New Workshop - Stage Two

Well, thanks to Mr McAllister (my neighbour and builder) we now have a hole in the wall ready to take a fire door...there's no going back now!! (not that I want to). Yesterday was a bit noisy and quite dusty but the hole is there ready for the carpenter who is coming to do his bit this afternoon. Kay and Gladys are on their way here ready to take down a wall and remove the old (quite awful) kitchen. I'm getting very excited now! I'll update with pictures later...

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

A Teaching Marathon...

I am pleased to say that I have just finished a teaching marathon. From last Friday until Thursday I have taught a full day, everyday and each day was a new experience. Friday I began by starting a Precious Metal Clay Certification course - Module One Naturals. I had six ladies in the group and we covered 7 projects designed to teach how to make a textured pendant, simple stone setting, combine PMC with glass, making a ring, use organic materials, make a clasp, a dry construction piece and the use of wood clay. It was a lot to fit in over the three days but everybody managed to finish their projects and pass the course. I also had my first full graduate who has completed and passed all three modules!! For more images visit our Facebook page.

After finishing the certification module on Sunday I then started teaching on Monday a four day Summer School Jewellery course for 10-14 year olds at D'overbroecks Leckford Place. We had 10 girls in the group. I spent the first two days on my own then Lucy joined me for day three and four. This is something completely new to me. I am familiar with and trained to teach post 16 education so teaching 10-14 year olds was quite a challenge. A challenge that I feel I rose to and was very happy with the results. It was very interesting for me to see the difference in teaching a different age group, how they interact with each other and me and how they take on the projects set. We covered an awful lot throughout the four days such as Beads & Wire, Beads & Stringing, Beads & Knotting, Polymer Clay and PMC. On the final day we had an exhibition of their work and a mini fashion show for all parents, family and staff to enjoy. For more images visit our Facebook page.

A collection of work

Polymer Clay Beads

Polymer Clay Pendants

I've been completely inspired by Polymer Clay (Fimo) and we are now stocking a wide variety of colours and finishes in The Oxford Bead Shop. I'm going to have lots of fun playing and designing some new workshops for 2011!!

Fimo Soft and Fimo Effect

Tuesday 3rd August
Although this blog is being posted today I'm actually writing it on Tuesday 3rd August half way through my holiday on the Isle of Wight. Stuart, Harry and I have come to the Isle of Wight for a week and are staying in Stuart's Mum's caravan on a campsite in Brighstone right near the beach. Every other year we have a Harry holiday so that's why we're not laid on a beach in an exotic location!!

Harry loving the sanding beach

So far the sun has been shining and we're spending our days wandering around the beautiful villages and towns, ending up in a pub for lunch, more wandering then coming back to the campsite for a BBQ and drinks.

A fabulous field of seeds - I loved the texture

Before we came away I bought a Doggy Trailer from Ebay so we could do some cycling while on the Island and still take Harry with us. Sunday we cycled along one of the longer routes from Newport to Sandown...it said the route was 9 miles - it felt more like 12!!! Pulling Harry in the trailer was a lot of extra weight and by the time we reached Sandown my hip was very painful....hasn't been the same since!!

Yesterday we had a lovely day in Ventnor and visited the Isle of Wight Glass. It was fascinating watching them work with glass. This is a picture of one of the guys making canes or what I would know as stringers - thin pieces of glass used for decorating. There was also another guy making a vase using the canes, millefiori and gold foil.

Heating the glass in the furnace

Walking with molten glass to create the cane

I also managed to visit a bead shop in Ventnor - Purple Moon Beads. The shop was quite small and had a nice selection of czech beads, plated and precious metal findings, tools, cord, books and examples of projects. What inspired me though was the aluminium links and rubber o-rings used for chain mail. I have recently bought a book called Link It by Susan C. Thomas so was very excited to see I could buy all the materials I needed. I will definitely be getting all the materials into The Oxford Bead Shop and through the use of my iPhone have already sourced a supplier!! As the hip is still playing up we are going to have a rest day and chill out around the campsite...I'm going to pop back to the bead shop, buy some more materials and make some samples from the link it book. I'm also going to get my shopping list together for the rubber o-rings and aluminium links.

This is what I made the Up and Down Motif Bracelet project from the Link It book. I found the project very easy to do and think that this technique would make a great workshop.

Wednesday 4th August - Freshwater

A beautiful mosaic tucked away in a bus stop - it was a set of three

Thursday 5th August - Morning
Coming to the end of the holiday now - looking forward to getting home and getting on with all the things I want to do this summer. Going today to have my holiday cream tea then we have our ferry to catch at 2pm.

Thursday 5th August -Afternoon
For our cream tea we went to Chessell Pottery Barns Decorate your own Pottery Home of the Ultimate Island Cream Tea. It was such a wonderful place. When you walked in their were the biggest scones I'd ever seen in all different types, HUGH slices of cake and lots of Emma Bridgewater and other fabulous pottery.

It looked like the pottery studio and tea room was once barns that had now been converted. The space was really big and perfect for that type of business. I would love to have a space like that. I could have various workshops happening at the same time, a beautiful tea room for people to meet for tea and coffee and cake or maybe lunch then a large bead shop with all the other jewellery making products we sell too. It's good to dream.....

Had to photograph this lorry - not often you see ....& Daughter.

Lots of PMC and Beautiful Giraffes

My week has been filled full of PMC! Wednesday, Thursday and Friday I spent with Deidre and Honey who were visiting from Ireland to learn some beading and PMC techniques. We didn't actually get to the beading as the very ambitious PMC projects took over. The pieces that were made were very beautiful.

This was Honey's syringe heart pendant. The pendant is approximately 10cm tall. I had never fired a syringe project this big before so was a little unsure as to how it would fire. During firing some areas of the pendant collapsed so Honey needed to build up the areas and then we fired again. When working with syringe its very important to build a good structure with the lines of PMC and also to make sure the lines are a full thickness.

Dierdre's necklace and earrings set was made using some poppy heads that I picked from my garden a year ago. Its important that the poppy heads are dry. She used PMC paste to cover the poppy...let it dry...coated again and kept repeating this until a thick enough layer was achieved. Pearls were then attached using some beads & wire and stringing techniques.

Saturday I ran a PMC Rings workshop. I had a really lovely group. Most of the group made two rings using lump PMC, stones, textures, cutters and syringe. We did have some problems with a couple of the rings breaking during filing, before firing. When this happens it can be very difficult to stop the piece from cracking at the same point even if it has been filled with paste. I find it best to fire the ring then finish the piece, maybe add more paste and fire again.

This ring is a good example of how liver of sulphur can react. This piece was submerged in LoS after it had cooled for 10 minutes. As you can see the silver has been oxidised an almost gold colour. I think this looks beautiful with the green stone. Liver of Sulphur is fairly unpredictable and many factors, such as heat of water, strength of liquid, type of water, will effect the colour you get. You can see more images of the workshops on our Facebook page.

After my busy week I had an unusual day off on Sunday so we went to Cotswold Wildlife Park. We probably go once or twice a year, its always a great day out and Harry can come too. The park has had lots of improvements made....and they've now got three male Giraffes!!

After lots of walking, lots of food and the sun we were all looking forward to relaxing on the sofa. Harry got cosy in the car!!

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.

I'm back!!! I have finished the PGCE, am now a fully qualified post 16 teacher and can start to concentrate on all the things I had to put on hold to get through it. I have also treated myself for my achievement and bought myself an iPad....more on that later!! It's been a long hard slog but I have now completed and passed all assignments for my Post Graduate Certificate in Education. I knew that it was taking a lot of time but didn't realise quite how much until I finished. Unfortunately while doing this The Oxford Bead Shop's ambitions have been put on hold....but....now it's full steam ahead!!!! We're starting things off with our popular workshop taster evening this Friday 2nd July 7-9pm. We've got lots of new stock, new kits, new jewellery and the British Silver week exhibition by Current UK PMC artists being displayed.

Since my last entry....a long time ago...I've meet and taught some lovely people. You can see images of the jewellery that's been made on our Facebook Page but here's some of the highlights...

Introduction to Beads & Knotting
This beautiful lariat was made using griffin silk, glass beads, semi precious beads, ceramic buttons and bundles of fabric flowers.

Making a Tiara
Our Tiara making workshop is always a very 'girly' experience. Lots of sparkle!!

Making a Silver Ring
A lovely use of 2mm sterling silver wire and 0.7mm flat sheet.

I've also been lucky enough to spend the day with Pauline Holt (aka Jazzy Lilly) lampwork bead making for the day. I really love working with glass, the colour, movement and effects are so different to any of the traditional materials I'm used to. I was able to work on areas of beading making I had been having problems with such as stringer work....creating lines and patterns with thinner rods of glass. It was really good for me to be on the other side of teaching, it reminded me of how my learners feel and how in a first session of learning something new it's very difficult to take in the technique when your faced with new tools, new materials, new terms, positions and environments. I love my iPad!! It's Apple's newest invention. It's basically like a big iPhone but is capable of so much more. I can read books, write emails, surf the Internet, draw, play games and lots more. Not sure what my favourites app is at the moment....I'll get back to you.