Sweet jeebus…October was my last post?

Bad BAD naughty blogger.  Although I can’t really call myself that now can I?

Anyway, I’ve realised that even if no-one reads my inane babblings, it’s still a good way for me to keep track of my intentions (for intentions read “overflow of tenuously linked, sometimes unrealistic, idealistic or nihilistic might-do-one-day-if-Iever-get-myself-organised thoughts”…) so I’m going to try to get back into it.  I like writing, so I’ll carry on. 

I seem to have morphed into a ‘portfolio’ person, popping jewellery, music and now textile feathers in my cap…have developed an obsession with fleece and needle felting – thankfully no injuries yet, although one was sustained by my daughter who took her eye off her furiously active felting needle to watch Ronnie Mitchell slap Roxy Mitchell across the chops, and as a result the barbed (yes barbed) needle plunged THROUGH the tip of her finger.  Needless to say a lesson learned.

I’m felting people.  Small, fuzzy, somewhat Burtonesque, gothicky people.  Here are some.

silly haired wayward daughter

silly haired wayward daughter's slighty more staid mother

 

There are more, there’s a little peanut of a baby, some more facial expressions….these were the prototypes if you will.  Anyway, they’re logged now, and in my new spirit of blogging, that means I’ll have to do something with them.  Oh yes I will!

More jewellery news to come….

oh god oh god more gerbil nastiness!!!

So, went out the front door this morning to take Sprog #1 to the stables as is her wont…went to step off the pavement and what do I see?  I very flat, old, crinkly but slightly moist rodent at the side of the road.  Stifling a “EWWWW!” I whisk the girls round the other side of the parked car, as I suspect this might be the remains of the late, great Gnasher. 

On my return, I take a momentarily longer look and notice the distinct blackness of the remaining hair, the huge back feet and the stumpy tail (the result of being nipped off by the cat on a previous, pre-mortem occasion).  It was, as I suspected, our Gnasher, having been brought home by one of the moggies, as they do.

Ick.  I enlisted resident strapping man, i.e. husband to pick it up in a carrier bag so as not to traumatise the girls once they realised.  Anyway, we now have closure, and can grieve properly, knowing that he has in fact bitten the dust BIG time, and isn’t living it up cruising the neighbourhood, making passes at the local ladymouse population.

x

Tags: closure, death, gerbil, grief, pavement

new site new site go look go look !!!!!

So yes, finally the new site is up and ready – beaushambles , my new jewellery incarnation – HURRAH and rejoice across the oceans

I’ll still be running code at the same time, just for different purposes… who knows, they may merge at some point, I’m finding it hard to define what should go where at the mo! 

So far feedback’s been really good and had some sales already yip-yip-yippee! It’s lovely to have a site up that I can sell direct with, not sure why but my PayPal account’s not liking mr.site very much.  The new one’s with Clikpic, which is flummin’ fantastic if you’re after an uber-simple, pick-up-and-go gallery style facility with really clean, uncluttered templates – I’m lovin’ it (do-do-do-do-dooooo as Justin would say).

As fabbo as mr.site has been in terms of getting a handle on where clickers are coming from (and the Pro version has got ace widgets and extras), I think for the sake of simplicity I may transfer everything over to Clikpic once my year’s subscription’s up…then, when I’ve actually started making gajillions of squids I can get a full whizz-bang-does-what-you-want-it-to-when-you-want-it-to-do-it-and automatically-fills-in-your-tax-return-after-feeding-the-kids-and-doing-the-dishes website designed by people who know how to realise the dreams of us plebs.

Anyway, nuff said, have a look at the new site, let me know what you think

TTFN xx

Tags: beauSHAMBLES, clikpic, jewellery, mr.site, new range, paypal, web design, website

Polymer clay gubbins…

…so, the polymer clay bits I posted last week, all those loopy watery wave patterns and stuff… made my first pieces with it today - well chuffed with the results… these are the water ones I’ve done so far.  Just my take on a really simple turtle setting, but it sets off the patterns nicely I reckon.

Also in the pipeline are stone versions, as well as paler water ones that’ll have Jo’s laahvley poetry snippets on… nice to be in the studio today actually…tis a lovely place to be when the sun’s shining in

As if it’s still that tidy!!!! This was when I moved in in April – now looks like the Silver Fairy and the Solder Demons have been battling out for the territory, but I still love being there!  And if you’re now sitting there scoffing, “PAH!! She calls THAT tidy!?!?” then it’s probably a good idea I don’t show you what it’s actually like.  But that’s what happens when you rent the smallest space in the building

 

So, the Navigation collection (the water polymer clay stuff) and some more forays into textiles are likely to be the new things at the Banks’ Mill Open Studios (which are on November 21st-23rd incidentally)…might have to drop in for a felting session at the Long Eaton Art Room to get me started

 

Right, I’m offski, night night x

Tags: Banks' Mill, Jo Bell, Long Eaton Art Room, Navigation, Open Studios, poetry, polymer clay, studio, water

The Great Gerbilarium in the Sky

Picture the scene.  5:15am, we’re all blissfully asleep.  Then, an almighty crash and an 11 year old girl screaming blue murder.  We spring out of bed, and as the haze of sleep ascends, it becomes clear that there is a crisis occurring; someone has left the bathroom door open resulting in one of the cats launching itself at the gerbil cage, tipping it over, springing the top off and releasing the gerbils into the relative wild of the bathroom.  Eric, the aforementioned cat, got hold of Gnasher, the lovely little jet black and shiny emo gerbil, and pegged it downstairs and out of the catflap before Adie could grab the little git by his tail.

So, Gnasher has either been released so Eric could have a play and then scarpered, or been unceremoniously chomped .  Either way, the poor wee thing’s a goner.  Last seen dangling from Eric’s chops as our feline murderer was caught red-gobbed on the back fence by Adie and a torch.  Sniff.

 

Evie, needless to say, was inconsolable and has now decided to be a vegetarian on the basis that her gerbil (Gnasher was hers, Diego is Ruby’s) has been eaten…I’m sure it makes sense when you’re 11.  Bless her.

 

So, Eric has will most definitely be getting his Catbook page revoked, so there’ll be no Nietzsche-based literary discussion with his mates online any more, oh no sirree.  He’s also banished to the back garden for the time being while poor Diego gets his bearings after the trauma, and we’ll be shopping for Gnasher 2 this weekend I expect. 

 

C’est la guerre…

 

x

Tags: cats, eating, gerbils, murder, pets, sleep deprivation, vegetarianism

Clay marvellousness…

Morning..been getting into polymer clay recently, as you’ll see from the beauSHAMBLES post below, the roses - versatility, colour, the ultimate in random & happy accidents, like it v. much.

In a link with my love of water – lakes, rivers, oceans, beaches - had a bit of a fiddle to see if I could come up with some satisfying wave type stuff…here’s what happened:

LOVE these streaks, finding my way round the colour combinations, giving it depth, layering it all up – I’m diggin’ this big time. So, this is going to form a new collection, more details soon…will involve poetry also…hmmmmm, poetry I hear you ask, where be the link thar then… you’ll see mateys, you’ll see

 

Ahoy hoy

 

x

Tags: clay, new jewellery, poetry, polymer clay, water

Bathtime…

Had an episode and a half a couple of nights ago – Moe (our guinea pig, named after Moe Szyslak, erstwhile companion of the late, great Chester) rarely gets out of his luxury condo double-decker hutch, mainly as we don’t have time to lavish lurve on him as much as we’d like.

 

Anyway, we noticed his claws were getting a bit long, so when I got home from work the other night, I walked in to kind Moe sitting on Adie’s lap on the sofa, looking mighty chilled. He got a lovely brush, a pedicure…then we decided it was hightime for bathtime   Moeski loved it, L’Oreal Strawberry shampoo and everything!

Moe in bathing mode

Tags: bath, guinea pig, Moe Szyslak, The Simpsons

beauSHAMBLES…

So yup, finally got round to photographing the new lines for the new ‘company’, beauSHAMBLES.

I think this stuff will be on a separate site, fully online-shoppable – will post the site link when it’s up

There’ll be four main collections from beauSHAMBLES: Rosa, Maya, Yukata and Silica.  The Code collections, Victoriana and Coast will carry on as they are….and will be joined by a new collection launching at the Banks’ Mill Open Studios, weekend of 21st November.

 

To whet your appetite, some yummy pics of the beauSHAMBLES collections…

black yukata bracelet

rosa bracelet – gold

rosa wisdom bracelet – gold

chrysanth yukata bracelet

rosa bracelet – green

leaf yukata bracelet

Tags: beauSHAMBLES, kimono, new collection, roses, yukata

So….

….yup, here I am, enjoying the more sophisticated style of wordpress over blogger… yes I’m THAT shallow that I change blog because of the themes   You knew that anyway, so no biggie.

So, what’s new?  Well, working on a couple of commissions, mate’s missus’ birthday earrings, stuff like that.  Waiting for funds to buy some felting gear – yes felting.  I’m still hung up on all things textile, so been investigating some suppliers of lovely curly multi-hued Wensleydale and Norwegian fleece for my latest flit.  Got SO many ideas, my poor wee brain is struggling big time.

Also looking to start on a collection based on Jo Bell’s Navigation poems – I urge you, nay IMPLORE you to get hold of a copy of that book, it’s immensely good. 

Everything seems to be taking on a nostalgic, romantic hue at the moment – as you can see from my ‘Things about me’ spiel, I’ve decided many things about my direction so expect some eclectic wonders from now on.

x

Tags: blogging, commissions, Jo Bell, new collection, nostalgia, poetry, romance

That elusive ‘floating jewellery’ shot, and potential international sales!!

Hulloooo – this week I have been mostly…well, exposing. Or overexposing.

For a while I’ve wanted to do those images that look like the jewellery is sitting on the page…you know what I mean, washed out white background, slight shadow – the sort of shot that Laura at http://www.beadsbylaura.co.uk/ seems bloody good at taking!

Getting the new camera was key to this, meant I could manually adjust the aperture, which I hadn’t previously been able to do. Also had some fab pointers from David Ross, a fellow Banks’ Miller, re. lighting, aperture etc. etc. You can’t really appreciate the shots here, as the background’s dark, but here it is anyway – you can always go to http://www.codejewellery.com/ to have a look as I update images…

In addition this week, got my first potential overseas buyer WOOHOO! A lovely lady in North Carolina love the ring you see above….if you fancy one yourself, and you’ve got a stone in mind, give me a shout

Adieu mon brave!