family is to finish the work on the sitting room. We've painted, got new sofas, bought a new rug, and the room loks completely different and much bigger, but the new shelving needs finishing before I show you what we've done. I've got lots of aims for the business, but the three I'm going to concentrate on for now are getting the ideas I've got sketched out into my etsy shop, getting my jewellery into three more galleries by the end of this year and spending more time working on one-off pieces of jewellery. This last one is partly because I absolutely love making one-off pieces, and also because I have so many lovely stones and lampwork beads that I really must use!

The ones I've bought most recently are below. The lampwork is, of course, from Mindy Macgregor. I had thought that her poppy beads were my favourites of all time, that she would be hard pressed to improve on those, but these beauties are just amazing! The colours are absolutely gorgeous, so jewel like. I can't quite decide which out of the three beads I've shown closeups of are my favourite of the set. These are big beads too - nearly 2.5cm in diameter. They're destined for long necklaces, hopefully before the end of the week.

And these are the stones I bought from my friend Brenda when I saw her just before Christmas. I had promised myself that I wouldn't buy anymore, but I couldn't resist! Afterall, they are unique - once they're gone, they're gone! the labradorite pear is my favourite - the electric blue flashes are some of the best I've seen, and I'm so pleased I could get them in the photo. I haven't decided what I'm going to make with these stones yet, but I do know that I'm going to set the emerald-cut green onyx upside down. The faceting on the back is too good to hide and I just like the idea of setting it in a different way than might be expected.


deep purply blue iolite, an amazingly flashy labradorite, rose-cut black onyx and emerald-cut green onyx

Well, those should keep me busy for a while! What are your hopes and plans for the New Year?

Thank you

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 21:34:00 +0000

Thank you to all of you for your support, your love and your encouragement this year. It truly has been a year of ups and downs. Jamie's birth at the beginning of the year was obviously the biggest blessing, and he and Ben have continued to be an absolute joy. Finding out that I had cancer 6 days after giving birth was not, however, part of the plan for this year, or for any year for that matter! The surgeons and all the hospital staff who continue to care for me and who got all of the tumour out (hurray!) are amazing, but I know that the only way that the family came through it all was with the support of our friends - and I include you in that. Thank you for your comments, for the emails and letters that I was sent while I was ill, and the prayers.Thank you for continuing to read my rambling posts!

Thank you too to everyone who has bought my jewellery on my main website or my clasps in my new etsy shop (64 sales in my daisychain extra shop in 7 months! So much more than I hoped for!), everyone who has come to a class or for tuition, or has tried one my magazine projects or downloaded one of my tutorials.

I have more plans for 2012, but in the meantime there is

a thank you sale

in both the daisychain extra etsy shop and on my jewellery website -

10% off all clasps and findings and 15% off all jewellery.

The jewellery website already has the discount applied, but to get the discount on etsy

you will need to enter the code "XMASEXTRA"

Merry Christmas!

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 20:17:00 +0000

Merry Christmas everyone!

I haven't been hiding away in the workshop making jewellery orders all this time - I was allowed out for good behaviour every now and then. Well, seriously, I have been busy with lots of lovely orders (quite a few last minute ones!), but there have also been lots of family things going on too. And to be honest, I've also found it quite hard the last couple of months. The last operation I had at the beginning of November brought back a lot of bad memories that I didn't even realise I had from my big op and stay in hospital in February, and I've been hiding away a bit. But enough of that for now - this is some of the more fun stuff we've been up to!

Ben is now 6! I know every mother says it, but where on earth has the time gone?!? He had a fab birthday weekend. His birthday was last Saturday and the school PTA had organised a trip to Peter Pan so we had a family visit to that, along with the families of his best friends. He had a swimming party on the Sunday. I'm not sure who had the better time there - Ben and his friends or T and the other dads who went into the pool and on the inflatables with them!
Jamie is now crawling - and boy can he crawl! He had been bum-shuffling for a while and the week before last he just decided he could do it - and that he wanted the toy that was just out of reach badly enough. He is so pleased with himself.
Ben was a wise man in the school play. He was so confident and thoroughly enjoyed himself, which I'm sure has alot to do with how encouraging his school and teachers are. Jamie got so excited when he saw his brother!

Add to that three more birthday parties, two sleep overs and a trip to the inlaws, and you can see why we've been busy! At least everything is ready now, Father Christmas's progress has been checked on the NORAD satellites, milk and cookies has been left out for him, raindeer food (oats and glitter!) has been sprinkled on the lawn, and both boys are finally asleep. I expect to be woken up very early tomorrow morning, for Ben to get over excited and for Jamie to think that the boxes and wrapping paper are the best things ever. I hope that you and your families have a wonderful day.

Counting down....

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 10:00:00 +0000

Just a quick note before I hide myself away in the workshed to get some more orders finished! Thank you for all the lovely comments about the challenge pieces I made last week. I've had lots of fun looking round all the other blogs taking part. It was great to see what everyone else made with my oak leaf clasps, and I've seen so many lovely designs on the Challenge of Color blog hop. The palettes that Erin sent us were gorgeous, and the good news is that she's got more challenges planned for the new year. I've got another couple of challenges up my sleeve too!

Before then, though, I've got to finish getting organised for Christmas and Ben's birthday. November is always so busy with Christmas commissions and orders, family events and Christmas craft shows that the start of December always seems to surprise me slightly - and then starts to panic me slightly as from now on until the end of the year it's a bit of a mad rush! Ben and so many of his friends have December birthdays, so this month we have as many birthday parties to take him to as he gets invited to in the whole of the rest of the year put together. The general theme for this year's parties seems to be sporty. One of his best friends had a party at St Mary's, Southampton FC's stadium, last Saturday. T went along with him as I was sure he'd appreciate the venue far more than I would! His other best friend is having a swimming party next weekend, and Ben is having a swimming birthday party the following Sunday, and then there are mid-week teas and a couple of sleepovers in between as well.

Right then, off to the workshed! I put the heater and the pickle pot on before I came on the computer so hopefully everything to ready to go! I've got photos to edit this afternoon as well, so I'll be adding more pieces of jewellery to the website this evening. There's still time to put in Christmas orders. The last date for UK orders for pieces that are ready for immediate dispatch is Monday 19th December, and for made to order pieces the last date is Friday 16th.

Challenge of Color blog hop

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 13:00:00 +0000

And here is my third challenge of the week! Erin of Tesori Trovati set the challenge of making a piece of jewellery with a palette of colours as the inspiration. The palettes she sent out after we all chose a colour family to work with are themselves absolutely beautifully put together and come from Jessica Colaluca's Design Seeds Blog. Jessica's blog is packed full of colour inspiration, and since the challenge started I've spent several happy hours on there. Her palettes and this challenge have definitely given me more confidence with working with colour mixes, and even the new colour scheme in our lounge diner have been inspired by one of the palettes - more on that next month!

I chose red as my colour family, and this is the palette that Erin assigned me - such gorgeous rich colours!

You can find the original palette here

With that rich raspberry red I just had to choose garnets for my design and continuing in my current liking for long dangly earrings this is what I came up with:

Decadent Earrings available here

All the metal components are made by me. The swirls connectors have been sitting in a pot on my desk for over a year, the result of a session teaching my friend Katie how to use silver art clay, and I'm really pleased to have used them finally! I made the settings for the rose cut (ie flat on the back but faceted on the front) oval garnets, and added light amethyst beads to represent the light grey/purple on the palette. Long elegant earwires complete the look!

The other Challenge of Color participants are listed below - I've had a quick look at a few of the blogs and the designs I've seen so far are really beautiful. Erin decided to give herself an extra challenge by picking a palette from each colour family and making a piece of jewellery for each - and they are each of them absolutely gorgeous! You can find her challenge pieces here.

1 Norma Turvey ~ Teal ~ Color Crave

2 Jeannie Dukic ~ Green ~ Mineral Tones

3 Mary McGraw ~ Teal ~ Embellished Hues

4 Jo Tinley ~ Red ~ Decadent Tones

5 Rebecca Anderson ~ Pink ~ Tulip Tones

6 Kristi Jaro ~ Red ~ Temple Entrance

7 Stephani Gorman ~ Green ~ Dew Tones

8 Melissa Meman ~ Green ~ Fruit Star

9 Kathleen Lange Klik ~ Teal ~ Silk Hues

10 Cynthia Riggs ~ Red ~ Autumn Comfort

11 Heidi Post ~ Teal ~ Flora Bright

12 Cece Cormier ~ Teal ~ Merino Teal

13 Amy Freeland ~ Gray ~ Cultured Tones

14 Alice Peterson ~ Blue ~ Island Play

15 Rose Noble ~ Gray ~ Autumn Stacked

16 Kristina Johansson ~ Yellow ~ Sunny Flower

17 Kirsi Luostarinen ~ Teal ~ Dragon Hues

18 Tari Kahrs ~ Orange ~ Citrus Tones

19 Mallory Hoffman ~ Purple ~ Petaled Dark

20 Molly Alexander ~ Brown ~ Peppered Tones

21 Regina Santerre ~ Red ~ Frosted Berry

22 Emanda Johnson ~ Teal ~ Color Purl

23 Amy Severino ~ Orange ~ Winged Tones

24 Bobbie Rafferty ~ Teal ~ Lime Hues

25 Tanya Goodwin ~ Gray ~ Pecked Tones

26 Lisa Lodge ~ Blue ~ Nocturnal Tones

27 Hope Smitherman ~ Blue ~ Bloom Tones

28 Linda Landig ~ Green ~ Cacti Dark

29 Ambra Gostoli ~ Teal ~ Perched Autumn

30 Lori Bowring-Michaud ~ Blue ~ Sharpened Blue

31 Pippa Chandler ~ Teal ~ Hungarian Hues

32 Keirsten Giles ~ Purple ~ Mineral Brights

33 Jennifer Justman ~ Blue ~ Autumn Rays

34 Sandy Richardson ~ Purple ~ Moroccan Brights

35 CJ Bauschka ~ Teal ~ Teal Air

36 Shaiha Williams ~ Teal ~ Sushi Hues

37 Kay Thomerson ~ Purple ~ Autumn Spectrum

38 Sally Russick ~ Purple ~ Golden Gate Tones

39 Cilla Watkins ~ Purple ~ Autumn Infused

40 Shirley Moore ~ Purple ~ Frozen Heather

41 Jenni Connolly ~ Gray ~ Paw Tones

42 Tamara Soper ~ Green ~ Field Tones

43 Sharyl McMillian-Nelson ~ Blue ~ Nested Blues

44 Jen Velasquez ~ Pink ~ Sweetened Tints

45 Maria Grimes ~ Red ~ Bright Bloom

46 Elisabeth Auld ~ Gray ~ Petaled Tints

47 Susan Kennedy ~ Pink ~ Zinnia Tones

48 Shannon Chomanczuk ~ Gray ~ Autumn Leaf

49 Holly Westfall ~ Yellow ~ Sprinkled Tones

50 Patty Gasparino ~ Red ~ Color Carton

51 Angela Little ~ Pink ~ Singapore Brights

52 Lizzie Zawinski ~ Green ~ Budding Hues

53 Kristen Stevens ~ Pink ~ Scooped Tones

54 Dawn Doucette ~ Brown ~ Jarred Tones

Oak Leaves revealed!

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 10:00:00 +0000

30th November seemed quite a way away when I set this challenge, but it's actually come round very quickly! At the beginning of the month I offered one of my oxidised copper oak leaf hook clasps to the first 5 people who accepted the challenge of making something with it and posting the results on their blog today. The five willing volunteers were

Melissa Meman Art, Life, Love

Niky Sayers SilverNikNats

Amber Boorman Larksong Studio

Kimberley Roberts Bahama Dawn

Rebecca Anderson Songbeads

We've all got very different styles of jewellery design, so I've been really looking forward to seeing what everyone came up with! And a little nervous too, to be honest, as this is the first time that I've set up a blog hop myself! The biggest challenge for me has been working with copper as, as I'm sure you've figured out by now, I'm a silver girl by nature. I kept trying out the clasp with different beads, but it wasn't until last night that it all came together! I did worry for a bit that I wasn't going to meet my own deadline as Jamie and I have both had a 24 hour tummy bug, but here it is, a combination of clasp and jump rings by me, lampwork by Mindy Macgregor (of course!), silk by Marsha Neal, Swarovski crystals and copper beads. I would have preferred to have used a blue silk, but I've run out so I may swap to that when my new silks arrive! I did consider adding more blue or purple beads to the mix as I love the combination of browns and blues/purples at the moment, but in the end I decided to keep to an autumnal theme to match the oak leaf.

I'm off to see what the others have made - join me?

Tutorial Tuesday - Leaf Green earrings

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 14:23:00 +0000

Thank you so much for the lovely comments about the earrings I made with Sue's gorgeous glass headpins! As promised, here is a tutorial for them. Once I'd planned out what I wanted to do they were actually very quick and easy to make, but to make them even quicker you might want to substitute the silver rings and the ear wires that I made for bought ones. I turned my silver rings into ovals using an oval triblet but if you don't have one the design would work equally well with smaller round rings instead.

You will need:

two glass bead headpins from Suebeads
two silver rings - mine were made from 1.2mm wire and had an inside diameter of 13mm
two 7cm lengths of 0.8mm wire
mandrels - I used the body of my 24mm wooden doming punch and an 8mm mandrel
round nosed pliers
nylon jaw pliers
wire cutters
hammers and bench block
nylon hammer
oval triblet
needle file
sanding pad

1. Wrap the headpin around a large mandrel as show.
2. Twist the end of the headpin around the wire just above the glass to form a wrapped loop.
3. Use your fingers to pull the circle of wire into an oval.
4. Make sure that the glass is facing the right way - see, easy so far isn't it?

5. Holding the glass safely off the edge of the bench block hammer the steel oval to texture and strenghten it. Hammering the steel would have damaged the hammers that I use, so I used the one I keep for hammering the disc cutter and doming punches.
6. Use a nylon hammer to shape the silver ring into an oval around a oval triblet - I made these ages ago and they've been sitting on my desk for months!
7. Check the fit of your silver oval. Push it thinner with your fingers if need be and hammer it.

8. Start the earwire with a small eyeloop.
9. Bend the wire next to the loop around a small mandrel.
10. Hammer the front of the earwire to strengthen it and to give it a more finished look.
11. Use flat nosed or nylon jaw pilers to flick out the last 5mm or so of the earwire and file the end smooth. Make a second earwire, loop on the ovals and there you are!

Leaf Green earrings available on the website here

Challenge Time!

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 10:02:00 +0000

I'm currently taking part in three challenges, and they are all due this week so be prepared to see quite a few new designs! As well as the Color Challenge organised by Erin Prais-Hintz and my Oak Leaf Challenge (both due on Wednesday!) I've was lucky enough to be picked as one of four people taking part in Sue's glass headpin challenge - and today is the day we reveal our designs!

These are the headpins that Sue sent me - a beautiful shade of leaf green embossed with a flower pattern on steel pins. I've often admired glass headpins but I've never worked with any before, and I was determined that I was not going to go the more obvious route and make a pair of earrings with them. However, a friend was with me when I opened Sue's parcel and immediately said what a great pair of earrings they would make - so that was that!

And this is the pair that I made. I used the lovely long steel pins to create long oval shapes that I then hammered both to strengthen the shape and to give it a more finished look. I then added silver ovals inside the steel and hung the earrings from long silver earwires. I was going to oxidise the earrings but decided that the brightness of the silver was a lovely contrast to the steel and gave them a brushed finish instead. You can find them on the website here!

I took photos as I made the earrings, so do come back tomorrow for a tutorial on how to make them! And meanwhile please do go and have a look at what everyone else made:

Sue - SueBeads
Kay Thomerson - KayzKreationz
Kristi Bowman - Kristi Bowman Designs
Courtney Breul - Beads by Breul
Krisi Jaro - Curiosities by K

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 20:56:00 +0000

Well, actually today I feel mainly tired and will be off for an early night very soon, but yesterday with Christmas music playing in Winchester Guildhall and lots of fairy lights twinkling on stalls (must get some new ones for my stall next year!) and between 5.5 and 6 thousand people through the door (so many the clicker counter couldn't keep up!) it definitely felt a lot like Christmas in Winchester!

We had an amazing day, and the atmosphere was wonderful right from setting up to packing away. Handmade Winchester has always been my favourite of all the craft shows I've ever done, partly because I get to meet up with friends I only usually get to see in real life at the show, partly because absolutely everything for sale is handcrafted by the people behind the stalls, and partly because the atmosphere is so wonderful. Everyone is so cheerful and smiling and so delighted to be there taking part again, or so delighted because although it's their first time everyone is welcoming!

Thank you for the comments on Friday's post. I didn't sell the necklace (I'm not too upset about that as I am still rather tempted to keep it myself - afterall, I have to wear my jewellery to advertise it, don't I?) but did sell two of the bracelets, and in total I sold nearly 30 pieces of jewellery with prices ranging from £10 to £80, the best I've ever done. My stud earrings sold very well. I put the tags I showed you a few months ago pegged onto cord running across a painted canvas this time, which showed them off very well. It made it easy for people to compare the different styles.

I also had simple brown paper bags to put the jewellery boxes and bags in this time, something I've been meaning to do for ages, but I've got a few things I want to do before or at the next show I do:

get a sign/banner made similar to the one my gorgeous friend Helen had made - a great way of showing people that she made everything that she had on her stall. Helen and I always have a stall next to each other now, but we didn't have much of a chance to chat yesterday as we were so busy!
get a stamp made with my logo on it to stamp the brown paper bags.
put a leaflet about my classes and private tuition in the brown paper bags ready to go. I got bags ready with two business cards in (one to keep, one to give to a friend), I don't know why I didn't put the leaflets in there too!

Ready for Winchester!

noreply@blogger.com (Jo) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 23:41:00 +0000

Well, I'm all packed, everything's priced and labelled, my new business cards have arrived, I've even packed my lunch for tomorrow - yes, it's not yet midnight and I'm ready for the Handmade Winchester show! I am really looking forward to tomorrow. Handmade Winchester is my favourite of the shows I do (not that I've done many this year with a new addition to the family!). It's got such a wonderful atmosphere and, of course, all of the crafts on display are wonderful. It's the only show I do where you can guarantee that everything you see for sale will have been beautifully made by people in the room, that you can talk to the designers and makers about how they work, where the inspiration for the piece you're interested in came from. And this time it's going to be even better as my Mum is coming along for part of the day - which means that I get a rare chance to wander round myself and do some Christmas shopping!

I promised you photos of some of the pieces I've been working on this week....

These bracelets are a design I've been wanting to make for ages. I really like lampwork bead bracelets but I don't like wearing them while I'm working or typing. These bracelets are great as they're really comfy, they don't twist round as you wear them so the lampwork you want to show off stays on top, but there's no lampwork under your wrist to catch on anything.

However, they're not the easiest of designs to photograph, so I decided to take an "in-action" shot so you get a better idea of how they look - and that turned out to be not so easy as well! After several dozen takes the best I got was a shot of me taking a ball of yarn out of my new Raspberry bag - and Alice (Raspberry) is going to be at the show too - of course, afterall, she organises it!

The next design nearly didn't make it to the show. I am so pleased with how it turned out. It's one of those rare situations where I planned how I'd like to set the lampwork cabochon before it arrived and the design has barely changed as I've made it. Am I allowed to say that I absolutely love this necklace? Is that too much showing off considering I made it? What the heck, it's my blog I can say what I like! I LOVE this necklace, and if it sells tomorrow there definitely a part of me that will be very sad!

T is calling me, reminding me how late it is and how early I've got to get up, so I will leave you with this reminder the show details. Have a great weekend, and Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends!