My evening project...The Granny Blanket by Attic24

Catch Up...

We've had a lovely week at the shop this week and met lots of lovely people. On Thursday morning I taught a lovely group of girls from Bishopstone School nr Swindon. It was their leavers treat to make Charm bracelets with us then they were going Bowling and finishing the day with tea at The India Room at Blenhiem Palace. What a lovely surprise for them - they were a pleasure to teach and look what they all made - the teachers enjoyed it just as much too!!

Silver / Gold Plated Chain with Czech Glass beads and headpins

I've also been working on a lot of commissions this week some of which are finger print pieces. To make these we use Precious Metal Clay...such a special gift and so important to the receiver. I've got a pendant with Harry's paw print!!

I've got a busy busy weekend ahead...Beads & Wire on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday we have a group of girls that are all meeting for a catch up in Oxford and have decided to come to a jewellery workshop with us - I'm looking forward to teaching them.

Tonight I've got the night off so I'm going to the cinema to watch Bridesmaids...a nice girly night.

Just Quickly...

Look what I made! My own lampwork beads with Ivory Coral and Topaz glass, PMC water charms (I'll explain more later), handmade clasp..the only parts I didn't make were the crystals.

Technology Troubles!!!

OMG...I have just been trying to organise my iphoto application on my Macbook because I haven't got any memory left on the computer and have lost 3500+ photo's!!! I suppose I've got the memory I need but I'm rather stressed at having lost my photo's. Anybody got any ideas?? Hopefully my Big Sis Kay can sort it out for me. I shouldn't be aloud to do these things on my own.

On a happier note my workshops at the weekend went really well. The Tiara workshop was a success with everybody starting some beautiful Tiara's. Some for weddings, just for fun and mother of the bride. My new Decorative cuff workshop went really well...we didn't finish the cuff in the three hours but I didn't think we would. I'll post all the images up on Facebook this afternoon.

Beautiful Tiara

Decorative Cuff

Mum and I also did a workshop last night for Botley WI...again it was a great success with 19 members participating and all making completely different pieces. Some restrung old pieces of jewellery that had broken, some made buttons necklaces, memory wire bracelets and others used pearls and our lovely bead mixes to created all different length necklaces.

Botley WI Working Hard

And the results

Right well I'm going to try and sort out my problem!!

We're still here!!

Wow...this must be the longest break yet!! I've really got to get to grips with the whole blog writing thing and try to keep up to date. Ironically the reasons behind not writing is because I've been busy which means I have loads to tell you!! Anyhow, you could catch up through our Facebook page and see the workshops we've been running and all the gorgeous pretty things everyone's been making.

New Workshops...

I've been designing some new workshops for our new programme that now runs until Christmas (say that quietly so not to scare people). Our newest workshop is A Decorative Wire Cuff - I actually submitted this into the new Fine Silver Magazine and had a really good response so decided to offer it as a workshop. The first of them is this Sunday so I'll upload peoples creations on Facebook next week.

I've also secured some day and residential workshops for Denman College in Marcham Nr Abingdon. Denman College is the WI's (Women's Institute's) centre for learning. The workshop titles are:

• Beading for Beginners - Day School
• Precious Metal Clay - An Introduction Day School
• Beaded Jewellery with Handmade Findings - Two Day Residential
• Silver Beaded Jewellery from Scratch - Three Day Residential

I very excited to be teaching for Denman. The facilities and environment are just amazing and the fact that its on my doorstep is perfect. To find out more about these courses and everything else they offer visit www.theWI.org.uk.

Last week I taught at The Birmingham School of Jewellery for a day. I delivered a Precious Metal Clay Beads workshop. This is the first time I had taught this session and I found it went really well. Everybody got to explore all the different types of clay and make a variety of beads you can see all the images on our Facebook page. The class were lovely and the staff and Birmingham were amazing especially Alan and Mike who couldn't be more helpful so thanks a million to them.

Hard at work

Wood Clay Beads

Well, that's all for now...I'm going to do my best to keep up to date(ish).

Amy.x

P.S. Harry's still as beautiful as ever!!

Last workshops for 2010.

Last weekend I had my final workshops for 2010. Saturday I had a very small class of two learning Beads & Stringing. The class size was very small compared to what we're used to but I took the opportunity to make myself a new bracelet.

Katie's Feather Necklace - Carnelian, Goldstone and Mother of Pearl

We went out with a bang and had 8 people learning how to work with Precious Metal Clay on Sunday.

It was a very busy day as you can imagine. Everybody made a wonderful collection of pieces. All of which can be seen on our Facebook page. This week I'm hard at work completing all the commissions that have come in. I'm hoping the snow stays away for the weekend so shopping isn't affected but its not looking good! I still need to get some presents too.

Christmas is Coming!!

Wow, I feel that my little size 3's have not touched the ground. With Christmas fast approaching we have definitely got into the spirit and have been encouraging others by offering our Christmas decoration workshops. Lucy and I also visited the German Market which is running at The Oxford Castle site. We went a couple of Fridays ago when it opened and when the Oxford lights were turned on. There was a lot happening all over the city centre. I think the lights this year look great...

With the chandelier theme they remind me of Oxford Street in London when the lights were based on the film Enchanted.

Our Christmas workshops have been received very well again this year. We have delivered Christmas decorations with Beads & Wire and Beaded Christmas Baubles. All of our workshops were full and everybody very pleased with what they made. All the baubles look great together.

Last weekend we had an Introduction to Beads & Wire - again a great day. Mum did this workshop because she wanted to finish off a necklace she designed in my Introduction to Precious Metal Clay Workshop. This is what she made...

She had already made the butterfly in the PMC workshop then wanted to add chain and beads to create the tails. She's used swarovski crystals with cultured pearls and a small belcher chain along with some wiring techniques then for the string around the neck a stringing technique with crimps and a hoop and bar clasp. She's very proud of her work!

We have also been working on projects to go into two magazines Fine Silver and Creative Beads and Jewellery. For the Fine Silver magazine I have made a pair of cufflinks out of PMC which I have enamelled with cobalt blue and turquoise - they have been sent off to the photographer so I'll show you when they return. The second project is a beading project based on our Beaded Daisy. We use rivolis, delicas, size 15's and dagger beads to create these pretty pendants. I'v been wanting to start providing projects for some of the jewellery making magazines so this is great start for me.

We've been quite lucky here in Oxford not to get too much snow...so far!! Its still very cold though- even Harry's feeling chilly so we've been putting him in his little jumper.