Saturday 9 April 2016

Sunshine!

Well after my moaning about the weather post yesterday the sun seems to have come out! The sky keeps going grey and threatening to rain but it is sunny!

Today I have been nominated for a RAK (random act of kindness in case you didn't know) giveaway by a lovely lady called Debbs. She makes beautiful masks and headbands, if you would like to have a look you can find her facebook page here. It has made my day that someone has thought about me in this way and I have been grinning like a Cheshire cat all morning.

I have also decided that I will be going to the flame off this year, It is an event held by the glass suppliers for bead makers to generally spend the day drooling over glass and other artists work, have a practice and watch tuitions. I have been wanting to go for the last five years but something has always got in the way, this year I had pretty much decided to put it off until next year again but I thought sod it! I am going otherwise I will never get there. I am not going for the full day as I can't use my arm anyway so the torches are off the menu, I would like to go to the demonstrations but I will be happy with just going this year and next year I can spend the whole day or maybe two :).

Below are another new set I made, I love the red and purple together and like making lentils with flowers on. I hope you like them as much as me, if so they are available to purchase here.


Bye for now!


Friday 8 April 2016

The great British weather


Afternoon everyone, I don't have much to report as I haven't been doing much thanks to the great British weather and the constant wind and rain we have experienced since last summer.. Summer? what's summer? I hear you ask! well that is the three day stretch of sun we have in May where a big orange ball appears in the sky. On a more serious note I have a leak in my studio and each time it rains I get a puddle on my window sill, husband is on the case but need a dry day to seal the leak from the outside, hmm ... good luck with that!

This morning saw another trip to the orthodontist with my son after his brace bracket fell off. One of his teeth is twisted so it need straightening and pulling forwards but it is a bit too twisted I think and it has fell off twice. Third time lucky I hope, The orthodontist is brilliant with my son, he is 14 and on the autistic spectrum so putting dental equipment what buzzes in his mouth is a big no no. The lady who sorts his brace out is brilliant with him and I only explained to her once about the situation and each time we go in she makes sure he is comfortable and tells him what is going to happen and what it may feel like. She also stops straight away to calm him if anything upsets him and I wish there were more understanding people like her in the world for people like my son.

Anyway enough about my day, I'm off to make some dinner and catch up with TV while the children are relaxing, I will leave you with some seashells made with black glass and have a lovely purple frit pattern.


Also these are some ceramic earrings I recently made, I love the colours!


Tuesday 5 April 2016

hello again!

This is a habit I didn't want to get into ... you know, letting my page slip!

This time I have a good reason, around eight weeks ago I damaged the brachial nerve in my shoulder and I haven't been able to make beads. I thought when the nurse told me to rest my left arm it wouldn't be too bad with being right handed, how wrong was I? I think I use my left arm more than I do my right!
I am slowly easing back into bead making and I can now carry light items so fingers crossed!

In the meantime I will show you some beads you haven't seen yet.


These are purple with pink swirls, I don't tend to make pink beads but I love this glass.


The bracelet is one of my latest makes with one of my own birds, my daisy flower and some of my spacers. The colours are so soft and delicate and I adore this bracelet.


Sunday 17 January 2016

showcase time!

Sorry I have let me page slip for the last week I have been getting ready for my showcase.

Each month I sign up to sell my lampwork beads on a selling page on Facebook, my day for January was Saturday.
Here are some of the beads I sold.


These daisy's I tend to make in sets like this or sets of 3 with yellow and white flowers.


This is  new heart I was trying out.


Some sand lentils which I also have available in red/orange.

So i have some other stuff going on at the moment and will be back to tell you about it soon :).

Friday 8 January 2016

The weekend is almost here!

After the first week of everyone being back at school and work I am feeling more than a little bit tired and really looking forwards to a relaxing weekend.

I have been making lots of beads this week and have really been enjoying it, I have a few new designs on the go and can't wait to see what you all think of them.
In the meantime here are some of my other beads :D.



Here is a new bracelet I made too, it is full of lovely lampwork beads!


Enjoy your weekend everyone!

Tuesday 5 January 2016

Tuesday!

Tuesday for me are the busiest day of the week! My son finishes school early and needs to be dropped off at fire cadets, my daughter goes to after school club while I do this and then I pick her up and drop her at drama class. They both need to to be picked up an hour or two later and then we have tea and relax.

So with all this out of the way now I can blog.

Today I wanted to show you one of my favourite bracelets so far, I made the fairytale tower bead and purple spacers, I thought the cream Czech glass flowers went perfect with it too.
It can be purchased here.


Some other recent makes include this set of green spotty lentils which can be purchased here

Well I am off for a hot cup of tea and a rest, see you again soon!

Monday 4 January 2016

Hello

Hello! well it has been so long since I have blogged and so much has changed that I decided to set up a new blog with a new name.

This will be my beading blog for my lampwork beads with some jewellery and life photos thrown in!

For those you you who don't know me I am Jo from Lampwork beads by Jo, I live in Lancashire with my husband and two children and i will like melt glass.

Here is a picture of one of my latest sets to show you what I do. I have a cricket torch which I use to melt the glass, shape it into a bead and anneal it in my bead cube kiln (it isn't as easy as that but you catch my drift).

I also make my beads into jewellery.

Like this fox bracelet I recently made, both my beads and my jewellery can be purchased at www.lampworkbeadsbyjo.co.uk

Well that is it for now and I will be catching up again soon!