Misty Moonlight

Finally we are slowly getting back into a routine in the Beady Pool household.
The now not so little man is at big school each morning, and is shattered but lovng it. This means I am getting a little more time to make and load some jewellery. Inbetween all the antenatal appointments which I seem to be having that is. Last week I had two lots of blood taken and a rather vicious anti-D injection - ouch!



On the jewellery front new from me is Misty Moonlight. Lampwork earrings in lushious lilac tones featuring artisan beads by Isabelle Anderson. Newly listed on Folksy.

Diary date
Beady Pool will be at the Music With Mummy Bracknell Coffee afternoon
Monday 27th Sept 1-3pm
Why not pop by for a cuppa, a piece of cake and some retail therapy?

Crystal clear Karenza

As mentioned in my last blog post Karenza also comes in a different colour way.
This time in sparkly crystal clear rock quartz.



Bracelet and earrings are available now on the Beady Pool website with free UK P&P
Why not pop over and take a look?

Karenza

In my last blog post I promised you a peek at my new range and here it is.
Karenza - featuring semi precious gemstones and Handmade Karen hilltribe silver heart beads.

This colourway features the gorgeous blues and greens of blue flourite interspersed with tiny silver beads.

So far, there are bracelets, earrings and pendants available and I have plans to introduce some handmade silver bangles next month. These are for sale on my website with free first class postage included.

Karenza is currently available in the flourite and in clear quartz crystal and will soon be available in a lovely autumnal smokey quartz too (I gave the smokey quartz set to a good friend of mone for her 40th birthday before I took photos - sorry).
Unlike my lampwork items, which are all one off pieces, this will be a limited edition range.

Lush Lilacs

Beady Pool has been a little sporadic on the blog posting over the summer. It's surprising how little spare time you can find when you have a four year old under your feet all day. That and the fact we have done alot of visiting over the summer hols. Both sets of family (Cornwall and Essex) and some good friends "up North". With all the visiting and my sister in laws wedding we have been a tad busy to say the least.

However, hopefully things are changing, well for a few weeks anyway. My little man started big school part time earlier this week so I get my couple of hours a day back - yay.

This joy may be short lived as number 2 is now only 12 weeks away from arriving - or 10 weeks if the consultant gets her way and induces me early like I was with my first. In the meantime though, I am going to try to make the most of the next few weeks.

To start with I have been working with some gorgeous lilac and purple beads by the talented Isabelle Anderson.

Heather - available now on Folksy

Misty Moonlight - on Folksy later today/tomorrow.

I hope you like my new pieces.
Keep an eye on my blog over the next few days and I will be unveiling a new themed range - Karenza.

Making silver Jewellery

Have you ever wanted to have a go at making your own silver jewellery?

Well, if you are in the Wokingham area or close by then now is your chance.

The very talented Janet Richardson, who has many years experience of making jewellery and teaching is running some new classes.

This is what I made during my first set of lessons with Jan. Not bad for a first timer!

Jan has taught at Norden Farm in Maidenhead, Brakenhale school in Bracknell and been artist in residence at South Hill Park, Bracknell to name just a few places.

There has been such a demand for her classes she is now teaching at the Arts Bar on Wellington road, Wokingham near the train station.

The classes will run in 5 week blocks.

Mondays 20th Sept - 18th Oct

1pm-3pm or 6pm-8pm

Mondays 1st Nov - 29th Nov

1pm-3pm or 6pm - 8pm

Cost £57 per 5 weeks

Suitable for beginners and those with some experience

For more information check out Jan's Website

If you do book let me know how you get on, I would love to know.

Wedding jewellery cont.....

Nearly 45 years ago my mother and father in law got married. At their wedding were their respective mums Ruby and Ivy.
As readers of my blog will know on the last Saturday of July my sister in law got married. Unfortunately neither Ruby or Ivy are still with us so were not there to see her married. However these ladies were very special to her and she wanted them somehow included in her wedding even if it was in small way.

One day whilst having a tiara discussion, my SIL mentioned this to me and muggins here who cannot keep her mouth shut, ever, said "Well you could make Ivy leaves from silver clay".
Now please don't get me wrong PMC is a fab product and there are some very talented people out there who get fab results from it. I, however, am not overly comfortable using it.
I had a lesson a while back with the very talented Janet Richardson and made a few pieces but I am never quite happy with my efforts, this was my first and only PMC experience. I find it hard to make my PMC efforts look handmade rather than homemade in my mind if you get what I mean. Maybe it is because I am used to working with silver and filing silver is a little different than filing unfired clay. Unfired clay just seems potentially really brittle. or maybe it is because I have a slight perfectionist streak. Anyway the short of it is, that it is not my medium of choice.

Despite of all that about 5 weeks ago I found myself making oodles of silver clay ivy leaves. One for the bride as a keepsake (she wore a pearl necklace I wore at my wedding which my mum in law gave me - old, borrowed and blue (it has a blue clasp) all in one). Three for the bridesmaids and one each for my SIL's mum and mum in law to be as keepsakes.
Then I remembered that a year or so ago I bought some rough cut rubies and had never used them, they were just sitting in my bead stash. Well, it must of been fate. I thought these would look fantastic dangling charm like from the jump ring (which btw I soldered as I have a big dislike for open jump ring) of and I added a freshwater pearl to tie in with the rest of the wedding jewellery, the brides dress and to add a nice contrast to the rubies.

So, here is the final product. Fine silver ivy leaf pendants with handwired charms of two roughcut rubies and a pearl. I am rather pleased with the end result even if I say so myself.

Oh and because I had clay left and I thought it would make a nice set I also made my sister in law some ivy leaf earrings.

So, Ivy and Ruby may not of been physically at the wedding, but they were part of it for my sister in law and were remembered on the day.

Delphinium

I bought this stunning set of beads from Isabelle Anderson ages ago and made them into this set ages ago too.

However, as of yet I have never listed them on Folksy.

But, by the end of today they will all be uploaded and available to buy. Perfect for a summer wedding....if the sun comes out again that is ;)

And the reason I named these beads Delphinium...check out those gorgeous colours.Picture taken from http://gstuff.co.nz/shop/garden/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=210&zenid=31954b8c5ecf9c62baf1a878e2519e70

the wedding continued...

So, to go with the tiara's my sister in law wanted some hair pins for in her hair.

As her hair is blond we decided on half in creamy white and half in the burgundy of the bridesmaid dresses to make them stand out.

Oh and then there were earrings - bridesmaids ones featuring Swarovski crystals and one for the bride using the same swarovski peals as the tiaras and hairclips.

There is one more lot of rather special jewellery to show you which I made for the wedding but that will wait for another day.
In the meantime I have been loading some gorgeous lampwork goodies in my Folksy shop. Why not check out my new lsitings ?

Tiara time

So, brother in law to be finally asked my sister in law to marry him.
Being the lovely person I am I offered to make her some wedding jewellery. Well, I do running a jewellery business how hard can it be to make wedding jewellery?

Now, anyone who knows me will know I am very good either offering to do something or saying yes before really thinking it through. The old talk before the brain clicks in syndrome.
This is how I found myself saying I would make my sister in law her tiara's as well as her jewellery. That is four tiara's in total.....and where do you start designing a tiara? Well, we trawled the internet for some ideas, worked out what the bride did and didn't like and then made something......totally different which thankfully, she loved :)

a tiara for the bride herself

And three for the bridesmaids....

Here is a picture of them both together.

I am so so pleased with how they turned out and amazed at my first and only effort. Wedding jewellery makers do not worry I am not adding tiara's to my repetoire. I loved making these but never again, I think I prefer a quicker result from my makes. Each one took me an hour, 25 Swarovski crystal twisted pearls, about 70 Swarovski bicones and oodles of wire.
Having said that I am very very pleased with the result as was the bride and the bridesmaids - what more can you ask for?

Wedding Jewellery

Well, THE wedding was on Saturday. That is THE wedding that I made tiara's, necklaces, earrings and headpins for.
Whilst I edit some photos of the jewellery. Here is a sneak peak to keep you going.


One of the bridesmaids tiaras all boxed and ready to go.
More pics on their way .......

Destash

Like any jewellery maker I have a plethora of beads in my stash....far more than I will probably ever use.
With baby number two on the way, I can see me having a few month of jewellery down time until we all get back into a new routine. So, in preperation for this I am having a bit of a clear out.
To start with I have some gorgeous hilltribe silver and at BARGAIN prices.
I have had these lovlies around for a year or so and therefore bought them before the price of silver sky rocketed.

Now I can't list the UK online sellers where these are more expensive but you will find some of these beads elsewhere at about double the price of not more. As I said Bargain prices.

I will be lsiting more destash bits in the next couple of days but these are already available in my other Folksy Shop . So why not op on over and bag a silver bargain?

Our Hols

So, we went camping......

In the grounds of a gorgeous Chateau

Near to Mont St Michel

and we went to the beach

Catching up.

Well, the last you heard from Beady Pool was back at the beginning of April.

I can only apologise, I have no idea where the time has gone to be honest. It's not that we've been idle doing nothing, time has just well, flown by.

Since I last blogged we've:

seen the Gruffalo at the theatre

said bonne voyage to some close friends who have moved to Australia

had loads of kids birthday parties

planted summer flowers and veg in the pre-school garden

helped make cheesy caterpillers in pre-school

been to sports day

been camping in France

and been feeling generally a bit icky.....yep that's right I've been feeling a bit icky however there is a reason, baby Parker no 2 is due the beginning of December. I'm now at 16 weeks and thankfully most of the sick feeling have passed.

Since I last blogged, Beady Pool has:

Had a fab time listing with the April Fools and had a good amount of sales from joining in

Taken part in the Henley Arts trail (More on that soon - promise)

Made a set of hair pins for my sister in laws wedding

Made 2 out of 4 tiara's for the same wedding

Started to make silver clay pendants for the same wedding

Oh and started a side line of girly hairclips and jewellery making kits.

Phew when you write it down like that I have been kind of busy really.

I can't show you pictures of the wedding items just yet as I would hate for the husband to be to be reading my blog as it would spoil the surprise. However I will leave you with a picture of the jewellery making kits I have been making with the help of Pussy Galore's design skills.

April Foolishness

Near the end of March, Red Bird Jewellery posted a thread on the Folksy forum asking if anyone fancied joining her for some April foolishness. Her suggestion? To list an item everyday for the whole of April. Yep that is list 30 items, one per day for each and every day of April Well, as if I don't have enough to so I decided to join in. Stupidly when I signed up I forgot I would be back home in Cornwall for the easter weekend and with limited internet access. So, I have been playing catch up. Here are the gorgeous lovelies I have listed so far.

Seaspray Earrings - Lampwork by Laura Sparling

Seaspray Bracelet - Lampwork by Laura Sparling Cosmos Earrings - Lampwork by Laura Sparling

Smokescreen Bracelet - Smokey quartz latern beads and hilltribe silver

Portholes - lampwork by Caroline Cash

Nautical - lampwork by Caroline Cash

Fern - Green Amethyst and Hilltribe silver

Most are available now in my Beady Pool Folksy Shop, a couple have already gone to new homes.

Wish me luck luck for the next 23 days!

Balloon Folksy Friday

It was my son's 4th birthday this week. I have no idea where the last 4 years have gone, it seems like only two years agao that he was born.
We went to the tampoline centre for his party but like most 4yr olds he knew what he wanted as his theme (i.e. his plates, party bags etc.) - ballooons.
I was quite pleased with this as it was easy for me to do and far cheaper than a branded theme. However, what about the cake? well i cheated a little with a pre-bought hedgehog. But, I did make 2 doz crispie cakes and 2 doz fairy cakes which with an easter egg cutter borrowed from pre-school turned out like this.

To celebrate his balloon themed party, this Folksy Friday is also balloon themed - enjoy.

fly fly away peach ring – Nelli D

balloon necklace - Niche Handmade

Birthday card – Clare’s Creations

And finally how cool is this - check out heir shop for more stunning balloon creations.

balloon super hero - Balloon Baboon