Busy not Dead

Hello lovely Curling Stones for Lego People friends... is there anyone out there still?

I was really tempted to leave just the title up for comic effect, but I figured that was way too mean... I was glad my last post was about Curling Stones on Instagram, as if anyone does follow me  there you'll have realised that I am indeed in the land of the living, or at least the snoozing.

As fun as it is to post pictures on the go, sometimes I have the urge to write a bit more than just hashtags, sooo...

What did I get up to? Well first there was a glass course in all things sparkly with Trudi from the Glittering Prize, followed by a festival, well technically 3 festivals in a week... brilliant but oh so tiring!

First time glamping at a Festival after 30 years of tents and buses!

The second festival was Flame Off  where I blew glass with Josh and Ann from Hen Ogledd Glass, made some amazing class beads with the lovely Jenny from Raspberry Rings, had my first go at Metal Clay with Tracey at Craftworx, caught up with glassy friends and immersed myself in glass generally down in Uttoexeter.  (That first link by the way is to the 2018 Flame Off and if you fancy a nice day out I thoroughly recommend it).

Photos of things I made over the 2017 Flame Off Event

This was interspersed with LOTS of gigs, a reunion of sorts, an amazing glass course down at a studio south of Bristol.  Unfortunately I was really ill with lurgy but due to the way cancellation fees worked for both my course and hotel I decided to attend - best decision ever!

Work in Progress Photos

My course Working with Images in Glass has kicked off quite a spurt of making fused glass using these techniques as part of my alter ego over at Born of Fire - Beads & Glass.  I've been doing a lot of commissions, and as several of them are for Christmas presents I can't show them on the blog publicly, but these are a few of the ones that aren't Christmas Presents!

Finished pieces inspired by, or made on my course

I ticked off a bucket list item by seeing Marc Almond perform at Pride, had another trip to Wales, wrote my car off, enjoyed another festival, bought a car, hired a car, sold a car and continued to be busy with another Glass Festival, The International Festival of Glass in Stourbridge and a Glass Course with the lovely Gay from Gaysie May.

2017 International Festival of Glass in Stourbridge

I may write about the Festival another day, I was really blown away by the whole experience and next time, which will be 2019 as it's every two years, I'm definitely doing all 4 days.

Phew! No wonder there was no time for writing!  So that was me...

Say hi if you're here, and tell me how you are?

2016 New Years Bead Resolutions in Review

Well hello blog! Long time no see...

I've finally got around to having a sort through my bead box, and in doing so my thoughts turned to the resolutions I made at the start of the year, how I got on with these, and that I really should get my arse in gear to tell you the results!

Making resolutions is something I've done for the last 4 years - so I really couldn't end the year without doing my annual review.

My New Year's Bead Resolutions 2016

• To become a better beadmaker - this is a little vague and broad at the moment.  It's been spurred on by a rather unsatisfying session I had on New Years Day at the torch, where I learnt I not only can't bead and talk, but that not beadmaking for 4 weeks does make a really big difference to what I can produce!  I'm fairly sure this resolution is much more than become a more consistent beadmaker, although I'd like to do that too, along with learning a whole host of techniques that I'm spectacularly bad at, at the moment!  Perhaps this will morph into mini goals as the year progresses, we shall see!

• To spend less in 2016 than I did in 2015 - This is my repeated bead resolution, I've actually achieved it every year, so it's not because I can't reduce my spending... and I am starting to get into the ball park of what I'd like to be spending on beads per year, not what I actually spend. So I've kept it in for another year as a reminder that I'm not quite there just yet.

• To share more of my beadmaking journey - I've not really done this much apart from where the blog naturally crosses over with my beadmaking e.g. my Element bracelet where I wanted to make a glass set to go with my silvers.  I've been promising to do this more lately, so I'm going to set it as one of my resolutions to talk specifically about beadmaking, and learning to make glass beads, from my point of view.  As I'm writing this down, I think it might help me with No.1 too!

Okay, in no particular order... I dedicated my AtoZ to my beadmaking journey, so there were a whole 26 posts dedicated to glass.

However once the AtoZ finished that was pretty much it.  Not only for the spilling the beans about the beadmaking, but also for a lot of my blog posts and content, it's been rather sporadic for 2016!  So what happened?

Well a whole heap of things; I started going to college in April for half a day a week to learn more about glass fusing and kilnforming, I continued to make beads and fused glass and sell them via my new business and the day job got super busy.  Something had to give and that was usually the blog, and er, a lot of my social life!

For those curious about my beadmaking journey, the most updated place for information is probably the Born of Fire - facebook page (apologies for those not on Facebook), or my Born of Fire - Instagram (on occasion), or (rarely) my Born of Fire -Twitter.  The Born of Fire - website gets updated once in a blue moon when I remember... or I have to pay the fees!


To become a better beadmaker, looking back as what I was making December 2015 to what I made throughout the year, I think in many ways I did, but I also fell down the fusing rabbit hole, which was inevitable I guess given I started college in April so there were a whole load of new ideas I was trying out!

One of the best changes I made was attending Flame Off in April.  In turn this gave me the confidence to finally try some group lampworking courses which I had been too nervous to do before.

After a quick 1-1 lesson in Borosilicate to give it a go (different glass, different rules), my first course was with the lovely Marcel Rensmaag to make eyeballs!  We did make other things but it was the eyeballs I really wanted to try out.

Later in the year was a quick fire course with Ray Skene.  This really boosed my confidence and I learnt a whole host of new tricks, my favourite make from the day was my leaf pendant!

Finally on to the money, to spend less in 2016 than I did in 2015. In spite of a trip to Denmark, where I had a lovely splurge on Trollbeads and Eske Storm Jewellery, I managed it!  By quite a considerable margin actually, my spending on jewellery is finally coming down to something I consider more reasonable for a jewellery addict - although it's probably still a lot by "normal" standards of course!

All things considered I think I did okay on the 2016 resolutions.

What did you get up to this year that was different to last year?

Or did you want to do more of the same as it was so good?