Valentines is approaching...

We have an inspiring display of ideas and beads for Valentines Day. Come in and treat yourself or send in your Valentine and we'll point them in the right direction.

Manic Thursday

What a day today...it has been non stop all day with workshops and private tuition. This is the first time I've been able to relax all day apart from this morning at 6.10am when I woke to prepare myself for the day!! I'm currently looking for a new member of staff to help me out with everything that's happening...it's all very exciting. Yesterday I sent out an advert for a part-time member of staff and within 2 hours I had 10 responses...looking promising!! Today Charlie, who's helping out at the moment, created a great Valentines display on our mantel piece. It's exploding with red, pink, sparkly beads and lots of ideas for the romantic day. Tomorrow she'll be working on a Steampunk display. We have some great packs of Steampunk parts, here's a little peek...



Tomorrow I have some private tuition using Precious Metal Clay then this weekend I'll be passing on my knowledge of Beads and Stringing and Copper Clay. I've been playing with some copper clay this week...seeing what processes can be applied to it once fired. I'll report back after the weekend if I don't find the time before.
Bye for now.

Location:Amy Surman - The Oxford Bead Shop

What a lovely weekend

We had a lovely weekend in the shop. I ran two workshops...Saturday I did Intro to Beads and Wire and Sunday I did Beaded Daisy Pendants. Both workshops produced some lovely pieces. Here's the Daisy Pendants that we're made and an experiment that one of the girls did where she beaded a rivoli, added some loops ready to combine with some chainmaille she's been exploring. I made a beaded daisy that I'm going to make into a hair slide for my lovely niece lily...she's one at the end of the month - doesn't time fly!


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Location:Amy Surman - The Oxford Bead Shop

Silversmithing for Improvers...Thursday night.

Everybody hard at work making silver jewellery and Harry chilling on my completed crochet blanket.

Happy New Year!!

Hello in 2012...New Year and Christmas seem a long time ago now but I did had a fun and relaxing Festive break. I have returned to The Oxford Bead Shop feeling ready for a great year ahead. We have lots of new exciting events this year such as The Oxford Summer School, Birmingham School of Jewellery, Wilderness Festival, Denman College and not to mention all the new workshops happening at the shop. I am very excited and would like to thank everybody for their support.

2011 finished with lots of commissions, workshops and new stock. Its lovely to think that Amy Surman presents are being handed out around the world!! We had some very successful workshops last year - the results can be viewed on our Facebook Page but here's a few to tempt you.

Decorative Wire Cuff

Chain Making

Introduction to Lampwork Beads

As you can see Harry's still as handsome as ever...he's going to be five next month!! I can't believe how time flys by so quickly. He was soooooo happy to get back to work this morning...he was even scratching as the door to get in and greeted a lot more people than usual today. It is great to be back to work, seeing all my customers, students and being surrounded by sparkly things all day!!

As I've said I'm very much looking forward to 2012 and would like to wish everybody else a happy and exciting 2012.

Amy

xx