Claire's blog

I was teaching a netted necklaces class down in London a couple of weeks ago for the Beadworkers Guild, and asked everyone to send me photos of their finished necklaces. I always ask, but don’t usually receive anything, so I was bowled away when I received this stack of photos from Amanda Tinkler (who’s been […]

The group exhibition at Patchings finished last weekend, so I got my large beadweaving back yesterday. It’s lovely to get it back – I’d forgotten how much I like it!  The design is based on an Art Nouveau motif and woven with delicas on my Mirrix loom.  I got a couple of beautiful inspiration books […]

I’d forgotten how much I like beading these and that I had quite so many up in the loft waiting for me to cover them!  So I’ve run up a couple of netted tealight holders. I’ve listed the second one in my Etsy shop, and will be listing the other one later. I wrote the […]

It’s a slightly worrying place, applying for new jobs.  I’m lucky, in that I have family to support me, but it’s still a bit dispiriting sending job applications into the ether and keeping your fingers crossed.  But today I got an invitation to interview in just over a weeks time – lovely to know that […]

It’s that time of year again, and Patchings hold an exhibition of work by all of the studio artists and tutors.  I’ve just finished the last of my pieces, ready to be dropped off tomorrow. I’ve done a couple of pictures, one a re-worked version of the central panel from my Icon, the other a […]

Still plugging away at my August page. I think I’ve finished the beading on this, so I’m filling in the background with french knots in variegated thread.

I decided to have some fun today, and make something just for myself and the fun of it.  So I flicked through my magazines for a project and choose a bracelet from this issue of Beadwork. I’m pleased with how it came out, but I’m not sure if I’ll make another one – the tension was so […]

I woke up this morning from a dream where I was beading little stars out of beads and sequins.  While I was brushing my teeth I thought ‘that could work!’.  Then while I was getting dressed I realised it wouldn’t as it wouldn’t be stiff enough.  But by the time I’d got to Patchings and […]

Put in more work on my Bead Journal Project page – at this rate I might even catch up!  I think I’m going to have to gild the face as well, but I’ll wait until the page is finished before I do that. It’s Mum’s birthday today (happy birthday Mum!), and she and Dad have […]

Put in some more today on the August BJP page (after ripping out the sequins from yesterday so I could put them in the right way round)

Here it is, September, and I’ve only completed the page for June.  As I’m still working on the background to print for July, I thought I’d better make a start on August!  My theme for August is the sun (as it’s in August we finally got some sun around here), and I’m using a face I […]

I had a fantastic surprise today – a parcel came through the post with a complimentary signed copy of The Beader’s Floral!  It’s written by Liz Thornton and Jill Devon (who owns The Bead Merchant – fantastic kits), and a while ago they asked me to design two large-ish beaded panels for the book.  I never […]

I’ve not forgotten about the Bead Journal Project, I’ve just been caught up in the move and teaching at Children’s Activities (that’s my story and I’m sticking to it).  I’ve known for a while that I wanted to do a Green Man for my July page.  This was to fit in with my theme of […]

Ok, it may be August, but I’ve finally finished my June page!  I’ve decided to mount them into a spiral bound sketchbook I’ve bought, with heavy weight watercolour paper.

Still running behind, but it’s coming on.  I’ve finished the mermaid, and am filling in the water with spirals of seed beads and a few freshwater pearls.  

Yes, I know it’s July, but I’m running horribly behind…  Being back in the UK for the weekend, I deliberately only brought what I needed to work on the page, and managed to get some done on Sunday.  I was then stranded in the UK (again!), as my flight was cancelled due to a technical fault, […]

As you can see there is still a lot of work to go (and only 2 days of June left!), but I’m quite pleased so far.  The ceramic face I was going to use was a pale blue, very serene, moon-like face, decorated with spirals.  It’s very lovely, but it was totally wrong for this […]

So here I am, at the beginning of my last week working for the NCBES!  Strange feeling, as I got up and came into work today same as any other day for the last two years, but this is it.  My last Monday as an employee here. Here’s hoping one of the jobs I’ve been […]

So I bit the bullet, and joined the Bead Journal Project (you can find the blog and info about the participants here). I’m way behind already, as I’ve not even started June’s page, but I finally did some sketching last night to get it roughly laid out. This was really an excuse for me to […]

Quick pictures post, while the camera and computer are playing with me. This is a bracelet based on a pattern in the February 2007 issue of Bead and Button. And these are spirals using herringbone in seed beads and triangles