I love to use all sorts of different materials in my jewellery designs and each one brings its own special qualities to the piece. Glass seed beads come in a wonderful range of sizes, shapes and colours, they are not expensive and the good quality ones are very regualar. Gemstones have such character and individuality and really add value jewellery. …
It is always thrilling to see your own work in print and one of my most treasured collections is the stack of magazines which include my work. In most cases the work would be in the form of a tutorial, but there are other types of submission. The Designer Challenge in Beads & Beyond is one of my favourites, for …
Graphic Quartz. Never heard of it? Nor had I until I received the parcel from Jewellery Maker containing the kits for my most recent show! Now that I have both seen it and worked with it I hope to use it a lot more. It is a wonderfully warm colour, with varied matrix structures visible both on the surface and …
I was given some lovely gemstones and lots of metal seed beads to work with for the Designer Inspiriation show at Jewellery Maker yesterday. I am the sort of person who gets most of their inspiration from the materials themselves, so receiving a weighty strand of Labradorite with some truly amazing optical effects was all I needed to get my …
Sorry to anyone who tried and failed to get onto the Prumihimo site today. The technical issues have now been resolved by the lovely man at Go Daddy! I am back in business. This picture is of a thistle at Kew Gardens, but as far as I am concerned it could just as easily be the inside of my computer. …
I have had lots of enquiries about whether I am planning to do any workshops at Jewellery Maker, so I wanted to let people know that I will be doing two workshops this autumn. They are not available for booking yet, but Wendy, the workshop coordinator, is happy for me to give out the dates. She will keep a list …
Instructing at a workshop is great fun and so rewarding. Yesterday I went to the pretty village of Haddenham in Cambridgeshire where Spoilt Rotten Beads is located. When I arrived I was greeted by lots of familiar faces as well as some new pupils and I really couldn’t have wished for a better group of people. The class was intermediate …
I am really enjoying being able to feature different designers in this blog. My aim is to show a wide range of talents and styles in order to demonstrate just how versatile kumihimo can be. The designer I have chosen for today is someone who is famous for a very different medium, so the kumihimo plays a supporting role, rather …
If you are looking for something to make a statement, my latest tutorial might be just that! This design was first published in Beads and Beyond at the beginning of the year. I have now reworked and rewritten the design as a tutorial for my shop. There is more than immediately meets the eye in this design. I have included …
It should be easy for a jewellery designer to have the perfect piece of jewellery for every occasion, but it often doesn’t work out like that! Choosing jewellery to wear for my television appearances can be particularly tricky. The Guest Designers are requested to wear jewellery made from the kits, but I am not sure I want the cameras to …
