Raffle prize- jewellery lesson

When I took part in a Christmas market at Cambridge Community Church (C3) I offered a raffle prize of a free jewellery making lesson. The prize was worth over £25. The lucky winner, Ruth, came yesterday with her daughter, Mary to claim the prize. Mary, aged about 13, already had an interest in making her own jewellery so she was very pleased to get a few more pointers. She brought some of her own beads and learned how to use a crimping tool to make a necklace with a lovely silver toggle. Mary practised how to  make a wire loop for earrings, making three sets in all. I also showed her how to use memory wire cutters and so on. 

The top photo shows Mary making a selection of beads. the next photo shows her level of concentration using a pair of pliers.  

I think she is going to be making quite a few Christmas presents for her family this year!. I suggested that she didn't go 'mad' buying beads, etc. but to make some small but considered purchases. It's all too easy when you are starting out to buy too many components. I have directed her to visit  The Beaderie. It's an amazing bead shop right here in Cambridge just along Bridge Street. Open after 10am each day but closed on Sundays,

If any of my readers are interested in learning the basics please contact me. A one to one lesson is £25. The lesson will last a minimum of one hour and I will not let you leave until you have mastered the basic tools and techniques to make a lovely necklace and pair of earrings. You would be welcome to bring a broken necklace, etc to mend but I would supply some pretty beads and findings (posh name for ear wires and clasps, etc).  Why are you waiting? Bring a friend for a small extra fee. I would love to do hen parties and girlie birthday gatherings. 

I love to use Swarovski crystals when making jewellery and freshwater pearls. I have finally mastered the art of knotting pearls so get in touch if you need something restringing.   Contact me marion.curtis53@gmail.com 

I can also recommend the lovely bead shop Bluestreak beads; their website is a great source of supplies.  

Work by Katherine Guerrier.

Been to a couple of fascinating meetings with Cambridge Quilters recently. One was given by my heroine Katherine Guerrier who has been a major influence in my quilting journey.  She spoke for quite a long time outlining her personal history with illustrations of many of her amazing quilts. Like many quilters she began before the days of rotary cutters when there were few fabrics on the market to work with. Katherine has a great eye for colour and one of her 'tips' was to never use a fabric for a scrappy quilt that has white in the background. Many quilts use half square triangles and traditional blocks to make a quilt. 

Katherine has influence me to attempt the more 'arty quilt'. The one above was in her Scrappy Quilt book which I bought about five years ago. I realised  that my work tended to come out with pinks, blues and purples so after reading Katherine's book I decided to put together colours I wouldn't normally use.  My green and red logo was one of the results.  Cambridge Quilters is a lovely group.   I joined at the start of 2014 and have made quite a few friends and learnt much. You don't have to be an expert to join and you may attend meetings as a guest for only £5.

Christmas Market at C3

Not a brilliant photo but I really enjoyed the buzz at the Christmas Market held at C3 (Cambridge Community Church) just by Sainsbury on Coldhams Lane, Cambridge. I sold lots of earrings and a couple of necklaces so went home quite happy. I used my newly acquired Pay Pal card gadget for the first time. Very impressed that it worked by connecting with my phone. Useful for multiple sales. I offered a raffle prize for the charity and was contacted by the winner right away. So Ruth has won herself a jewellery making lesson worth £25. I'll see her in a couple of weeks when she claims her prize.

Duxford Quilt Show October 2015

As always I went to the October Quilt Show at Duxford. Was rather disappointed to not find Creative Grids in attendance, Serves me right for not checking the list of exhibitors first! Lots of lovely quilts and I instantly recognised this work on the right by Jenny Rolfe. Find her here The whole piece is shown top right. It's made up of many individual pieces held together with ribbon. The other photos are of some of the units. I really love the colours Jenny has used and how she incorporates applique and embroidery. I was very fortunate to attend a couple of workshops run by Jenny at The Bramble Patch .  My piece is shown below. I am inspired to do more on this sort of embroidery, especially (fingers crossed) that my sewing machine is cooperating very well in free motion stitching mode.

Fabrics applied used Bondaweb to Pelmet vilene. More fabric added using applique techniques with ribbon, beads and buttons.  Very time consuming to add the ribbon to hold it all together and even harder to stitch on all the heart shaped buttons. Machine embroidery added to complete. Here's a close up.

Swarovski tree earrings

Stressed already...clean forgot to post photo of the earrings I mentioned. I've made 10 pairs of the little darlings at £12 a pair. I'm currently stressed as I'm multi tasking trying to string some gorgeous green pearls. Knotting pearls is harder than it looks!

Getting ready for a Christmas Market next weekend

Had rather a busy week. I was contacted by Elspeth from Cambridge Community, other wise known as C3. Would I like to exhibit and sell my work at their forthcoming Christmas Market? Elspeth found my name and photos of my textiles and jewellery on www.camopenstudios.co.uk.  After such a long gap, it was too good an opportunity to miss so I signed up right away to have two tables at their Christmas Market. This is on Saturday 14th November from noon until 8pm at C3, Coldhams Lane Cambridge, just across the road from Sainsbury's supermarket. 

I decided to make  more of my favourite earrings which are made from  Swarovski crystals and look like tiny Christmas trees. Lots more earrings made and several new necklaces...if you have not seen my work before, I specialise in freshwater pearls and Swarovski crystals. I do my best to avoid anything silver plated. I wouldn't buy or wear it myself, It's just not for me. I have ordered new packaging for my jewellery so I am more or less ready for next Saturday. I hope I find some time this week to stitch a few Christmas tree decorations and whip up a couple of new bags for my textiles area. 

Starting to blog is quite scary. I've been thinking about doing this for a while and at last I am going to take the plunge.....

So, a bit about me first. The photo shows me at my weaving loom. I learned to weave when I was at school and enjoyed it so much that I decided to do a degree in textiles technology at Bradford University.  Life brought me to Cambridge and I became an art teacher, later teaching textiles in Design and Technology.  My interest in textiles continued with developing skills in bobbin lace and several years ago got lured into patchwork and quilting.

I hope to Blog every week with tales of my various interests including work in progress and mini tutorials.