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!

Flower Wheels and Pirates!

So another couple of weeks pass, and for the first time since plunging into lampworking head first I had a couple of days of complete disasters, no inspiration, bead release busting at the crucial moment and generally got very depressed and was doubting that any creativity would return.  I then decided to go back to basics and in doing so discovered flowers!!  Not encased flowers, far to stressful on my dear old hothead but raised flowers.  I love doing raised bumps and these are a variation on a theme.  I have produced a crop of them some huge flower wheels which look lovely on a silver chain or just on a leather thong.  Then some 5mm beads, larger than the traditional Pandora style bead and some 3mm.  I am planning to sit down and make some jewellery with them which I will post in due course.  I will also be posting them on my website but for the moment they all available in my shop, Bazaar, Barnstaple, North Devon.

Here is a selection for you to see:

So there we are......I am really pleased with them and they are improving in style with practice.

On a completely different note I took a day out to go to Crufts Dog Show last week and saw literally hundreds of Lakeland Terriers!!  Couldn't resist buying Milly a few bandanas and her she is in her brand new Pirate one.....posing as usual

So that is it for this week will post again once I have made up the beads into some jewellery.  Have a good week everyone xxx

 

So what an exiting week.......Playing with the new glass from Double Helix, Clio.  I started using CIM Grumpy Bear and swirling some Clio over it and came up with this.....

I love the pastel shades in this and the pink that is appearing, I think more work at the torch to really bring that pink out.   Then I decided to try incasing and came up with these babies.  I used lots of different clear colour bases and topped it with Clio encased in clear.  I literally gasped when I saw them!!!!   Each spot is like it has a little mirror behind it and they really have to be seen in the flesh to get the true beauty.

 

And of course the selection at the head of the page.

Then being me I had to take it a step further...I had some ring mandrels made for me last year and I thought I fancied a big Clio Wheel and this is what it looked like....

 

  

  

  

So what on earth do I do with these?  The centres are approximately an inch, maybe a scarf ring?  Any Jewellery makers out there?  Any suggestions?

Well had to post these as so excited with them but that is it for now!  But before I go wouldn't be a blog without the photographers assistant would it?

Lovely Rings and Give Aways!!

 

Hi Folks,  Firstly apologies for the delay in blogging, where does the time go?  As always life is so busy I hadn't realised it had been so long!  So what has been happening, well I have been on the torch and playing with colours and some silver foil this week, it has been an adventure and I couldn't possibly post piccys just yet as they are really not up to scratch.  It is always a weird time experimenting, as an artist one has to experiment and move forward and with each fuglie that appears from the kiln or the flame I have to remind myself that even if the bead doesn't make the grade I have taken something from the experience, even if it is 'Oh Bo***cks that didn't work then!'  I am sure every other glassy friend reading this will agree!

I get lots of customers in my shop asking for bead sets and I have put some time in this week producing some which are now on display at BAZAAR, 3 Gammon Walk, Barnstaple and also on my website www.raspberryrings.co.uk  But here is a preview!

I am going to make a concerted effort to produce more as I have found I actually really enjoy the discipline of them.  For local customers I also now have a bowl of orphans on the counter which is lovely to really rummage in!!

Also this week I have been busy on my Facebook Page : Raspberry Rings, Lampwork Beads and Jewellery I promised that when I gained 200 Fans that I would do a giveaway and I was thrilled to find that I had 201 Fans as of today!!  Thank you to all of you that have fanned me.   I find Facebook the most immediate way of talking to my customers and finding out what they think, what they want and to sometimes take some constructive feedback!  For those who are local in Devon it means they get a 'heads up' on new beads that have arrived in store and of course for those of you who are not local a 'heads up' on what is available on my website shops.  I have also met alot of other glass artists on-line and I love seeing what they are up to and have fanned over 100 shops and pages!!  Excessive but truly great fun!  If you want to see the giveaway just click on the link above.  I had abit of a disaster with that to, somehow it ended up on the bead rack in the shop and sold almost immediately so I am creating one similar with permission of the person who bought it...yes thats you Alison!!  Do check it out, all you have to do is leave a comment and you could win a pretty silver riveted bead.

And finally I have gone back to my roots.....just cannot leave the wire alone it is so soothing to twist and bend random designs and come up with a ring like this!  I also wrote down how I achieved it so I am dead chuffed, no two will be identical and I can make them with a chosen bead which gives great flexibility for the customer all I need is your ring size.   If you are interested do get in touch and we can work something out they are retailing at £14.99.  The wire currently is non tarnish silver plated copper but it could be done in silver but that obviously would push the price up.  Hope you like!  The pendant is a regular feature for me and a great way to display big beads.  I am happy to make just the finding for anyone who has a big bead they want to wear as a pendant.

Well I have probably blogged on for long enough for now but as always the last pic is of the lovely Milly....this is after a very wet walk on the beach and a romp with a HUGE poodle and a very energetic terrier!!