Dec 20 Sorry about the ** thing, but I don't trust the powers that be not to shut me down for bad language or something. Bunch of A**holes I call 'em. . ;-) OK, so last time I posted (A year ago!!) Lockdown was in progress and vaccines were a few months away, at least I think that was the case, time has passed in a peculiar way this past year and a half. Now things have settled down somewhat, two jabs apiece, and Covid cases being relatively stable, I felt the urge to write something here and share a fairly random selection of things I made and mostly sold in the last eight or nine mo ..read more

Blog neglect taken to the lengths that I have taken it to is probably a criminal offence. . . But I just don't feel the urge these days. The Groundhog Day existence this Covid virus has caused doesn't help. At least my repetitive life involves some repetitive selling. Grateful thanks to all the bead buyers out there still accumulating the raw materials for their jewellery projects. My website has also suffered. I only have one because I feel I ought to, and my website shop is only there because people say that a stand alone shop is a good thing to have. I am not convinced. I am even less mot ..read more

Well, I've been doing the usual thing, neglecting this blog and manically experimenting/pottering.  Allowing that it is possible to potter manically of course - I'm taking the view that it most certainly is. . The trouble is, as I have probably mentioned before, is that my focus shifts so quickly between projects and ideas that I am into a new idea before I have blogged about the last one. Then eventually, the weight of unblogged about things becomes so great that my Blogger's Guilt kicks in and I try to feature about ten ideas at once.  Oh well, so be it ;-) So, first up - Y ..read more

Taking Bigfoot Golfing Well, having been through a mini frenzy of making odd, not really jewellery - not really anything else, type things involving model railway figures etc, I have stopped to take a breath and have a think about what and where it is all going, and if indeed it has to 'go' anywhere anyway. . . Blue Bear says 'Hi' As you probably noticed, the background images I have been using are rather wonderful, out of register, retro graphics of the cheap, far eastern variety. These ones date from around the nineteen sixties and are taken from some Japanese made wate ..read more

Start off by having a silly idea while trying to get to sleep. Wake up in the morning and think "Why not? What have I got to lose?" etc etc and wander into the workshop. After all it is still Lockdown pretty much and you are going slightly nuts like everyone else. . . In line with the aforementioned silly idea, take some of these. . . 'These' being what are known as 'biscuits', which shouldn't be confused with what are normally thought of as biscuits round here as they are distinctly inedible, even if dunked in really hot tea. They are in fact small pieces of plywood used to accurately jo ..read more

Well, still in the throes of this lockdown thing though the situation has eased slightly. Shops are open again apparently, which makes no difference to me as I am not remotely interested in risking my life and that of others in order to 'shop'. To be fair I don't do 'shopping' at the best of times, I buy stuff as and when I need it, so I don't see shopping as a recreational activity in it's own right and can't understand why anyone does ;-) Especially in those hideous, charmless and soul destroying places known as Malls. . . Of course being a hypocrite, I enjoy trawling through charity shop ..read more

So, two and a half months since my last blog post. That must be a record. Not one to be proud of I have to say. (I initially wrote 'two and a half moths' until I noticed and corrected it, still, I like the image it throws up. . . ) I suppose the enforced limbo we are all in has eroded any sense of urgency I might have felt. Also, feeling guilty about not posting for weeks doesn't help. How can I possibly post after so long a gap? etc. etc. Oh well, I am doing it now aren't I? Scratch design rustic, turned look tube beads The trouble is, for us, so far this lockdown has actually bee ..read more

Well, strange times. . . Surreal times. The fragility of the links that hold everything together are suddenly exposed, although I guess this fragility was obvious enough if we chose to look in that direction -which of course we didn't. Not that it has had much effect yet round here. Nothing tangible, which makes it like a kind of Phoney War, everything is fine and normal until the first bomb drops on your house. But the advice is to practice Social Distancing, which makes a lot of sense if slowing the rate of infection is the idea, which it should be. It will be weird not seeing friends o ..read more

Well, having created and constructed a good few interesting pendant focal pieces, in my view anyway, I have been mulling over and wrestling with the problem of how to present them as finished necklaces, if that's not too loose a term. Wire wrapped copper links and jump rings Simple chain. . . I can make pendant things that look great on their own, and that are recognisably my work, but as soon as I try to put them on a string/chain/other, they look kind of wrong and somewhat amateurish in a worrying sort of way. It is occurring to me that the choice of stringing/hanging material is a lot m ..read more

Well, the weather got a bit wintery for a change! In a good way, it's been dismally dull and wet for weeks round here. Steady light rain and the kind of dull light that makes you feel like you never actually woke up fully, so you mooch around, squelching across the mud and moss that may revert to something like a lawn one day if it ever stops raining, grumbling, mumbling and tripping over the chickens, feeling like your battery failed to recharge properly and you left your 'oomph' in your other trousers. . But a few days ago it was crisp and bright. Cold, (comparatively of course - this i ..read more