I Am So Proud of My Son...

This arrived in the post today. It was a project that Max's school entered all the children into - the idea was to write a 'mini saga' in 50 words or less. They had 30,000 entries and his was chosen to go into the Eastern Region book. I am assuming that a lot of the entries will be included as they are producing books for each region - even so, I am so proud of him. The people running the publication will be writing to his school to say that he was one of the winners, so he should get some praise there too.

He has also been in the local paper, in the last year, for writing a story about an alien ship landing in the playground. One child from each year won a small prize and got their story published. He won for Year 3. Maybe we have a Booker Prize winner in the making...

Finished...

The Thursday Night Project - 20 August

Ogalala lace. It will be a bracelet. Not sure about the blue beads though...

A New Idea

This is an A6 picture that I have made and I intend to frame it. I am hoping to produce a line of them, all unique, for sale on Folksy or some such site. I know it isn't art per se, but it does look cute and I was thinking of selling them, frameless, for £3.99. Comments would be appreciated!

More Wire-wrapping

Made with garnet nuggets and 4mm garnet coloured glass facet beads. The end cones are made from silver-plated 0.8mm wire. I love it!

Bracelets!

The top two are (probably obviously!) the same bracelet - both have labradorite in them. The second bracelet has coil end caps that I made myself. I bought some Tiger's eye chips and garnet nuggets today, so may do another wire-work bracelet with them. It seems to work so well.

I cleared my Folksy shop of items a couple of weeks ago, as I was just not selling anything, except to people who I know from the Crafter...oo forum. I was getting disillusioned with my items and am intending on cutting a lot of them up. However, I may put a few of my favourite, recently made items in, just to see whether I can sell much this time.

Some Earrings

The last pair even have hand-made ear-wires (proud miss alert!)

Flat Cable Bracelet from The Bead Merchant

Pandorion didn't have an 5° triangles for this one, and I didn't have any in the right colour, so I used these diamond 3d beads. I put Swarovski beads in the centre row, to catch to light. Unfortunately, the finished article looks a bit like a punky, studded bracelet! I may have to cut it up and start again...

Another Wire-Wrapped Bead Bracelet

And look what it did to my poor little hand! I have to lay off the wire-wrapping for a few days, until the blister goes down...

The bracelet is made from 6mm glass pearls, 3mm glass pearls, MOP discs, 6mm fire-polished glass beads and 10mm fire-polished glass beads. I am not usually a fan of green things, but I love this. I added a little feature dangle on the clasp, to give a bit more interest. I even had a go at making my own jump-rings, with 1mm wire. I think 0.8mm would be better, but, at least the one I used is really strong!

Bead Bracelet

This was inspired by an article in Bead Magazine. I really loved the look of the project, but, being me, I wanted to make it different! I have used glass pearls, labradorite nuggets, labradorite round 6mm beads and fire-polished facet beads.

An Ongoing Bracelet...Or Is It A Necklace?

I'm not sure which yet, although I am going more for the bracelet at the moment. The ring at the top is from a bracelet in Bead and Button. It was easy in theory, but my thread kept annoying me to put it mildly - it kept splitting and weakening. The ammonite cabouchon was from the Colchester Natural History Museum and only cost £1, which I thought was very good value!

Second Kit From The Bead Merchant

It started out as a bracelet, but it stretched as I removed it from the sitck I worked it up on. So, rather than cut it up, I made it into a necklace - I'm nothing if not inventive!

A Second Cable Bracelet...

This is the same pattern as the original bracelet from The Bead Merchant but I only did two rows, and used different colours.

A Kit from The Bead Merchant

I bought this from the Bead Merchant on Saturday - it was the first Saturday of the month, so the shop was open to real people rather than internet sprites! I bought 4 tubes of beads and three kits (blush), of which this was one. It was easy to make, being Right-Angle Weave (one of my hated stitches) in size 10 triangles, with added size 5 triangles and a picot edge. My friend was wearing one that she had made a while ago and it was so pretty on her that I had to make one too. Her colours were better than this, but I am currently making another one in colours that are more me.