If you were to ask me that question on any day of the week, the answer would be a very definite purple… but not today! Today my favourite colour is brown, not very exciting, a colour associated with some of the less attractive things in life, but today it’s most definitely brown! Why? Well scroll down for the answer!           On the second attempt, I’ve managed to grow some crystals in my kiln. They’re not the prettiest, but they’re there! The first attempt, failed miserably, I think I spotted one or two on the very edge of the test pieces, but you had to look very very closely! This time, I altered the recipe, added a couple of extra bits to see what happened and got the results above. The designs need refining and the application of the glaze is a little heavy handed, but with some tweaking, I think I can get these looking really good… and with some added ingredients, I’ll hopefully come up with some more desirable colours!    

Mixing my own glazes! Isn’t it always the way that all the lovely colours you see on ceramics are secret recipes, mixed by skilled craftsmen & women with years of testing & experience? Well I’ve decided that this year, I fancy a bit of that, so I’ve just taken my first steps in mixing my own colours. I’ve been really taken by a particular type of glaze, crystalline. The effects achieved from carefully controlling the heating and cooling process are incredible! Just take a look at some of the beautiful wares I’ve found while researching…     You have to agree, they’re incredible! Eventually, my hope is that the pottery wheel that has been gathering dust in the garage will be put to good use in creating items as gorgeous as those above, but for now, I’m going to attempt to put this effect on to some of my beads. So today, I have started developing my own recipes. I have a huge box full of different raw materials of which I’ve chosen a few to start me off. As I write the kiln is clicking away with my first pieces. Fingers crossed, when they come out, they’ll be cabochons with some of these beautiful crystals grown on them. But that’s the worst thing about ceramics, until you open the kiln on the following day, you never know if something has worked. It’s a long process to get from raw clay to finished item, and although the actual time spent making a bead, button or cabochon may only be a few minutes of shaping, painting and loading into the kiln, the whole process takes at least 4 days… not good for someone with a severe attention problem! So I’ll go now and check my kiln, for the 15th time in the last hour, just to make sure it hasn’t reached top temperature of 1100 degrees while I wasn’t looking! Keep everything crossed for me that tomorrow I get at least one crystal and that this is the start of something great!        

Everything goes wrong! I decided to update my site software over the weekend. It’s a while since it’s been done, so thought it was about time I sat down and brought it all up to date. I updated the WordPress version, clicked the button… 2 seconds later it’s updated and everything’s great… then I got a bit cocky and decided to update the shopp. Last time I did this I had a few problems, so I did all my backups, hovered over the button and clicked… got the message that the software had updated successfully (brilliant!) but now I needed to update the database. Clicked the button and computer said no! Apparently I didn’t have permission to access my own database so the update stopped and left me with half a shop :’( Anyway… long story short, I’ve changed the  e commerce software for the site and while I was at it, I fancied a bit of a makeover, so I’ve altered the template to focus more on the shop than the blog and give it a nice clean feel throughout that can also incorporate my logo. I’m really pleased with the new look. It might still need a few tweaks here and there, but is hopefully a more reliable system that will work as it should! Not quite so pleased that I had to spend the weekend working on the site and not making lovely new beads! I’d love to hear your comments about the new look and if you have any suggestions, feel free to join in!   Til next time…. Caroline x  

I had a great day out today at my first bead fair in Nantwich, Cheshire. It started far too early with an hour’s journey down the motorway, but was well worth it. I met some lovely people and was pleasantly surprised at how friendly and helpful everybody was. As a customer at the various fairs I’ve visited, stallholders have always been really willing to share information about how their beads were made, what they used to make them and different techniques used, and it was really refreshing to see that this didn’t change on the other side of the stall. In other industries things like that are a closely guarded secret, never spoken about, but in the craft world people are very willing and even pleased to share how they’ve created something and it was fascinating to listen to all the different processes, care and attention that went into making each bead unique to it’s creator.

So anyway, me and my still very tired husband hulked all my beads and bits of stall up the stairs at the Civic Hall and I set up my display. I have a real problem making decisions for designs, but was pretty chuffed with how the stand looked once all my ideas had come together (even if after some midnight ironing the tablecloth was still wrinkly!). It was a real DIY job with OH doing all the woodwork for the display and me covering it with hessian fabric for a ‘rustic’ effect. I got some lovely comments from visitors about both my beads and display and for my first outing had a pretty good day for sales. There are a few things I’ll be changing for my next stall layout, including using drawing pins for hanging the bead sets, I still have no feeling left in my thumbs from pressing them all in! A lot of people have said to me that the fairs aren’t so much about sales, but networking, and I’ve never really understood how that would work, but I’ve made some great contacts and met some lovely people I hope to see again, including lampwork artists Vickie from Beads4Breakfast, Rachel from Silverfusion.co.uk, and Diane from Dizzy Di’s bead shop who were all exhibiting upstairs alongside me. All in all it was a great day, and I enjoyed it so much, I’ll be booking for future fairs, including the Lakeland bead fair at the Rheged discovery centre in a fortnight. Keep an eye on the events page to see when and where I’ll be visiting next!

There just hasn’t been enough time in the day to get everything I’ve wanted to do done, and it seems like real life is so full of jobs and things to do that my beads have taken a back seat for the last few months. But that’s hopefully about to change! To make sure it isn’t more than a happy idea, I’ve booked my first bead fairs in May and July. I will be upstairs at the Cheshire Bead Fair in Nantwich on Sunday 15th May 10am – 4.30pm, and at the Beads up North fair at Haydock race course on 31st July 2011, 10am-4pm. I’ve got lots of new ideas planned for both fairs, including new Raku beads, so I’ll be posting some pictures up and putting new listings in the shop over the next couple of weeks. While you’re waiting for me to do that, why not have a look at some of the great people I’ve met through my habit, in real life and on the internet and have a browse though their websites to see some of their beautiful jewellery. I’ve created a new page just for links which will be filled with people who make amazing jewellery, beads and other things that inspire me. Follow the link to see my Friends & Fellow Artisans. I hope you find something that you’ll love!

It’s been a while since I posted anything at all on my blog or any new beads in my shop. Christmas, New year and a nasty dose of flu have kept me pretty busy for the last few weeks, but I’ve just finished taking photos of my newest batch of handmade ceramic beads. There are lots of new designs that will be posted in the shop and in my Etsy store over the next few days. I’ve been doing a bit of experimenting with slip trailing, mixing glazes and lustre painting and I’m really pleased with some of the results. There are focal beads, pendants and bead sets all coming soon.

I also wrote to santa asking for a light tent which I found under the tree on Christmas day which I think has really improved my pictures. I was struggling before to get the colours of the different glazes to match real life and the tent has made such a difference. So to celebrate the new year and my latest creations (albeit a little late!) I’ll be posting a giveaway this weekend for someone to win a gorgeous bead from my collection. More details will be posted soon!

After yesterday’s problems with the site, I don’t know if you noticed but the whole thing disappeared after a software upgrade, I’m finally back up and running with new beads added into the shop. I’ve been working on lots of different things over the past week or two and only have a few finished, so they’re in the shop right now, and I’ll have some more uploaded hopefully next week, so keep an eye out! The beads added in today are all stoneware with some gorgeous glazes, my favourite is the bronze metallic glaze, which for the life of me I can’t get a good photo of , it must be too shiny or something, but it has an oily metallic shine to it which is amazing. Also new are some glass fused ceramic cabochons. Get over to the shop and check them out =) Enjoy the rest of your sunday! Caroline

I was asked recently by a fellow Etsy member if I would donate one of my butterfly pendants towards the project she was taking part in over in Houston. I hadn’t heard about this before so I looked it up on the web. The project is being run by the Holocaust Museum in remembrance of the 1,500,000 children who perished during the holocaust. Their aim is to collect the same number of handmade butterflies for a display in the museum to be exhibited in spring 2013. So far the museum has been given 400,000 butterflies and the project is open to anybody of any age as individuals or groups. If you would like to find out more, or take part in the project, you can find out all about it here. I think this is an amazing thing to do and am really proud to have taken part, albeit in a tiny way. It also makes you appreciate all the good things we have in life and the people that gave their lives so we can live free.

I’ve been trying out lots of different techniques while making my beads and this time thought I would have a go at slip trailing. It’s quite addictive once you get started and I love these new bobble beads. I have two sets available in my shop, one large and one small, look out for more coming soon!