Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Well I think I am beginning to thaw out after spending the weekend in a freezing marquee at the Jinney Ring. This has to have been the coldest weekend of the winter so far, and it is just typical that it coincided with the Jewellery Fair.

Half of the stalls were inside, and the other half were outside in the marquee, which was open both ends, so not much help in keeping warm! Despite the cold, it was a really nice event, and those of us in the marquee shared tips on keeping warm in Siberian conditions. When we arrived this morning we all looked twice the size we looked yesterday, because we'd added a few extra layers of clothing for today!

I have learned that a piece of carpet underfoot really prevents the cold from the ground chilling your bones. I've also learned that when your Mum says "Wear a hat, it'll make all the difference" it is actually true. Finally, I've learned that biros don't flow in cold conditions, but noses do.

It was really lovely to meet existing customers, and some new ones too. I even had a visit from a lovely gentleman and his wife who bought one of the charity pieces for the orphan elephants a couple of weeks ago. They left with my most favourite necklace, and I am thrilled it's gone to such a lovely home.

All in all it was a lovely weekend!

Designer to the Stars!

Several months ago there was a Forum Challenge to design a piece of jewellery for an Eastenders cast member. It all started when Barbara Windsor (aka Peggy Mitchell) was spotted on tv wearing a gorgeous bracelet. Sooz, of the Forum, contacted Barbara to ask about it, and Barbara explained that the bracelet had been a gift but she had subsequently lost it. We all decided to contribute beads to make her a new bracelet!

Well then we all thought how nice it would be if we could send the other cast members something too, so I made this for Samantha Janus, who plays Ronnie Mitchell.



I used my own lampwork beads with some lace agate, and hammered some wire to mount them on. Then I used a pretty bail to hang them from a silver chain.

This week I received a thank you note from Samantha.



How nice! You never know, I may see her wearing it at the next red carpet event!

Paperweights!

I had a birthday last week, and Becky of Chameleon Designs produced the perfect blown glass paperweights for me to spend my birthday money on!

Becky and her fellow Uni students are raising money so that they can go to New Designers next year, and these paperweights are Becky's contribution.

This was my first purchase. A gorgeous ribbony swirl of blue, highlighted against a fritty white trail.



I liked it so much that when Becky made a second batch I just had to have this one.



Trails of cranberry captured in beautifully clear glass.

Well done Becky, these are fabulous!

Kitty, the Woodland Fairy

Meet Kitty, the Woodland Fairy.





Kitty is the fabulous creation of the very talented and generous Sabine Little of Little Castle Designs. Sabine is talented because she makes the most fabulous sculptural beads, and generous because she offered the stunning Kitty up as an incentive for members of the Frit Happens Forum to make a donation to Children in Need.

Sabine not only makes exquisite fairies, she also makes beautiful butterflies and roses and has a real talent for these sculptural pieces.

Sabine sent me Kitty to bring me luck and grant my wishes, and I have had a major piece of luck this week (more of that another day), so she's certainly fulfilling her role!

Massive thanks to Sabine for her generosity. I will treasure Kitty always.

::::::::::: Drumroll ::::::::::

The Charity auctions for the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust finished today and raised the grand total of...............

£3201.75

This will make an enormous difference to the Trust, and I'm so grateful to everyone who has been so generous.

The top price was made by the "Lesanju" piece, which finally sold for £670. Incredible!

And guess what? We're doing it all over again! Watch this space to find out about when the next auction will be taking place.

Organics Necklace

Just a quick blog today as I wanted to show you this necklace. I'm really pleased with it!

Click on the picture to see more details.

Oh... and the elephant auctions have now tipped over the £2000 mark!!!

Beautiful People

I have been completely staggered today by the level of interest I have had in my beads and jewellery. Followers of my Blog will have read about the Charity auctions that are taking place this week for the DSWT.

A staggering £500 was raised shortly after the auctions were published on the Trust's website. Now that is just incredible, but NOTHING compared to what happened today when the Trust emailed all its supporters to tell them about the auctions!

From the moment I woke up my iPhone hasn't stopped pinging with emails from people enquiring about my beads and jewellery, and I've had lots of sales today. The frustrating thing is that I have lots more stock to list, but am unlikely to have time to list it until Friday. Doh!

Unfortunately "Bumpy Beads" has to fit in around my "real" job, so apologies for not getting new items into my shop immediately.

But that's not all! As I type, the auctions are currently at over £1500! Elephant people are Beautiful People! If you have bid on one of my pieces THANK YOU.


I wish all of the bidders the very best of luck in winning a special Orphan Elephant piece, and if you're not lucky enough to win, perhaps you may find something you like on my website over the weekend.


Here's a sneak preview of some of the items I'll be listing shortly. I have fossil pendants, charm pendants and some gorgeous glass bead necklaces with maille chains. Keep checking back!

Off to a Flying Start!

After a little more than 24 hours over £500 has been raised from the auctions of my jewellery for the DSWT. I am absolutely chuffed! Thank you very much to everyone who has bid so far.

But with 9 days left there's still plenty of time to grab yourself a Christmas gift. Just pop over here to the auctions.

Grab a bargain!

A little while ago I blogged that I'd been working hard on a commission, and I promised I'd reveal what it was all about in due course.

Well I'd actually been asked to create eight pieces of jewellery for the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust to auction off to raise funds for their exceedingly worthwhile cause. The eagle-eyed amongst you will have noticed that I support this charity by donating £1 for every item I sell to the Trust. I've blogged about the DSW Trust before, here.

So after much making of beads, and scratching my head to come up with a couple of designs, not to mention a batch of silver elephant charms going missing in action somewhere between my house and Chang Mai in Thailand, the auctions finally went live today. Yay!

The DSWT is going to be emailing its supporters around the globe to tell them about the auctions and I really do hope people see what a perfect opportunity this is to do a bit of Christmas shopping and support a worthy cause at the same time. There might not be any 3 for 2 gift offers here, but you will be getting a one-off piece of glassy art. Not bad eh?

Here's a taster of a couple of the pieces being auctioned, together with a picture of the elephant that each piece is dedicated to.

Firstly meet Lesanju, who was rescued after she fell down a well;

And this is Siria, rescued when his sick mother failed to respond to veterinary treatment;

You can see and bid on all the pieces here, and read a little bit about the elephant that each piece is dedicated to.

The auctions are featured on the DSWT website too, here.