Giraffes Gallery

I do love Giraffes.  Here are some of my favourites

From Pinterest, a wonderful place for inspiration

Giraffe on Pinterest.com

 

 

This fabulous sock monkey is made by a very old friend of mine, she helped to deliver my son nearly 20 yrs ago!! 

Nikki's Giraffe


This Giraffe is one of mine, he is now sold and living in America where he is making his new owner smile!

Izzybeads

 

 

Keep smiling :)

 

Lx

Old Mog Claude

Claude

My old man Claudey, when he curls up like this in front of the hearth in the kitchen, I can forgive him for all the poops that don't make it to the tray.  I do moan and groan at his furry little self when I am cleaning up yet another round of poop, but, at 22 years he is still the most handsome mog, a bit bony, half blind, deaf geriatric, but he is our Claude, the one and only.

 

Lx



Painter's Palette

I have been busy in the studio experimenting with fusing glass.  I went through a moment of thinking I should sell my fusing kiln, but something stopped me, I glad that 'something' did as I have rekindled my love of cutting glass and forming new structures. 

 

Its nice to make something beautiful and functional.

 

The first success has been this bowl, which I have named the Painters Palette for its colours, the shape and one arty 'hole' in the glass - purposefully designed! - that is so like the thumb hole on a palette, it reminds me of my much loved wooden painters palette I used when I was painting, those days before glass found me.

 

Painters Palette Fused Glass Bowl on Etsy

Painters Palette in this great treasury this morning

I have been slumping some glass over a new mould I brought from Creative Glass Guild in Bristol, I will get round to experimenting with different shapes, these candle holders are just lovely, perfect for that summer evening when the twilight looms but its still warm and you are sitting outside with that glass of wine......

Have a great weekend, hope the sun shines for Wimbledon!

 

 

Spot the cat.

 

Lx

 



Down at the river.....

 

The swans have had their babies.  I have been watching them for weeks, then the bad weather came and although I could still see the mummy swan sitting on her nest, I couldn't see much through the rain and hail.  This morning, I saw the babies, not the ugly ducklings I was expecting but beautiful almost white with flecks of grey feathers still on their necks, they were very curious and came to see Iz and Defi swimming in the river, mummy and daddy swan where a bit cross and charged across the river to make sure their babies were alright.  There were nine babies in total.  Unfortunately I only had my camera on my mobile phone so the pictures are not brilliant.  I will take my camera proper tomorrow and see if I can see them again.

 

Also a picture of Mr Toad, he is enormous and was sat right in the middle of the path in the wooded area at the river.  I took his picture a few weeks back but only just found it on my phone!

 

 

Laney

T is for thank you

'T is for thank you' by IzzyBeads

T is for thank you, a smile, a gift and a cup of tea with some cake. Lovely items from the UK teams cpteam and british crafters here on Etsy, with a special thank you for all those that took part in the S is for Sale yesterday.

Tiny Feet Baby thank you car... Joscinta $7.5	Notecard set, 5 handmade fla... WideSkyPapercr... $6	Handmade Card - Thank You Ha... inkydoodlecraf... $4
Lidded mug, infuser, black a... KilnFiredArt $20	Tea Rose Handmade Lampwork G... EarthshineJewe... $23.95	Cupcake Heaven, doodle bead ... KitzbitzArtBea... $9
Tea cosy, crochet, sunflower WisteriaCottag... $9.5	Tea Light Candle Holder with... shineon2 $9	Tea and Biscuits Clamshell ... LeanneWoodsDes... $8
Favourite Tea-Time Recipe Bo... dottiedesignsx... $24.95	Textile free motion stitched... maxollieandme $7	Chloe cupcake - handmade lam... FlamingEck $7
Cup Cake Coasters dawnturnerdesi... $18	Pearl Romance Collar nemeton $140	Sea glass and Fine Silver P... abyjem $38
Fused Glass Square Bowl. Pat... venusartglass $35

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E-Magazine and 20% Sale

The lovely Leah from Beady Eyed Bunny has designed and published a lovely new e-magazine The Beading Glass   Its a really nice read full of tips, techniques and interviews as well as links to other websites, all do to with beads.

Over on my Izzybeads Etsy Shop  I am having a 24hour sale, it will end Monday morning, 3rd June, its a massive 20% off all items in the shop, just use the code sisforsale in the little box on checkout, to get the discount.

Glass bead stands now available in Izzybeads shop



 

 Laney x

 

History Hop Reveal

This is the second blog hop, History Hop, organized by Leah from Beady Eyed Bunny that I have been involved in.  This challenge is to pick an era from history, from a list Leah has provided, this was the list...

Egypt
Mesopotamia
Greece
Rome
Celts
Indus Valley Civilization
Merovingian
Reneissance
English Romanticism & Mourning Jewelry
Art Nouveau
Early Russian
China
Moche of Peru
Aztec
Mixtec
Native American
Māori (New Zealand)

I choose Maori.

 

Maori culture is seeped in mythology, legend and stories.  I love stories! 

 

Rather than try and make my piece fit a traditional legend, I decided to find a legend I liked, that I could create with the glass and go from there.  This is what I came up with.

 

 

Can you guess the legend?  Do you want the story?

 

Sit comfortably and we will begin.

 

Once upon a time..............

 

there was a donkey (he is supposed to be white but I wanted a browny coloured donkey!) and a black horse who lived in the jungle and every few days, they would ambush each other.

 

This became quite tedious for all the other animals, all that braying and neighing.  The Donkey and Horse would be at it from morning to night.

 

 

I gave my horse and donkey boxing gloves ;)

The monkeys, the giraffes, the hippos and all the other animals in the jungle complained to God and Goddess of the jungle

 

 

 

...the God and Goddess where most fed up with all the complaints, but most of all with the donkey and horse.

 

The God and the Goddess, shouted to the horse and the donkey, 'come with us'.  So the donkey and horse followed the God and Goddess back to the their jungle tree house.  They talked and argued about the behaviour of the donkey and the horse, and finally sent the horse and donkey outside whilst they, the God and Goddess, decided on a punishment.

 

Some time later, the horse and the donkey were called back into the tree house, where upon the God and Goddess, clapped their hands and joined the horse and the donkey together.  And that's how the Zebra got his stripes.

 

 

The Maori, also like to use natural elements in jewellery, bone, shell, wood etc., so I have used shell and precious stone chips in jungle greens to go with the beads that tell the story of how the Zebra got his stripes.

 

Thank you Leah x

 

For more, traditional, jewellery for this blog hop, visit some of the others that took part...

 

 

Leah Curtis - Indus Valley - beadyeyedbunny.blogspot.co.uk
Laney Mead - Māori - laney-izzybeads.blogspot.co.uk
Becca - Art Nouveau - godsartistinresidence.blogspot.com
Melissa - English Romanticism and Mourning Jewelry - beadrecipes.wordpress.com
Tracy Stillman - Native American - tracystillmandesigns.com
Gerda - English Romanticism and Mourning Jewelry - gerdascraftsblog.blogspot.com
Liz E - Native North American - beadcontagion.blogspot.com
Ahowin - Māori (New Zealand)  - blog.ahowinjewelry.com 
Jasvanti - Indus Valley - jewelrybyjasvanti.blogspot.com
Lizzie - Art Nouveau - theneedtobead.blogspot.co.uk
Julia Hay - Merovingian - pandanimal.blogspot.co.uk
Dini - Celtic - angazabychanges.blogspot.nl
Caroline - Art Nouveau - blueberribeads.co.uk 
Charlie - Moche of Peru - clay-space.com/blog
Karin - China - maverickbeads.blogspot.com
Niky Sayers - Rome - silverniknats.blogspot.com
Marcia Dunne - Celctic and Mourning Jewelry - thealternativefoundry.blogspot.co.uk
anafiassa - Mesopotamia - anafiassa.blogspot.com
Kokopelli - Native American - kokopellidesign.blogspot.com
Christa - Native American - adventuresofwonebeadywoman.blogspot.com
Clair - Roman - obstinatepursuit.blogspot.co.uk
Susan Bowie - Native American - susanbowie.wordpress.com
Gloria Allen - English Romanticism - gloriaallendesigns.blogspot.com
Sheila Garrett - Early Russia - 4brownowl.blogspot.co.uk

 

 

Laney x