Before I show you a few bits and pieces I’ve made over the past week, I’d just like to wish everyone a very happy Yule/Christmas!

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Here’s what I’ve been up to bead-wise. This is another of my Fairground Attraction pendants, inspired by the phrase ‘Eye of the Storm’. I love watching those ‘freaky weather’ programs on TV and I remember someone once saying that they looked up once the first wave of the storm had passed and saw a circle of blue sky. Now I don’t know if this is true or not but I thought it would make a great pendant!

These type of earrings are very fashionable at the moment so I thought I’d make my own version using beaded beads. I love this first pair a lot, they’re made using Toho metallic silver seed beads and silver plated findings. These are for sale in my Etsy shop along with a tutorial to make your own beaded beads just like these.

And for these I’ve used my favourite shade of seed beads, metallic abalone iris. These are gorgeous and have a multi-coloured effect without being too gaudy. I used mostly matt beads and then did a couple of rows in the middle with shiny beads in the same colour. You can just about make out the little bit of shiny in the photo!  And I think the antique-gold plated chain goes nicely with these beads : ) These should be in my Etsy shop very soon.

Although I make my own jewellery and very rarely buy any, it doesn’t mean that I don’t drool over massed produced jewellery! In fact I very often get inspiration from what I see in the shops and online. While I never copy anything directly, I can be inspired by shapes and colours. For instance, I fell in love with this gorgeous ring from New Look…

…it instantly reminded me of my Fairground Attraction pendants and I thought the gunmetal and pink would be a great colour combination to try! So here’s Pink Revolver, available on my website and in my Etsy shop : )

December must be my lucky month! Not only was it my birthday and I received some beautiful cards, gifts and good wishes from my family and friends, including a gorgeous sewing box from my very good friend Sue. I also was lucky enough to win a box of amazing artisan lampwork beads from Sarah at FlameForceFive, thank you Sarah : )

Then I was so pleased to discover that I’d won the Artist of the Month challenge over on the UK Beaders forum with my Dark Twist necklace! As well as all that, my Enchanted Earrings project is in the latest issue of Bead Magazine (issue 19). I haven’t been too good healthwise lately with one thing and another, so all of this has cheered me up immensely : )

It’s been a while since I made any cards but I got the urge to make some this week. I’ve stuck to a very simple style; stamped Pollycraft Winter Elves and a polar bear by Anita’s coloured with Promarkers and glittered, Shabby Princess backing papers, some ribbon and sentiments printed on the computer. Hope you like them.

And here’s another of my Fairground Attraction pendants that sold before I had a chance to show you! I adore the colour combination in this one, based around the shades in the mix of cubes called Serenity, consisting of blue, purple, green and white.

I got so many lovely comments about my circular pendants that I decided to create a tutorial! I’ve included large colour step by step photographs so it’s suitable for beginners and experienced beaders alike. You can find it here on my website and in my Etsy shop : )

Here’s another piece of jewellery I made last week, for the Big Bracelet Bead Swap Challenge on UK Beaders. The idea is that you send a selection of beads to one member, enough to make a bracelet, and you get beads in return from another member. Here’s what I receieved, a bag of size 11 seed beads and a bag of mixed beads including seeds, cubes, drops, magatamas and greek silver washers…..

…..and here’s what I did with them. My first thought when I looked at the beads was that I wanted to make a peyote base with ’stuff on top’ and as usual I made it up as I went along. I made the base first, wanting it quite wide so I chose 2-drop peyote (for speed, I can be a bit impatient at times!) with a picot edge.

As you know, I’m addicted to brick stitch circles at the moment so I made three of them with some of the cubes, seeds and drops. The whole thing looks very complicated but basically I just started at the centre, adding the first circle and then worked out to the ends, stitching on all the other little bits and pieces on the way.

Finally I made a loop and added one of the large swirly beads as a clasp (I have two left over for matching earrings!). So whaddaya think? It was brilliant fun and I can’t wait for the next bead swap!

Oh dear. So it’s true. There is such a thing as too much beading. See, I overdid it while I was recuperating last week and gave myself a right pain in the shoulder! So I decided to have a rest for a while and it’s getting better. I can’t survive without doing something crafty though, so I did some sketching instead. I’m quite pleased with my drawings but I always seem to leave them half finished so I’m reluctant to show them to the world at the moment! Instead, here’s some earrings I made last week…..

Thank you so much for all your lovely get well wishes! I’m feeling a lot better now, got the old antibiotic bleurgh-ness but I’m getting up and about much more. I got loads of beading done while I’ve been recuperating, more of my ferris wheel pendants which are really relaxing to make – I just choose the colours and off I go! These are all available on my website. The first one to show you is Atlantis, gorgeous blues in this one…..

Next is Robin Hood – blame my sister for the name, she thought of it!

This one was a challenge to myself and I’m really pleased with how it turned out. I wanted to see if I could make one with just crystal beads and no other colours. It reminds me of a huge snowflake!

And if that wasn’t enough I got a pair of earrings made too. I’m planning on submitting the design to Bead magazine so keep your fingers crossed for me. Talking of Bead, my book thong project will be in the next issue and there’s a sneak preview of  it in the current issue on page 22!

Phew, I think that’s enough! Thanks for looking.

Good news, I finally have my ring sizer mandrel! The lovely Ebay seller I dealt with is sorting the ‘missing’ one out with the post office and yesterday sent out another one for me, by special delivery no less : ) So I’m one happy beader, measuring up all those rings I made and adding them to my website.

In the meantime I’ve been busy making some more circular pendants – I’ve become quite addicted to them! They kinda remind me of ferris wheels at the fair : )

My sister took a fancy to this one…..

And I’m keeping this one as a birthday gift for a good friend of mine…..

Here’s a necklace I made yesterday, which I’m very pleased with! I didn’t have a design in mind when I made it, just a packet of these gorgeous cube beads. So I picked out some colours (with black of course!) and made it up as I went along. I was a bit stuck when I got to the outer row of black beads, it was lacking something. After fiddling about with different stitches on the edge I remembered I had some of these gorgeous green drops – they’re perfect! If you love it as much as I do you can find it here ; ) Right, I’m off to try one in a different colour…..

Here’s a few pairs of earrings I’ve made. They’re looking for new homes so if any of them take your fancy you can find them here. First off are brick stitch flowers made from seed beads and cubes and were designed by the very talented Lynn Davy.

My very first piece of maille! Ok so it’s extremely simple maille made by linking pairs of jump rings, but I’m pleased with it and think it looks fab with the Swarovski crystal hearts : )

I love these earrings! They’re made from Czech firepolished crystals in shades of purple and I’ve used some unusual silver plated chandelier findings.

And I finally managed to get a decent photo of my Blood & Gold earrings.