Conscious that I have not posted a blog for a while! It has been a busy couple of weeks. Aside from cramming in every possible free moment at the torch, lots of other things have been going on - Mili and Mala went for their "op" and we have been trying to get them to go out in the garden (and come back in!), my stepdad came out of hospital and Mark was away at a Sad B*****ds Convention (otherwise known as a Northern Soul weekender!) in Yarmouth. My own trip to hospital is less than a couple of weeks away now and I am mentally preparing. It will put a stop to my lampworking for a while and you may find fewer beads up for sale for the next few weeks. But rest assured, I will be watching my lampworking DVDs and poring over my books so that when I do get back on the torch I will be trying new and interesting techniques. Though no doubt the basic ones will have gone a bit awry over that time and I will (again!) need to relearn them. Anyway, great excitement for me today as tomorrow is the Flame Off at Towcester - lots of demos from leading beadmakers, stuff to buy and chance to meet some more members of the Frit Happens! forum www.frit-happens.co.uk

Kazx

Made a fabulous (IMHO) goddess tonight with frit and wings and everything.....Will she survive a night in the vermiculate and, if she does, will she then survive the kiln? Tune in for the next exciting installment (and photos) soon.....

Been trying to make a goddess bead for the Frit Happens! forum swap but not having much success as they insist on cracking before they make it to the kiln. Also fancied making a fish from a tutorial that was posted up, but it looked too difficult. So I ended up with this weird hybrid - my first mermaid.....her "details" are in EDP and tail in the new CIM colour sapphire wrapped with Vetrofond odd colour lemongrass. She's very cute - it's just a pity she has no head - but she does have a tail!!!

Finally got round to creating and starting to populate my own website! Been to the studio today and created some beads using seeded rods and Ask 104 silver cinnamon (or was it silver rattan?). Set up the kiln to cook last weekend's beads and looking forward to opening it tomorrow. 4 days off for Easter - means lots of bead-making. And April is looking a lot quieter workwise than usual so may even have time to make some jewellery as people have been asking for my summer range!