Octopus, Jellyfish and Wet Lakies!!

So yet again I am writing this and wondering were the time has gone!  The winter is trying to be over here in Devon and the sun is shining once again.  I still wonder at the capacity of us UK dewellers to suddenly become open and optimistic once the sun shows her face!!

I have been inspired by the longer days and the longer walks Milly and I are having on the beach and have been producing a few sea inspired beads.  I must also at this point credit a fellow bead maker Julie Fountain at Lush Beads for a certain amount of inspiration as she wrote a lovely tutorial in a Bead Magazine recently which hugely helped my barnicles!!  Coupled with her own beautiful seaside beads you can see her work at www.lushlampwork.co.uk.

So lets start at the beginning Jellyfish, having been completely wrapped with paperweights, marbles and beads with little worlds within I bought a tutorial on Jellyfish from Etsy and had a go……here are the results!

Then came the seaside beads and the Octopus.....

then the seascape beads.....

Then a little detour and a little Owl.......how the hell did he get in here?

And I just cannot get away from those big summer wheels.....

  Life goes on and I found some time to put together a necklace with my Clio Bumpy Beads......

In amongst all of this playing I manage to set up a shop on my facebook page which has proved very popular and have sold a few item through there....thank you!  I have added a few focal beads this one of them.....

So there we are May in a nutshell!  If you would like to see more please visit my facebook page at http://facebook.com/raspberryrings

As always all of my beads are available so if you see something you cannot live without do get in touch....and so the time has come for Milly who has spent most of this month in the sea!!

New Toys to Play with.....No time to Blog!!

So yet again time has escaped me!  So much happening in the real world that the beads seem to have slipped behind.  My father got married again last week....age 71!!  My sister is moving to LA!!  We  are moving house!!  So these three events coupled with abit of ash in the sky which threatened to keep most of the family from the wedding has meant a really busy and stressful April with a greatly reduced torch time.  

April was also the month of Flame Off! one of the events for British Lampworkers hosted by Tuffnell Glass  This was a fantastic opportunity to get my hands on some lovely glass and alot of new toys!!  With demonstrations from Lavender Creek Teresa Laliberte, Diane East and Sharon Peters the whole event was really inspiring and with three very different demos and lots of glassy chat I came away full of ideas and tips for my own work.

I have still been playing with Clio, Glow in the Dark Dust and big bumpy beads.  I love bright colours  and the combination of transparent glass with Clio Double Helix glass creates some great effects.  The three beads above are a selection using those effects.  The big wheels continue to sell well and I am experimenting with putting some flowers into them instead of bumps.  This is very much work in progress as so far I am having a frustrating time trying to make them perfectly round.......

My flowers have improved so much since I discovered a Japanese tool, the 3D Flower Rod this really simple tool creates real depth too flowers...here are a few beads using the same tool.....

Talking of making things perfectly round I purchased a Marble Marver at Flame Off!  No one warned me how addictive they can be so I have spent the last week or so chasing hot balls around my bench and floor and burning little tread marks in my carpet..

These are all made with soft glass but my plan is to buy some Boro and start experimenting with hard glass once we have moved house.........Now because I can't wait I thought I would try some off mandrel pendants anyway (in soft glass) and actually I was quite pleased with the results, like the marbles they have become a hugely addictive way of playing with glass LOL!   Here are a couple of experiments.  I am loving this off mandrel work and the freedom it  brings, I would just love to have a go at paperweights I am in awe of the work of Chris Buzzini

I would just love to have a class with him.......A girl can dream can't she!!

So there we are, a short overview of April!

Milly also had her first ever haircut in April, here are the before and after shots.....seeing them together makes me realise just how much she needed that!