Lampwork Bead Giveaway!

Visit lampwork bead maker Laura Sparling's blog Beads By Laura for a chance to win a set of her lovely blue, green and purple nuggety lampwork beads!
Just leave a comment by 7pm August 18 to enter. Blog or tweet about the giveaway and get two chances to win!

Enamel Bead Giveaway!

Check out Eve's blog Jems Direct for a chance to win one set of these beautiful torch-fired enamel beads.

To enter the giveaway become a follower of Eve's blog, leave a comment and post on your own blog about this lovely giveaway!

The winner will be chosen tomorrow - 8 August.

 Good Luck!

Blog Nightmares And Don't Forget!

I decided last night to change my blog template as the flowers in the border had mysteriously vanished. I've searched for one that's "just right" and spent most of the day faffing about with changing templates. They either a) didn't work with blogger  b)
looked nice on the site but horrible on my blog or c) made my computer freeze at which point I felt like screaming!
In the end I found this background which I like but had hoped I could change the page colour as I don't like the white but I can't using blogger. Aaarghh!! It will no doubt change again in a couple of days when I've found the "perfect" background. Here's hoping :D

Don't forget to enter my Giveaway for these Sterling Silver and Lampwork earrings!

The winner will be chosen tomorrow!

Click here to leave a comment!
Not sure if this photo is showing, there seems to be a problem which rounds off my blogging day perfectly!
You can see a photo of the earrings when you click the link above

50th Sale Earrings Giveaway!

To celebrate reaching 50 sales on Folksy last night I'm having a Giveaway!

The earrings below are made from Sterling Silver and pretty ivory with turquoise and black design Lampwork beads. The ivory colour is actually a bit lighter than it appears in the photo. To give you an idea of the size, the beads are 9mm in diameter. A small and well behaved pair (compared to some of my earrings!) looking for a home..............

To enter the Giveaway all you have to do is leave a comment saying what is your favourite colour of bead or Semi~Precious stone when you look for earrings. Please leave contact details if you don't have a blog so that I can contact you if you are the winner!

The winner will be announced next Tuesday 30th March!

I'm off to Folksy now to choose the print I promised myself from Folksy shop Sascalia when I reached 50 sales :D

Quick Update About Photo Crisis!

Reading the lovely comments about my new hideously bright orange backgrounds I used for a couple of my photos and thinking about it, I've decided that the orange is just too much!
After two further trips to my local ESK and ferreting around their background papers (I was in there nearly half an hour one day and almost missed an appointment!) I now possess several more neutral coloured backgrounds and some shiny new pebbles. I'm still having problems using my camera in manual as altering some of the settings affects the sharpness of the photo, so even though it's brighter it's not properly focused! So frustrating!

I'm hoping to start redoing them tomorrow as the weather is supposed to be better - fingers crossed. God, I hate taking photographs!

~♥~♥~♥~

Got all excited this morning when I checked my emails as I had another sale in my Folksy shop and thought it was my 50th. Alas it was my 49th ~ I sold two lots of earwires yesterday and hoped they would count as two sales but they didn't (bum). The reason I was excited is because I'm planning a Giveaway when I reach 50 sales. I've got the earrings all ready for it and I'm going to treat myself to a print from Folksy shop Sascalia. I guess I'll just have to hang fire for a while..........

 I want this! ♥

 Flowers 5 from Sascalia

And The Winner Is.....................

The winner of my blog Giveaway for a pair of Gelert Design Brass Resin Earrings is.................... (fanfare of choice in your head, work with me!) ..........................
Dottie Designs! I used a random number picker and Dottie was the one! Congratulations Dottie!!

Here's what you've won!

Three Awards And New Earrings

Yesterday I was very pleased to find I'd been awarded three, yes three! blog awards!

Two Sunshine Blog Awards from Sue of BlueBoxStudio and faeryatrix and an I Love Craft Blogs award from Hilary of haptree and me!

I guess I'm going to be busy deciding who to pass the awards onto, only 24+ blogs to choose! I'll post who I've chosen tomorrow. I'm gonna need a big bag of Maltesers for energy before I start :D




New Earrings
I'm just about to list these on Folksy ~

I can't believe after making wirework jewellery for 2 years this is the first time I've made these twisted coil links! I really like the look of them so no doubt will make some more!

These are made from 16g Sterling Silver wire and yes, it's another spiral design. I love spirals, can you tell?

Don't forget! Enter the Giveaway below to win a pair of Gelert Design Brass Resin earrings.  The winner will be chosen on Saturday!

Mid-Week Folksy Finds ♥ Purple

As I didn't have time to do a Folksy Finds last Friday I thought I'd make up for it and do one mid-week! This time I've indulged myself and gone for my favourite colour ~ Purple ♥

The links to the Folksy shops are below the photos ~

1. Lavender ~ Fleurs De Perles

2. Purple Leaf Ceramic Pendant ~ Dottery Pottery

3. Purple Circles and Squares Cushion ~ Handmade By Louisa

4. Glass Pearl Bracelet ~ Laura Cameron

5. Purple Spot Overnight Bag ~ PIDGEONSTITCH

6. Purple Tree ~ Sascalia

I love all of these picks because they're purple ♥ and I've made a promise to treat myself to a print from Sascalia when I reach 50 sales in my Folksy shop!

Don't forget to enter my blog Giveaway for a chance to win a gorgeous pair of Brass Resin earrings by Gelert Design. Just visit his shop, pick your favourite item then leave a comment saying what you'd like to see more of in his shop. The winner will be chosen on Saturday 27 Feb!

Gelert Design ~ Curry, Crafting & a GIVEAWAY!

I donned my reporter's hat recently and asked Dave of Folksy shop Gelert Design to answer a few probing questions. He willingly obliged plus answered the all important curry question. Dave then very generously offered a pair of his Coldcast Brass Earrings as a prize for a Giveaway!

Enjoy his interview then enter the Giveaway! Details at the bottom..................

Please introduce yourself. What type of craft do you specialise in?
Gelert Design, but you can call me Dave :-)
Born and raised on the edge of stunning Snowdonia, I've moved around a bit and finally settled in Bristol with my incredibly supportive and patient partner Eva.
I'm not sure I do specialise to be honest. Perhaps you could say that I'm primarily a sculptor? Certainly I don't wan't to just be known for making fridge magents!:)
I'm forever getting excited by new ideas or new applications for what I'm making. Apart from cards made from my paintings, everything else I do is resin based - for now at least!

Celtic Brooch/Badge

How long have you had a shop on Folksy and what's the story behind the name of your shop?

I started up on Folksy at the start of December 2009, a couple of weeks after I started putting my stuff up on ebay. So, a newbie really.
The name Gelert is somethng really important to me. It's a long story so do bear with me :-)
I grew up on the outskirts of Snowdonia in the 1970s. As a family we'd often go for Sunday drives into the mountains. This petulant child would always insist we stopped off in the lovely little village of Beddgelert (Gelert's Grave). I won't go into the legend of Gelert the faithful hound here, but as a kid it really struck a chord with me - fidelity, folklore, injustice, castles, swords, violence and giant wolves :-) Every Sunday we'd have to get out of the car and take the riverside path to Gelert's grave. There I would recount the story to everyone there and end up crying uncontollably! It's a very Romantic tale and a Romantic setting that has stayed with me all this time. I always thought that if I became self-employed I would call my company Gelert. So when I opened up my Folksy shop, Gelert was the obvious choice! I had to add "Design" as there is a company making tents and other outdoor equipment called Gelert already.

What inspires your work?
Everthing does in one way or another. Textures and the hidden colours in nature mainly. I do believe there is a massive differerence between looking and really seeing. Look long and hard at something and slowy the subtlest colours will jump out at you. I exaggerate this in my paintings but it's a little more difficult in sculpture! Therefore I try and produce items with an interesting finish or texture so the play of light will create its own colours. It's probably true to say that my heritage is a constant inspiration though.

Hot Orange Rose Brooch

What made you choose to work with resin?
I was carving one-off designs in plaster and papier mache pulp. Neither were very durable and as I was aiming at making copies, casting was the obvioius solution. I suffer from ME and was forced to give up work last year. As luck would have it, a member of my pub quiz team has some experience of working with resin. I picked his brains and realised that resin was the solution for me. I needed something I could do at home that wasn't too taxing so I began crafting and my Folksy shop is the result.

How long does it take you to produce a piece of work?
Of course, it varies. I carve my prototypes out of plaster of paris. A small intricate item can take half a day. A piece of wall sculpture can take two or three days. I then make silicone moulds of the carvings which can take up to 12 hours to cure. The resin that I cast in the finished moulds can take many hours to cure also, depending on a variety of factors. Then the casting needs hand finishing. Luckily this can simply be a quick rub down with wire wool which doesn't take to long. I should make use of the waiting time to promote, but I need to rest all the time. Poor me being forced to lie on the sofa watching tv with a cup of tea :)

Female Bust

You've recently started making coldcast brass earrings. Is this a different technique to how your other items are made? Are you planning to use any other metals in your earring designs?
The technique isn't different at all. Coldcasting is a method of suspeding metal powder in resin. When cured you cut back the surface resin with wire wool to reveal the metal. I currently coldcast in brass, bronze, copper and aluminium. Iron and nickel silver are available additives too. Coldcast metals can be treated just like solid metal. Over time they will oxidize, or you can chemically speed up the process. I'm coldcasting because I can't afford foundry prices just yet. I do hope to work with casting white metals later in the year though as very delicate resin is too brittle. I don't know if I'll be making lots of jewellery though. There are already more than enough talented makers around so I'll only make something if it's different from everything else I'm seeing. Luckily, most people are working with shop bought beads or embedding in commercially available moulds. As I make everything myself, it's sure to be a little different.

You've recently started supplying merchandise for the band New Model Army. How did this come about?
I've been following this band for over 20 years now so I have an idea of what their fans like. When I started making small celtic fridge magnets I had an epiphany - their album artwork is crying out to be sculpted. They don't sell fridge magnets as part of their merchandise range, so....
I emailed their friendly online shop people and told them my ideas and asked if I could prototype some designs for them. Nothing to lose as far as they were concerned so they said ok. Band saw the prototypes and placed an order and they were on sale withing 2 days of delivery! Hopefully they'll sell well and I'll be asked to make more. Ever hopeful, I prototyped another 4 designs just in case, and I've been asked to send them on too!
In some ways you could compare New Model Army to the handmade revolution - they do everything for themselves and don't have much truck with the "business". 2010 is their 30th year of not compromising. You've got to respect that.

What do you do in your spare time? (if you have any!)
Spare time? I don't have much. Actually, I don't really like it! Making things is so exciting! However, I would never miss our weekly pub quiz! We tend to win as often as not and the winnings come in handy! M.E. makes me pretty useless at getting out and about too much, so if I'm not making or promoting I'm lying on the couch watching the History channel.

Rhos Quarry Lake Postcard

Do you sell anywhere else online or locally?
I tried most other online sites but without much luck. Promoting could become full-time work, so I'm just with Folksy for now. I haven't approached any "real-life" shops or galleries yet, although I've had one come to me. I do intend to get my work out there eventually because I need the security of wholesale orders. I don't have the strength to promote as much as I should and I'm certainly not proactive enough. I tend to rely on people coming to me which is far too hit and miss! However, and this may come to nothing, but there is one very well-known chain that I'm gearing up to approach within the next few days as well as 2 tourist meccas. Watch this space I guess :-)

What's your favourite curry and would you eat it for Christmas dinner if you could get away with it? (I would!)
The missus can't eat anything spicy as it gives her migraines so I can't have curry as often as I would like. If I've had a very bad or a very good day then I'm allowed a curry as a treat:-) I don't remember the name of a dish I tried at a restaurant once. Whatever it was, it was lovely! Haven't seen it before or since which is a shame. Currrently I'm a big fan of Lamb Rezala which is something I've just discovered. But really, I'm happy with a chicken madras/vindaloo/phaal, a rogan josh or a jalfreezi - as long as it's hot enough. Smoking has killed all my taste buds so it needs to be hot and very spicy if I'm to taste anything at all. Oh, and can I have an onion bahji and a naan too please? Yes, I would certainly eat it for Christmas dinner if I could. I even had a curry for breakfast once - but I wouldn't recommend that to everybody :-)

A big thank you to Dave for his interview.

And now for the Giveaway! 

You could win these Coldcast Brass Earrings

To enter the Giveaway all you have to do is visit Gelert Design, browse the shop then leave a comment saying which is your favourite item and what you would like to see more of! Simples! A winner will be chosen and announced to great fanfare next Saturday 27 February.