My website has launched!

Oh dear, it's been a while again hasn't it? I do find I forget to post, which is very bad of me, I'll try and get back into the habit :-D
So, what news? Well, the most exciting news is that veebeads.net has gone live! I'm currently selling jewellery that I have made using my own lampwork beads, and, even more exciting perhaps, veebeads.net is now the UK home of Val Cox frit! I sell the Ample Sample size, and I also have some stock of the brand new sampler sets, and Vals wonderful Frit Secrets book, signed by the author. Have a peek!
I've also started a new group on Flickr, We Love Val Cox frit! is open for anyone to join, hopefully there will be lots of gorgeous fritty beads added soon :-)
Here's a few of the beads I have been working on lately, I know you love the eye candy!

Hard work and a pressie for me!

It has been quite a challenging time recently, work has bee really stressful, and ther is more stress to come! I am also in the middle of creating my new website, watch this space for news on the launch date, I'm hoping to have something very exciting to share with you!
Why is it that listings take so long? And getting descent photos at this time of year is nigh on impossible, then you have to crop and edit and compress etc, nobody told me it would be such hard work! I've hardly made anything over the last couple of weeks!

Anyway, I did find a little time, and this necklace was partly planned, so I finished it with a new bead I made a couple of weekends ago. I made it to sell, honest I did! But when I saw it finished on the bust, well, I decided I couldn't bear to part with it! So here's a little present, just for me!

Phoenix Collar

Well, with my bonus from work, I invested in some "kit", including some of the delica palette boxes from Spellbound Beads. I'd had an idea for this necklace jotted down in my notebook for a while, and I'd made the lampwork bead a while back too. I wrapped the bead in copper wire and finally decidede to use it!
I designed the whole necklace from start to finish, and I made a note of how I did it, as I have another focal in lovely meditteranean colours that I want to use in a similar necklace!

By the end of day 2, this is how it was shaping up:

You can just about see the original idea scribbled on the page!

And after three days solid, here is the finished article:

I'm rather pleased with how it turned out, and I already know how I'm going to evolve the design with other added "elements". Watch this space!

A Lava-ly time!

I have been making quite a few beads lately, and have re-visited an old friend in the lava beads. I enjoy making them, there is no need for them to all be the same size or pattern, they are just organic pebbles really! The first neclace here is the second one I made actually. I made the clasp from heavy gaugue copper wire which has been hammered and wrapped (and prompted a custom order for sterling ones, yay!). There are some swarovski bicones and some snakeskin jasper beads in here too, and the spacers between the round beads are new for me as well, round flat peyote stitch. The necklace is a whopping 85cm from clasp to clasp, plus the pendant is an extra 7cm.

This one I made with a 2 hole bead, made with my button mandrel. That clasp is mine too!

Finally here are the earrings I made for Mum for Mother's day. Thank goodness she liked them!

For Sale on Etsy!

These are the beads I currently have for sale on Etsy, hope you like them!

Slacking...

Well, I have been slacking lately, haven't I? So very rude of me! I have started writing "The Trials and Tribulations of a Newbie Lampworker" for the Frit Happens Forum Team blog, and it reminded me that I have neglected my own blog something chronic! So, what have I been up to lately? I have made a good few beads, of course. Some eye candy coming up any minute. I have also had my first two Etsy sales, about which I am amazed! My first sale was to a lady called Jean, and she sent me this picture of what she made with it....I'm sooo chuffed :-) Thank you Jean!


This is the other bead that sold last week:

The next post will show you the other beads I currently have for sale on Etsy, wish me luck!

Even more Macmillan Beads!

This is the final one for this coming Friday. Thanks!

More Macmillan Beads!

These start this Friday:

Beads for Macmillan

I have decided to sell some of my beads on ebay to raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Support. The first four here have already sold, the ones in the next post are a sneak peek of some that will start on Friday. I hope to raise as much as possible as part of the Worlds Biggest Coffee Morning which takes place on 25th September 2009. I am very grateful to the members of the Frit Happens Forum who have donated much of the glass used to create these beads. Thank you!

Goddesses

I have tried some glass sculpting, these are "Goddess" beads!

More from me

I have been playing with molten glass again! It's fun!

OMG!! I MADE BEADS!!

I finally got myself some equipment to create my own lampwork beads! I have always admired what lampworkers can achieve with molten glass, but the craft has been prohibitively expensive, until now! I will have to save up for a kiln ( £600, that's gonna take a while! ) before I can sell anything, as the beads have to be annealed, that is they need to be cooled down really slowly so they don't shatter when worn as jewellery. So for now I can only practise getting shape, size and colour right. Anyway, here are some of my first offerings. I made the larger beads on the earrings (top right), the clear bead and the flower bead at the bottom, the white speckled beads and the two unstrung beads. I had a blast, but I ran out of gas for my torch, so I can't do anymore for a while. How we suffer for our art! I will be setting up an Etsy shop soon to sell some of my jewellery, the proceeds of which will go towards feeding my new glass addiction!