New Beads & Other News

I have new beads to show you this week at long last!

This first set is called "Andromeda"

and the second set is one of my favourites; "Lyme".

I plan to be producing beads a little more often than I have managed over the past few weeks, so keep checking my site and my gallery for new beads.

Despite the lack of beads, I have been busy making beads and jewellery for a very exciting fundraiser event in New York. The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust are hosting an Elephant Gala Fundraiser at The Wild Horses of Sable Island Gallery, and I was asked to make two pieces for the charity auction. So I have made pieces for two special orphan elephants; Chaimu and Turkwel.

Now this is the exciting bit! Their guest speaker is Kristin Davis, of Sex and the City fame, and she is (hopefully) going to be wearing one of the pieces for the evening. Gulp! Kristin was involved in the rescue of Chaimu, a male baby ele when she was visiting Kenya. I'm hoping Kristin might like the Chaimu piece enough to place a bid! Well you never know ;)

I will post some piccies of the pieces I made once the auction details are in the public domain, which should be soon.

I was asked to send a copy of my Bumpy Beads logo for them to add to the event Sponsors page, which I duly sent. It is quite bizarre to see my little logo displayed against some big brands, particularly the iconic Vespa brand. I think I could get used to it though!

I was wandering around the website of Making Jewellery magazine yesterday evening when I stumbled across some pictures of my beads and jewellery. These particular pieces featured in a recent edition of the magazine, but I didn't know they were online too! My beads are the ones at the bottom of the page, on the left. I'm sharing the page with some of Laura Sparling's delicious cupcake beads.

The other thing I have to tell you is that I went all sequins and sparkles a couple of weeks ago and went to see the Strictly Tour at the NEC. (Gon on, click the link - you know how you love THAT music!) It was fab!

I am a massive fan of the show and was in my element with Len, Arlene, Craig and Bruno. Kelly Brook is stunningly gorgeous, and the dancing hobbits, Chris and Ola were cute! Ali and Brian were in love, Ricky Groves was funny, Natalie Cassidy did a brilliant quickstep and Austin Healey displayed a marvellous chest, which justified the ticket price all by itself ;) Mark Ramprakash won the trophy the evening I went. I haven't enjoyed a night out so much in ages.

I'm back at the NEC again tomorrow, but this time to visit the Spring Fair International. It should be fun!

Have a great weekend :)

Verdigris beads published in the US.

I was really excited to learn recently that Lynn Davy won first prize in the Semiprecious Stone Contest, and her winning entry is featured in the September/October issue of the popular american magazine, "Step by Step Beads".

Lynn created an absolutely stunning necklace, which she called "Treasures of Atlantis". You can read all about it here.

Lynn used amazonite, labradorite and pearls, and a beautiful fine silver focal bead along with some of beady clusters, and my verdigris lampwork beads. The silver focal is by Rebecca Crabtree. I own one of Becci's silver lentils myself, and so I can vouch for how beautiful they are.

"Treasure of Atlantis" is a really gorgeous necklace, and I am so pleased that my own beads were fortunate enough to play a supporting role in this winning piece!

The September/October edition of the magazine features not only Lynn's winning necklace, but also a project for a matching bracelet, also incorporating my beads. Lynn has made some clever beaded beads for the bracelet.

Finally, there is a project to make matching earrings, which can be downloaded from the magazine website, and Lynn has used my verdigris beads in these too.

This is the first time my beads have featured in an american publication, so it is a big milestone for me. There is something quite surreal about browing through a magazine and your own creations jumping off the page at you. Lynn's pieces with my beads feature throughout the entire magazine, and Lynn has been generous enough to mention me as the bead artist. My website even gets a mention too. Thank you Lynn!

If you would like your very own verdigris beads to recreate Lynn's "Treasures of Atlantis" set, I would be happy to make some especially for you. Just contact me with your requirements and I'll give you a very reasonable price.

In Print Again!

I am really pleased to have discovered that I have had an article published in the June issue of Beads & Beyond. In it I write about my two greatest passions; beads and elephants, and how I've managed to find a way to combine them.

The article has been given a full page, with pictures of the jewellery I created for the auction in February, and of the orphan elephants in the care of the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust.

There are more auctions coming up in late May/early June, so the timing of this article is absolutely perfect! If just one person decides to foster an orphan elephant or rhino as a result of the article I will be so happy.

NDII

I make no apology for blogging the link to the DSWT's Orphans Project again.


I shall announce details of the forthcoming auctions as soon as I know the start date. Here we go again!

"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!

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!

I'm Website of the Week!

Gosh! I have been featured in the Spotlight slot over at Dichroicglass.co.uk.

It is a really nice article, and I'm so pleased they have chosen my Bora Bora beads, because I absolutely love them! Those are them on the right-hand-side. I was so excited I took a screen grab. I've never been featured on someone else's homepage before!

They have also mentioned my fossil beads and included a photo of Mesozoic. They have described my designs thus; "whilst traditional in origin they are wonderfully contemporary". I am always interested to discover how other people perceive my work, as I'm highly critical of it myself, and it is impossible for me to view it objectively.

Pop over to Dichroic Glass's website for some great articles, and tutorials. It is an excellent resource for what's new in the world of glass. It's really flattering for me, as a lampworker, to be featured on a website that is mainly concerned with glass fusing.

Project to be published!

I had some lovely news today. The project that I submitted to Bead Magazine has been accepted! It will be included in the December/January edition, or sooner if a slot becomes available. The project is for a necklace, and it includes wire work and some bashing with a hammer, which is always good fun.

I submitted the project on a whim, and now I actually have to deliver the goods! Ha! That serves me right for being so spontaneous!

I will let you know when to rush out and buy your copy!