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It's been a long time since I posted anything because Christmas got in the way and all three men in the family were coughing and spluttering at Christmas. DH has only just stopped coughing a month later. Last Christmas one of my presents was the book Ornamental Knots for Beaded Jewellery by Susan Millodot and I've been trying out a few of the things in it. This is the Guinevere's knot made in 1mm leather cord. All I had to do was make a set of beads to match.

I went on a master course with Kate Drew Wilkinson at the Old Kennels for three days from 20th September. The Kennels is a fabulous place in Devon where handcrafts are taught, see here.
This course was to improve my beading skills and was a great opportunity to meet Kate who was visiting the UK from her home in Buffalo, Wisconsin, USA. Her website is here.
Here are the beads I've made since getting home,

I just uploaded my photos of the Bristol Balloon Fiesta Nightglow to Flickr. Click the image if you're interested :-)

I've been messing about stithing and playing with the photos I took over this weeked while my friend Dave was visiting. The first day that we went out the weather wasn't that great with us only just missing getting a thorough soaking from the rain. As the panorama photos that I took are not really the cheery beautiful sunny kind I decided to have a play and do something different.

As you probably are aware, I've been trying braiding for the last few weeks and wanted to try braiding with wire. This bracelet is made from 16 strands of 0.6 mm gold plated wire with the ends of the wire coiled to provide a decorative finish. I found the wire difficult to work with mainly because of it's tendency to kink so the braid is a little uneven but it's something I might try again, perhaps with a slightly thinner wire.

I mentioned,in my post on Kumihimo braiding, that I was going to try different types of threads to see how they came out with fairly basic 8 thread braids.The picture shows the results,

Another lady figure about 16 cm high. She also stands up on her own. Her arms need some work but I'll get there in the end.

There was an article in the August 2009 Bead and Button magazine about Japanese Kumihimo braiding. I was intrigued and bought the kit from G J Beads. The article showed a braid which was worked with beads and this is my attempt. I'm hoping that the braids will provide an alternative to using chain, jump rings or suede for lampwork focals.

I'm trying to hone my skills using borosilicate glass for off mandrel sculptural work. I made a duck the other day but inadvertently picked up a non-boro rod in the process. Result, multiple cracks in the body. I've now reworked the duck and this is the result.

Only three more weeks to go before my sculptural glass course near Bristol with Julie Anne Dent.