What Is Your Name?

I've got this idea about these little creatures. They are beads, of course, (what else?), I've made several today. What to call them? The funny (or weird) thing is, it follows you with its eyes! The colours didn't come out very well because I've used a really awful lighting from a natural light bulb in the kitchen (hence the horrible bright blue background - sorry, not my choice of decor!), but you can see the eyes! I'm going to part-etch it as I always do with these: the sparkling dots and the blob of the face are going to be left shiny (together with the hearts, there are two of them - one on each side), the rest will be my fav matte. I don't think these are for sale. They are not terribly commercial, but then they were not intended to be. Just something that had to be got out. I'm sure you know what I mean! :)

Working Again! Yippee!!!

Just as I was about to do a blog on how I bought myself a new table which was going to be my bench in Derby - mind you, that was probably not going to be terribly exciting! - which is picture 1, I actually had a very busy day yesterday.

The morning was so bright and sunny, the garden and the village looked so gorgeous in the sparkling winter sun, that I thought it would be a good idea to unpack all my bead making stuff. OK, it was cold. The conservatory I am in doesn't have any heating. Well, there is underfloor heating, but as we are renting this house, I am not sure how to programme it, so I just put on many-many layers of warm clothes. My Russian valenkis (felt boots) are handy too. So I managed to take everything out of boxes, Rod fixed the station on the wooden surface, and everything is working! (picture 2).

I've managed to make some beads today, and sadly the cold isn't the main problem. It's ventilation, as always! So now I'm thinking how I am going to fix my extractor fan. You see, I thought as it was a conservatory, the air would be floating in and out through the open windows. Nope, it doesn't. If I keep the door open it's more or less OK, but not perfect. I can still smell the gases, so tomorrow I'll try out some ideas.

Another quite upsetting thing is that I am soooooo out of practice :( . I tried to make my "Sparkling" beads, and putting those dots in a very precise pattern proved to be quite a challenge. You can see what I mean: dots are all over the place! It didn't help either that I picked out the wrong Double Helix - this is Clio, but it should have been, I think, Aurae. Never mind. As Ellen in "Gone With the Wind" used to say, tomorrow is another day! :)

Website Update and Other News

The work on the updating of my website is going on. I haven't expected Nigel (http://www.nigelrobinson.com/), who we've been working with on the design and development of my website as well as the Demi-Monde website, to come up with all these ideas - last night!

This is a little preview of what my new opening page is going to look like. As Nigel very rightly commented, the bit in the middle of the stylised N is very important as it is the thing which sets this particular N from others. So he was reluctant to put the words "Nelli Rees Lampwork" across it, and now I know why. These four examples are very pretty, but again, as Nigel commented, although the big stylised N works, the lettering doesn't as it is too small and can't really be seen very well. So Nigel also prepared a couple of other options, and they are gorgeous. The problem is, one of them has lettering on the black background, and the other - on the cream one. So now I have this dilemma: black or white? Difficult.

I have finished work on the article for the Making Jewellery mag which should be in the April issue. They obviously want it to coincide with the release of my book in the States which is scheduled for the 5th of April 2011. It is actually good, because if I book a stall at the Flame Off on the 8th-9th of April 2011 it will give me something to display!

I've also finished my article for the GBUK Autumn-Winter Newsletter. It is called "Book or not 2 Book", but I am not sure if they decide to call it something different. Sabine Little, who sadly is not going to remain the Newsletter Editor, very kindly accepted it for the issue that she is going to put together before she leaves this post :( . I mean, :) for being accepted! I tried to make it funny, I hope it'll come through.

Visit to Yorkshire

Friday was the loveliest day!

We had to go and see Nigel, who is a designer and who has designed both Rod's and my websites. He lives in Driffield, so we thought as we were going to drive all the way up North, we would take this opportunity and visit the Cooper Gallery in Barnsley where some of my jewellery is sold. This was a very good decision. Barnsley is only literally 5 min away from the M1, so one second you are on the motorway, and the next - you are in the town centre! Barnsley is a lovely place. The day, when we were leaving Derby, was foggy, cold and miserable. But as soon as we drove into Barnsley, the sun was shining, the air was crisp, and I even got too hot in my usual winter coat! And the Yorkshire accent! I think I miss it all.

We had a cup of coffee and a bacon roll in a pub and then found our way to the Gallery which was right in the centre. It is a great place, with lots of ceramics, silver, knitted things, framed photos - anything you like! The jewellery set which is going to be the top prize in the Friends' of the Cooper Gallery's Christmas event (www.barnsley.gov.uk/friends-of-the-cooper-gallery) is displayed right at the entrance together with a signed copy of my book. In fact, all jewellery by all artists is displayed really nicely, well done guys and girls in the Gallery! We bought a couple of lovely things for our daughters' Christmas stockings. After that we went around the town centre and did some more shopping (there are some very good shops there, including fashions for men which is always difficult to find). I even managed to buy this lovely purple wool for a sweater (I don't know when I'm going to have time to knit it!) plus some wool for decoration around the neck and on the ends of the sleeves, which is also purple but it has big fluffy blobs here and there, I've never seen anything like this before, so it will be a challenge to knit something out of it. In other words, if you've never been to Barnsley it is well worth a visit, and it's easy to get to!

Then we drove on to Malton near York to get our "Yorkshire Pot" from Derek Fox the butchers. It has been several years now that we have Yorkshire Pot for Christmas, even though now we don't live in Scarborough, and it takes us some time to go and get it. Mr Fox was his usual grumpy self, noting that I should have picked the Pot up the day before etc, etc. (I wonder who is the customer here!). But I was determined to be pleasant and happy, so I just missed what he was saying!

Then to Driffield. Nigel had moved into a new house, and it was great to see them all there. We had a few things to discuss. As I am becoming better known in the lampworking and jewellery making community, my website needs to be updated. It has been dormant for some time now, as I find it easier to sell beads from ebay. One of the reasons is that it takes me time to put stuff on the website, especially the formatting of the photos. So this needed to be addressed. Also I had to think long and hard about a new image and my new logo. I love my little heart in the logo, but the decision was taken that it would be better to have just one image, which needs to be strong and easily recognisable. Of course, I've always had my special N which I designed out of two Nordic runes: "laguz" and "laguz" reversed. This was decided to become the main image from now on. I will also be incorporating it into my jewellery, as I have always planned. I have to investigate how much it would cost to make it into clasps for bracelets and necklaces. The cost of the silver Art Clay is ferocious, so possibly I could make it out of copper clay. There are other possibilities as well, but I need time to look into every one of them. I think it will be really cute to have my N on a clasp or even as a simple charm. So... lovely day, but lots to do!

Winter is Here! (And It's Only November - What to Expect Next?!)

Winter has officially arrived in Derbyshire! I took these pictures yesterday morning, and it was even worse today! -3.

But I found out that my book was No. 24 in the 100 best-selling books on Amazon yesterday (in Books > Home and Garden > Crafts > Jewellery and Beadwork) and No. 51 today! This was really extremely good news indeed! To make the top 100 is unbelievable! Especially that I am competing with such popular things like metal clay and beading. So I was very chuffed!

I also treated myself to buying one of the beads by Michou Pascale Anderson. She lives in Germany and makes colourful designs. There isn't a lot of depth, but the colour combinations are lovely. When I received the bead in the post together with a little leaflet about the designer I learnt that she is half-French and half-Jamaican, which could explain the designs she favours. We all must have some sort of a pre-memory in our brain - is it all pre-programmed? When Diana East saw me wearing those beads I made on the last bead-making day in Norfolk, she thought they looked "very Russian"!

Going back to my topic on photography, I was a little disappointed to see that the bead I fell in love with from a picture wasn't quite as bright in real life after all... Ahh, there is still a LOT to explore with glass colours!

Realistic or Pretty?

Sunday morning... Usually there is lots to do, and I never get to the computer until about 11 o'clock, but yesterday it was my daughter's eighteenth birthday party, and Rod and I went away; now we are back, but people aren't up yet, so what a perfect chance to do one's blog!

I've always wanted to write about photography. Everybody knows how important it is, especially to show your beads to people who want to buy them. The beads should look good but realistic. A lot of bead artists use very strong lighting for their shots, or take photos with a flash. What I found is that all this changes the colours a lot - or is it just my camera? So I usually opt for either very soft and "peaceful" (as I call them) shots of beads on my window sill, or in the sunlight - for a much stronger sparkly effect.

For example, when I was preparing this shot for my book, which in the end didn't make it, I laid out this "Mermaids' Eyes" bracelet on the window sill and just had to wait for the right light. It happened in the end, but this was one of the most difficult shots I'd ever taken. The reduced Double Helix Triton dots have a lot of colour in them, and it changes depending on the angle at which you look at them. It was important to capture this incredible change.

This other photo shows more amazing colours you can get from Double Helix. It was taken in the open, but not in the sun, as I was worried about "overcooking" the colours - you can get a whole rainbow effect from these, but I always leave this to the customer: when they open the parcel and discover beads which look even better in real life than on the photo, I should imagine they are going to be very pleased!

Etching, Etching

As I have been unable to make beads, I have been looking at the ones I made long ago. The truth is, I love etching. The effect of this unusual matte finish on glass fascinates me. Of course, you can "get rid" of the shine and sparkle if you put some baking soda on your creation at the end, but while I'm making a bead I never actually know exactly what I'd like it to be. So there is always a choice when you get them out of the kiln: to etch or not to etch.

Full etching is easy. But, of course, now I like the idea of combining the matte and the shine, and this is where it becomes extremely time consuming. I remember, several years ago, when I was only starting, Clare Scott wrote about a set on her website how it took her ages to create this effect covering the dots with nail varnish and etching the background. Now not only I cover things, then, when they dry, I go round with a magnifying glass (no, not really, only kidding!), inspecting all the areas I want etched, cleaning the bits which were accidentally covered with varnish, or adding more nail varnish on the tiny spots and lines if I want them left shiny. Ridiculous, I say to myself. But what can I do - I'm addicted to it!

This bead is only just over an inch long (28mm), with Effetre Cobalt Blue transparent base and various stringers and twisties made with Double Helix Triton (I believe, as I made it literally ages ago!). Not a difficult bead to make, just takes time to prepare :) The "ribbon" effect in the middle is a simple twistie of white and Periwinkle Blue. I liked the "ribbon" being uneven, it adds a certain character to this pattern, it also echoes the asymmetrical effect the mirrored Triton twisties turned into. Here is a close-up. I have to say I am very pleased with the result.

I've got this very dotty bead which I now decided to etch too, so I'll show what happened later!