Teaching

I spent last Monday with Gill teaching her how to make glass beads and we had a ball. 6 hours of teaching is quite tiring for me and for the student but we covered a fair amount and the picture above are the beads that Gill made and I have sent to her. I do hope she liked them.
I love teaching and if you would like to come along and have a go please feel free to contact me for further information. I do taster sessions and full day teaching so there is soemthing for everyone. What a fab Christmas pressie for someone!
TTFN xx

Our little helper

For those of you who follow me on Facebook you will be aware that I have had some problems with my neighbours. I live in a mid terrace and whilst the walls are pretty good and noise is minimal there is obviously some noise that can be heard.

I have some really attractive paper in my hallway (not) and my hubby decided at the beginning of the week that he could no longer bear to look at it so he is wallpaper stripping must to the disgust of my neighbour who, at 8.30 in the evening was rapping on the wall complaining about the noise and waking my youngest daughter up. The "noise" of the wallpaper stripping had not bothered her at all!!!

Anyway my youngest has delighted in helping her dad out and is often to be found wielding a wallpaper stripper but today found her forte in hoovering!!!


She had us both in stitches mimicking her dad who can often be found hoovering on his hands and knees. This is apparently essential as the nasty woodchip wallpaper gets everywhere and is a tricky little sucker to clean up! I am just pleased to be shot of the nasty flower wallpaper and the purple gloss woodchip above it, bare plaster walls is way more preferable. Now to persuade him that sage green and lemon is scrummy for a hallway!!! Oh and the pink carpet is going as well I feel a nice sage green carpet also!

What is happening for the rest of the week? Well tomorrow I am teaching a new student for the day which I am really looking forward to, she found me as a result of the Art and Craft exhibition so that makes it all worthwhile in my book! Tuesday I am doing a sessional lecture for my friend in my old job and from Wednesday onwards it is all hands to the pump getting stuff made for the Big Bead Show on 17th October. Busy busy busy!!!

Right must be off roast pork for dinner and the spuds need sorting see you soon
TTFN xx

Tuition

Do you want to have a go at making glass beads? I can offer tuition at a reasonable cost if you are interested. Before I go setting dates etc I am keen to see if there is a need for me to offer. I live in Margate Kent UK which will help you to decide if you can travel to me for this. I will be able to offer beginners tuition and refresher sessions for people who have had a go before but want another session with supervision.

So over to you guys what would you like to see from me with regards to teaching??

TTFN xx

Do you want to try your hand at making your own glass beads?

I have had a lovely day. Today I met Debs who contacted me and wanted to learn how to make glass beads. She opted for the 3 hour session and I think (hope) she had a really good time.
Her beads are in the kiln at the moment and I am going back up to my shed in a mo to do some more beads but I will see them tomorrow morning once the kiln has finished and take pictures, once I have checked with Debs I will post pictures. She made some pairs and we are hoping she will be able to make some earrings from them!

I really enjoy teaching people. I have not done that many but of the ones I have done a couple of them are making their own beads now which is fab to see.

If you are interested in learning how to make your own glass beads and fancy having a bit of a taster session then give me a shout I would love to teach you.

TTFN xx

Video of pulling stringer an pictures of Imogen!

As promised I have uploaded the photos of Imogen making beads yesterday! The beads she made are waiting to be cleaned which I will do tonight! I am having a bite of lunch so thought I would post the pictures for you all!!!
Imogen also did a video of me pulling stringer which I will load up on this page somewhere. It is not the way everyone pulls stringer but it is the way I do it. I have only just bought my first pack of premade stringer, up till now I always pulled my own! Once I have loaded it I will edit this post to let you know where it is!!!

Edit: You Tube video of me "Pulling Stringer"

Hope you are all having a good Friday, the weekend is tomorrow yay....

TTFN x

Sneak preview!

As promised here is a sneak preview of the first 4 sets of beads in my Spring 2009 collection. They are not up on my website yet because the January sale is still on but they will be up for sale from 17th January 2009. The bottom right set is my favourite set. I love the effect and sadly this is only a small set as this is what I was making when I started to get anxious about Savannah and the toothpaste episode! I would love to know what you think of them :-)

I am finishing the photos and tutorial tonight for Beads and Beyond after much gnashing of teeth with RAW format and JPEG and I am not even going to get into the technical stuff! Anyway I will post the pictures once they are all done!

I have a friend who has her own blog and website. She is a scrapbooker (is that a word) and card maker with some wicked stuff on her site so go take a look! Scrapbook Sisters

My beads did not make it into Beads and Beyond lampworking competition and not even showcased in the mag. I am kinda sad about that cos I really liked them but there are some truly fab beads in it from other lampworkers that deserve to be showcased so from that point of view I am not sad. Some serious eye candy in it!!!

One final thing I am now offering TUITION!!!!! Taster classes to have a go at lampworking. Please visit my website for more info. Go on have a go it is great fun!!!

Gotta go hubby has just got home and he is making me a cup of tea. (Aww...bless him)

TTFNx

I am gonna take the plunge....

....having got my insurance sorted out and from my feedback from my one foray into teaching I have decided to go for it! I am going to offer people the chance to have a 2 hour session on my torch! This will include health and safety discussion, information about the glass available to use, how to make a basic round bead and a few other things! It is not a really long session but I think is appropriate for my level of experience on the torch! I have still got so much to learn and such a long way to go but I enjoy what I do and I would love to offer others the chance to "have a go". I know enough people to refer new starters onto if they want to pursue lampworking.
I will evaluate things over the next few months to see how it goes a bit of suck it and see!!!

The other thing I have decided to do it my fingerprint jewellery with the art clay and PMC. In the last week I have had 4 orders for fingerprints pendants and the people I sell them to love them. So on that basis I have decided to advertise locally, especially with Christmas coming. One of the local primary schools is having a craft fair at the end of November so I will see if I can get a table there and do some fingerprint pendants for people there!

All this on top of the show in just over 1 week. I have become a little obsessed with the Christmas theme as you can tell from recent posts! The angel beads I made have gone down really well despite their "deformed" wings, people tell me they add to the character of them! Anyway I have 3 orders for angel sets! I made them into tree decorations, must take some pictures and show you guys what they look like! They are quite cute!

All in all things are quite good at the mo especially considering how rough things have been for me lately. I am in quite a good place, fairly happy, not to moody and life is good! Long may it last!

TTFNx