Summer BBQ

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Work Room chat:
I figure I'll post this post first for some leisure reading as I sort out all the pictures from last week's workshop. Coming up, Precious Metal Clay 2 full day course this weekend! XD
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The English people love the sun. which is not surprising, considering they don't get much sun in this part of the world. They literally go 'crazy' on sunny days! LOL.....

Even when it's the summer now, we don't get sun everyday like back home in Malaysia. The weather is only not as cold, what most people here would say that it's just nice whereas I'll just say that the cold is more bearable as compared to other seasons. I'm not exactly a big fan of cold or chilly weather. :P

So, when weather is good, the people here like to stay outdoors which is why you'll see many people barbequeueing in their garden and meat and poultry are on sale in supermarkets.

The interesting about BBQ here is how you have the option to use disposable BBQ pit rather than the troublesome work we do back home with the charcoal and stuffs. Well, some over here still adhere to the custom practice of BBQ of either burning with charcoal or electric but I'm just saying that they also have the disposable one as one more option.

Or maybe, we do have this type of disposable BBQ pit in Malaysia, that I did not know of?..... *shrugs*.....


Anyway, it's less messier and take up less space.....





Undoubtedly also it's not as much fun as the charcoal pit BBQ but having said that, doon't belittle this compact sized BBQ pit because it burned for more than an hour that day! Although the food also gor burnt more easily due to the closer proximity of the food ad the fire. :P


Yes! We even made our own satay! XD


And this is what we had for dessert! =D

I made some strawberry and grape pieces Konyaku jelly which was laid out on a platter which Shaunee who insisted that I had to made this known to every single person who ever laid their eyes on this picture later made into a fruit platter with strawberries, cherries and rasberries.


This is why I love summer!


From L to R: Shaunee, Aunt Jenny (Uncle Ghee's wife), moi, Uncle Ghee and Sa Kor. We're all happy campers! Except for Uncle Ghee's stoic expression... o_O


The dessert tray by the way, was painted by Aunt Jenny.

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Just a quick one .......

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Work Room chat:
Got back into beadstitching in R.A.W (Right Angled Weave) lately and beaded all these cute 'lil beaded hearts. Will post the pictures up when I've done with all of 'em! XD It sure has been a while since I did any R.A.W projects ......
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This has been one crazy week so far. I find it a little bit overwhelming even. On Tuesday, travel for more than 2 hours to Oxon for that mystery workshop thingy which turns out to be some 4 in 1 craft workshop and these are what I did.





Will blog about it in detail some time later.

And yesterday, conducted a two hours jewellery making workshop in Funky Pots as well. Will also blog about it some time later.

I don't know if it's because I haven't had such an eventful week for a while now or what, but I sure feel a bit drained especially when I've also got my weekends booked for a two full days Full Professional Grounding Introduction Class in glass bead making in Leicester. That's another 50 minutes drive away. I really need the energy for the weekends......

Just a preview of what the course says I'll be learning.

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Hardening wire

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Work Room chat:
You've probably heard about an anvil and metal block. So do you use and anvil or metal block for your wire jewellery?
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I came to know about wire hardening through wire shaping, actually.

It was when I was playing with wire shaping using a wig-jig and later on a round nose plier that I realize that the new shape formed is a bit 'bulky' and not flat.




In my eyes, they were just unacceptable but yet I couldn't figure the way around it until I came across a small discussion on this topic through some random surfing on the internet.

So basically, what I read is that you need to hammer it to harden the wire and keep its shape.

At that time, I didn't get myself proper chasing hammer and bench block yet, so what I did was this.

I placed the piece on a flat surface, covered it with a piece of cloth because I wouldn't want to scratch or marred the wire, and the hammer it with ordinary toolbox hammer.

Well, while I think it did helped a little I don't think it really did much. For one, I was rather hesitant in hammering too hard since it was not jewellery hammer and I was worried at the same time that it might spoil my piece.

Eventually however, I did end up getting a proper chasing hammer and a stainless steel bench block.

I got mine from beading.com.my. I paid RM25 for the hammer and and RM45 for the block.

My first impression when I got them was how light the hammer was and how freaking heavy the block is! Totally now what I was expecting! I was expecting the hammer to be heavy and I certainly not expecting the bench block to be THAT heavy considering its size of only 2½" X 2½"! 0_0

I would definitely recommend you to use a proper jewellery hammer if you are serious about the 'hammering business' though. LOL..... Well, for the simple reason that they do a much better job. :P

It's probably not that obvious from the pic, but then because so many of the wires were overlapping that I really can't overdo it.



And......they are also great for creating texture. :)

The wire ends of the dangles of this pair of earrings I made were hammered for texture.



Having said all that, there are nevertheless some dos and don'ts about wire hammereing that I've learned.

• For one, don't overdo it. Hammering can be quite fun and you tend to get carried away with the hammering but you will weaken the wire if you hammer it too much. What you will get thereafter is broken pieces of wire. Trust me, I've broken many a pieces of wire to learn this golden rule!



• It gets a bit tricky when you have two wires overlap. It's a bit difficult to hammer the intersection in the sense that you risk not only distorting the carefully formed shape and even possible breakage. In such instances, you can still hammer it but just be more careful and remember not to overdo it. In any event, you can still reshape it after hardening, although it's generally a bit difficult to do and may cause breakage if you are not careful.



• Hammer on a steel block which is clean, smooth and dent-free. The wire will pick up the irregularities on the surface. Even if you don't pick up any surprises, your hammering will not be as effective. Also, another reason to be careful about your hammering surface is that you could damage it. I'm sure you wouldn't want to damage the surface of your coffee table or what not with all the ugly indentations!



• One more tip which I personally haven't tried but read from is about hammering coloured wires. One precaution is that you might nick the colour coat. Yes! Even if it's permanently coloured! If you really want to hammer coloured wires, it might be a better idea to get one of those rubber head hammer or you may try covering your hammer head with a masking tape.


Alright, that's on wire hardening for strength through hammering. Another way you can harden wire is through pulling.

This is basically how you do it.

Pulling wire many times through a nylon jawed pliers, polishing cloth, or even just your fingers will harden it. Be careful however, as this method will heat the wire with friction!

Bear in mind also that pulling will break down the pliability of the wire. If it's straightened too many times, it will become brittle and break. To pull wire, firmly grasp the wire at one end with a pliers so it doesn't slip, and using a nylon jawed pliers or polishing cloth, pull the remainder of the wire away from the gripped end. Repeat several times until wire is springy and holds it's shape.

Over time, most pieces will become work hardened anyway, simply by the virtue of 'being worked.' If you find a component of your piece has become stiff and unpliable while creating, use caution so that it doesn't break as you are finishing your work.

There's this other thing about wire shaping that I want to make a mention of here.

When I first got to know about wire shaping, I thought a wig-jig is essential towards shaping the wire which is how I ended up searching frantically for a wig-jig.

It was hard initially because the jewellery making scene in Malaysia then was not as hot as it is now. So, naturally, searching for the required tools and materials was quite a headache.

It's no longer such a great big headache for me now as it was back then! :D

Anyway, I found a second hand Thing-A-Ma Jig on eBay Malaysia.




But guess what? I don't really like using the jig. I find them to be terribly troublesome and bulky and in the way.

Maybe I haven't been giving it enough try to work around it or what, I don't know. I think I only tried it out once or twice only.

But the thing is this. If I'm not liking it already in the first few try, I don't see why I should be so bothered and worked up over it lor. Especially when it's not like thats's THE only means to the end and even more so when I've got other alternative.

The round nose plier. Yes. :)





Indeed, this method requires more practising that the jig but I find it more convenient. If you have worked with a jig before, it's basically just shaping around cylinder pegs which you can also easily do with the round nose plier.

The only problem however is in the sizing. Undoubtedly, wire shaping with a round nose plier would require more meticulous sizing estimation than a jig.

So, wire shaping with a round nose plier is strictly for non-beginners! Unless you've got sufficient amount of patience to rival the Pacific Ocean! LOL.... :P

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A date with Robin

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Work Room chat:
It's all happening next week! All the jewellery making 'events'.
*One possibly related to jewellery making: I'll be attending a one day 'mystery' workshop. I have no idea what workshop it is other than it's a craft related workshop. This workshop was signed up for me by Uncle Ghee and even he himself have no idea what workshop it is because it was something organized by his supplier and that was exactly how they coined it; 'mystery'! Fingers crossed that it could be something interesting.
*I'll be teaching a jewellery making workshop as a guest teacher in Funky Pots!
*And over the weekend, I'm going to attend a 2 full-day workshop for basic glass bead making! Yes, it's lampworking, folks!
Oh, boy.... this sure is going to be one hell of an exciting week! XD
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Yes!! I finally get to meet Robin!



Which other Robin did you otherwise think I was referring to? :P

Robin Hood statue outside Nottingham Castle.

This is only this first time I'm visiting the Robin Hood statue and Nottingham castle despite being my second visit to Nottingham already! The last time I was here, for some strange reasons, I just didn't make it to this place. -_-

Anyway, considered mission accomplished la! XP

This is for you who do not know what Robin Hood is all about.



And this, the movie adaptation of the legend with Kevin Costner as the hero back in 1991.


Was over at Nottingham castle with Juju and here's some pictures of the castle.


We were greeted with this upon entering the castle gate.



I would really love to walk down here in autumn! XD



A side shot of the famous Nottingham Castle.


Sorry, couldn't show you pictures of the inside of the castle!


Another shot of the compound of the castle.


The castle has got a very very nice garden compound. Although the same can't exactly be said about the castle itself. It wasn't as majestic as it appears to be or I was hoping it to be. I'm not sure if it was because they merely open certain portion of the castle for public viewing only or what...but... *shrugs*






The garden compound was really really awesome though! Made me feel like rolling around the grass ala Bollywood movies! Ahaks!

And the gorgeous weather that day is just like adding icing frosting to the cake! XD


Love the sky that day!


Despite sunny and all, the wind was really strong also and it the wind was really chilly!! o_O



I also saw the oldest inn in England. :)

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Standard sizing

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Work Room chat:
I think I can safely announced the 'events' that I told you was going to happen this month, now that everything at this stage seems to be confirmed already, barred any unforeseen circumstances. The one non jewellery making and three jewellery making 'events' I was talking about, remember?
Okay, I'll tell you about the non jewellery making event first. It's going to Shaunee's graduation play (or something like that) of the musical Annie, happening this week. LOL....very Mat Salleh's style of schooling experience! She is leaving primary school and will be beginning her secondary schooling in Sept, of what they call it the senior year la.
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When you are making jewellery for yourself, it is easy to decide on the size because you can try the fit on them as you are working along. However, if you are making them to sell, size seems to be a major concern; to come up with a size that fits all. Not only to save you the headache of alteration to say the least, but to also reach out to the general masses out there. Which is why elastic stringing material and memory wire has got the upper hand in this area.

Size adjustment is no doubt a consideration that would go into the design because certain designs such as beadweaving/beadstitching or wireweaving may face a hard time in adjustment after completion but it might be much easier when it comes to simple loop wirework jewelleries.

Despite the idiosyncracies of sizes of the general masses, there are nevertheless some standard sizing which are meant to fit everyone anyway. In this discussion, I'll try to touch on each piece of jewellery here although the focus is mainly on women's jewelleries.

Earrings
Okay, I seriously don't think theres a standard sizing for earrings.... LOL. It pretty much depends on the design. It can go as short or as long as the artist want! Although I do think it's probably interesting just to touch on the types of earrings that we have here.

Alright, let's see. There's the very common stud earrings.



And then, we have the once-crazed-after chandelier earrings. I still remember when the trend first make a comeback after the 80's. It's like almost everywhere you turn, everyone's donning this huge pair of earrings and all that everyone's selling is chandelier earrings! LOL..... It's still in trend now but just maybe not as 'hot' as it was a couple of years back.



There's also this drop/dangle earrings. Someone once asked me what's the difference between the two. I would say that there are not much difference between the two; which is why I group them together. Although I personally think that you call the shorter one; which hangs just below the earlobe, drop and longer ones hanging below the earlobes, dangle. Drops are not very long, are they? And you do need longer dangles to facilitate the dangling movement, don't you? ;)



Bear in mind that as far as chandelier earrings and drop/dangle earrings are concern, the hangers for these style of earrings can be either a hook or stud.

One last type of not so common or popular but very unique type of earrings is the ear thread. They go by a few different names; ear threads, ear threaders, threader earrings, earthreads. Just like what the name suggest, the wearer actually “threads” through the ear hole. Designs may vary, but basically ear threads consist of a small metal bar on one end, a few inches of thin chain connected to the metal bar, and then on the opposite end you can attach beads.



And so, that's about earrings.


Bracelet
I would say that the average size for women's bracelet would be 7". Those with bigger wrists might require a 7 ½" to 8" sizing. Those with smaller wrists on the other hand would require a 6" to 6 ½" sizing. In any case, if you want to avoid the hassle of adjusting, make a 6" long bracelet and attach a 2" long extension chain. That way, it can fit the smallest size wrist to the bigger ones! LOL..... XP

But on a personal note, I'm not in favour of the use of extension chain for bracelet because I feel that the extra chain if not in use is in the way and spoils the overall look of the design. Well, that's just my take on bracelet.



Necklace
I intentionally left the discussion for necklace last because there's more to say about them!

Alright, to begin, there's many different lengths of necklaces but did you know that there are different lengths of necklaces are categorized accordingly? Well, I didn't untill I flip to the last page of The Basics of Bead Stringing: A Complete Illustrated Approach for Beginner and Advanced Designers by Debbie Kanan.



This was my very first beading book which I got as a gift from Sa Kor when I first got into jewellery making. Well, as much as they say that it's an illustrated approach, the illustration here unfortunately are drawn illustration rather than pictorial illustration.

So, if you are one of those visual learners, there is a high probability that you may not like this book at all. Otherwise, it is a fairly okay book for beginner. But seriously, reading The Work Room might be just as good if not better! Ahaks! XP

Anyway, as I was saying......

The last page of the book actually gives an illustration of the different categories of necklace according to their length.

See what I meant by drawn illustration?

You will realize that it also lists down for you the approximate number of beads of specific size needed for the specified length. Which is what people would normally use a bead board for.



Bear in mind however that these numbers can only hold true if you are doing bead stringing. That is to say you string on one bead after another, with no use of any other findings. This would also mean that the use of wires are also discounted since the loop you make and the connection between two loops would also take up a good amount of the total length of the necklace.

I have something to say about the stated size though. I don't they are by any means conclusive but at best only a guide? I find that the stated size range for the different categories of necklace may be a bit too long for asians. And this I am saying based on the comparison I made of the commercial jewelleries that I used to have. I said 'used to' because I have since gave them away to my cousin sis and ever since I started making jewellery, I don't see the need of buying them anymore. :P

Take the size of choker for example. I think it should be 14" with 2" extension.

A princess necklaces; which hangs somewhere around your collarbone, should be 16" to 18".

A matinee necklace; which hangs somewhere around the chest area, should be somewhere between 20" to 25"

Opera necklaces; which hang below the chest area, should be somewhere between 27" to 35".

As for anklets, 10" might be too long. 9" might be more appropriate.

This is also by no means conclusive. Just a little something I draw from my experience of jewellery making so far.

One other thing that I would like to add here is the allocation of 1" for clasp. I find that no matter what sizes of clasps I use, I always allocate 1" for it to make up the total length of the necklace and they more often than not come up to the right total length.

Okay, take for example you want to make a 16" necklace. What you need to do is to subtract 1" for the allocation of clasp, which is to say the necklace length that you will be making is only 15". The clasp will make up the final 1" for the necklace.

On the very rare occasion that they don't end up the final length that I want, I only needed to make minor adjustment here and there.

I also find that this only seems to hold true if the clasp is attached externally with an extra finding. That is to say you are connecting the clasp to your piece with a finding and not directly the clasp to your piece. What I normally use for the connection is a jump ring.

So, for bracelet, standard size of 7" means to make a 6" bracelet with 1" allocated for clasp.

Once again, this is also not rules carved onto stones. Just something which I have found to have worked for me which you can use as reference.

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Patchings Art Craft & Design Festival

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Work Room chat:
Out of curiousity, I got a bobbin of the famous nymo which we always read from the Mat Salleh's magazine for bead weaving. I've only ever used fireline; or in simple term fishing line, to do bead weaving ever since I started making jewellery. Will try it out for a bit before I'll tell you what I think of it and how I think one compared to the other.
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I was over at Patchings Farm last Sunday for their Art Craft & Design Festival. Wanted to blog about this much earlier but no thanks to the festival, I was taken ill for the past couple of days. I'll tell you why in a bit.

The festival actually started on Thursday (4th) but we only managed to get there on the last day of the festival. What was even more unfortunate was we only had 2 hours to spend there! Uncle Ghee need to send her sis-in-law who was here for a visit from China to the airport and needed us over at Funky Pots to help close shop.

It's quite a shame really because it would have been great to stay on a bit later to watch all the demonstrations and stuffs. Oh well, it didn't matter much anyway because most of the demonstrations in the afternoon was on paintings by various artist. Not much jewellery making stuffs there, although there were quite a handful of jewellery booths around.

The festival was held on this big open space next to Patchings Farm with a few tents up. So, yeah....it's quite big and I reckon you could literally spend the whole day there if you have the time.


The map of the festival location.

The list of artist taking part. Yeah, that's a lot of them!


Weather forecast the night before told us that it would be raining that day. Sa Kor already warned me that it might not be a very pleasant trip. Almost got the trip canceled because of that but then I thought I might as well risk it a go after having travel so far here. Even if it had not been a very pleasant experience, it was still something to look back on. :P

True indeed, as we left the house in the morning, there was already light showers.


Oh, boy.... I could only pray that the rain doesn't get any heavier than this!


It was quite a relief when we arrived that the rain was only drizzling away and also because of the rain, it wasn't too crowded and entrace ticket costs some £7.00.





As you can see, the car park is not too packed. According to Sa Kor usually, the car park would have been full already despite the fact we were early that day. The festival opened at 10:00am and we reached there about 10:10am after about approximately 20 minutes drive.

One thing I've really got to mention about the parking is how sytematic they are. You know how it is back home when you have a open space parking like this, people just park into whatever space they could squeeze their car and then all hell break loose when the show's over when everyone's trying to leave the place which causes massive traffic congestion?

Well here, people are guided very systematically into the parking lot and people park neatly. Yes, I meant literally N.E.A.T.L.Y into the spaces. It's not like there are boxes drawn on the field but they do park very neatly and leaving the was such a an ease later on. I think they probably got up to 10 people working on just guiding the vehicles to the car park. Ok, I'm not sure of the exact amount but there were many! This, you've got to really give it to the English!




As you can see from the picture here, the weather's pretty lousy on that day. Very not festival worthy, if you ask me! -_-


To be honest, I wasn't exactly being blown away or anything but it was an interesting experience nonetheless. I guess it was good from the exposure sense. I guess I wasn't really that over the moon about it was probably how it wasn't jewellery making orientated but more on arts and craft.




I didn't get to take as much pictures as I would have otherwise loved to. Thing is, the English people are quite sensitive about intellectual property rights. I couldn't just openly snap away because they might think that I wanted to copy or something.

I did ask permission to take a pic in one booth and that was also after reassurance that I'm not going to copy and was only a tourist. That kind of put me off to take anymore pictures. So, all I could do was only to snap random picture of the place when no one's looking or else people are going to stare at me with suspiciously! :P

Off topic: the other day when I helped Uncle Ghee to send off Funky Pot's newsletter to his customers, I mistakenly key in the addresses in the C.C column when I should have key them in B.C.C. As a result, all the email addresses was exposed and one customer called up to complain and asking for her email address to be removed from the mailing list, obviously not too happy about the mistake. But what was even more bewildering was how she even cited the Data Protection Act in her defence! Seriously..... did she really have to? o_O

So, here are just a few random pictures of the festival that I manage to capture.






Okay, maybe there's these two interesting booth that I would make a mention here. Interesting enough to stay in my memory, that is. :P

One was this pewter key ring demonstration where the man showed us how the pewter key ring was made. Sorry, no picture but I remembered well enough to explain them to you. :P

Basically you dust some talcum powder onto the rubber mould or cast or whatever you call it and then poured the melted pewter into the cast and it takes approximately 10 seconds or so for the pewter to harden into shape. I wonder if Malaysia's hot weather will take longer though.... After that, he just snip off the extras and smoothen the edges. A very straightforward process, and not to mention quick too. But I think you can even try them out doing it yourself with Royal Selangor Pewter in KL lor. :P But if you're interested in this UK pewter company, here's their site for you to check out.

The other one was this jewellery booth but what was even more interesting was the glass beads and pendants and stuffs were made from recycled glass! Glass which she recycled herself from bottle glass and window glass! Like, how cool is that! Especially now that everyone's going green these days.

Didn't took any close up pic of her work cuz she was the one who wanted the assurance that her work won't be copied before allowing me to take the pictures.

Therefore I only took a very random picture of me with her in front of her booth lor.


So sorry, I forgotten her name and hence, got no website about this lady to refer you to. o_O


Anyway, it was starting to rain heavily thereafter and we need to hurry back already. The rain was much of a downpour to be exact, like what we always get back home! As far as I remembered, places like England don't experiece the kind of rain that we have back in places with tropical climate! The climate has indeed gone havoc!





I was soaking wet already by the time we got into the car to head home cuz we forgotten about the umbrella thinking it was only going to be light showers. Either way, I wasn't expecting this kind of rain in England!


I was clearly not too happy about the rain lor!


By the time we started the car and heated it up, the wind screen and the rest of the windows of the car got all misty like this!


Like how to drive wor, like that?!


The weather sucked so bad that day. I was literally drenching in rain and we still need to head down to Funky Pots. The best we could do was to head back home for a quick change of dry clothes and then head down to Funky Pots.

And guess what we met along the way?

Flood! In E.N.G.L.A.N.D?!





Although it was only a short stretch, but still.....something like this was unheard of when I was here 10 years ago lor. It feels as though I was back home for a second there. :P

Seriously..... the world climate is in a really bad shape, if you ask me!

And that, ladies and gentleman, is Patchings Art & Design Festival for you and how I was taken ill for the past couple of days.

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