I'm in the Bead Soup Blog Party...whooohoooo!

It is possible that many of you are far more observant than me and have noticed I have a button with link to the Bead Soup Blog Party over at the bottom right!

I have joined up because to be honest it sounds like a real Hoot!  Plus I am thinking it will get me making some actually jewellery again (I have been very slack for quite a while now).  I think it sounds like great fun to make up a set of beads to send off over the ocean (unless I get an Aussie in my swap, possible but not likely I am sure).  I was on the torch today and thought I might make up some beads to send off, but then after lots of thought, I decided that it would probably be better to wait for my swap partner name and then do some sneaking about on thier blog to see what colours they are into (or anything else sort of special they might like).  I will be making a marathon effort to get my beads off really quickly given that the reciever will have the maximum time to make up something with them and I am hoping my swap partner does the same sort of thing.  As it turns out I will be off for two weeks in the beginning of September working as Loren Stump's Technical Assistant (soooo excited, I loved working with him last year), but this will be leaving me with very little time to do the making part of my swap.  I figure if I can have mine all finished up and photographed then I will have it all ready to upload on the party day (day to post up the finished article then go around to everyones blogs and drool over the all the loveliness!!!).

I have my half of the kaleidoscope murrini cane done, last bit tomorrow....YAY!  I have promised some more marine life murrini to one of Kerry's lovely customers and will get some of the components done for that too if I can.  Even though I am catching up on my TO DO list, after adding in some more, it seems that it is the perpetual to do list.... always something more to do!

Nat :-)

Off my back, on my feet and murrini-ing!!!!!

Oooooh, that feels so good to get back into some serious murrini-festing around here.  I have been so focussed on making stuff for my etsy store and getting side-tracked with some experiments that I have let my murrini making slide a little.  I have a whole lot of stock I need to get down to Kerry at Affordable Inspiration and in my defence I have been getting rather organised (ie. making large murrini and leaving some in component form for the next time rather than just making enough for right now).

I have also been really crook this week (that ill for those non-aussies) and have spent nearly a whole week in bed with no voice and whinging about the sore throat (mostly silently to myself to be sure) and having the frustration of needing to yell at my kids and only having a completely unsatisfying tiny squeek come out!!  Well, the antibiotics have now kicked in and the kiln is hot and its time to murrini. 

I have three constructed canes I am doing today, first off is the dragonfly cane final assembly (ie the two halves).  this is dragonfly cane number two I have made (the first one is back in the archives in this blog with some notes on how I came up with the planning for it).  The wings are a little fatter on this one and I will admit that I was not quite so anal about the graduation of colour, which I might add barely shows on the smaller diameter stuff once pulled down.  This one was made to restock and therefore, is still very nice, but not perfect.  I am hoping to avoid the "bum cheek" dilemma I had last time by making the body just a streamlined straight line.

Here is the second cane I will be putting together.  This is some more monarch butterfly cane, the last one I did I had a scare from one of my girls and accidentally put the two halves together off centre.... I am determined not to make that mistake with this one!  One thing to keep in mind with using the oranges and yellows in canes like this is that they are a bit unstable and rather prone to cracking.  Usually once they are pulled down this issue seems....er... less of an issue, but I always anneal even my final small diameter pull fully just in case.  To be honest it also makes the canes very nice to chop up neatly which is always a good thing!

And finally, I have decided that I should revisit my efforts at a kaleidoscope cane.  I am going to put these three together and fill with some other colours into a triangle shape which I will make into another component cane.... hopefully by the time I pull this out a couple more times you don't completely loose the detail, but considering that I found this one particularly ugly, I figure it can't hurt and I can keep my fingers crossed for a pleasant surprise anyway!

Help.... the murrini are taking over.... the house!

Ok, now it is absolutely set in stone..... I am back on a murrini-fest again.

Last week I sent a batch of "testers" to Kerry at Affordable Inspiration (http://www.affordableinspiration.com.au/) under my BeadMonki label and not only did she list them, she sent out a note in her fabulous newsletter letting everyone know some new murrini were in..... about half an hour after Kerry's newsletter went out she sold out of a few of them super fast. Sooooooo, today needless to say I have been pulling down murrini cane, cutting, bagging and labelling up so I could send them express down to her this arvo....phew! I am so stoked that people have liked them, but now feel like I should be getting my finger out and making more backup stock during my anal April sorting out. I have a couple orders I really need to finish off and photograph for some lovely peeps and will be onto that tomorrow. Today I tried putting together the start of my first kaleidoscope cane. I don't mind the first pull, but want it much more complicated, so my big plan is to make multiple canes then assemble them together in a repeating pattern which should be fun. This is a project I will do over a week or two rather than just a manic rush (unlike my usual effort). Here is a pic of the end and a quickie slice off it. The first thing I thought of was that it would work really well for citrus murrini....hhhmmmmmmmm!