Blogtobefest day 11 Upcoming Kumihimo class with Kat Newman at Studio 2

I'm so pleased to be able to announce that Kat Newman is going to be my very first visiting tutor over at studio 2 in Ruislip. If you fancy a day learning how to make beautiful Kumihimo braids please send either Kat or myself a message.

Have a great weekend, Jolene x

When the postman knocks twice... #blogtoberfest13 Day 4

Then I get super delicious post...twice! Happy me :-D

The first parcel was from Bavarian Beads and contained my new heart and medallion presses. It was an extravagant purchase but it has been a very long time since I bought new tools. In my defence I did ask around to see if there was anything similar going second hand first buy alas, there were none :-D Aren't they beautiful!

And the next delivery was from the very lovely Yvette Goodridge, a trade parcel of seed beads for lampy supplies. What a fabulous riot of colour, I love them, looking all delicious all lined up in their cute little tubes.

Both parcels arrived yesterday and so I spent the afternoon in the studio playing and the evening in front of the telly playing and here is what I made.......

My first hearts, I'm loving the shape. The red hearts fit the press shape exactly, the striped hearts were made to fit the press and then decorated and then shaped by hand. The lufly snowy heart in the center has been decorated with 00 crystal clear frit. I'm finding the press pretty easy to use, these are the largest size, 20mm, in the Bavarian Heart S real 3D.

I'm a total smitten kitten with this press, the Bavarian Medallion XXL, which is a whopping 36mm. Just one bead made with it yesterday and I love how slim the bead is in profile. The bead is substantial but light and I found it a lot more intuitive to use than I thought I would. really looking forward to getting back into the studio later for another play with it.

It is a little bit cheating to show you this picture as I made the burgundy and green pendants on Monday. The pinky lilac one was last nights make using some very pretty seedies from my Y-beads swap. My daughter has dibs on it for her treasure box already this morning. All of these pendants are variations on a lovely tutorial on how to bezel a cab by Carol Passaro who also has a lovely selection of rivoli's in her Esty Shop. They are super blingy and a little hard to resist.



Have a lovely day, Jolene x

Blogtoberfest12 and HAF blog

I've been thinking for a long while that I'd like to become a regular contributor over on the Handmade Artists' Forum Blog but was hesitant to put my name in the hat, firstly being uncertain on what kind of regular feature I wanted to share and secondly wondering weather I would be able to find the time to make regular contributions. It would not be a nice feeling to commit to a project then fail to deliver. To prove to myself that I could achieve that goal I set myself a personal daily blogging challenge through October first.

Just a couple of days in to my challenge Kerry, one of my smart and talented Craft Pimp Forum buddies, told me that she was going to be blogging daily in October too for Blogtoberfest12 which is now in it's 4th year. I hadn't heard of Blogtoberfest before and so I signed up to join the fun too. It buoyed me up no end knowing that I was going to be part of 300+ strong group of people aiming to achieve exactly the same goal. Anyhow, I've thoroughly enjoyed this month of daily blogging.....and am a little sad that Blogtoberfest12 is nearly over. Now that I know that there is more than enough time in the day for a teeny bit-o-blogging I've officially joined the HAF blog team and have a proper intro post and everything :-D

Jolene x