Going Offline

I have been putting off posting this for a little while because I didn't want to publish it right on top of bead soup. I have been distracted, in fact completely absent would be a better description, from my business, my beads, my blog, and well, the internet ....

Sadly a few weeks ago my much loved mother in law was diagnosed with the big C, her outlook is very positive and she starts her course of treatment tomorrow but obviously it has had a massive impact on all of us. During the next few months family and friends will be taking it in turns to look after her, I am booked for a week towards the end of May but I know that we will be travelling up to see her as often as possible.

I am also in the eye of the storm with my mothers move, she has loved being here with us for the last 8 weeks but her flat purchase is finally coming to fruition. I do not think it will be very long before we are schlepping back up and down the M6 to Lancaster in a removal van.

All in all I see a great deal of travelling in my immediate future and that's OK, that's what families are for but I will not be here for a while. I just wanted to let you all know and hopefully I will be brighter and calmer when I return.

A bientot
Jxx

Bead Soup Blog Party 7 Reveal 3

Here we are at the third reveal for BSBP 7.

I was paired with Andria Poole of All About Anjria who makes gorgeous jewellery.
Here are the pictures of the lovely soup she sent me

handmade copper focal and clasp

handmade copper chain & links, with copper beads and beadcaps

handmade polymer clay beads, ceramic and glass beads

I have not had much time to make jewellery over the last few weeks and every time the reveal date was pushed back I breathed a sigh of relief. I wanted to use as much of Andria's soup as possible, I love the handmade copper chain, focal and clasp she sent and wanted to incorporate some of her pretty polymer clay beads too. When I finally found myself a couple of hours to play I found myself drawn to some vibrant handmade turquoise silk ribbon and some of my own aqua colour lampwork beads and this is what I made.

Bead Soup Blog Party 7 3rd Reveal Copper and polymer components by Andria Poole

Copper Wire Focal & polymer clay beads close up

This is the bead soup I sent Andria and I can't wait to see what she makes with it.

Bead Soup I sent Andria

Off Grid

I am currently off grid moving Mum out of her house. Things are going well.. we have already trashed a humoungous amount of stuff (seriously, a ridiculous amount of rubbish), the removal men are coming tomorrow to put the rest into storage and then we will clear and clean ready for completion on Friday. I wanted to get her safely installed in our house before Natalies birthday on Monday and I'm very happy we have managed it. It has rumbled on for months, as these things do, and I know Mum will be pleased to see the back of it.

Typically, as I am have not been able to access the internet for a while my webhost pushed the big red delete button of doom and took my website judith-johnston.com and main e-mail address with it. I have already set my e-mail up on a new server but if you e-mailed me in the last week and I haven't got back to you, you may want to try again. I am transferring my domain to a new host but typically that takes 5-7 days so that will not be back online before the weekend - gah that was so not what I needed.

Anyway hopefully I will be back in the shed getting my bead groove thing on before too long.

à plus tard

Jxx

I love my stool

My new stool arrived the day after I ordered it, deep joy. I whipped it together in under 5 minutes the read the instructions on how to "activate" the gas lift.... bounce up and down on the stool. OK, I can do that, not quite as easily as a tall person but I can definitely do that. So I start bouncing, nothing, I try using my hands to pump it, nothing, I turn it upside down and try pumping the base, I hold the base with my hands and lean into it and use my chest to bounce it.... for an HOUR! Nothing, I decide it is broken and ring up customer services..

Me "I can't activate the gas lift on this stool, it must be broken"
CS girl "have you taken the cap off madam?"
Me "What cap?"
CS Girl "the one underneath, the red cap"
I turn the stool over,
Me "nope no cap here"
CS Girl "well sometimes it just takes a while to get going, maybe try again"

Another hour later, I have tried it right way, wrong way, upside down, back to front and inside out. I shudder to think what the neighbours think I 'm doing and to make matters worse I now have the worst song in the world in my head "we had it in the kitchen, we had it in the hall, we had it in the bedroom and we hung it on the wall!!! I don't know who sang it or the actual lyrics but I despise that song, I think I might cry.

My earlier enthusiasm and joy has definitely waned, now I am scarlet, puffed out and pissed off. Another call to customer services..


Me "I can't activate the gas lift on this stool, it must be broken"
CS girl "have you taken the cap off madam?"
Me "There is no cap"
CS Girl "the one underneath, the red cap"
Me - about to blow - "there. is. no. red. cap."
CS Girl "Have you removed the seat to check?"
Me "Removed the seat? Really???"

I remove the seat, I flip the tiny red plastic cap off the top of the gas mechanism, I screw the seat back, I collapse heavily onto the stool exhausted...as if by magic the stool slowly starts to rise.

Once the stool was installed and adjusted in the shed I managed a couple of sessions of making beads. The first day I thought I had only been out there an hour or so but it turned out to be four hours, what a difference a good seat makes. I had been hoping to make lots more beads but sadly my see-sawing iunder/over thyroid  thinks otherwise. Anyhoo here are some pretty shiny purple and ivory beads that I made on that first session.

Stoolmageddon

Things have been a bit ridiculous of late.... lots of carrying on and shenanagins with a dose of thyroid trouble and migraine clusters thrown in for good measure. So it wasn't really surprising that not much was getting done chez Johnston let alone beadmaking but last week I decided what I really needed was some lampwork therapy. I have often described making beads as meditative and so I thought I would put it to the test.
I fired it all up, the fan heater, the kiln, the oxygen generator the ventilation, it was all humming and a whirring like a finely tuned orchestra. I chose my glass, purple obviously and I decided to make something I hadn't made for ages, flowers, flower beads would be my medicine.

I don't know if you remember but my trusty bead making stool shattered into pieces mid bead somewhere back in the autumn and I replaced it with a kitchen stool some 40+ years old. I know it is really old because I remember it being so high up I couldn't sit on it when I was little, but I digress... With everything set up and ready for action I was keen to get started so I sat my lardy arse down and heard a long low groan as the replacement stool sagged under me... I quickly stood up and with a pathetic wheeze the poor old stool slid sideways in slow motion and to it's ultimate doom under a cloud of 40 year old dust, a dying breath expelled by it's brown vinyl seat as it met the floor...bummer.... no bead making for me then.

Today I have a new stool on order, it has a back and everything, gas lift, 360 degree swivel and it's coming the day after tomorrow. I am so excited but I have to wonder, two stools in two months? perhaps I should lose some weight!

Red Floral Lampwork Bead