The Finale

After much thought and deliberationI have come to the very hard decision that  Saturday 14th December will be my last Craft fair not only for this year but the foreseeable future.
A a gesture of good will I am selling all my Dichroic Glass earrings, cufflinks and pendants at a reduction of 30% on the day.
I will continue to take commissions on lampwork beads and Jewellery and you may find my beads on Etsy from time to time.
In the meantime may I thanks all my loyal customers for their support and wish you all a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Pam

Fairs

Quick update of my fairs in December.
Only 2 left this year.

7th December 2013 - The Marquee in the Priory Grounds at Much Wenlock- Free entry
14th December 2013. The Square, Shrewsbury Town Centre. Open air Market. Free to browse. 30 plus stalls of Shropshire Artisan Crafts and Food.

Setting Myself a Challenge

Another MEGA Set

I have been working with some new glass to me Reichenbach which I recently purchased from Caroline at Beadbug http://www.beadbug.co.uk

I am pretty happy with this set, the brown is a lovely chocolate brown which has a lustre which is produced by very subtle striking. 

The red Coral is one of the nicest Reds I have found-no mucky brown streaks and the iris yellow is a perfect straw colour which has a very subtle sheen when lightly re introduced to the flame.

I have listed the glass used here for those wanting to have a play.

RW0069 Coral Red

RW222Tobacco Light

RW0107 Iris Opal Yellow

Here are some photographs of the beads I have produced.

One more fair to go in 2012

After a long and exhausting weekend at a Local Medieval craft fair I am winding down for the festive season to spend some much needed time with my family. I have one last craft fair on 8th December in the Square in Shrewsbury town centre where I will have a fantastic array of jewellery, in particular there are earrings of every colour imaginable in both dichroic and lampwork, necklaces, pendants, bracelets and cuff links.
Wishing you all a happy festive season. X

Crazy season or is it?

Good evening.
After having recovered from a cold and windy day standing outside with my vast array of jewellery I have decided to try and keep up to date with my website. So today I have been painstakingly uploading images of my jewellery onto my aged computer. Keeping up with technology is so expensive and it is painful waiting to see if the image that looks very reasonable on your camera screen is good enough for viewing on the computer. My verdict- they will do for now (the images are far from perfect). Thankfully I can say my jewellery more beautiful in real than on a computer screen.
Here is some of my recent work.

Still Here

Helloooooo
Well I'm still here making beads but being a tad too lazy to upload them onto my website (a long story).
Life seems so much more hectic now the children are grown up (and I always thought it should get easier as they came out of their teens) I am working more hours to pay for the ever increasing bills so less time for my passion of creating my glass beads. Saying that I have quite a stash of beads and will be at Stourbridge Bead fair at the end of August in the Bonded Warehouse  on a stall with my beads and jewellery to buy. There will definately be some bargins to be had.
I do hope you can pop by and say hello.
Best wishes
Pam xx

Having Trouble with my Website

I have been beavering away trying to keep to my promise to put new beads on my website, all was going well until I had a transfer critical error message. So the beads are ready but I am not able to list them.
I have a preview for you of the aforementioned beads...

So you can see I have been busy but now I have another challenge, to get my site fixed or create a new site. The trouble is I have an old version of Dreamweaver and an old computer so things aren't looking too good at the moment.
While I am here I also wanted to share with you a piece of storage that I recently bought for my glass rods.  I am so pleased with it and it helps my workspace to look so much less cluttered. I still have some glass in pots but these are ones I am using with each project.

 

The 70 section storage unit was a custom order from 

http://vixxhandmadecards.blogspot.co.uk/p/storage-boxesideas-for-sale.html

it is perfect for storing rods and the arrived so quickly. I painted the outer casing.

First day of the Bank Holiday and it was mostly dry here in Shropshire so I took the opportunity to clean and sort out my Studio. I have extended my work area and got rid of some rubbish (there is plenty more to sort unfortunately) took a two tall shelving units out which were full of clutter, painted an old CD rack ready for new compact shelving and I am awaiting a new awesome glass storage unit. The only trouble is by the end of the day I had run out of steam my helpful hubby put some stuff in the studio and now it looks like I have been burgled. Hopefully tomorrow I will get the chance to sort and do a real tidy up. Then I can get creating again..... :)

Hello Again

Once agian I feel I need to apologise for my absence.Unfortunately working almost full time and family does not allow me to keep up with all the housekeeping both in the home and craft wise. I have been quietly working in the background but of course finding time to update post, website etc has been neglected. I have been working on a few different ideas with my beads which I will share with you when the weathe improves for the photography ( oh and my daughter returns my camera from her visit to Milan). I have made some fused glass pictures ready for an exhibition and I am also in the process of tidying my studio (an impossible task I tell you), How to folk keep their work space so tidy when they are creating, I feel I need an extension to my already fairly large shedio :) My husband is constantly nagging me to tidy my workspace and throw out what I no longer need, but I am sure you will understand that you never know when something you have in your stash will be just the thing you are looking for in a creation...... I'm not very good at being told what to do either..... Oops there's a confession. I am just about to brave this very unforgiving deluge and see that the final firing has to offer. Thank you for popping by. Pam x

New Beads

At last some more Ripple Beads
I have just uploaded some new ripple beads on my website
Here is a preview for you, the others are in denim shades of blue and a soft opal/pearly colour.


Back again soon
Pam

And the winners are

Congratulations and thank you to all those that took part and for the lovely messages. The winners are:

J Adams from Norfolk

B Coombes from Cornwall

Your beads will be sent to you first class today.

Enjoy :)

Giveaway Beads

Good afternoon.

At last some time to catch up. Having been a taxi service for my children all day I finally got round to photographing the beads to giveaway.

All I ask in return is to follow my blog and send me an email with your name and text in the subject line appropriate to which beads you would like to win.

GOOD LUCK :)

Watch this Space

Its been a while since my last post but I have promised a giveaway and its a long time since this last happened so I have two focal beads to give away.

So...........I will post an image later of a beautiful floral focal bead and a focal chicken bead, meanwhile send me an email entering floral or chicken in the subject line along with your name in the body of the email by Tuesday 13th September 7pm and I will enter your name into a draw.

The winner will be announced on my blogg Wednesday 14th

Best of Luck

Pam

Join me on Twitter

I've been having a play with Twitter and I quite like it if I am being honest. Its short, quick and punchy and there a some really informative links and info. I'm not so good a writting essays so I am going to use Twitter much more to keep you informed of new beads being listed .

My Twitter name is (yes you have guessed it) Mapleglass. Hope you find time to follow me. Pam x

Meanwhile here are a couple of pictures of the new beads I have just listed on Etsy.com (mapleglass)

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend and enjoy this beautiful sunshine.

Why does time go so fast?

It was April when I last posted anything on my blog, somehow I don't think I am cut out for this. I do so admire those that can keep their entries up to date and on a regular basis. Anyway this is me and those that follow may realise what a busy life I lead and will forgive me.

I have been busy making beads mainly for jewellery for the shows I have been doing plus commissions but as I have just had a week off work I have managed to catch up with my orders and even made some new sets of beads for my website.

Hope you like them :)

Update

Feeling like I have accomplished something today. I have tidied up my bead page on my website and made more new beads. As always something has to suffer or be compromised and once again that was the housework. Why are teenagers so tired when they do nothing? I have crossed 3 thinks off my list of 20 so I will keep this short and toddle off to see if I can half the list by midnight. Back soon. Pam x

Feeling Guilty

I feel another apology is needed for my neglected blog/website/ face book. Although I have indeed being very busy (buried under all the work you might say) I have regretfully neglected updating various sites and getting too involved in forums. Hopefully normality will soon return. One of my biggest guilt trips I have been on recently is missing Flame Off and meeting up with my glass pals- again work got in the way. Time off over Easter should help me gather my thoughts/photos/space to update my sites. Pam x

Update

Yuletide Greetings

I have now finished my Craft Fairs for the year and finally thawed out after what must have been the coldest December fairs in the last 5 years. I clocked a -12 degrees at the end of November and stood outside in it from 8am - 9pm on the first day and a meagre 8 hours the second day. Last weekend I was not only out in sub zero temperatures but also a heavy snow shower. Am I mad I hear you ask? Most probably, I really need to ask myself why I am trying to torture myself :) I am looking forward to some months of bead making in the warmth of my cosy shedio (honestly it is warm in the winter, and it feels almost tropical after the temperatures I have been used to lately. I will however wait until all the festivities are over before I start to untidy the house again with all the paraphernalia that comes with bead making.
Meanwhile I would like to wish all my followers a

Very Merry Christmas

and a

Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year.

Beads Beads Beads

Hello
I have been quiet for a while but have decided today that its time for more beads to be listed on my website ready for you lovely designers to turn them into gorgeous jewellery just in time for the festive season.
My website is full and there are many discounts too so if you fancy a peek here is the link

http://mapleglass.co.uk/Beads.htm

Enjoy a peaceful Sunday evening.
Pam
x