How Low Can I Get

Searching Bins

   Well I think I've got there, I've got to the bottom at last and I have to confess that yesterday afternoon I was behind the local football club in their car park searching the bins, how low can you get !!. No it wasn't food I was after or drink but bottles, bottles for using in my recycled beads this week. I have a stock of different colours but thought I would take a look to see if there was anything different I could use, some of the darker blues and greens used in some spirit bottles work well so I was worth the short trip to the other end of the village.
   I was amazed at the number of bottles they dump and the selection, from cheap beer bottles to expensive champagne bottles, it was all there. I didn't find any unusual colours but I did get a few nice rich greens and browns to add to my stock. So today I get to play, first job is getting the labels removed, this is done by soaking the bottles in hot soapy water which also gives them a good clean. Then the fun part, I get to wrap them in a bag and take the hammer to them, not too hard as we need a good size shard to work with, no tiny pieces that will make only a single bead.
   I know some people place the glass shards into the flame melting them into a ball then pulling thin rods to use for making the beads but I work with the shard, I form the beads straight from the broken glass cutting down on time and effort, it can take a bit of tricky fiddling but you soon get used to it and the beads will look just the same.
   So when most people are going out for the day, enjoying the bank holiday or just relaxing in the garden this big kid will be playing with soap bubbles and a hammer, followed by a few hours producing recycled beads, I couldn't think of a better way to spend the day.
   I was hoping to get a few garden jobs done today but with my back still sore I think it's best to leave those for a day or two, better safe than sorry.
   Nice wild skies here this morning with the sun fighting to get the day off to a bright start, of course today is Ashwell show day so there is a good chance of rain, I would have a job to remember a show day when it didn't rain. I hope all my friends and family who go to the show really enjoy it and maybe next year we might get to pop along.
  Right I'm off to get those bottles soaked while I enjoy a round of toast and a coffee, enjoy the holiday and lets hope the sun battles through and we get a nice warm day.

Forced To Rest

A Day Off In Pain

   Yesterday morning I woke up with a really painful back, it's been a few years since I had this much discomfort with my back, not since my years landscaping has it happened. For the last month of two I've been getting a little back ache and we think it may be down to my chair that I sit in to work. It's not the best of chairs and being of that age where the seat is no longer level and the pump no longer keeps the chair up to the ideal height I've been sitting on two cushions which is not ideal.
   We are sure this is giving me the back problems as I do spend a lot of hours at my torch and to be honest it's not very comfortable so I guess I need to get something sorted. Like most of us I just get on with it putting the fact that the chair is no good to the back of my mind, my head just keeps telling me I need to work yet the body is now telling me I need to get it sorted. It is my fault completely and I should have sorted it months ago, now I'm forced to take the day off to rest as yesterday was a real struggle. I must admit the six hours I worked yesterday were the first hours ever that I didn't enjoy being at my torch, the first time I wanted the day to end and my flame to die and I never thought I would ever think that.
   I guess when we all go through hard times in our lives we learn to get through them the best we can, some things that would be important to sort at normal times are less important, when you struggle to pay bills and keep your head above water, your mind clicks into survival mode, I'm sure you all know what I mean and at some stage in your lives you have done just the same.
   With me I have to make sure I have the materials to work, my work is my only income so gas, oxygen glass, electric, Internet connection and postage are the main worries, they are top of the list, well above getting a new work chair, as long as I can make beads I can pay bills. This time I know I should have sorted this small thing and I'm paying the price for it, but hey, when I see some of the terrible things happening in the world how the hell can I moan about a bloody chair !!
   So I get a Sunday off, for the first time in months I get to be lazy, sit around the house drinking coffee and sorting bits here on the laptop, I can list beads and edit bead pictures so the day won't be a total waste and don't tell anyone but I can even watch the footie at lunch time. I'm looking forward to this coming week as I need to make lots more beads for both the ebay and etsy shop so that will be fun. Also a few days ago I was sorting out an area in the barn when I found a big bundle of notes all of which are bead ideas and designs, I think they are from last year so I'm working my way through them to see what I can try. When I look through notes like that it's amazing how my designs change over the years, I still have notes from the first week that I went full time making beads which is now five years ago and there are designs written in them that I think may still look good, but there are some I think wouldn't.
   I have planned a day this week to make some recycled beads from wine bottles, I have a good selection of bottle glass to use so I thought I would spend some hours playing with it, I have made recycled beads on a lot of occasions but never seem to list them, I always think they look too plain and nobody will be interested but sod it, I'll get a good batch made and see what happens.
   Ok I better get off there is a nice hot cuppa waiting for me and a whole day of nothing, enjoy your Sunday.
  

A Few Hours Playing

Rob Time.

   When your working long hours and when most of your days are planned out, Mondays is focals day, Tues is seaglass day etc etc, it's always nice to just take a few hours out, give yourself some time to play around with glass, try out new things, ideas that have crossed your mind, colours that haven't yet been explored and believe me it helps you forget any problems your facing for a while too, I guess it's one of the few ways I relax.

   While spending some time sorting through glass Tuesday I found a few colours that, well to be honest I had not ever used. This may sound silly to most of you but these rods were obtained over two years ago and had never even seen the flame let alone produced any finished beads. So they were placed on my work bench ready to try out, four colours in all, a deep green, light purple opaque and two different coral colours, both quite bright shades. For the first hour I just tried out the colours separately  to see how the finished colour was, when I do this I make a beads of spacer size then hold it infront of a fan cooling the glass so I get to see how the glass will look when cold. All the colours seemed ok but the green wasn't anything to write home about so I decided to see if it would work alongside some silver glass, there were a few types I felt might help it show off so I started playing.

   As you can see in the picture above they worked very well or at least I think they did, I love the colours that the mix produced and the full encasing helps show off every detail, there is something really magical about these beads, one of my favourite sets in the past few months. Some of you will say they are nothing special, maybe not flash enough, no goldstone swirls inside or raised mirror effects on the surface or he could have placed some silver or copper mesh inside, but hey, there are hundreds of beadmakers making just that type of bead so I'm sure you could go find pleanty to look at, I want to see how the glass looks and works in a more natural way.
   Sometimes I see beads that may be simple to make and not have all the fancy effects on them but they can look bloody classy, maybe just the finish does it or it may be that the colours work really well together, whatever it is sometimes it's just better and with the beads in the picture thats how I feel, there is just something special about them and tho I can't put my finger on it, I'm sure others may see it too.
   I have a full day ahead of me making beads to list in my etsy shop www.etsy.com/shop/pebbledreams including some large sets of spacers, just a few sets of say 20 beads made from some natural colours, sets that maybe can be used to make one piece of jewellery without the addition of bigger beads, I'm sure I'll have fun coming up with something. I hope to list more new focal beads in the ebay shop this evening www.stores.ebay.co.uk/Beads-Of-Glass
   The rain has just started falling here in the fens, heavy drops dancing on the surface of the pond and putting that little chill in the air, but I know one little boy who will be sitting at his torch watching it fall !

Apple Wars

Fight For The Springs

   Yesterday evening I was picking apples in the garden and the memories came flooding back to me of those warm days in our summer holidays when as village kids we would collect down Ashwell Springs. The springs is a area in the centre of the village where the natural seven springs bubble freezing cold clear water up from the ground, the start of the local river and a large shallow gravel bedded pool where all the local kids learn to fish with those cane handled nets brought from the local store. Where mums take their children to sit eating picnics on the grass banks and where the famous apple fights took place.
   In the very early 70's when I was around 9 or 10 years old there were some old gardens running beside the springs, these must have been used by local families to grow veg and fruit like we use allotments today. These gardens were all fenced off and very much over grown but the fact there were a lot of old apples trees remaining meant us kids were never going to stay one side of any wooden fencing.
   It was on warm summer evenings after hours of playing football that some of the great apple fights were held. There we were, around 20 or 30 kids all around the same age, soaking wet plimsolls, grazed knees and stinging nettle rashes where we had been collecting our own little pile of apples. We were split into two side each side taking position on opposite sides of the water, some taking cover behind some of the great Ash trees, others behind bramble bushes, all waiting for that first apple to be thrown, that first organic bullet to smash against ancient bark.
   Within minutes it's started, apples fly in all directions, kids running everywhere dodging apples as they try to find new cover, cries from the unlucky few who get hit and even the old little soldier falling into the water only to be hit by the barrage of flying apples as they return to the bank. It was bloody wonderful, the best game we ever played and the perfect way to round of a summers day. The battles would only last around 20 minutes until we had run out of apples then it was time for home after most of us would kneel by the springs to drink the cold fresh water.
   It's funny but I can still remember those days down to the smallest detail yet ask me what I did a year ago and I couldn't tell you, maybe the injuries help me remember, I even remember one evening falling from the top of the fence into a large bed of stingers then running home crying with my face and arms covered in stings, only to be told off by my mum for climbing the fence in the first place, oh what a hard life us kids lead haha !
   The last time I stood over the springs there was hardly any water in there and a lot of the banks that used to be nice grass areas are now overgrown, such a shame really. You hear the parish council saying they want to keep the springs maintained and keep it as a nice wild area where families can sit, well do it ! get the old banks cleared and let people sit on the grass, not eveyone wants to sit on a wooden bench placed here and there joined by so called woodland paths, what a joke. I have to admit it really does hurt sometimes when I see how my old village is run and who is running it, but as long as I'm living here I guess I can't do a thing to help change it.
   Well I'm off to take the car to the garage, yet another small problem to get sorted this month, it seems every month comes up with more worries but we seem to get through them. I always bike back from dropping the car off so I'll be getting some morning exercise today as well as later. lots of beads to make today and some to list this evening so a busy day ahead.

Nothing Better Than A Great Storm.

Don't We All Love Rain ?

   I sit here with my morning cuppa while the sounds of thunder are filling the fenland air, dark wild skies sit above us as the rain starts to fall, how I love storms. From a small child the rain and thunder storms have been a real love of mine, to sit out in the summer rain under a tree watching the drops beat down on green leaves bringing life and that wonderful smell of fresh rain are only two of natures great gifts.
   I'm guessing my fascination for rain goes back to when I was a very young child, I can remember sitting on the floor just inside my grandads big wooden kitchen door watching the rain drops bounce on the cobbles outside, they seemed to dance before finding their way through each tiny valley that lead them around those smooth little stones. I would sit under one of the many great coats that hung on the back of that proud big door, watching for hours, feeling warm and snug yet seeing those cold showers of rain falling just feet from me.
   There was nothing better, and still isn't anything better than getting dressed in an overcoat and hat and going out walking in the rain, I think there is something special about the magic of rain, just think about it for a few minutes, do you know any children that don't love dressing up in their wellies and waterproof coats and playing in the rain, jumping in puddles and taking cover under the nearest tree, children just adore rain and there must be a reason for it. Maybe it's because the rain is so important to us and it's mother nature's way of teaching us that, she wouldn't want us to hate what is possibly the one thing that keeps us alive so she makes it fun to us from the beginning of the short life we have.
   When I was around 6 or 7 my mum and dad lived in a small caravan in the centre of our village, in those days there were very few council houses and waiting lists were long, so young couples would rent the odd caravan to live in until their chance of a house came up. Some would live with family but most in our village would rent somewhere. Our caravan was opposite the village post office and just yards from my grandads house. It had a small garden with a timber fence around it giving some privacy, tho I often remember playing in the garden hearing people chatting in the bus queue behind the fence haha I never heard any top secrets I'm afraid but I'm sure there was lots of gossip.
   Inside we had a tiny kitchen area and the living room doubled has my mum and dads bedroom, there was a big double bed that folded away into the wall in the day time. I had a tiny little bedroom at one end of the caravan, it was the size of a large broom cupboard with a little single bed under which was storage for toys etc and at the foot of the bed was like an open wardrobe. The one thing I remember better than anything is the sound of rain hitting the caravan roof at night, many nights I would lay listening to that sound feeling nice and warn in my bed while the dark wild night raged on outside and still today I get shivers when I hear the same, even driving the car on a dark night with heavy rain falling so maybe that's part of the reason I love rain, I don.t know.
   Well I better get off to my flame now I'm hoping to get a day playing with silver glass so I'll enjoy that but it looks like my bike ride may be off if the rain continues, or should I let that little boy dress up warm and take his bike out !

Lost Treasure

Rods from Nothing

   All bead makers will at some point start to collect a box of rod ends, that last inch or two left from the glass rod your using cast to one side while a new colour is introduced to the flame and over the months and years these ends gather into a large collection, in my case a mountain of wasted glass.
   With things being a bit difficult for some of us at the moment maybe it's time to start reclaiming some of these very usable pieces of glass. When we look at the prices of glass rods these days it seems they go up every few months, some glass having doubled in price in a few years so maybe it's time we started cutting done on the waste. Rod ends from most types of glass are easy to join, forming a rod long enough to use with comfort, I call these reclaimed rods "bamboo rods" as the joins give each rod a look of a bamboo cane. 
   You can imagine the number of ends I have, boxes and boxes full to the brim, every colour and make of glass there is, well most anyway. I start by sorting the colours into their groups such as blues, greens, purples etc after which I split them into two boxes, first opaque glass then transparent glass. The next job is to start sorting the different shades bagging up each one ready to join in the flame, at this stage you may be amazed at just how many ends you have especially the common colours such as some of the Effetre range, these rods are one of the cheapest to buy so become the main supply for most bead makers. Remember to be careful when handling rod ends, glass splinters are not a nice thing to deal with.
   When the colour shades are sorted we just need to start joining, this is very simple we just take two rod ends and heat one end of each in the flame until the glass glows orange, like you would when making a bead, then gently push the two ends together while removing them from the flame. Then we heat another rod piece and do the same, adding a piece at a time until your holding a formed rod of around 10 inches, an ideal size for use. Leaving that rod to cool on a rack we then start the process again forming a second rod, you will soon realise just how much money you had sitting in that box, money that can help in so many other ways at the moment.

   Yesterday I spent just an hour joining white rod ends and must have ended up with nearly a kilo of new rods ready to use so it's well worth the effort as I for one can't afford to leave this glass sitting in boxes. I hope this little tip helps you save a few quid and if you do it on a regular basis I'm sure you will notice your monthly glass bill shrink a little. This weekend I plan to carry on working my way through the thousands of rod ends here in the barn so wish we luck.
   At last the sun has found us here in the fens again and we have had a great two days, the garden never seems dull, every day I notice something new and the insects and birds are loving it. The ponds look amazing, wild banks full of life just how I like them and to be totally honest with you even with the crap that's been going on in our lives this last few months yesterday morning watching four young goldfinches being feed by their parents made me realise just how lucky we are. The nature that surrounds us here is at times unbelievable, I often think of those days I spent working in a mill making furniture when I left school, clocking in at 7.30 and clocking out at 4.30, what a crap life that was compered with the one I currently lead.
   I'm hoping to get more work done in the garden this weekend, clearing some of the veg patch and cutting back yet more branches from the hedgerow ready to burn. The garden feels so much lighter and we have only cleared the hedge on one side, so I'm hoping after the winter months and lots more hard work it will be perfect for that kitchen garden that we long for.
  

A Free Harvest

Wild Food

   As a lot of you will already know every day I set off on my bike for my daily exercise doing around ten miles each time, not only taking in lots of fresh air but also spending time watching the nature around me, how the seasons change and with it the very different landscapes that greet me. Traveling the local lanes for the last seven months I have noticed what a great wild larder we have around us, wild plums, blackberries and greengages being a big part of it at this time of year. Many wild apple trees share the hedgerows alongside sloes and elderberry and the amount of walnut trees I've found is unbelievable, so it's not surprising that my rucksack full of bags and food boxes comes with me most days.
   It never fails to amaze me how much food there is out there to harvest, not only fruits but wild herbs and mushrooms for those who have the knowledge of such wild plants. Myself I stick to those wild foods that I know and of course I better mention the many fields full off veg that are being harvested this time of year meaning a lot of potatoes and onions to be found and I for one do glean those vegetables left laying there on the surface, it's a shame to think they are just left there to rot or ploughed into the soil.
   If we lived just 50 or 60 years ago we would have seen many people out doing the same, even gleaning grain from the cut corn fields to use for bread making, it really is so different these days. Now we pop into a supermarket for most of our food all nice and clean and even bagged for us ready to take but does it taste the same ?  With a lot of the veg and fruit we buy traveling many thousands of miles to get to us or force grown in glass houses it seems we are starting to forget the real taste of things. Ask any family who grow their own veg how good does it taste when we sit down to Sunday lunch with their own carrots, potatoes and greens and they will all give you the same answer, it tastes amazing.
   Yesterday I returned from my ride with a large bag of wild yellow plums, really sweet, ideal to be stewed and frozen ready for pies, tarts of crumble. I also picked up possibly a couple of kilo of white potatoes from the grass verge where the trailers carting potatoes from the fields spill so many on the tiny narrow lanes, fresh potatoes only pulled that morning. Also a few apples made it into my rucksack pocket, you may think silly as I have apple trees in my own garden, but how can I pass them without using some, to see the hundreds of rotting apples laying there on the ground is a real shame and again these are perfect to either store or to stew and freeze for the winter.
   I guess from a child I learnt about these things, I remember helping my grandad wrap apples in paper and laying them in wooden trays which he then packed into a dark unused bedroom to keep for future months. Some Sunday afternoons we spent going out picking blackberries, you would in those days see whole families out in the quiet countryside filling ice cream boxes with these wonderful sweet black fruits. My uncle even picked bunches of watercress from the river running through my grandads garden to sell to customers around the village, I would help wash and bunch the cress then take it around to all the customers, it was 10p a bunch and the bunches were about ten times the size you see in tiny packs in our supermarkets. There must have been 30 different families I took it to, all in the same one village, can you imagine that now, I would guess you would find it hard to find two families in our village who even eat watercress these days.
   Maybe it would be good for us all to go back to those years just for a day or two, we would see how hard families found it, every garden full of fresh veg but meat not so easy to obtain. The cheap cuts or things like faggots and liver forming the everyday meal and only on a Sunday would there be meat for a roast, even then it may have just been chicken, which buy the way was cheap then not like today and was local farmed chicken, free range chickens not force feed birds that are produced today in what can only be called barns of hell ! I think if we did get to return to those days just for a short visit then most of us would change the way we live now, I mean are we that lazy that we can't be bothered to wash and clean a few carrots or even peel runner beans, do we really need to pay more just to have these jobs done for us, do our children really know what fresh peas or carrots should taste like, lets just hope somebody shows them soon.
   Well I guess that's my rant over for the day so it's off to my flame, yesterday was spent making seaglass beads and I so enjoyed it, today I need to get a few new sets made to list in my etsy shop. Enjoy your day and have a little think about wild foods, why not go out this weekend and pick some blackberries, its fun, honest.

Working With Seaglass

A Magical Feeling

   For a number of years now I have been making beads from pieces of seaglass found on beaches here in the UK and other countries around the world, selling them from one of my websites and on a commission basis. I have always enjoyed the idea of making beads from recycled glass be it wine bottles, jam jars or any other glass vessel and over the years I have tried most but there is nothing that gives you that special magical feeling like working with seaglass.
   These little gems of the tide with their sand worn surface soft in appearance and smooth to the touch  shaped over many years by breaking waves and tumbled over beach shingle have something very magical about them. Some of these pieces would have started out as bottles as long as 200 or 300 years ago, thrown from great tall ships to be smashed and formed into sea worn jewels by thousands of tides then left on our beaches like coloured gems nestled in carpets of pebbles for us to find.
   A lot of seaglass is used for jewellery making alongside silver wire or drilled to hang on leather but some pieces which have damage or are too large to use in that way are perfect to use for forming beads. Even the tiny shards can be used to make a spacer bead and some of the very large pieces can produce a full set of matching beads perfect for use in one piece of jewellery, you really can't get a more unique bead without natures help.
   There are a couple of dangers in using seaglass for making beads like there are using any other reclyced glass, firstly we don't know how the glass was made or indeed what materials were used in it. So the most important thing is to wear a mask at all times, this goes for any wine bottles or any older glass being used, I treasure my lungs so take no risks. Then there is the fact that recylced glass of any kind will splinter or fly when placed into a flame, so keeping the glass warm is a good idea leading up to use, this helps me a great deal but that doesn't mean to say I don't wear a few burn scars on my arms and like most beadmakers on my neck too.
   Another problem using any kind of recylced glass is the fact that they almost certainly will not mix, in this I mean one piece of glass would have been a different age or a different mixture from the other, so making nice beads with two or more colours of glass for me is a big no no. With most modern glass we use glass with a matching COE (coefficient of expansion), which means the glass is ok to use mixed in a single bead, the different types of glass won't fight each other causing cracks. Because there is no way of knowing the COE of reclyced glass, we can't mix them, if we did and made a nice set of beads which we sold to a jewellery maker who in turn used in some amazing piece of jewellery only to find in time that the beads cracked ( as the cracks don't always form straight away), then the customer really wouldn't be too happy.
   So if you think my opinion is worth anything I would suggest you never buy recylced beads that are made from more than one piece of glass, the easy rule to stick by is if the bead has more than one colour say no.

   The unique thing with using seaglass is that I find the pitted surface of the glass can produce the most amazing tiny bubbles when heated. I call these salt bubbles because I'm sure the salt water  has a big part in forming the surface of seaglass. The only disapointment can be the lose of colour from glass to bead, sometimes the colours of the seaglass will dissapear leaving a clear bead, still full of bubbles yet clear. I have some customers who send me seaglass to make into beads for them but I always remind them of the colour problem, I would say 85% of the time it works out ok but there are the few occasions it won't.
   I hope to start listing some seaglass beads this evening in my etsy shop www.etsy.com/shop/pebbledreams and I'm very much looking forward to a couple of hours working on some this afternoon, it's always a real treat from the normal modern glass and this old beadmaker will be a very happy one.

  

Glad To Be Back

Safe Again

   Well it's Sunday again, the weeks just fly by every day we get older and so they say wiser and this last week as taught me a great deal. After the days off line and seeing just how close we could be from losing our living when things like that happen I'm starting work on a way to cover this kind of situation. The problems are not just how to bank takings or list beads but also the possibility of losing customers, they may see that I'm not listing items for days and wonder if I have stopped trading or they are waiting for beads to arrive without hearing a thing from me for days, both situations are not good for me. So with this in mind I need to get things covered for any future unseen problems.
   When you trade as I do the most important thing is customer service, I need people not only to enjoy my beads but also to feel buying from me is easy, quick and reliable, this is the reason why I don't charge stupid postage prices like many in fact I guess I lose out on some postage but better that than maybe post my beads in a cute little box that costs pennies then charge a silly amount, customers are not silly, they would soon start asking questions like how come some sellers can post a set of beads out to me for a pound and some need to charge two or even more. If we went to buy a loaf of bread would we pay double to have a ribbon around it ? I think not !
   I guess some would say I'm silly for not making a small profit on things like postage or for giving away what must be hundreds of sets of beads over the years and maybe they are right, maybe it's wrong to live your life like that, after all shouldn't we all just be making lots of money, not giving a monkey's fart about others, isn't that the way this world is run, if it is then count me out, I'm not changing for anybody.
   Yes I do worry about things sometimes, when I get a slow couple of weeks I get that feeling that I'm falling back into that deep financial hole where the mornings post brings a sick feeling to your stomach, every envelope carries a nasty letter threatening bailiffs or demanding money, the phone is never answered in case it's someone asking for money and loose change is counted hoping we can afford milk and on the rare occasions we did get to the supermarket every item in the trolley is a value option.

   But do you know what, I love working with glass so much I will always put up with those worries and I trust myself to be able to produce beads that people will like, that they will buy and use in their jewellery, I have to carry on down this road, it has been a hard one at times but I need to carry on walking forward, I know I have so much to learn in both bead making and life and with the support I get from some fantastic friends and family I know I'll get to that safe contented place one day when I can sit back looking over my work and say, "your there you old sod, you know how to make real beads"

   I think I've taken up enough of your time today but before I go I need to thank all of you who sent me nice messages hoping that I was back online soon and for those who sent welcome back messages last night, It meant a lot to me and without you I'd just be that old beadmaker sitting over his flame in that timber barn full of dust covered jars of glass rods and boxes of forgotten beads. Enjoy your Sunday, I'm off to catch up on listing beads in etsy shop www.etsy.com/shop/pebbledreams and in ebay shop www.stores.ebay.co.uk/Beads-Of-Glass which will begin later this evening.

A Real Nightmare

No Connection

   I felt I just had to explain why there has been no blog for the last five days just in case anyone missed it. I think I might have mentioned that we have had problems with our Internet connection over the last three months so we decided to go over to BT from AOL which we knew would mean maybe a day off line, but we didn't think for one moment we would be without access for five days and what a nightmare it has been.
   It came to light this past five days just how important an Internet connection is to our livelihood, our whole income depends upon the modern technology we call computers. To be so reliant upon one single factor really does scare me at times but then I guess we all now rely on computers to run our business these days.
   The fact I couldn't access paypal to bank money or get onto ebay and etsy to get sale info was a big eye opener for us. Luckily my dad had offered to let us travel there to get access, but at last the BT man as found a problem with lines just down the road from us and we are now up and running again. So I just want to apologize to any who are waiting for beads obtained this week on ebay of etsy, they will be posted first thing Monday morning.
   Ok, I need to get a mountain of beads listed in my shops this evening and hope to update the blog tomorrow, hope you all have a nice evening.
  

A Village Boy

A Safe  Happy Childhood

   When I read about the bad things going on in this country, some nasty things going on towards children, it makes me feel so lucky to have had such a great childhood. Growing up in the late 60's and 70's for a child it was such a different world than today with no pc games or mobile phones to spend hours on, we were lucky if we had a good football and a safe bike to ride and board games were a real treat only coming out on winter nights or at Christmas.
   I lived all of my childhood in the Hertfordshire village of Ashwell, a large village full of thatched cottages, local shops and surrounded by farmland. There was a village school which we all attended up until we were 11 then it was off to the local secondary school and we even had a youth club which was open twice a week keeping us all off the street corners. Most weekends and summer evenings were spent on the recreation ground playing football, cricket or even tin can bottle washer, don't even ask ! I remember the rec was lined with the most wonderful old Elm trees, they were huge and we would climb them sitting in there branches for hours talking and watching the world pass by. Next to the rec was a pig farm, making the act of retrieving any footballs an exciting one tho I can't ever remember a pig chasing me.
   I was lucky in that my granddad and uncle lived in a big thatched cottage with a very large garden, even the local river ran through it, so you can imagine what fun I used to have. Helping in the garden was great and playing in the river raking old bottles out of the shingle would keep me happy for hours. There were chickens to look after too so egg collecting was one job I enjoyed doing. The cottage was a real hub for the family and other village people, never a day went by without at least two or three visitors having a cuppa in the big country style kitchen, even the old post lady and milk man would grab a few minutes warming up by the range on a winters day.
   Village life just seemed so safe and easy going, we would think nothing of spending some of our summer holidays around the woods building camps or going off on day long bike rides and when we were in our early teens we would be off at 6am to pea pick in a neighbouring village, a gang of us all on bikes with our plastic buckets hanging from the handle bars, a bottle of orange squash and sandwiches our mums had made us, I remember we got around 50p a net but don't quote me on that.
   I remember my first job was as a Saturday boy in one of the two butcher shops in the village, it was a good job, making sausages, burgers and taking out the deliveries on the big old trades bike, there was two of us, myself and Dean, we worked hard and I think we got about three pounds for the Saturday morning. The butcher was an old man and would shut up shop about half one leaving us to wash up, scrub the blocks and clean the floor, but he did let us help ourselves to sausages to take home for our mums, yet to say I'm sure we took more that he meant haha ! I know after we left the butchers we would both head to the local shop where we would spend some of our wages on sweets or the odd small toy, we were only about 12 so it was a big thing for us.
   My mum was a very kind lady, a great cook and a wonderful gardener, she was the kind of person who would do anything for anyone, pity all our family hadn't have been the same. My dad worked in the building trade and worked hard, he was good at his job yet some winters were hard when the snow and ice were around, the building trade in those days would often come to a stand still in winter weather. He was a great dad and still is, sadly we lost my mum when she was only 50, far too young an age to die.
   I don't think I could have wished for better parents and a better mum, well that was impossible, when I think of the things my mum did with me like making cakes and the hand made sweets at Christmas, not to mention putting up with the grass stains on my jeans every day after hours of playing football in all weathers and sometimes all through tough times, but I guess mums did that then, they had to, money was short and they had to make things stretch, yet we always had a dinner there on the table each night and mum always had a smile on her face.
   I think it's thoughts of those hard times back then that put the thought of us being more self sufficient in my mind, which is just what we have started to plan, but hey that's a story for the next blog. I could go on all day telling stories of my childhood but I better get to work, I can always tell them in the weeks to come.
   It's a sunny morning here in the fens and the garden seems to be alive with birds, most feeding their second brood, oh how I love this time of year. I never made it into the garden yesterday so I hope I'll get some jobs done later today.
 

Missed Friends

My Best Mate

   I thought I would give a mention today to the best friend I ever had, my old dog Klyde. It was on a sunny sunday morning just like this a few years ago that my best mate fell into his last long sleep, he was a great age and had lived a great life, always happy and never once nasty to anyone a real family pet.
   Yesterday evening as I sat under my greengage tree watching the sun go down with a book and a drink my head was full of memories of Klyde as he now sleeps there in that spot and most evenings in the summer I sit and wish he was laying there at my feet watching the birds in the garden and chewing on the odd fallen apple he had found earlier.
   We went through a lot together and I can't really remember a time when he wasn't by my side, we gardened together, walked in all weathers and most evenings after a long cold day working outside, we fell asleep by the fire together, I think I'll always miss my old mate. I wrote a poem a few weeks after we lost him and I thought you may like to read it, I'm no poet so I apologize if you think it's not that good but it was just something I wanted to do at the time.

Klyde

That last special night, my old friend not well,
and those dark eyes asking for love.
Into the night we sat together.
I held him, stroked him, talking soft.
I knew this was to be our last
and I treasured every second.
The vet would come in the morning,
bringing sleep for my pal, his old body
worn and frail.

For the first time, a tear rolls down my face:
I'm losing my best friend,
a friend who asked nothing
but gave so much love.
He knew when I was sad
and never left my side.

The morning sun arrives,
he feels ready to sleep:
his body gives in as I hold him.
His eyes close, I kiss him for the last time.

Now my Klyde sleeps under greengage and apple,
and I sit there too, and all I wish is to hear his bark
and feel his soft noble forehead:
I miss you so, my friend.

   Now it's sunday, some would say a day of rest but what will this beadmaker be doing ? Well I could cut the grass or wash the car, I could laze around on the sofa reading the sunday papers or even visit a few garden centres and have lunch out, but no, I think most of you already know what I'll be doing, yes working. I must say I'm having an easy day with a few beads to be made, both lampwork and ceramic so I hope this afternoon I get to do some garden jobs. I was up early this morning listing lots of ceramic beads in my etsy shop www.etsy.com/shop/pebbledreams  some of which are the disc beads I tried, so I guess I've been working a few hours already. It's funny, if I was working in a factory or office and the boss asked me to work at 6am sunday morning I think I know the answer I would give, yet when you work for yourself it just seems normal, you take no notice of the hours you work, the only signs I ever get that I'm pushing a bit too hard are those evenings when I fall asleep after my dinner or feel like going to bed at 8pm.
   I guess like a lot of people we are finding things hard at the moment, yet another part of being self employed, you never know where the next pound is coming from, no weekly wage that you know will arrive in your bank every friday to count on or holiday pay to look forward to and to be honest in our case no holiday full stop haha !
   Don't get me wrong, I love working the way I do and if I didn't I would be looking for another career road to go down, it's just hard at times, I think every beadmaker who earns his or her living from beads will tell you the same. I know a lot have a partner who has a good steady job that helps take way some of these worries but for those who have to pay all the bills from making beads, who have to pay tax on every bead we sell, you just have to put the hours in, you need to work out in your mind what your next move is and what new ideas you can come up with to bring in custom.

   As I've said before it's not all fun and games being a full time beadmaker but I wouldn't swap it for the world, this is the idea behind this blog, to show both the good times and the bad but the good do out number the bad, honest, as you'll see as we travel along this journey together.
   I better get off to my flame and leave you all to enjoy this wonderful sunny sunday, it's cuppa time here and so I don't want to miss it.

How I Work

My Little Haven

   I promised to tell you how I work and why I make what I do. Well I'm lucky enough to have built myself a good size barn studio here at home, not a palace yet big enough to cope with two full time beadmakers, myself and my wife Yvonne. I've been working here for five years now and god only knows how many hours I have spent in that time sitting over my flame, all I know is it's been great place to work and I hope it will be long into the future. I'm lucky in that I work by a large window that faces out over the pond and has the bird feeding stations just feet from it, so there is always something to watch when I'm grabbing a quick cuppa.
   My kiln is positioned just to the right of me which is ideal as my beads are placed into the kiln straight from the flame, I can't for the life of me think why some beadmakers let their beads cool in fire blankets or vermic only to later batch kiln then, but thats a story for another time. To the left of me I have what can only be described as a jungle of glass jars crammed full of glass rods, many many pots of frit and enamels together with a host of other materials like shards, silver foil, silver wire etc etc. Behind me the whole back wall is covered by a wooden rack which is full of hundreds of glass rods, colours and makes of many kinds all labeled in bundles waiting their turn.
   In front of me is my teacher, my flame, I use a Nortel Plus torch with a Minor Top Torch which runs on oxygen and propane, I've used this set up for around four years with no problems. I use a bench safety shield rather than safety glasses as I wear spectacles so this makes life so much easier plus it was more convenient when I was teaching.
   I think that's about it for set up, of course I have other tools on my bench all of which help manipulate the hot glass and of course there is my radio, I couldn't last a day without talksport or radio Cambridgeshire.
   As I mentioned I  make my beads and place them into the kiln, this keeps the beads at the same temperature until the end of the working day when after turning off the kiln they all cool very slowly which helps stop any cracking, this is called annealing. I'm happy working this way and other the years I have had very few beads crack, those that did were caused by mixing different glasses together some of which didn't match.
   Now as for what I make, well that's a good question. We all have our own way of living, talking and thinking well it's the same with making beads. To start we all make standard beads just like as a child we learn to talk, often with dots or other easy design but after a few months you find there is a path you feel you want to follow, with some its flower beads or hollow beads or even sculptured beads, well with me it was natural looking beads, not too many bright colours and yes I know there are bright colours in nature but I liked the more natural browns, greens, greys and more autumn colours and I guess if I'm honest I still do.
   As I mentioned in my first blog it was a while before I realised that I could learn more by letting the flame and glass work together rather than try to steer them in a certain direction, it soon became clear that some of the best looking beads were those which were not planned, they were beads that were produced without any design in mind, sometimes I would just pick up a few rod ends and melt them together maybe adding some silver leaf or frit, just being carefree but was I happy with the results the following morning.
   I soon became the student rather than the teacher, learning so much by working this way, the flame was showing me which colours worked better with others, it was telling me how silver can produce the most amazing reactions when used over certain colours and most of all I learned how every colour in the spectrum could work with any other, there are no rules and for years I had thought the opposite. In the last few years I can honestly say I have learnt more from just watching the way my flame plays with colours than I ever learnt following books or youtube clips, I now feel free to just play with the glass and every morning I open my kiln door I just know there will be a gem or two in there.
   Today I'm making focal beads which are by far the best beads to use these techniques on, they of course need to be unique and this way of working can only produce unique beads, this doesn't mean I can't use some techniques for making a set of beads, of course I can I just have to make sure I do everything the same on each bead just like you would when applying dots say, each bead will still be unique but the set will match, like I said it's all about learning and to date I've found no better way.

Selling My Wares

Never Ending Battle

   I guess when your a beadmaker there are two very important parts of your life, first the making of your beads, always trying to come up with different designs etc and second how to sell your beads, where to sell, how much to charge and who to sell to.
   In my case I have three main ways of selling, my ebay shop www.stores.ebay.co.uk/Beads-Of-Glass  in which I sell a lot of my focal beads along with some bead sets, my etsy shop www.etsy.com/shop/pebbledreams  in which I sell a lot of my more natural looking designs, sets and focals alongside ceramic beads and pendants too and finally my website http://www.lampworkbeadsbyrob.com/  on which I sell bead sets and a selection of spacer beads. All three are a good way to sell but both the ebay shop and etsy shop reach out to a much bigger group of potential customers with millions of buyers passing through their sites every year, each a possible new customer for my work. These sites I would say cover around 75% of my sales, with new customers finding my beads every month which is a great bonus.
   Along with the three main sites I also take commission orders from customers most of which are regular buyers who have worked with my beads for years. These orders can vary from a single focal bead or a pair of earring beads up to several numbers of bead sets, all of which are as important to me as any other.
   Now there are also bead fairs that take part all over the country but I found these were not a good way to make a profit, yes you do get to meet your customers and spread your name around but as for making money then I'm sorry but they don't do it. If, like say 80% of beadmakers your doing it as a paid hobby, your day job covers the bills or indeed like some your retired then sales are just not so important, you can afford to sit and wait for bigger better prices to be paid for your work, I've walked around bead fairs and seen beadmakers sitting there with a table full of what I would call over priced beads and heard them mention things are very quiet, sales are slow, well as a full time bead maker you can't make a living like that. The weeks you spend leading up to a fair are spent making new stock, we used to take around 300 sets to each and if you think the cost of that time will ever be returned through fair sales, then I'm sorry but your mad. After the cost of tables, fuel for travel and of course a days wage the facts are you need to turn over hundreds of pounds to even cover it and apart from the odd well run fair this just doesn't happen. I think in all we only ever made a big profit at the Surrey Bead Fair, most others were a tiny profit or a lose, so after a couple of years selling at fairs we had to call it a day.

   There are other ways to sell including having visitors here to look at beads and buy from a selection that most buyers won't get to see online, this is another way of meeting your customers most of which seem to become friends.
   As for selling online I have a few fast rules that I stick to, the most important is to show the beads as best as I can, I want good clear photographs showing as much detail as possible in every bead, I want the customer to see what they are buying, the last thing you want is your beads to arrive to a customer looking completely different to the picture, it would lead to that person not only being upset but going somewhere else to buy future beads. I'm not into all the fancy pictures with props such as fake flowers, beads drapped over large rock or silks, I want a white background to show off the bead, I want the eye to go to my bead nothing else, if I was buying beads I would want to see the best picture possible and nothing less.
   Well next time I'll let you know how I work and why I make what I do so until then keep beading enjoy the cool rain.

My Way

The Start Of This Life

   I guess the first thing I need to do is explain how significant beads are in my life, how I started and how I now run my business, I need to be open with this blog or it's not worth writing, I will of course put down a lot of my thoughts, some of which people may dislike and some I hope people will agree with, but most of all it will be from my heart. Also I need to show the bad days as well as the good, the worries that live in the back of my mind , those that appear now and then when things get a little hard, it's all part of being a full time beadmaker and that's what I aim to show, wart's and all.
   So, first things first, how did a 6ft 3, 20 stone landscaper start making little glass beads ? Well as some of you must know by now it started as a hobby to help put the stresses of work to the back burner at weekends, after watching a guy making beads and glass pendants in his shop on the banks of Loch Ness I just had to give it a try and that's what I did. To cut a long story short in a matter of weeks I was sitting in an old barn we had with a torch, kiln and a small selection of glass rods and this is where those first wonky little beads were made. I began spending far too much time in there, evenings were running into late nights and weekends were just two exciting days playing with glass but all this time I was learning and my passion for glass was growing.
   After what was around six months it was suggested that I put a few beads on ebay for sale, the earnings, if any, would help fund more glass, so this is what I did. I never thought for one second those first few online sales would lead to beads being my living but it did and after a couple of years selling a few sets each week I opened my ebay shop.
   Around this time in my life we were finding things hard, we had some really bad luck and for reasons not really our fault, financially we were in a very deep hole and traveling those 100 miles round trip every day to work was the last thing I needed. After talking things through with my wife Yvonne I decided to see how much I could earn with my beads over the next couple of months, would I be able to earn as much, at least no traveling would save 80 pounds a week for a start. It soon became obvious that beads were just maybe the only way to get out of the mess we were in and it was agreed after one more patio job I was to start as a full time beadmaker, so with website set up and the ebay shop full it was all now down to my beads.
   Now five long years later and I'm still here and still loving every second of it. It has been a rough ride at times and will be in the future but my love affair with glass is as strong as ever and I can't think of a single day when I haven't learnt something new and that is the honest truth. I've seen beadmakers come and go, I've taught several myself, some of which have gone on to become very good skilled beadmakers and over those years I've seen the craft explode here in the UK from just a few makers to hundreds.
   What the next years bring I have no idea but if you feel you want to we can travel through them together here on the blog, it may not be the most interesting journey but it will be a true picture of this old beadmakers life and the way he lives it.

The Magical Flame

A Life With Glass

   I spend my days designing, making and selling what most would call lampwork glass beads but what to me are the most stunning results of the magical flame that flickers before my eyes nearly every day, that blue cone of fire, my best friend and teacher.

   I'm guessing the difference between myself and most other beadmakers is the fact I work with the glass, I never use the glass. To me the glass can form more colours and designs than any one person could possibly dream of, it has the most amazing wild nature and if left to find it's own way it will produce some quite stunning effects.
   Yes in the early years of my involvement in the craft I would, like many others place dots and swirls on beads, I would label colours together that I thought were a great match and yes I would try to make my bead sizes all the same. But after a few years I came to realise I wasn't in charge at all, the glass and the flame were, I had been fighting them for so long yet all I had to do was learn from them, watch the way they worked in harmony and every morning that I opened my kiln I could wonder at the sensational results that I found.
   We all see some remarkable flower beads and dotted beads made every day and some are made with terrific skill and to those who love that kind of bead there is nothing better. With me I want a natural bead, if there is such a thing. I want a bead that is so very unique from every other, I want to know the flame meant this bead to be, it wasn't fighting against it but forming it's look, making each colour mix a marriage of nature, sometimes dark and mysterious other times bright and magical but every time it was how it wanted it to be.