Rose lentils

Rose lentils a
Originally uploaded by aurorabeadz

My mojo has returned and I am very happy. I made 3 sets last night and this is a close up of one of the sets! They can all be found for sale on my website here

Other news: I am quite busy putting shifts in at the hospital to earn some money and get us back on the straight and narrow! Thankfully I am getting plenty of work so that is good!

From a jewellery perspective things are quite busy as well what with everyone getting ready for Christams. I had a jewellery party on Friday but you will never believe what I did............I left my box of jewellery at home. It was an hour long round trip to get them and as many of the guests had not arrived I decided not to bother. We are going to do it in the New Year now! Honestly I could not believe it!!!

TTFN xx

I made some beadies yay!!!

So finally after an almost 3 week sabattical and very little going on in the lampworking department I am pleased to announce that Molly mojo decided to come home! She has had a well earned break and the creative juices are now flowing free. The only thing missing now is time but I am happy to grab whatever few minutes I can to make beads again and I can tell you I am one happy bunny.

Pictures soon the kiln is still hot so won't be till tomorrow!

TTFN xx

Singing the blues

singing the blues
Originally uploaded by aurorabeadz

Despite thinking all I can make is boring ole beads I managed to make these on friday and I really like them. Once again simple small but incredibly neat and totally useable in one or more pieces of jewellery (at least I think so!)

These are now for sale on my website here

TTFN x

Rain, Rain go away

I know we needed some decent rain but why this much this quickly!!!

I am fairly lucky down here in the south we seem to have missed most of the water dropping from the sky but I have forum friends up in the Lake District and after watching Sky News this morning am quite scared for them!

Life as normal for me today I am having a shedio day (hoorah!) but these people their life is on hold! The waters are high and their lives are being seriously disrupted and in a lot of cases are actually at risk.

My thoughts are with you all at this time and I simply wish there was something more practical I could do. To those of you up that way please stay safe

TTFN xx

Meh!!!

So for the first time in over a week I think, I finally have some shedio time. I dip my mandrels turn on the kiln come indoors for a cuppa and some toast and at 10.30 off I go up my shedio! 1 hour later..... I give up! I can't make a round bead today my puckers are decidely dodgy, naff sharp edges and when I try to correct them I get lopsided beads!!! Grrrr.......OK make some nugget beads I have an order for and chill. Make 6 of them quite happily go back to round beads. Nope.... not happening..... so I think make small dotty beads. Start to pull stringer and think whats the point they don't sell...... so gave up for today!

Turned off the oxycon and propane, skipped segment on my kiln and it is now ramping down with 3 round beads (2 of which are not even worth the fugly box) and 6 nugget beads for an order! Meh!!!!!

We all have em and today is officially my bad day! Picture above courtesy of Google image search for "bad day" !!!

Hope your Monday is way better than mine! :o)

TTFN xx

Nightmare before Christmas

NBC lock shock and barrel
Originally uploaded by aurorabeadz

I am still practicing with my polymer plates and making stamps for use in my silver metal clay. A friend was totally impressed with my Jack Skeleton pendants I made a couple of weeks ago and asked me if I could make a set of the characters from NBC. So I did. I have learned quite a lot whilst making the stamps and also about using the stamps and sadly the finished pieces were not quite what she had envisaged (or me for that matter) but it is fine as I learnt a lot, expensive lesson but worthwhile.

2 of the charms have little "splits" in them so I cannot sell them but Imogen has bagged them for herself bless her but Oogie Boogie and Lock Shock and Barrel (shown here) will be on sale later today in my website. Just gotta finish them off with holes and a bit of a polish up!

Hope you have all had a restful weekend and not too damaged by yesterdays strong winds and torrential rain! See you soon
TTFN xx

Magdalena

Magdalena
Originally uploaded by aurorabeadz

Another necklace to share with you guys! This is my focal bead and one of my hammered silver rings with a gorgeous ribbon by Diane at Sowzere.

The jewellery party went well sold a few bits and will hopefully get a couple of orders for fingerprint jewellery. And on that note today is the final day for orders for fingerprint jewellery at Savannah's school fair. I have 2 orders for the day so far and 2 orders at different times from the advert so not a bad response at all I think. I did have hopes of being absolutely flooded with requests but in hindsight that was a little naive. It is all about advertising and I did make a huge faux pas with the order form and information. I completely forgot to add my website address doh!!! Will take loads of business cards and leaflets to the fair with me to make up for that and there will be plenty of time for orders to be completed before Christmas.

Right best be off, Savannah is home cos she was ill last night so my shedio day has disappeared but I am finally going to get the stamps made for my art clay pendants! Photos later xx

TTFNxx

Quiet waters

Quiet waters
Originally uploaded by aurorabeadz

I have a jewellery party tonight, the first one not held in my own home!!! Eek! But the host is a friend so it should be fine! Anyway I have spent the afternoon madly making jewellery and this piece is one of the bits I have made!

The large beads were made by me last night and there are some of my mini spacer beads in there as well. 72 swarovski crystals and 36 small silver spacers finish the piece off and boy does it look awesome in the light! It really twinkles ;o)

TTFN xx

Hollow beads

goldstone hollow a
Originally uploaded by aurorabeadz

I first made hollow beads about 18 months ago but simply could not get their shape right. I thought I would have another go and if you follow my blog you will know that I have made a few that I am happy with and have sold! This is last nights bead, amethyst with goldstone stringer and I love it! Do I say that a lot ?... sorry but I am very happy with the way this bead turned out! It is going up on my Etsy shop shortly and there are more views of it there for you to gaze upon ;o)

TTFN xx

Rose shards bead set

rose shards b
Originally uploaded by aurorabeadz

Believe it or not the base colour for these beads was rose pink but the reactive glass shards I have laid down on top have fumed it and this absolutely gorgeous divine colour occurs! I have made more of these today I love them

TTFN xx

Teal delight hollow

Teal delight hollow
Originally uploaded by aurorabeadz

I am not sure that this picture does this bead any sort of justice but anyway here it is! I am sooooo proud of this bead and it's 3 little siblings! (see my Flickr album for a picture of the family group!!). I have to admit to thinking about selling my beadmaking gear on Monday evening whilst in my shedio. I simply (and I am not saying this for sympathy merely an observation of my state of mind at that point!) do not think that my beads cut the mustard. I do have some regular customers and to those people I say a massive thank you and no I am not quitting but I think I may have reached a point where I am not sure how to develop my beads further. I also want to thank everyone who has ever bought beads or jewellery off of me thank you a million times over. Each sale is as fab as though it were the first ...I love it that people like my work and want to buy it!

The answer, I think, lies in getting some more tuition but that involves money and right now things are harder than they have ever been and that is no word of a lie! But when I browse around other peoples beads I feel that my beads are merely ordinary! Nothing special at all, good puckers generally a good shape but nothing special. I have no imagination to work out how to experiment!!! I am in awe of so many different people's work and honestly cannot ever see my work being as awesome as some of these people! Humph!!!!!

Right moan over I am still making beads cos I took these ones out and love them! I guess we shall see what others make of them when they go up for sale on Sunday night.

I have not made it to my shedio today as planned cos my blessed car was on a flat this morning so my fantastic dad helped me out but took much of the morning up then I had to do the school run and get Imogen to the dentist as her brace had broken! And this evening my mojo has gone on shore leave so I think I will leave it till tomorrow. I have an order to fill which I will do and now the strikes are off (for the mo) the post should be easing gradually!

Are you having any fireworks this year? We are not as I literally do not have the money to watch it go up in flames like that so we resort to watching other peoples from the house! I guess it is warmer eh! always try to find something positive ;o)

Anyway must be off I am making stamps tonight for my silver metal clay so hopefully there will be little earrings etc coming out very soon

If you are having fireworks please be safe and enjoy
TTFN xx

oops how rude of me.

I am so sorry I forgot to say a huge thank you to those of you who left comments for my little snowman prize draw. It is so nice to get comments from people and I do enjoy reading them and interacting with you all! I am real LOL!!!

A complete change in the weather again today the sun is shining and you would never believe how much rain fell yesterday that means Savannah and I can go for a little walk up the town to post some orders and mooch around for a while!

Tomorrow is quite a big day for me. As many of you are aware I quit my job as a university lecturer back in the summer and in May I applied for the nursing agency NHS Professionals. Well it has all finally gone through and tomorrow is my first booked agency shift at my local hospital. I am a nurse and have been for the past ....blimey almost 16 years but I have been teaching for the past 7 so donning a uniform and working with patients is going to be a little wierd to say the least. Not a completely new experience as part of my role as a lecturer was to stay clinically credible etc and I like to think I have been able to maintain a finger on the pulse of nursing so to speak. I did a shift with my sister a couple of weeks ago unpaid just to get me back into it and I really enjoyed it. It is good to be back with patients I have missed that!

The plan is to do 2 or 3 shifts a week but to still focus on my beads and jewellery business so I do not really anticipate it affecting things very much. The beauty of the agency is that I can do what I want when I want and it fits around my children, my husband and the business all of which are incredibly important to me and I have fought to get back over these last 6 months!

Wish me luck and I will speak soon
TTFN xx

And the winner is ....

.... Sharon. I have left a message for you on your blog. Congratulations.

The good news is that I am making these to order if you wish I will be putting it on my website tonight!

More news later but gotta go and wash up dishes

TTFNxx