So much scrap clay

What can a girl do with all this scrap clay? I made lentils from cane ends...

All my own work

I am really pleased with these and the fact that there was only a 3 day turnover from making the cane to the finished product. I'm impressed with myself.

I didn't have any sterling earwires so I made my own.

Happy happy.

A productive day

I've had such a lovely day today.
Fruits of my labour...








Now they need sanding, ho hum!

Puppy sitting

Daughter and nearly son in law are having a jolly in London town today, they've gone to see Oliver at the Drury Lane, well I say 'see' it, their tickets, they tell me, are so far back they had to go out of the theatre and round the corner into a different entrance and up '10' flights of stairs ( I think he was exaggerating a bit). Anyway their puppy Border Terrier 'Louie' is visiting us while they are away.
Boy! looking after a puppy is harder work than I remember the children were.
We've played ball in the garden, dug a few holes, been for a walk and said hello to every passer by even if they didn't want to, barked at the rabbits, ransacked the flower beds and just now fallen asleep. So I'm having a bit of a rest too. They aren't back for another couple of hours but I think he's enjoyed himself

On the clay front... I am experimenting with translucent canes on coloured backgrounds.
Pictures to follow .

Summer Holidays - I love 'em

I always have loved the summer holidays,especially when the children were little. I loved spending time in the garden with them, doing some baking, visits to the library, going to feed the ducks at the park. All good cheap fun. Now the kids have grown up and moved away and I miss them like mad but I enjoy the summer holidays for myself now. I work in a school so I can still have all that lovely time to myself.

I made these beads today. I am quite pleased with them.

more jewellery from others

Gaile Almrott of Bright 'n' Breezy designed these three gorgeous necklaces. The first uses a mica shift pendant with blue jasper.







This one has faux jade, ceramic rondelles and crystals

Gaile used a mix of Safari beads along with brass,bone beads and a horn pendant in this ethnic styled necklace. I love them all Gaile.

A scary time ahead and jewellery from others

I knew it had to come but it doesn't make it any less scary.
I am about to lose my job and try to find another one.
This is the nature of the work I do, I work in a school as a classroom assistant with a special needs child, he is leaving for 'big school' and so my contract ends.
I have spent the last week feeling alternately worried, scared, terrified and numb. This weekend I have been writing a personal statement and filling in application forms, a woman of 47 shouldn't have to do this sort of thing, it's the world of the young.
I shall know by the end of the month whether I am successful, I may have bitten my fingers down to the bone by then.


Some of my beads have been made into beautiful jewellery by a couple of very talented designers.
Kim Gover of Beadilicious Designs created this bracelet using some of the safari beads I made.

It's wonderful Kim.

Shiny, shiny pendants

I've been trying to get a super shiny effect on my mica shift pendants and I finally managed it.
I put a thin layer of liquid polymer clay on top of each one baked them and added another thin layer, baked again, I repeated this once more, finally two layers of 'Klear' polish and viola, perfection!
Now to get a picture which shows the shine as well as the pattern on them.

A free weekend at last...

I have nothing to do (well aside from a bit of housework) except make jewellery this weekend, my idea of bliss.
I might even make a few beads later too. Well the weather is rubbish and I wont be going out anywhere so might as well.
I finished drawing this at work yesterday and I'm quite pleased with it.

Spalding Flower Parade

Colette and I are going to be selling our jewellery this holiday weekend at Spalding flower parade, in the Exhibition Centre where all the other craft stalls are.
Colette will be demoing with her torch set up, so you'll be able to see how she makes her lampwork beads, It's her first time and she's nervous, she'll be great though, she knows her stuff.
Looking forward to it but not looking forward to losing the whole weekend. Hope the weather holds and we get some good sales.

The Black Hole in my house

Latest Doodle

I have lost a book and a CD and it's driving me mad.
My daughter bought the CD 'Mumford and Sons' for me for my birthday a couple of weeks ago, I lent it to a friend, she gave it back the next day at school, and now I can't find it.
I have searched the house from top to bottom and it's definitely not here, so it must be at school.
The book I've lost is a brand new one Maggie Maggio's colour theory book for polymer clay'
I hate losing things but lately it's getting more frequent.
I think I have a black hole somewhere in my house where all the lost items get sucked into, then it spits them out again when it thinks I've given up.
So I am ignoring the lost things *looks over shoulder to see if they've been spat out yet*, sigh.

In The Beginning

Well this is the beginning. A place to write about the things I do, the things I see and the things I love.
I make polymer clay beads, critters and mushrooms.
I make jewellery
My new obsession is Zentangles, (that's doodling with style to the uninitiated)
I also have a full time job, a Husband, three grown up children and a granddaughter, Oh and two rabbits.