Craftacular, markets and general creativeness

It's been a busy week at work for me so not had time to update the blog until now.

So, last weekend I dragged myself from my bed (went out Friday night, intended only to stay out a few hours...ended up not back til 2am, oops) and hopped on the tube to Bethnal Green to pay the Bust Craftacular a visit. Wasn't really sure what to expect, but despite the venue reminding me very much of school assemblies, there were lots of people surrounding most of the 50 stalls.

There was a mixture of the cute, the retro, the unusual and in some cases distinctly bizarre (!) but some great eye candy and worth the trip. Favourites included the cool wooden animal brooches on the OFFCUT design stall, the gorgeous birdie artwork on offer from Little Doodles and the very cool Tatty Devine stand where they were attempting to make a record breaking charm bracelet. My sole purchase of the day was this adorable little horse brooch on the Fine City Friends stall.

Since my housemate was away for the weekend, on the Sunday morning I headed to Spitalfields market to see what was on offer there. Lots of clothes - some handmade, some bought in, plus plenty of jewellery and food from pretty much every continent you can think of. Some equally cool market stalls can be found further up towards Brick Lane at the Sunday Upmarket and the Backyard Market. So if you are at a loss for something to do on a Sunday I recommend a trip there.

So what have I got up my crafty sleeves in the coming weeks? Well, I have a silver clay workshop booked for a few weeks time that I'm really looking forward to, some belated birthday present jewellery to finish and I'm also brainstorming some ideas for a piece to enter in the Beads and Beyond magazine jewellery designer of the year competition. I'll let you know how that turns out

N

XoXo

A little netted cuff....

No, your eyes do not deceive you, I do indeed have a picture to show you of something I've made recently! Not an original design, but a project from Bead and Button - I don't really use netting much so I fancied a go at this. Not too struck on the colour but I love the labradorite chips I've used as the toggle buttons.


I have so many ideas for pieces I want to make...plus a couple of UFOs, but at the moment I am so busy at work that often I can just about summon up the energy to make and eat dinner, let alone get out the beads and thread. But I do really want to make a go of this jewellery making lark. Yesterday I signed up for a Misi account and I intend to use there and Folksy to sell pieces rather than my own website. It's a start in the right direction anyhow!!

So in the spirit of this, I have a very crafty weekend planned. On Saturday I'm off to the Bust London Craftacular to have a look at what other crafty and arty peeps have been up to, so, with the additional aim I have of blogging more regularly, look out for a report back on that in a few days time.

On Sunday I'm heading off to Spitalfields Market - in a brainstorming session I had and idea for a bracelet and I remembered that last time I was at Spitalfields there were a couple of stalls where I might be able to pick up some of what I need to make it. Fingers crossed they are there when I go, otherwise I may end up trawling Ebay for what I want.

So, to summarise...in the future, look out for my jewellery being up for sale on Misi and Folksy, and for more in the way of blogs (I hope to start featuring other craft artists in Blog posts...we crafters have to support each other after all!).

TTFN

xx

Beady Backlog

I wish I had some pretty pics to show you, but sadly not. Has been a busy time of moving home, work, going on holiday and other stuff. Which means I have a bit of a beady backlog - still trying to get the pendant on a necklace for a friend's birthday to hang right...and have a piece for my mum's birthday I should really get finished this week since I am going back to Essex to see my family for the weekend! I'm also halfway through a cuff bracelet design from the latest Bead and Button. Rest assured once I have some finished pieces I will photograph them and post them up for you to see.

One thing I have done is start a 'page' for my jewellery on Facebook, so you can now go and become a 'fan' and make me feel all warm and fuzzy that yes, some people do like what I make! So if you want to make me smile today, become a fan here.

Best make tracks, time waits for no woman

xx

Busy as a busy bee...but no time to bead!

Sadly I have not a bean of new beady stuff to show you. It has been a busy time chez Hollybird Beads in the last few weeks - for both good and not so good reasons. Fortunately though, it nows seems like the good is starting to outweigh the bad.

Now, sadly, I have to have a day job in order to be able to live, eat and buy beads, but until recently I was doing the Essex to London commute 5 days a week. Which meant you get to read a whole heap of books, but also means you have to sit next to people with rather questionable personal hygiene - surprisingly though, most of the real stinkers are the people in the shirts, ties and suits, not the builders in their paint splattered overalls (how exactly does one sit in an air conditioned office for 8 hrs and still manage to smell worse than someone who's been up and down scaffolding since 6am?).

So last weekend, myself and a good friend moved into a 2 bed flat in London - and now it takes me 20 mins on the bus and a short walk and there I am at my desk and I haven't had to get up at 6:45am! It also means I can stay at work longer - science is not a 9 - 5 kinda thing, and experiments are needy and like you to pander to them at random hours in the day.

So appologies for the lack of jewellery to show you, but hopefully once I get things sorted after the move I should have time to start getting creative again :) xx

I will keep up with blogging!!! ...and Race for Life

Blogging is a bit like making New Years resolutions - you start off all 'yea I can totally find something to blabber on about for a few paragraphs or show everyone a new piece of jewellery I made,' and then you suddenly realise you've gone months without writing so much as a full stop!

Well I am going to attempt once again to maintain my jewellery making blog (just don't come throwing stuff if I let it slide!), and thought I'd make my first new post about something unjewellery related I did today - the 5K Cancer Research Race for Life.

We took part again for the 2nd time this year...and though we weren't strictly racing, we still managed to shave 6 minutes off last time, completing the course in 50 minutes.

If you've never been to one of these events before, let me tell you that it is an enjoyable, fun day - the warm up is always a giggle, plus there are the hilarious Nivea Boys male cheerleaders to get everyone in the spirit. People all around you are wearing silly wigs, fairy wings and tutus - someone even ran today dressed as Spongebob Squarepants!! But for every smile there is the constant reminder of why we take part in the race. Everyone has a 'back sign' where they have to complete the sentence "I race for life for..." Now I did giggle at one who had written "because it's safer than doing a parachute jump!"...but most people's back signs bear the names of friends and family who have been affected by cancer.

Some are survivors...I had my mum's name on my back and she took part in the race with me, but we also carried with us the name of my mum's aunt, who I am named after, and who passed away barely a month before my mum gave birth to me. I also wore the name of someone I went to school with who passed away a few months ago - I had not seen him since college...but that did not make the news that someone I used to be in classes with every day at secondary school passed away at the age of just 23 any easier to handle. Sometimes you have to look away from the back signs - one lady I saw had a t-shirt saying she was racing in memory of a little boy whose picture was printed on the back...the years of his life read 1994 - 1997. And if that isn't a reason to don a pink t-shirt and your trainers for a stroll around a park with thousands of other women to raise money to help fight cancer, I don't know what is.

Practicality

No new jewellery I'm afraid - I have been a busy bee but not in areas involving beads and so nothing new to show. However, my trip to work this morning prompted this little mini-rant...

Now, if you are a UK resident as I am, you'll probably have noticed that despite it being July and therefore technically summer, the weather forecast is saying rain all this week. If you didn't catch a weather forecast, perhaps then you might have noticed that the ground looked distinctly damp when you looked out of the window this morning. Failing that, surely when you took yourself out of the house this morning to head in for work, you might have actually felt said rain falling on your head.

Apparently though, some people managed to make it all the way into London on the main line train I was on, without having appreciated the fact that it had a) been raining, b) currently was raining and c) was likely to rain for much of today.

Yes, I'm talking to you lady in white t-shirt, floaty summer skirt and strappy backless peeptoe sandals!

Said lady, upon leaving the train station to head for the underground, produced an umbrella for the walk, thereby indicating that she was in fact aware of the rain and had been aware of that fact prior to leaving her home presumably. Is it just me that finds this dumb and weird? I mean, I know that she probably works in an office or some other indoor environment and will therefore only be exposed to the outside world there and back, but come on, all she's gonna end up with is a damp skirt and soggy feet (at least she had a brolly otherwise with the white top she had on things might have descended into wet-t-shirt contest territory!). Perhaps I am the only one who places comfort and practicality over looking pretty? Either way, until I see a weather forecast that tells me tomorrow is going to be bright blazing sunshine, I'm going to stick with
my trainers and jeans.

Oh, and people wearing flip flops today (I kid you not), seriously, what planet are you on?

Little budgie birds

So what's this obsession with birds I hear you ask? Hollybird Beads? And today's blog title too... Well, it's all because of a certain little fella who went by the name of Pip.

Pip was a small, green, 6 week-old budgerigar, and arrived in our household just after my 10th birthday. For some reason I had decided I wanted a budgie as a pet, and I think my parents were relieved I wasn't asking for a puppy and so they agreed. I don't think any of us knew quite what we were letting ourselves in for!

Pip was already handtame when he arrived and grew quickly accustomed to his new surroundings. He learnt to talk, and was bold and inquisitive, and quite the trouble maker at times. His favourite thing was toast - we would often leave his cage door open for him to come and go as he pleased if we were in the house (provided no windows were open) and if free to do so, the instant he heard the toaster being taken out of the cupboard he would fly into the kitchen and sit on the toast-making-person's head, chirruping loudly, until it was done and no peace would be had until you had broken off a chunk for him to eat. He was a small bird with a big personality, and when he passed away after 10 years with us, although we were upset to lose a member of the family, I knew that at some point another little feathered friend would occupy out house in the future.

Our second feathery companion, Smudge, only stayed with us for 6 months, due to a sudden and upsetting illness which left me dazed - it is a horrible thing to see an animal so obviously sick, but to be unable to do anything as you wait for antibiotics to kick in and fight the infection. The Smudge experience didn't mean that I turned away from budgies, but I wasn't sure when I'd want to take another one on.

Well...a few months after the loss of Smudge, I was in the local pet shop (as an animal lover I tend to treat pet shops as minature zoos and go in just to look!) and spotted a white budgie in amongst a cage of youngsters singing its little heart out. I remarked on having seen this bird to my family but nothing more happened...until the next week when I returned to the pet shop where little white one was still there and still singing away. I asked mum and dad to come in and "just have a look"...and then 15 minutes later he was coming home with us!

Holly, who is a boy despite his name, is not like Pip or Smudge, he is his own little person. He adores having his head and under his chin scratched for him and has proven himself to be my best student talking-wise, counting amongst his repertoire "pretty bird," "bye bye bird," "whatcha doing?" as well as a host of sound effects including blowing kisses, whistling and the telephone. Hollybird, is one of his many nicknames. My birds have had their own nicknames...some of Holly's other aliases include Puffin, Squeaks, Beeps and Stink (all terms of affection I hasten to add!)

There are tonnes of books about cats and dogs, but few about these "little clowns with wings" as I have heard them referred to. So this is my shout out to the humble budgerigar...and with it comes my latest piece of jewellery. When I saw this PMC budgie beads set on Etsy I just had to have them and with a few bits of spiral rope and a beaded clasp I fashioned myself a budgie necklace - just to promote their cause a bit more!