Meeting Laura-mae

Recently I've been lucky to have a young woman share her Fridays with me on a local high school Day Out Programme.

Laura-mae lives just down the road from us, and though we have met before, it has been a real pleasure spending time with her getting to know her.

She is 14 years old and loves jewellery and music, spending time in her weekends busking (playing her guitar and singing) and hanging out with her friends.

The Toy boy also has a young man from Laura-mae's year group spending time with him in the workshop - Jeremy is helping to assemble snails as I write.

Since our son grew up and left home, we find that we have had ever decreasing contact with young people, so this has been great fun for both of us!

We're off to the bead room this afternoon to assemble some lovely coral Swirl beads that came out of the kiln this morning.

TGIF everyone! - Generation gap here - Laura-mae just asked what TGIF mean, and for those who don't know...THANK GOD IT'S FRIDAY!

Green Beads for Sonja

It's been nearly a fortnight since we got home from our big trip South, and I've really enjoyed being back in my studio. After three weeks away I was beginning to get withdrawal symptoms - I just can't take time away from the torch!

However, the trip was a really good chance to recharge out batteries and breathe a little fresh air - and VERY fresh some of it was, too!

I've had a lovely project on, making a green bead necklace for Sonja - a petite redhead with that perfect Irish complexion. Those of you who know me well will know how much I love all shades of green - I have green eyes and wear a lot of it myself.

The colour green is one of the major colours associated with the heart chakra, the colour of healing and love.


The beads for this necklace are quite small and I decided to make them all in transparent glass in a Swirl pattern, and the colours are these. It's a very simple style but very effective, working on the principle that "less is more" - something I can find hard to achieve sometimes! The beads are quite small, too, and the transparent glass makes the piece look light and dainty.
In between each glass bead I have put a tiny Swarovski Crystal bead in the colour Peridot, just to create a flow of green from bead to bead.

I'm rather pleased with it, and so is Sonja, thank goodness!