Gnomeland...

I had time this weekend to knock up another couple of these little bracelets.  They are such fun - I wear mine quite often.

They are both up for sale in my Etsy shop - I'm sure someone you know would like a gnome for Christmas...

Half term is over, so it's back to the day job today - how I wish I could be home crafting instead!

Connie & Some Other Work...

Yesterday I completed this half of the current commission.  I am very pleased with how this has turned out, particularly considering the poor quality photograph I was given to work from. This has been worked using Derwent Drawing pencils and a fair bit of white acrylic paint.  The other half of the portrait is of a cat - another challenge as it has the most unusual colouring to it's mouth I have ever seen...

Just added this to my Etsy shop - a little bracelet with a cute pug bead in the centre.  There will be more of these coming up, I just need to find the time!

Perhaps I'd have more time if I didn't mess about making hats for the Innocent Big Knit - this is my own design, crocheted from some varigated blue yarn.  I'd like to do more but just can't fit it in time-wise, so the three I made will just have to be posted off.

Currently knitting a zombie - well, Christmas is on it's way y'know, and who doesn't want a cuddly zombie in their stocking?

Pretty Flamingoes...

Well, the gnome bracelet didn't last long in my shop - nice to know I'm not the only one who loves a bit of kitsch to wear!  There will be more for sale very soon.  In the meantime, I have made this flamingo bracelet in the same style.  I have had the beads for ages but couldn't think how best to use them - this method seems to work well.

It fastens with a sweet vintage button.

This will be the only one of these for the time being - run out of beads!  If you are interested, it is in my shop now.

This One's Mine!

While searching through my stash to find beads for my sister's necklace, I came across the perfect beads for my own.  My lovely focal bead has been sat on the sideboard for weeks now while I pondered what to do with it.  I discovered these lovely little pink and grey natural pebble beads which I have had for quite a while and never had a project worthy of them.  The two match beautifully and I m really happy with the result.  If I can't make it to the beach, at least I can wear a little reminder of it around my neck!

Birthday Blue

It was my sister's birthday yesterday - we won't go into how old she is, but she's older than me...
She's had a tough time of it lately; living in Greece has not been a bundle of laughs over the past year with ever decreasing finances and ever increasing taxes, social unrest and general chaos.  To add to the misery, she had her house burgled a few weeks ago and anything that wasn't nailed down was taken, including her jewellery.

I thought it might be nice to have something made especially for her to kick-start a new collection, so commissioned a gorgeous focal bead from the talented Kaz at Cheeky Cherub Designs.  I wracked my brain for days thinking how to show it off to it's best advantage without detracting from the bead itself - I'm out of practise when it comes to jewellery-making these days.  I hope I have achieved it!

Sunshine....

School broke up three days ago and I have been making the most of the sunshine by doing the garden - it was a jungle out there after a month's heavy rain.

I've also been catching up (or trying to) with some of my outstanding commissions - knitting little shoes, hats and tables; designing a knitted wolverine, knitting more pebbles. It's also been an opportunity to go through my big box of jewellery that I cart to various local craft fairs with less and less enthusiasm.  I've photographed some pieces that have been tucked away for far too long, and they will be in my Etsy shop over the next few days.  I don't get time to make jewellery any more, and it is a shame that what I have is hidden away - here's a chance for some necklaces and earrings to go to good homes.

Shells & Swans

I ordered this bead from Cheeky Cherub Designs last week, and when it came yesterday I was overjoyed.  The photo really doesn't do it justice, it is so beautiful.  Now I have to think about how I am going to make a necklace with it - I am thinking on natural thread with a few shells maybe.  It's been such a long time since I made jewellery, I feel a little rusty.

I'm finally happy with the swan painting - I gave the water a fairly thick covering of white Inktense pigment whcih calmed the patterning on the water considerably.  It can be purchased on my Etsy shop now.

Cornucopia.....

The last jellyfish painting was part of a swap with the talented Sybille at Magpie Magic in exchange for one of her gorgeous necklaces. It arrived in the post yesterday and I adore it.  I am afraid the photo does not do it justice - the weather is overcast and wet today and I just cannot get a decent picture even with my daylight lamp. The necklace is very long, with a triple strand at the bottom and is full of wonderful treasures - an ammonite, glass beads, wooden beads, filagree, pieces of shell, beads that look like shell, you name it, it's on there.  I already own another of Sybille's necklaces which also has a enthralling collection of matching and coordinating beads and bits - they are always a pleasure to wear as they not only look good, you can spend hours admiring all the little details!  I would highly recommend her jewellery - it's all original, beautifully made and always fascinating.

Last week I also got sent a little parcel with some delicious beads in it from another talented lady, Jo Sacker.  She made these for me as part of the exchange a few months ago for a knitted dog and sofa. As she has moved house and was in a bit of disarray as far as bead-making facilities were concerned, it took a while to complete the deal - but I think you'll agree it was well worth the wait.  I am planning to make a bracelet with these very soon.

The postman also brought me some scrummy rust coloured sock yarn and some guinea-pig coloured eyelash yarn.  This little guy just needs a set of back legs - and then a little friend and somewhere to live!

It's that time of year again, fruit is starting to ripen and our local pick-your-own farm opened last weekend.  We took a trip up there yesterday and were pleased to discover that not only were the strawberries ripe and luscious, there were plenty of gooseberries as well.

So today is a jam making day - we ran out of last years' jam about a month ago, and I had to resort to buying a jar of raspberry jam for my daughter's breakfast toast - she wasn't keen on the home-made marmelade or  elderflower jelly.  She'll be all right for a while with this little lot....

And finally, I have no painting commissions on the go at the moment so it's an opportunity to have a little play with the Inktense pigment blocks. 

It's been quite a while since I painted a tiger so I am thoroughly enjoying this.  The black markings are being painstakingly painted with black Inktense diluted to make ink, the rest of the picture will hopefully be a bit more free and colourful.  The great thing about Inktense is that once dry, the colour can be painted over time and again with no ill effects, so as long as you plan what you are going to do, great depth and vibrancy of colour is possible.

I'm off to continue this while I have the time!

Car Booty!

I love car boot sales - if they are good ones that is. Today we went to a huge one, two hours to look around everything, and I came home a bit laden. Obviously within the first ten minutes I had bought a big old copy of Gone With the Wind and sixteen magazines about famous painters - which meant I then had to cart around ten pounds of dead weight for the remaining hour and fifty minutes!


I'm really pleased with this little haul - no, I don't plan on wearing the nasty earrings and necklace, but look at all those little silver discs, just waiting to be sewn on mini-dog and cat collars! I rely on finds like these for the sets I make - adds authenticity! The long strand of turquoise beads was a steal at £2.


Knowing what a sucker I am for a good yarn store, I try and stay away for the sake of my bank balance. However, this weekend I had a good excuse as I had to source some yarn for knitting little cats - I think this should keep me going for a while! If anyone out there has any Stylecraft Gypsy yarn (the soft fluffy eyelash one in the centre) I'd be willing to buy it - it is now discontinued but is the perfect yarn for lifelike mini-pets.


This weekend I also appear to have broken my dog! Since his 'rehabilitation' (once again, thank you Cesar Millan, Dog Whisperer, for all the useful and above all effective strategies for changing a dog's behaviour) we have been able to take our dog further afield for more interesting walks. He can now jump in the car by himself - yes, I have been lifting a 50 lb saluki into the back of the car for the past 7 years - which makes such a difference. He's seen his first ever cows, seen lots of new dogs without starting any punch-ups, and explored some new fields and woods. Now he's flopped on the floor in happy exhaustion.....

So with the sun shining.........

....the garden looking pretty.........


....with dragonflies basking on the pear tree.......


.....courgettes aplenty growing.......

....and more grapes than I could imagine on our vine....


......it's been a pretty good couple of days. Shame it's back to work tomorrow!

April Showers Shawl

Thank goodness this is finally finished! Although the title is current, I actually started this way back at the beginning of March thinking that as the main part was in stocking stitch, it would be a quick knit. Hmmmm........how wrong I was!

It is knitted in a very, very fine cotton and cashmere mix yarn which is actually supposed to be used for machine knitting - now I know why! Although it may look at a distance like this has been knitted by a machine, I can personally vouch for the fact that every single stitch has been made by hand. In amongst the stocking stitch are randomly placed slightly iridescent clear glass seed beads, the idea being that they look like rain droplets.


The delicate lace edging was knitted afterwards, being joined to the main shawl as it progressed. there are seed beads scattered here too, as well as larger crystal-like beads at about four inch intervals along the very edge.

This is so light and delicate and very, very pretty - I am feeling quite smug that it turned out this way - it's my own combination of ideas and could have gone terribly wrong!

This will be for sale on Etsy in about five minutes......

Tell Me What You Think To This........

I haven't made jewellery for such a long time - this set is just for me and I doubt I'll be making any similar for any one else.


Here's a close up of the bracelet....what do you think I have used to make this pretty bauble?(hands down you in the back, I know you know, but give someone else a chance!) Have I splashed out on some gen-you-wine chunks of turquoise? Nope.
Are they plastic imitation? Nope.
Paper-mache? Nope.

I'll put you out of your misery - these beads were made from............


....yes, a potato. Not only do I paint the darn things, I'm wearing them as well. It all started when I got a Secret Santa parcel through the post containing a very delicious box of chocolates and also a sheet of paper with How to Make a Potato Bracelet instructions tucked into an envelope. At first I laughed heartily, but then had a thought that if this method worked, it would make quite a fitting keepsake to remember the past 18 month spud marathon. Originally, I had planned that I would wait until I had the 100th potato finished and use that as the basis for a bracelet, but as you can read below, I never actually got Potato No.100 in my hand, so this has been made with the 99th - not quite as symbolic but close enough!


First I had to cut the potato into rough cubes, slightly larger than the beads I wanted to end up with. Then I speared them through the centre on a wooden skewer and left them to dry. The first batch were put on top of the radiator on some tinfoil and just left - these ended up quite angular and a few sort of caved in on themselves. After my son's adventures making freeze-dried potato stew with his Bolivian cookbook that he got for Christmas (a whole other anecdote...) I made a second batch and popped them in the freezer overnight. The has the effect of drawing the moisture out of the potato as it defrosts, making it dry quicker but also you can squidge it a bit and soften the edges - these are the smaller, rounded beads. Above is how they look when dry - they are as solid as pebbles.


Then each bead was painted turquoise with acrylic paint and left on a knitting needle to dry.


They needed a second coat to get a good covering - this is half the mess I got into......


When the turquoise paint is completely dry, paint the beads with black acrylic paint. Now, you have to be quick here - the instructions said paint with black paint and rub off with a paper towel - that just left me with a smudgy black bead. What you have to do is mix a slightly watery black acrylic, paint it on then quickly dip the bead in a pot of water and rub with a damp paper towel until the black is left only in the cracks and fissures of the beads.


When this is dry, do the same with white acrylic paint - you can see in the photo how little remains in order for it to look authentic.

Finally, paint the beads with two or three coats of acrylic varnish - I used matt finish as I preferred to have a soft sheen rather than a high shine on the beads - it's a matter of personal taste.

It's a very effective but quite labour-intensive way of making your own turquoise - I'm pleased with the results and wore my necklace to work today where it got quite a few compliments. The beads seem really hard and robust, although doing the washing up with the bracelet on might not be such a good idea on a regular basis!

It Runs In The Family

With all the goings on over the past few weeks, I completely forgot to show off one of my best Christmas presents. My elder sister lives in Greece and has access to two amazing bead shops in central Athens. She is also very handy with needles, both sewing and knitting. In my parcel was this wonderful hessian shoulder bag sewn, appliqued and embroidered entirely by her. Cute!


She's lined it and made a pocket too! I can't wait until the warmer weather when I can use this for summer outings. There's more, because inside the bag was this treasure trove....


She has obviously thought very carefully about which beads I would like as I love them all, particularly the ones like little birds' eggs...and the cats....oh, and the shells.....
I don't know what to make with them yet, but very soon inspiration will strike I'm sure.

It's been a difficult week for arts & crafts this week - due to the extra exercise walking through the snow as well as going back to work, combined with a still-mourning-and-restless-at-night dog, I keep falling asleep in the evenings after I've eaten! The lace shawl has made a bit of progress, I've nearly finished a hat, and the one piece of artwork I have done this week is in transit to it's new owner and I can't show it until they've seen it first - it wouldn't be fair. Perhaps now the snow is rapidly melting (hooray, I could drive to the supermarket!!) and things are getting back to normal, I may be more productive over the coming week. But for now, I'm off to lie on the sofa with a cup of tea and the new Yarn Forward magazine.....

Drop Dead Gorgeous....

Whilst in Salem on holiday, I bought 2 cute little Day of the Dead ceramic beads from a tiny pot on a shop counter, one for me and one for Sybille over on Magpie Magic. I made mine into a bracelet which I wear all the time and the more I looked at it, the more I wanted to make more jewellery with these beads. But where to find them......

Well, it took me over a fortnight of trawling through various sites that Google threw up, and poring through every 'skull bead' listing on Etsy and e-Bay and being thoroughly disappointed by what was on offer, before I finally found a new listing on e-Bay with the exact same beads. So I ordered a selection which arrived today. I know I get obsessive about certain themes, and Day of the Dead is the current fixation, but aren't these just the cutest things? Just the thing for phone charms, dangles, earrings, bracelets........can't wait to get started!

Treasures......

We went to the Gem & Bead fair at Farnham yesterday - what lovely, lovely stuff they had! I could have spent an absolute fortune on beads and findings but restrained myself and came home with the above. I've not made much jewellery over the past year as other commitments have taken over my creative life, but this little lot has given me some inspiration to start up again. Watch this space!


While I am still painting potatoes, at the moment it's something slightly different as it is the book cover. It's going to take quite some time, but is already very enjoyable - note how I've done the 'boring' bit first, saving the leaves and flowers for later!

Knitting.......I'm making a squid for someone! Nearly finished, should be done by this evening.

Key to My Heart......

Having come across some fantastic little vintage keys at a car boot sale over the weekend, I was inspired to make a couple of necklaces. Felt a bit creaky as it has been a very long time since I have wielded the pliers, and the bead boxes were a tad dusty, but everything was still there! The first was a simple cluster of various charms - a red glass heart, a key, a little ceramic dove and a clear glass cross, with a few pearls & beads thrown in for good measure, all hung on a plain black thong.

The second was a bit more ornate, with several glass hearts, a bigger brass key, as well as a piece of chain and a tiny key charm, again on a simple black thong. Both will be for sale in the not too distant future, check on Etsy or e-mail me - both are £15 plus p&p.

Socks, Beads & Zebras....

This week I've been making a few things for myself for a change. I've had this yarn for months - it's been a failed scarf, a failed pair of gloves, but finally found it's calling as a pair of socks. I'm not usually very good at socks, but these turned out pretty well - they fit and they match each other which is all one can ask for! And they are nice and warm too..


Also hanging around for months was a necklace I bought at a car boot sale last summer with the intention of taking it to pieces and making it into a long necklace. The beads are a dark greeny-blue with AB coating, and the necklace had a fabulous AB clasp that reminds me of the 'shiny beetles' we used to find in our garden when we lived in Greece - if you've ever read 'My Family and Other Animals' by Gerald Durrell, he used to see an old man in Corfu with these beetles tied to strings for sale as playthings. We just used to marvel at their irridescent wing cases and leave them about their business! Anyway, I finally got around to making the long necklace and had enough beads left over to make a matching bracelet with the clasp as a focal point.

Finally, I've been making slow but steady progress with my zebras and enjoying every brushstroke! I did wonder if this was too ambitious, but it's going well - looks a bit strange with them floating in mid-air, but the water will go in last of all.