Each week one of our contributors gives you a sneak peek into their studio, creative process or inspirations. We ask a related question of our readers and hope you'll leave comments! As an incentive, we offer a prize each week to encourage you to use that keyboard and tell us what you think. The following week a winner is chosen at random from all eligible entries. And here are the results from last week!
Congratulations Heidi Post!
You have won a Mystery Bundle of Beads from Claire.
Contact Claire to claim your prize!
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Hello there! It's my turn at Inside the Studio this week, and I have so much that I could share with you ask a massive list of things to do in the studio, that I've left this post to absolutely the last minute! Right down to the wire - eek! And why? Because I have a craft fair tomorrow, and then another one on Sunday - plus a couple of stockists to get jewellery off to on Monday. And not really enough stock to cover all of these things - because of course, I am going to sell ALL of the jewellery on my stand tomorrow, right?!
So today's post is going to be picture heavy :-) I hope you'll enjoy that - a visual journey of what's going on with me in preparation, particularly the last couple of days.
A couple of
Instagrams from yesterday. I am fond of a WIP (work in progress!) shot, especially if it's a bundle of art beads like the first one above. All that potential. It's nice to whet your followers' appetites too, and it certainly worked in this case - when I shared the finished necklace, it was snagged almost immediately! A real Winter Wonderland - with handmade beads from me,
Humblebeads and
Kylie Parry.
These are from today, on the glamorous backdrop of my bead mat...ahem! Something I find myself doing more and more these days is recreating the same design. Letting myself really take my time over the 'master copy' - the Winter Wonderland necklace from yesterday took me some time - not just finding exactly the right ingredients but playing around with the composition, taking the time to restring if necessary, without worrying too much about the time spent on it - always something to consider when you then price things up at the end. ALWAYS. (I know I'm not the only one sometimes guilty of ignoring this factor!) Then, I can work the same piece up in different colour ways, and that time spent on the design is absorbed amongst the set. Here, I made 2 Winter Wonderland necklaces - and the beauty of working with art beads is of course, that no two pieces are the same, even if you are working from a blueprint.
Another shot of the original Winter Wonderland necklace - one of those pieces I felt really chuffed with upon completion.
As you may have spotted in the above necklaces, I've been making a new style of handwoven bead in these pieces - ones from custom seed bead soups that I've been creating in response to the art beads I'm working with. I've really loved this process - it means that rather than have long sessions of weaving followed by long sessions of stringing, I can intersperse the two together, which makes the whole process of making jewellery feel so much more organic and blended, somehow. Some custom handwoven beads (with gorgeous lampwork birds from
Samantha Capelling) above which were made in response to....
...a really, truly stunning set of lampwork lentils from
Helen Chalmers, one of my all-time favourite lampwork artists (who I've been lucky enough to have a couple of lessons with recently too!). Just look at that stringer work! This necklace also contains art beads from
Green Girl Studios and
Beads by Earthtones.
I had my first craft fair of the season last weekend, and the thing that I sold the most of was - unsurprisingly I think - my new
Blossom Studs. Simple pressed glass table-cut flowers (which you can find
over here in Curious) which I affix to sterling silver posts with industrial-strength glue. Ok, it's not the most exciting job, and I particularly dislike the sanding process (I sand both the metal posts and the beads, allowing the glue a better surface to make a good bond), but it's relatively quick once I have the sanding done, they are great stocking-fillers and most importantly, they are super-pretty! A big batch of these made up tonight.
Remember Winter Wonderland that I started this post with? Can you recognise it here? When you spend time making a design just right, it stands a few more outings! Art beads from
Humblebeads,
Blueberri Beads and
Bo Hulley Beads.
You'll be pleased to know that I haven't just got jewellery from the last 36 hours for my fairs this weekend(!) Here are some bracelets from earlier this week, which I actually managed to take semi-decent photos of. Although the light at the moment is an absolute nightmare to photograph in - how I do struggle at this time of year! Basically, until the clocks go forward again, I know my photos will all be a little lacklustre. Sad face. Handmade beads here from primarily myself and
Helen Chalmers, but also
Moogin,
Swoondimples, Lorelei Eurto and
Indian Creek Art Glass.
If you are in central Scotland this weekend, then please do come along and say hello at one of my craft fairs! Tomorrow's is at the
Scottish Arts Club, Rutland Square, from 12 til 4, and Sunday's is
The Handmade Show at Perth Concert Hall. Start your Christmas shopping by supporting handmade - I know I'm going to!
So my question to you this week is, do you stick to absolute one of a kinds when creating jewellery? Or do you rework and rework, and create variations, like I am doing right now? What's your favourite way to work and why?
Leave an answer in the comments, and you can win a £10 voucher for either
Songbead or
The Curious Bead Shop. The winner will be announced in next week's Inside the Studio post.
