A New Angle

I'm a beggar for spending hours on the internet trying to find just the right toggle or chain or clasp. Here's where I start putting all that time to good use. I've opened yet another online shop http://www.folksy.com/shops/FindingBeadtopia .

I'm quiet proud of this play on words (I must get out more!) So now I am spending many happy hours (and I mean hours if not whole days) getting up close to jumprings and toggles and taking numerous photos which then need cropping and so on and so on.

It really isn't work if you love what you are doing, or so I read somewhere. Lets hope I find my own Beadtopia !

Fusing - Something Square for a Change

I recently treated myself to a glass fusing for jewellery course at Pearsons Glass in Liverpool. It seemed to take forever to come around as I booked it months ago. The course was really enjoyable, we were a small group so you could ask questions and get help with the tricky bits. I had tried to cut glass at home with little success but the tutor gave me a few pointers and suddenly it was easy (ish).

I now have numerous glass pendants that I love to wear and some less succesful blobs of glass which I am sure I will find a use for some day. The most surprising thing about the day though was seeing my high school Metalwork teacher waiting to take the course alongside me when I arrived !! I'm not sure if this made him feel old ( I imagine he sees ex-pupils all the time) but it certainly made me feel old as we could have easily been taken for the same age. Either he's had a charmed life or I've had a hard one !

When I arranged my bits of glass I had in mind some cufflinks for my Son using copper oxide powder to create bubbles and a blueish tinge. I've posted this photo as they turned out just as I planned and he loves them.