OTTBS finish-a-long

Following last month's OTTBS finish-a-long sucess, I thought I'd join in again this month. I have a bracelet that I started a month or so ago. It came about after getting some free twin beads from the facebook page of Preciosa. I decided that I wanted to join the twins with jumprings and finally settled on a design similar to 6 in 1 chainmaille. The twin beads take the place of the smaller 6 rings. Here's how it looked. (Please excuse the slightly goose pimple arms! Its a little chilly today and I don't put the heating on if its only me in unless it gets majorly freezing)

Now I like this look but the problem is, its not very stable. The twins flip and the rings slip under each other. A bit of a shake sometimes rights it but not always. I decided to live with it for a bit but it got on my nerves so I decided I would have to do something about it. Then I didn't!

So that brings me to this month's finish along project.... sort out this bracelet. I picked up some delica drops and size 8s thinking that popping some on the edges would solve my problem. I've started but am not sure. The drops weren't working so I've been adding 4 size 8s to the outer rings. It has not completely solved the stability issue, but it has greatly improved it and it might be even better if I carry on. The look is quite different though, much less open. Here's the bit I've done so far.

What do you think? I'd appreciate any thoughts or ideas. I'm torn at the mo. Do I: carry on with it and live with it a bit; try and find another way of sorting it; or just frog it and do something else with the beads?

xxx

EDITED to add this picture so you can get a better idea of what's going wrong with the whole stability issue!
PS. Its really tricky to take a picture of your right arm with your left hand when you're right haded. Soemone didn't think that through properly!!

Beading courses: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced?

What do you think constitutes a beginner, intermediate and advanced beader?

I ask because I've recently discovered (via the OTTBS facebook group and Becs) that there is a shop/studio not too far from me that offers exciting beading courses. Its called Stitchncraft. Amongst the many, many exciting courses are a few by the fantastic bead artist Laura McCabe. Now her 1 day courses are already fully booked but she does have a couple of 2 day courses entitled 'Masterclass Beaded Sculpture' that are for advanced beaders only who are proficient in all the basic stitches.

The course is £120 (excl. materials) which is very cheap considering you get 12 hours of tuition from a beading master but I do not consider myself an advanced beader so I doubt I will be booking it. Besides which I have masses of books and tutorials here at home that are gathering dust.

It has got me thinking though. What is an advanced beader? Competitions often describe an advanced beader as someone who has been beading for over 5 years. Well I certainly fit in that category but I do not consider myself advanced, maybe intermediate? I first started beadweaving in my early/mid teens I think, with a kit from Spellbound beads that I picked up at a craft fair in the NEC when I used to go with my Mum. Not long after I acquired Carol Wilcox Wells' Creative Bead Weaving. My copy is not the newer edition but is dated 1996. So, time wise I started to learn beadweaving at least 15 years ago. But, I have not actually done a lot of beading in that time! I have an okish knowledge of the basic stitches but occasionally need to dig out one of my many books to remind me how its done. I have never been on a beading course but have learnt through books, magazines, bought tutorials and the internet. I don't struggle following instructions but haven't actually done many complicated designs. The most complex kit I have purchased and completed is probably the dragon necklace kit from Spellbound beads. I did this at least 5 years ago and did not struggle with it.

I did not do much beading during my A levels or whilst at uni. I probably did no beading at all when I was teacher training and whilst I was a secondary school teacher. (So that's 3 years when I don't think I touched my beads). Just before I started my teacher training I joined the Bead Workers Guild and found a group in Totton that I used to attend but the teaching malarkey put a stop to that and I let my membership lapse. After leaving classroom teaching and moving into private tuition I have now rediscovered time for beading and am really enjoying it again. Last year I came across OTTBS and am loving being part of that group. They're all wonderful at encouraging and sharing. They are really making me want to bead loads and I have been beading a lot more since finding the group. They are making me want to go on courses to meet other beaders and develop my beadwork....which leads me back to my initial question! Am I a beginner, intermediate or advanced beader?!

One thing for sure, I need to actually have a go at some of the many projects I have in books etc! Although this will mean buying more beads as much of my stash was bough on the cheap and the quality is not good enough for beadweaving.

I also want to continue with resin and silversmithing and more....to be honest, I like being a Jack of all trades, master of none! 

Bad blogger and decisions to make...

Sorry folks. I'm being a bad blogger at the moment. Live a bit topsy turvey as I've just given up my main job. Going to continue private maths teaching though. I'm also toying with the idea of openning a folksy shop. That and Phil's brother says I can sell jewellery in his bookshop. Just have to start deciding what I'm going to make to sell. At the mo I only make for myself and for gifts so I can spend days on a particular design but thats a bit impractical if I'm going to be selling them! Also, although my main craft passion is jewellery making, I dabble in all sorts of things. So should I sell other things too I wonder? A good thing about selling all sorts is that I can destash. I'm planning on cutting down on buying crafty supplies until I start selling. I'm not going completely craft neutral yet because if I see something thats a good price it would be silly to leave it in the shop. Also, I'm going to hobbycrafts at the NEC at the end of the month and there's not much point forking out for travel, hotel and entry if I'm not going to take advantage of the show prices!!

Decisions, decisions, decisions...

Crocheted flower brooch

Well here's the result of yesterdays snow day.....

A crocheted flower brooch that I made up as I went along. Its only made using chains, slip stitches, doubles and trebles 'cos thats all I know how to do at the moment. Found a nice button in my depressingly small button stash. Also- my first make of 2010- yay!

As an aside ponder... a couple of months ago I had decided that I was going to concentrate on silver smithing as my craft of choice. I have been enjoying learning this craft but the prob is it takes up lots of space. Its too much effort to get it all out only to have to tidy it up if either of us need to use the dining table. Maybe I should give some serious thought to converting the garage.

But crocheting can be done in the warm and doesn't need as many tools. It doesn't take over the dining table either. It can be done on the couch whilst watching tv and you can do it at any hour without having to worry that your hammering is disturbing the neighbours. Oh, and wool is cheaper than silver!!

Ponder, ponder, ponder......

Motivation where art thou?

I'm on a serious downer of late. (Feel free to stop reading this post- it may turn out to be quite negative.) Finding motivation to do anything is proving very difficult. Well I was motivatied last night to play about with this and get my head around some of the html/xml coding...and lets face it- not essential work but it does look prettier.

Haven't done any crafting since before Christmas and then it was only to make pressies for people. It felt forced. School starts again tomorrow and I haven't done anything about that yet. Luckily I only work part time so have Mon and Tue to do that work if I don't find the motivation later today. Don't even want to watch the UFC we recorded last night and usually I love that.

Right, that's enough. Stop moping Gemma. I'm going to go have a bath with left over homemade smellies and candles and I'm thinking I'll take the crochet stuff I picked up yesterday in with me.

Roll on the longer days!