Handmade Cards & Commissions

A week of card making and silversmithing - perfect!

It's been a busy few days full of birthdays, Father's Day and more so the dining table has been littered with pretty papers, ribbons and flowers!

These are just a hobby for me really, I take commissions by word of mouth and don't sell them anywhere online but if you think I can help with anything - just ask! I love making them!

A couple of weeks ago I also got asked to come up with a floral necklace in silver with the recipients favourite stone - emerald. It was decided that a poppy shape would be just right as she had them in her garden!
And here is the result:

I still get nervous soldering but I know it's just a practise makes perfect issue - I'm always so conscious of how much the materials cost, what if it solders in the wrong place, what if I get too much firescale etc!!!
But I'm pretty pleased with this one and it has definitely inspired me to get back to the torch - at least once a week!

My next post will show you my latest Graceful Deviant product launch so stay tuned!

Featured Bead Artisan Part VI: Linda Newnham

A very warm welcome to Linda who makes the most glorious glass beads over on the Isle of Wight! You will recognise a lot of her work in my designs as I am a big fan of her style!

How did you begin your craft?

It all started when I went to some ceramics classes with a friend and made some beads. Of course I had to make something with them and the next logical step was to take a jewellery making class where I made a necklace, bracelet and earrings using the beads I had made.

Linda's Ceramic Bead Bracelet

I found the process of making the beads very slow, making them one week, glazing them the next and then having to go back the following week to pick them up.

There were only 2 bead shops on the Isle of Wight where I live (only 1 now) with not a great selection so I started buying jewellery from charity shops that I could break up and use. I found buying beads online a frustrating experience so when I saw someone making glass beads during an Open Studios visit I was fascinated. I was so excited at the thought I could make my own beads in any colours I liked.

I set about investigating online to see what I would need to set up this craft of lampworking and found Becky Fairclough who lived not far from my Mum and did induction courses. I signed up for a 2 day course and made my first glass beads. That was in June of 2011. I picked up my equipment from the Big Bead Show in September and finally started making beads in the November and I haven't looked back since.

An early picture of Linda's studio - it's grown a lot in recent years!

Where do you draw your inspiration? 

That's a tricky one as it's never from just one source, sometimes it's someone else's work such as  glass artist such as Chihuly or a painter. But quite often I find it is in the process of making beads that inspiration strikes, one thing leads to another and ideas pop into my head as I go along.

Describe one of your favourite techniques to use in your work?

I would have to say at the moment it is making headpins for those of you who don't know what a headpin is, it is basically a glass bead on the end of a piece of wire. 

Fabulous Glass Bead Headpins

Is there anything new you are itching to try and incorporate?

I have so much glass I haven't tried yet and a gold fuming kit I have yet to use to name but a couple of things I would like to try.

What would you describe as your biggest professional achievement?

Well, I am going to narrow that down to my biggest achievement in lampworking and that would be my recent win of the jewellery category of the Glass Beadmakers UK annual competition at Flame Off. A necklace inspired by a Dale Chihuly sculpture I saw in Murano last year. I am very proud of this piece which has over 100 headpins in it.

 You can find out more about Linda's work via her website and stay in touch on Facebook! 

It's crunch time - the detox is over!

Drum roll please......

Not going to lie, this detox has required a lot of time and attention to make sure I didn't fall off the wagon so I haven't been updating my blog daily! That said, there's not a lot to write about with respect to what I was actually eating as the last 4 days are self explanatory - see the full plan here.

I did however have a brief change around on Day 6 - rather than just beef and veg, I took out most of the beef and replaced with wholegrain brown rice. Yummy!

Breakfast, lunch and dinner!!

So, how have I been feeling? Well, as much as I hate Day 5 (beef and tomatoes), the increase to 3L of water was fantastic! I felt full of energy, my stomach was feeling a lot less bloated and flatter and I wasn't craving anything stodgy (unlike on the fruit and veg days!).

Day 6 was a strange day and I thought I'd made a terrible mistake in introducing the brown rice a day early as I went to bed feeling very bloated indeed. I felt better in the morning but made sure I cooked more veg and less rice on the final day.

The scales beckoned this morning and the moment of truth.....124.6 lbs!! That's 5.2 lbs loss in a week! Woohoo!
Now the real work starts to maintain this loss. If you try this detox, lose weight but the very next day after finishing think 'Ooo I can have a takeaway for dinner now' then this detox has not worked for you!!!
I am now inspired to keep drinking my 2L of water, cooking from scratch with fresh ingredients and cutting back on processed foods, sugar and carbs. I have been looking to improve my diet since Feb last year when I started keeping a food diary - not just for calorie counting but to open my eyes to how much fat and sugar was in the food I was eating. I'm now proud to have lost 22.4 lbs since then. Slow and steady making just a few lifestyle changes - that's the way :)

Feel free to ask me any further questions on what I ate during this detox, how to get more creative on your fruit and veg days - anything at all! There is a science behind this detox too so if you do want to undertake the challenge, please follow every day exactly as it is laid out - don't swap days around!

I hope you have enjoyed these posts even if they are a little different to my usual but if you think about it, it is still along the same vein as my blog - homemade/handmade is best :)