Burnt Toast & Marmalade!

I've finally listed a couple of set of beads on my website. Hurrah! I've been so busy making jewellery that I haven't had any spare beads to list. Hopefully I'll be able to rectify the situation from now on.


Yes, I know this first set of beads has an unusual name (to say the least), but when I name my beads I like to choose the first name that springs to mind, so 'Burnt Toast & Marmalade' it is!


These were made with a gorgeous frit blend gifted to me by the lovely Tan.



This second set has a less whacky name, and I've called it 'Coral Reef".

I hope you approve!

Have a great weekend.

Elephant Auctions - Ended!

The Elephant Auctions finished today, and raised a grand total of £2941.50 for the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. I am thrilled!

With all of the doom mongers declaring recession, depression and the end of the world as we know it, I'd wondered whether the timing of the auctions was a little optimistic. I should have known better. The DSWT supporters have done it again! Thank you so much to everyone who bid, and for those of you who managed to win a piece, congratulations!

Last Day!

Tomorrow is the last day of the Elephant Auctions. The auctions end at around 4pm GMT. Once again people have been so generous, and as I write this bids are totalling a little over £2500. Amazing!

"Silver Caps" Project Published

Issue 14 of "Bead" was published today, and it contains my very first published project!

The lead time for getting items published is enormous, and I prepared it months ago, so it was as if I was seeing it for the first time. The project photos are a bit dodgy, having been taken on my old camera, but the magazine photographer has taken some lovely photos of the necklace itself. It even made the front cover. That means that with the beads that Lynn used in her project being on the front cover of the current issue of "Beads & Beyond", and this necklace being on the front cover of "Bead", you can't fail to miss me when you walk into WH Smiths this month!


The "elephant auctions" are going incredibly well again. At the moment bids amount to just over £1200, which is just brilliant! A massive thank you to everyone who has placed a bid.

Taveta

The DSWT sent an email out to all supporters today, with links to the auctions. The combined effect of that email, with the coverage I have in "Bead" and "Beads & Beyond" has resulted in a staggering number of hits on my website. While I have a few pieces of jewellery for sale on my website, on Etsy, Folksy and my new ArtForm studio, I have absolutely no beads for sale at the moment!

Please please keep my website bookmarked because there will be new beads and pieces of jewellery added in due course.


Well, that's it for now. I'm off to check how the auctions are going!

Elephant Auctions off to a Flying Start!

Well, the auctions are now LIVE here and totalling more than £180 in just four hours! Thank you to everyone who has helped get these auctions off to a flying start. Ndii with her keeper

These auctions will run until 29th January, but don't leave it until the last minute before placing your bid or you might miss out. "My" orphan elephants are Shimba and Makena, and I'm really pleased to see the pieces dedicated to them are doing well so far.

Good luck if you're bidding, and THANK YOU!

New Studio Open!

I have just opened my new online Studio at ArtFire.com, which is a relatively new online marketplace for all things art and craft. You can visit my Studio here. Don't forget to bookmark it!

It works in a similar way to Etsy, but instead of charging a listing fee and a commission for each item sold, ArtFire is FREE! You can list as many items as you like and it won't cost you a penny. You can upgrade to "verified account" status, which gives you a few more benefits for $7 per month, and that is guaranteed FOR LIFE! Pretty soon it will change to $20 a month, so acting early has hopefully saved me a small fortune - and that means more money for glass! On a good month I can pay way more than $7 on fees, so I think I'm on to a winner.

The thing that really made me decide to open an ArtFire Studio is the fact that they are planning to spend $7 to $10 million dollars on advertising in the next 12 months. Now that has to be a good thing. I mean, how many people do you meet who have even heard of Etsy, let along shopped there?

If you would like to jump on this particular bandwagon with me and sign up for $7 a month, for life, you can apply here. (If you use that link I'd be really grateful as I might end up with a free account for directing you there. Even more money for glass!)

ArtFire has its own equivalent of a Mini Etsy, called a Shop Window. Mine is in need of some tweaking so I can get it to work, and that's the thing with selling in different forums. Each place has it's own way of doing things, and it can be a drag getting to grips with it in the beginning. However, I really like the concept of ArtFire, so I think its worth it.

Elephants' names announced!

For those of you who have been eagerly waiting to find out whether one of "your" elephants has been chosen to have a piece of jewellery dedicated to them this time, the wait is over!


I can now announce that the elephants in whose name pieces of jewellery have been dedicated are;

Chyulu

Kora

Lenana

Makena

Naserian

Ndii

Shimba

Taveta

As you can see, I've added a little heart to each of these pieces, at Angela Sheldrick's suggestion, and this makes these pieces particularly suitable for a Valentine's gift. Again, each piece has a little silver tag added to it, which has been engraved with the orphan elephant's name.

You can access the auctions, once they are live, by clicking here. You can read all about the auctions on the DSWT's website here.

The auctions kick off at 4pm GMT on the 19th January and run for 10 days. Let's hope we can raise lots more money for the DSWT!

"Elephant Auctions" - date announced

I am very pleased to announce that eight more pieces of my jewellery are being auctioned by the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. The auctions begin on Monday 19th January and will run for ten days. This time I have added a special "something" to each of the pieces and this will make them the perfect Valentine's gift!

Here is a sneak peek of one of the pieces.

The names of the elephants will be announced soon, so keep checking back here! Once again, each of the pieces has a small silver tag, engraved with the elephant's name. The pieces are totally unique, and will never be repeated, so don't miss your chance to own a special piece of jewellery dedicated to "your" elephant.

If you don't yet have your own elephant (and every home should have one!) you can find out how to foster an orphan elephant on the DSWT's website, here.

Once the auctions are live on Ebay you will be able to view them by clicking on this link, which will also appear on the Trust's website.

If you would like to read about the last auctions that took place in November 2008, which raised £3200 for the Trust, you can read an update on the DSWT's website here.

Happy bidding!

Hold the Front Page!

I bought the latest copy of "Beads & Beyond" (Issue 17, Feb) today, and was thrilled to see some of my beads on the front cover! Ok, so they're right at the very bottom of the page, (I've drawn a big red ring around them so you don't miss them!), but they're definitely there!

Lynn Davy has had a brilliant project published inside, where she has used three of my lampwork beads in her "Clunk, Click Keyring" piece. I really love her keyring, which is a gorgeous combination of seedbeads, lampwork, buttons and copper findings.

Inside the magazine there's a lovely full page photograph of the keyring, and it's quite a novelty seeing my beads there!

I am ever so grateful to Lynn for mentioning that every sale I make from my website results in a donation to the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. What a lovely thing to do, and every mention of the Trust serves to heighten its profile a little more, which is brilliant!

Addendum: Lynn has just offered me the ORIGINAL piece, as featured in the magazine, to use to raise funds for the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, if and when she manages to get it back from the publishers! How generous is that?! THANK YOU Lynn!

Watch this space!

Finished, finally!

I finally completed the necklace and bracelet set that I started in November! I have been so distracted by other things that after about three inches of making the bracelet I had to set it to one side. Well I sat down a couple of afternoons ago to do a bit more, and got so engrossed that I ended up finishing the bracelet and making the entire necklace! Obsessive? Me? Noooooo.....

This set is all mine. My hubby bought me the silver to make it for my birthday. I have been teasing him mercilessly saying that most women get their jewellery gift-wrapped in a pretty box, while I get a reel of silver wire and a pair of pliers to make my own. He knows I'm just kidding, it was the perfect gift!

The necklace looks really elegant worn just by itself, but it looks just as nice with a pretty pendant hanging from it. I'm sure it will be a well worn piece. The bracelet is really light and I love it!

I also got to experiment with my new large lentil press, and I decided I needed a purple bead to wear with a new jumper. So, I made this, and it looks lovely on my new chain.


Now all I need to do is make a lentil to match all my other jumpers and I'm sorted!