A Bead called Harry

I've been playing in the studio this week exploring glass colour combinations and making doggy beads. This is my handsome Schnauzer Harry...

...and this is my Harry bead!! I've also made a paw print charm out of PMC to hang with my bead and engraved his name on the back. Its always best to write into PMC when its dry - write into it very lightly and build up the depth so you avoid taking a chunk out of the clay.

I've also made a Gladys bead and body - Gladys is my sister Kay's Pug dog. I can't put up the image though what with Christmas around the corner!!

Catching Up

Well things here at The Oxford Bead Shop have really moved on. We now have a Lampwork Studio...Yay!! I am sssoooo pleased with it. Here it is...

So, as you can see we have lampworking benches on one side and silversmithing benches on the other. The lampworking stations are set up to accomodate 3 people and the silversmithing 4. I can't wait to start tecahing in there. My first lampworking class in on January 22nd and its already full..my second is on 6th March and that's full too!!! I'm going to look at the diary today and try and fix a date in February. We launched the Studio at our workshop taster evening on Friday 29th October. The night went fantastically well, we had about 50-60 people attend and we raised £56.00 for Breast Cancer Research. Lucy and I were demonstrating how to make Lampwork beads, I also did a Button Necklace and PMC Demo, Fiona ran a beads and wire workshop to make a bookmark, Becky did a beads and knotting workshop to make a bracelet and Bella did a textured silver pendant. Mum was demonstrating and answering questions on our beads and stitching workshops, Kay was holding fort on the till and Mary was making sure everybody had a drink. We were all very busy - I'm not sure what the neighbourhood thought was happening...as the night went on the windows became fogged up and we were full to the brim!!

Pete (Lucy's Boyf) was called upon to take photos for the night - he did fabulously well. All our photos can be seen on our Facebook page. We also launched our 2011 workshop programme that can be viewed on our website.

With Christmas just around the corner we have been preparing some new kits that are perfect little stocking fillers. This week we made a Memory Wire Bracelet Kit and a Charm Bracelet Kit - I'm really pleased with them. We have a few Craft Fairs coming up before Christmas so I thought these would work nicely. Our Bauble kits are flying of the shelves - they are so pretty and easy to make.

We have the first of our Christmas workshops today - Christmas Decorations with beads and wire. I'm feeling very Christmassy - is that wrong??

The transformation begins...

I've talking about it for ages and been wanting to do it for even longer but the time is here and the transformation of my stockroom into a Lampworking and Silversmithing workshop has begun!! We're at the very early stages but its all going to happen very quickly. Today and the past few weeks (on and off) Kay and I have been sorting, throwing out and clearing the stock/junk room. Here's how it looks now...

Workshop Stage One

Stuff to sort out

Its actually a little more cleared than the photo shows. I am too ashamed to show how it looked before the clear out began!! But here's some of the stuff that was in it. I have thrown away a skip load of old bits and bobs...I knew I was a hoarder but didn't realise quite how bad!! I have been taking the Kay attitude 'Just get rid of it!'.

So the plan is..

Wednesday - Hole for fire door by Mr McAllister

Thursday - Interior stud wall half taken out - Fire Door in by Carpenter

Friday - Plaster board up

Saturday - Painting / Floor

Sunday - New Kitchen

Monday - Painting

The team is: Kay (my sister), Jon (Kay's Boyf), and Me. Julie (Mum) will be looking after the shop.

Its going to look great!!

I'll shall be keeping a daily blog to keep you up to date so keep in touch

The Summer is here...

As much as I love my adult learning classes I am pleased to say that I have finished teaching for the summer and will now have ALL my evenings to do with as I please. I do have a few Friday night workshops planned but the rest of the time I am planning to continue organising the shop, making lampwork beads, and getting the new workshop project under way. Kay and I have been really busy sorting out the shop by moving it around and creating more space, throwing out lots of old catalogues, magazines and unneeded paperwork....its amazing how much is collected. I even have an office - only I can fit it in but its an office all the same!!

New Shop Layout

This weekend we visited Art in Action. We had a really lovely day (we being Mum, Kay, Lucy, Harry, Gladys and Me). This year they had invited some new artist to join the show so we were able to see some fresh ideas. Sarah Hornik a lampwork artist was there this year. It was great to see her make a bead. The combination of colour she uses in her work is beautiful. Take a look at her website. When ever we visit Art in Action we always come away feeling very inspired so Kay and I decided to come back to the shop and have a play on our torches. We both made a few beads each but said we need to be doing more. This is my plan....at least once a week if I can (in an ideal world!!).
I have been doing lots of workshops too...beads & wire, button necklaces, PMC. You can see all the images on our Facebook page.

Artweeks, Finger Prints and workshops....

Wow! Doesn't time fly when your busy!! I've had the most fabulous few weeks. Artweeks went really well this year. We got the exhibition up and running in time for our private view on Friday 8th May - Thank you to everyone that came along. I think at our peek we must have had about 30 people watching demos, browsing our range of materials and tools and enjoying the exhibition. I was pleased with how it all looked - I took a gardening theme that worked really well. I bought some artificial lawn to use as the background - the silver and lampwork beads looked great against it.

Harry before the mayhem of organising Artweeks Private View

Ohh thats nice.....

Kay was demonstrating on how to make lampwork beads

Lucy was demonstrating Precious Metal Clay

We had a great response to the possibility of Lampworking classes. I can't wait to get my stock room sorted out to accomodate the class!!

I've been asked to do a few commissions recently using the finger printing technique on Precious Metal Clay. This is a pair of cufflinks that Lucy asked me to do with her thumb print on.....she gave them to her now husband on their wedding day!! As you can see the date has been inscribed on the back. I've used liver of sulpur to oxidise the print then buff back to highlight the print.

I also did a bracelet for David to give to his wife who gave birth to little Oscar. The finger print is Davids but when baby is old enough and his finger print defined enough we're going to do his too. To make the bracelet even more 'charmy' I added a few baby charms. I've called it Mummy's Baby Bracelet.

Though you might like to see some jewellery made on a Beads & Wire workshop I ran for Adult Learning in Chipping Norton. These were all complete beginners - we had a lovely day and fabulous results.

Last but not least I'd like you to meet my new neice.....Gladys Parthenope Flittersnoop!! Isn't she adorable. She's an 8 week old Pug puppy getting bigger my the day. Tomorrow Harry and Gladys will meet - I'll be sure to take lots of photo's and post the best ones for you.

Peyote Beads and......We have a Winner!!!!!!

I wanted to show you what we've been making today on a workshop that Kay's been running.......Peyote Beads!!! Aren't they beautiful. I'd like to make more and make a fabulously long necklace....trouble is they take a little while to make although the results are so beautiful. We used delicas, crystals, fireline and patience to create this little gems.

We also have a winner for the lucky blog follower........Kez! Kez or Kerry as she's also known is currently on one of my courses so I will be delivering this to you next week - well done Kerry!!!!!! You've won one of our new Beaded bead kits.....hope you enjoy it!!!

Lampworking, New Kits and Yummy Cake!!

Having fun!!!!

Last Wednesday Dawn, another lampwork artist, came over to the shop to have a play on the torches with Me and Kay...Lucy joined us later. We had a lovely day passing tips to each other, showing each other demonstrations and colour ways we liked. Dawn taught us how to make a hollow bead......great fun....we showed Dawn how to make a gravity bead and a solid fish. Dawn currently sells her work on ebay and from her website www.dawnbydesign.com.

Yummy carrot cake

Kay made a lovely carrot cake for us to eat.....she cut the hugest slices!!

Kay & Dawn on the torch

Kay has also been busyputting together some new kits for the shop. We've got three new necklace kits and a beaded bead kit all using seedbeads, glass beads and semi precious stones. I'm really pleased with the kits - they make fabuolous presents. Those of you that have signed up to be a 'follower' of this blog will be in for a chance of winning one of the Beaded Bead kits - the winner will be drawn at the end of April.

Multi-Strand Necklace Kit

On Friday we (Kay, Lucy & I) visited a show in Towcester called Flame Off. The show was all about lampwork beading. We spent lots of money, saw a demonstration by Sarah Hornik and saw some other artists work. The show wasn't as big as we'd expected - originally we'd booked two days to go but only actually visited for one. It was a great opportunity to see products and glass colours we needed.