CuddleNum (or The Chicken Formerly Known as Mr Beige)

'CuddleBunny, meet CuddleNum. CuddleNum, meet CuddleBunny. ' If she could speak, Alice would have introduced the two new friends like this.

So, in case you are wondering what all the introductions are about, the lovely Lynsey of SwirlyArts who makes really cute chicken pincushions and doorstops, among other things, and sells them in her etsy store found herself with a grumpy little pincushion Mr Beige who felt he was being supplanted in her affections by newer chicken pincushions. So Lynsey bowed to Mr Beige's demands and set about finding him a new home. Alice and I stumbled across the competition, and she was quite excited by the prospect of a little chicken, so we entered. And we won! And this is the lovely package that arrived this morning -

There were perfectly pleasant introductions all round, and a little cuddle for the newly named CuddleNum from both Alice and CuddleBunny, but then Alice decided that that was enough of the good manners and tried to bite CuddleNum's beak. Naughty Alice!

So CuddleNum has taken up a temporary station on the bookcase along where he can oversee the chaos that is my living room until this round of teething is done. But he isn't alone, because the also-quite-delicate-in-constitution knitted Elefant is also up there and will keep him company and explain what is going on. Alice will be allowed quick cuddles, because she loves the squishyness of CuddleNum, but I am still working on the concept of 'gentle' with her, so she will be properly supervised at all times.

Thanks Lynsey!

Not the post I was intending...

Hello! It has been a while since I was one here - we went to Cornwall to see my brother and his girlfriend, and then I got tonsillitis which I haven't had for about 18 years and that was quite nasty. But I am all better now! Hooray for antibiotics.

I was going to blog about the Cornwall trip, but I have realised that in transferring my pictures to my mum's computer to show her, I somehow deleted them from my camera as well. The Cornwall trip post will have to wait. Instead, I want to show you the housewarming present I made them. Obviously, I am still working on the Blanket of Doom, which is now hopefully going to be their Christmas present and is the main present. I just wanted them to have something from us to celebrate their new jobs and new house!

Joe and Lau have just moved into a 3 bedroom place, which happily means that Alice sleeps in her own room when we are there - yay! They have 8 nephews and neices between them, and I decided that, although they don't have a sofa or rugs or even a bedframe at the moment, what they really needed was a name tag to go on the 3rd bedroom door for when the family come to stay! Obviously. Who doesn't need one of those?

So I went to Hobbycraft, and found these bits of wood -

Next I superglued a dowelling peg to the circular backboard, and sketched my ideas out. I am often very bad at planning. I tend to just 'do', and see what happens. This is what happened -

A few nights later (no painting in the day - can you imagine what a 12 month old would do with paint in the living room? I am bad enough, and still ended up with paint on my phone, clothes and me) I was done.


Poor Nadia ended up more brown than purple (an unfortunate consequence of the night time painting) but other than that I am quite pleased! The idea is that the name plates hang off the round backing and you swop them round depending on who is visiting.

My brother has had many years in which to practice his 'Thank you very much for this lovely handmade present' face, and he pulled out a blinder on receipt of the gift ;) Which is mainly what makes it worth it!

Boot Fair Bargain

Look what I got at a boot fair yesterday - matching Daddy and Alice Green Flash trainers! The cutest thing ever! This, combined with my first etsy sale on Friday, made for a very satisfying weekend. Simple things.....

I got other good stuff at the boot fair too - baby clothes, toys and books - all for less than £10. I haven't been to one for ages, but it was really good. Guess where I'll be spending my Sunday mornings from now on......

Work in Progress - Alice's Silver Box

Work continues on Alice's silver box - all the soldering is done, and now I just need to 'finish it off' - on a project like this, that is at least half the work! There is filing and sanding and polishing, and maybe a bit of hammering to try and harden the gold wire that forms the branch and the spiral (in the photo below) that stops the lid from spinning round and round. And then there is some platinol to paint on and polish off. I've got three and a half weeks to get it finished!

Work in Progress - Alice's Silver Box

So, I am trying to make my first silver box at the moment. It's quite a big project (by which I mean, it uses quite a lot of silver - the box itself is titchy), so I thought I would aim to have it done by Alice's first birthday. August is, however, approaching faster than I thought!

This is a picture of the lid, so far. I roll pressed a curve into the lid for a branch, and tried to fill the indentation with gold solder but once it was done, and filed and sanded down, you really couldn't see the curve. I could have kept going, I suppose, but I have instead decided to use gold wire. It isn't a solution that fills me with joy - I really wanted the branch to be flush with the main lid, and just the leaves to be soldered on top. But it will still look ok, I hope.

Last night I finished filing the leaves, and soldered them onto the lid. These I have roll pressed a design into, and hope to bring the pattern out with platinol once it is done. Soldering them on has also sent the gold solder a bit haywire, so much sanding needs to be done. I am waiting for my gold wire to be delivered, and then we will see. I am pleased with the leaves, and the overall design. It's just my first foray into using gold that hasn't gone so well!

This is the main body of the box, with Alice's name stamped on the inside. It is going to hinge with a pin, so the lid will slide round and not lift off. I need to try and think of a way to stop it going round and round and round the whole way, or undoubtedly someone will try and do that and the lid will fly off and damage something, or someone. I hadn't thought of that possibility when I started making it!

Hello!

Hello!

Welcome to my new blog. My name is Beth, and I am a jewellery maker, museum consultant, and mum to Alice (10 months old). Alice learnt to roll over today - in conjunction with the crawling skills she acquired 2 weeks ago, she's going to keep me busy! She is also going to get more tired, so there's an upside too - she had 2 hour long naps today (this is unheard of in the world of Alice) which allowed me to do a bit of jewellery photography, and finally upload some of my pieces to my new etsy store. I am still not 100% happy with the photos, but they are much better than they used to be -

Sweetie Earrings

Helterskelter Necklace

Swing Pearl Earrings