This last week I’ve been on a bit of a focal bead kick.  I’ve really enjoyed making these as I normally do sets. 

 

 

I started out making smooth tubular/bicone focals, but then decided to have a go at the lampwork challenge that is on the Australian beading forum. 

 

  

 

 

The theme for the challenge is Warring State beads, which are beads with lots and lots of dots, stacked on top of one another. 

 

  

Of course, after I did my challenge beads I explored the stacked dots further, this evolved into a more ornate style of focal bead that I shall definitely be exploring more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, and I also popped on a couple more rondelle pairs.

Happy beading!

 

Since I had to run the kiln for Amanda’s custom order, I thought I’d pop in some other odd beads and half beads I have been stock piling. 

I love the idea of popping in a bead that’s been broken in half, and letting it melt down and spread out into a gorgeous cabochon.  Sometimes the colours change again in the kiln, making it all a surprise when you open it up the next day.  You never know exactly what you’re going to get.

Here’s a peak at some of the cabs that came out of the kiln.

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve only popped on three of them, if you want to see the rest just head over to my website, they’re all listed under Cabochons.

 

Amanda from New Zealand requested a custom order cabochon to match one she purchased previously.  Her hairdresser had seen the one she had wired up and wanted one for herself!  Only bigger!!

I adore how this cabochon turned out.  I swear if it wasn’t going to Amanda I’d be keeping it for myself lol

 

 

Congratulations to R. Ryan of Qld, Australia!

Robyn has won the March 2008 Monthly Draw on my lampwork bead website.  To find out how you can enter the draw, visit HERE.

I realise I’ve become rather slack with my blogging these days.  I don’t really have an excuse either.  I just have the feeling of being busy but without anything to show for it.

The last few days I have been cleaning, well occassionally cleaning lol  I can’t stand doing it for too long and get distracted.  I’ve decided it’s time to clean out and organise all my beading related stuff, as well as my room in general.  I am sad to admit that I had piles of beading magazines and books, as well as other general junk in piles on my floor.  Eek!  What a mess!  And with a cat, there was fur and dust everywhere.  No wonder I’ve been feeling stuffy lately, and I thought I was just fighting off a cold!  So I purchased a couple of plastic crates with lids, and have organised and stacked all my magazines and beading books in there.  They will get taken down to the garage where I torch and should be safe in the crates.

Before I got addicted to beading and lampworking, I used to read alot of trashy romance novels, yes, I’m a romantic at heart!  LOL  I also have a fondness for some sci-fi/fantasy authors.  I seemed to end up collecting a rather large collection of books, and had three bookcases full, as well as piled up beside the bookcases and on top of them!  Mind you they weren’t lined up nicely side by side so you could see the titles on the spines of the books, they wouldn’t of all fitted like that!  They were stacked one on top of the other and crammed into the bookcase shelves.  Well they have all now been sorted through and are boxed up to go to St Vinnie’s.  Mum has done the same with her books and St Vinnies will end up with 6 huge boxes of books.  I had to keep certain favourite authors though.  So my three bookcases are still full but you can read each title now and there is still some room on them, I promise!! LOL

With all this cleaning up and organising I shall be able to rearrange my room, it will be nice to have a change.  As they say, a change is as good as a holiday!  It will probably confuse the hell out of Bootz though lol She won’t be able to come racing through the house and jump from object to object, well at least until she remembers where everything is newly placed lol

The last thing that I’ve promised myself to get done is organise all my paperwork for my beading and torching, at the moment it’s all in boxes and difficult to get to specific things.  I will need to get a filing cabinet for it all I think, then I can get whatever I want instantly rather than spending an hour searching through each peice of paper lol  I already purchased one of those little plastic drawer do-hickeys, I’ve popped my business cards, bookmarks, bead cards, coupons, etc in them, so when I send an order off it’s all in the drawers rather in little individual boxes.  Hmmm I must of been a cat in a previous life, I seem to a liking of cardboard boxes lol  Hopefully, too, by getting rid of alot of the cardboard boxes it will bring down the dust levels.

So it seems I’m doing my Spring cleaning in Autumn LOL 

Ahhh, just realised I need to do my newsletter too!  Will work on that this weekend, after I purchase my fishies.  :D 

I bought a little 5.7L fishtank it’s so cute, has the filter and light all built in.  I remember being a child and watching the tropical fish in the large tank we had then.  I’ve missed having fish.  We haven’t gotten any earlier because of Bootz, I was worried she’d try jumping on the tank and break the glass, etc.  With this one being small and all built-in I’m hoping she’ll just sit and watch.  I set the tank up on Wednesday to allow the water to age, and so far she’s been completely uninterested in it.  She had a sniff or two then wandered off.  I think she was more interested in the container of fish food than anything else LOL

Well, I’ve babbled on enough I think LOL  Thanks for reading!