Holidays are over.

The school holidays went really quick and I'm now back to being at home on my own with my very daft Labrador. Which to be honest as much as I love the kids company over the holidays, I can get on with a lot more work when they are not here. 

Last year the jewellery sales have slowed mainly because of the financial climate and I think 2012 was the year of the Elf, lol. With that in mind I have decided to just make jewellery with my own beads, I also want to improve my lampwork and the elves will be ever present. Plus there will be more cloth dolls as I want to eventually have a soft version of an Elf. In fact I finally got a new sewing machine and I made my first cloth doll, I started it on New Years day and finished it the following day. I must say I really enjoyed making it and I now have so many ideas for more. 

In my last post I mentioned that I was firing coasters in my kiln one at a time and I couldn't show you what I had been up to. Well I gave them to my parents and they loved them so I can now show you, one is missing from the photo as it was still in the kiln at the time. I did really enjoy painting them and was very happy with the outcome and I will certainly make more. I would like to paint bigger items but I think that will have to wait for a long time as I will need a larger kiln.