Folksy Friday Shop Feature

I haven't done a Folksy Friday blog post for a reeeeally long time!  I have decided to feature one shop that I have recently discovered and love.
It's Kilo Lemur Lampwork .  Kaye makes lovely lampwork beads, and sells them at a very reasonable price.  I have bought some that I plan to use to make myself something beautiful but plan to buy lots more in the future to make jewellery for my shop.  
I've  loved the idea of making lampwork glass beads ever since I first saw some a few years ago, but me and a very hot flame is not a good combination at all!
Here are some of the beads she has on sale at the moment - I want them all but can't buy any more just yet :(

Opus Terra beads, only £18 for all these beads!

 Three cute skulls,

Bijou Crystal Beads  The colours on these are gorgeous!

Aunt Dotty Bead Set  Pretty spotty beads.

There are more, go and see for yourself, if you make jewellery I defy you not to buy any!
If you don't make jewellery yourself, Kaye also makes jewellery as Triple Moonstar, so I'm sure she would make you something with the beads of your choice. 

Some new beads

Here as promised on Facebook,  are some photos of my latest project.  I'm really pleased with it.  I've made a necklace and earring set for the winter exhibition at Arteria's Gallery 23 in Lancaster.  I'm working hard to make a decent amount of jewellery to leave with them before I go away at the end of September.  The exhibition runs from 26th October until 8th January.  I'll be back early November and hopefully I'll have made some more jewellery while I'm away in case they want any more.

I've rolled out a sheet of black clay and covered it with slices from assorted canes.  I've used a variation on a technique I found on a great website, How to make beads from polymer clay .
I used her technique for some pillow beads I made, and some beads Amanda from Chicita Gimme That Thing has used for some of her lovely wire wrapped rings.

I'm sorry the photo of the necklace isn't too good.  I was lazy and just took one photo since I'm not listing them on Folksy.  I will have to take a better photo of it, the light tent I ordered has just arrived so I'll try that out later. 

Giveaway Winner

The winner, picked out using a random number generator at random.org, is number 13 - Lemonade and Lamingtons.
Congratulations Lisa!  There isn't an email address on your Blogger profile so I'll contact you via Folksy and Facebook to get your mailing address.  Well, so much for unlucky 13, which I've never been superstitious about anyway!
To everyone else, thank you so much for entering and if you would like to purchase any of my handmade polymer clay jewellery there is some in my Folksy shop, or you can order something custom made. 

Polymer Clay Disaster!

Over the weekend I made a lovely set of beads, I was really pleased with them.  I left them to harden up a bit overnight before I made holes and baked them.
So what did I do? I baked them without even making small guide holes for the drill (a small hand drill).  I've done that before and managed to make the holes afterwards, but it is always easier if I at least do guide holes.  When there are no guide holes you have to be careful to drill in from both sides or when the drill comes out the other side it can break off a chunk of clay.
I started with the largest bead and thought I was doing fine till the drill came out the other side and...  yes broke off a chunk of clay.  I was so cross.  It was only a small piece and I thought if I use a spacer at each side it won't show.   The middle size round beads drilled fine.  Then I started on the small beads and after the first three broke up completely when I started drilling I gave up!  I don't quite know why this happened but I have to just put it down to experience.

The photo isn't very good - the background of the beads is pale green.  I'm hoping I can make some more but the pale green was mixed from white and a bit of left over leaf green so I don't expect I'll be able to match it exactly.  Of course I should be really organised and record proportions and keep samples of mixed colours but I've never been that organised...
Oh well, onward and upward... well onward anyway!

I'm doing a Giveaway!

I have won several lovely prizes from blog giveaways, so I've decided it's time I did one myself.  There are no conditions, nothing you need to do other than comment on this post. You don't have to be a follower of this blog (unless you want to of course!).  Do feel free to tell your friends, followers, Facebook fans etc so they can come and join in. If you don't have a Blogger account make sure you leave an email address so I can contact you if you win.
The giveaway will run from now until midnight on Sunday 5th Sept.  I'll pick the winner on Monday morning, 6th Sept and announce it on this blog and on my Facebook page.
This is what you will win.  A necklace with matching earrings featuring beads made by myself from polymer clay.
The other beads are rose quartz, rhodonite and japanese glass miyuki cubes.  The necklace clasp and earwires are sterling silver and the beads are linked with silver plated copper wire.  I'm sorry the photo of the earrings isn't very good, but you can see the pattern on the beads better in the photos of the necklace.

I Won!

I had a lovely surprise email today - I won a blog giveaway.  Look at what I won...

Aren't they just gorgeous, lucky me!  They come from Anne at Gardanne Beads.  She makes amazing glass beads and sells them in her Etsy shop - Gardanne Beads.  She also sells Jewellery at Gardanne Artisan Jewelry. Here is her blog. 

Kaleidoscope and Flower Canes

 Here, as promised are some more experiments with kaleidoscope canes. I've also made more flower canes, and made some beads I'm rather pleased with - and some I'm not so pleased with!

I thought I'd start with one I think came out rather well.  A few tiny air holes but I should be able to deal with them when I use the cane though I'm not sure yet what I'll use it for - it's quite small and I don't want to reduce it much or all the detail will go.

Ok, you can laugh - I did.  I'm not sure what exactly I did wrong here but kaleidoscope it ain't!!  That one went into the scrap clay bag.  Scrap clay is useful,  I've made a lot of lentil swirl beads from bits of scrap, and it makes a good base for the pillow beads I've made using various cane slices.

These haven't been varnished or polished yet and I'm not sure of the quality.  I've sanded them lots but they just aren't very smooth so I've yet to decide what to do with them.
The first beads I made with this method were better but I messed up drilling holes and some of them cracked - so I'm keeping this necklace:

The previous beads were a larger version of these and the small beads I made to go with them are fine so they can be used with something else.

 Flower canes, here is one before reduction, with its various components,

and here it is reduced to several different sizes, I'm pleased with this one.

This one seemed really promising, but went a bit  wonkely when I reduced it!

I think It is worth keeping though. I may reduce some of it even more and use it in a kaleidoscope cane.
I'm really enjoying myself trying out all these new skills and techniques.  I'm finding inspiration in books and tutorials and hope over time to produce better and better work.  I hope soon I'll get some jewellery into my Folksy shop.  So far most of the jewellery I have produced has gone into the Arteria exhibition but when that closes what hasn't sold can go into the Folksy shop.