Merry Christmas and New Year!!

To all my lovely friends, family and customers,

Wishing you a lovely holiday season.

I will be back on the 4th Jan with lots of new ideas and looking forward to some great events in 2011.

Happy Christmas, Elisa x

This week has been lovely!

This week has been hectic as normal but lovely. I spent Monday evening giggling with the girls, Tuesday doing productive chores, Wednesday I went to see a metal gig and then last night I took my first volunteer workshop. It's been ace but be glad after a food shop in a bit to sit down and chill ready for the weekend gift fair above!
I just have to say the 3 girls that attended the workshop made some beautiful bracelets and considering it was their first time you'd be surprised at the results. I'll have to upload the pics for you next week. So if your in Old Portsmouth this weekend or Gunwharf then pop into Square Tower and say hello! Have a great weekend, E x

Pop Up Shop Christmas Fair and New Tiaras

So this week has seen the launch of the Pop Up Shop Christmas Fair - above you can see our little shop full of friends and family with my Dad and I enjoying a glass of wine! So far there have been enough sales to cover my costs and a bit extra so I'm really pleased. Considering there are 2 more days to go thats great by me.

My new Tiara bands in semi precious Peridot, Moonstone, glass crystals and Amethyst.

Have a great weekend!! E x x

It's all about a bit of Xmas Sparkle!

So you are going to have to excuse me this season for the sporadic updates but I have lots of Christmas fair events and so my full attention is turned to making new designs and photographing them.
Just to give you a little taster of the Holiday colour explosion I have selected some photos of my new hair pin collection and a recent stall I had at a local college.

Flower Mill, Glass and commissions.

I'm pleased to say that the last week and a half have been very busy. This is great news on the run up to Christmas. Saying that I made time to pop into the Flower Mill at Boarhunt - this is amazing, wall to wall artificial flowers, feathers and sparkles! I have already made a fascinator but the temptation is to go even more ott than normal as the leaves I have picked up are sooo sparkly actually I have a pic..

Amazing hey! Below is a little taster of some new bracelets I made, I have also made hair grips, earrings this week but well you can visit www.facebook.com/elisaloves if you fancy nosing at all of them. Tonight is commission delivery evening, with them all completed and in cute organza bags they are ready to be delivered. Have a lovely evening! E x Bird in a Tree Bracelet
Bombay Blue Bracelet

Also this week....

I totally forgot to say that the Winter Berries set I made for a commission has been finished and safely collected. Hope you like them....

Sparkletastic!

It's been over a week as I've been off having fun and working hard as well. I took a few days out to see my uni friend and we enjoyed a night in Caen, France also Southampton and Brighton too. The Christmas shopping is in full swing and nearly finished.
I had to spend a few nights in central London for work but creativity has crept back in this week as I had Monday and Tuesday to work on some ideas. Above is Tamzin earring and bracelet set, this with the Krista earrings in Ernite below our part of the wedding jewellery classic collection I've been working on.

Above is Kimberley Fascinator in pink - very girly and striking against brunette hair.

Too many ideas too little time!

Take 2! Isn't it frustrating when you write a post then manage to delete it all, doh!
This week has been great I've been finding ideas everywhere - supermarket, walking down the street, other people, you name it but there just isn't enough time to put it all in practice. Saying that I have had a productive week you wouldn't think I'm working full time as well. Ok so you just know what a jewellery nerd I am - well I'm proud!
I got my fused glass back and spent Tuesday evening armed with serious glue. I was particularly pleased with my twistie pendant (I made the twisties other week with Carl).

I haven't experimented with brown glasses before so gave that a go and made these beads....

Also the week wouldn't have been complete without some wirework designs for the wedding collection. I lovely Garnet hair band and a Peridot mini comb.

So just to prove I have a life other than craft (hard to believe and well not really true!) I am taking 4 days off to have some fun days out with my friend including a day trip to France. Very excited, I love wine and cheese. Have a lovely week! x

Fancy dress, fused glass and and the flu.

Last Friday I went to a fab fancy dress party pic above can you guess? LOL!

So it started well but by the end of the evening my voice was getting more and more croaky. I then made it into the studio Saturday and did make some new funky fused glass pieces. Can't wait to see how they come out of the kiln....that will be next weeks treat.

Sunday morning well from then til yesterday I had the flu and the itis's. I am now in full anti biotic mode so well on the mend but I am the kind of person that doesn't get ill so I didn't cope with it very well, sleeping and not being able to move just doesn't cut it with me! So super pleased to be back in action and made a funky wirework bracelet for myself as a treat!

Have a great weekend, E x

New listings and more time on the torch.

Starscape bracelet is the newest item in my collection of goodies. I fell in love with these teal glass stars.
As it was sunny quite a lot this week I took a couple of walks around the lake in my lunch hours and found time to take pictures of my fused glass pendants. The 2 below are my favourites.

I've been trying to make my fused glass jewellery a bit different to just doing the standard pendant. Falkor and Cotton Candy necklaces below have a slightly different twist and I like the results so I think I'll make some similar. I'm back in the studio tomorrow so should be fun to try out.

My glass adventure continues some new glass colours arrived this morning and a trip to my dentist for a check up landed me some new tools to play with! Cross fingers I'll get a chance to play inbetween a fancy dress party, fused glass in the studio, leaving do and gig! Busy weekend but all fun! Have a great 1 x x x

Lampworking, shopping and admin!

I've had soo many ideas buzzing around my head I'm pleased to have my diary to hand to write list upon note to try to keep me on track.

So first of all - I thought hey what is this video malarky about so above is a little clip of Freya the tiara, as it was sunny for the first time in ages I thought why not let her twinkle!

This week has been great. I had a one to one lesson lampworking with Carl Martin at my hothead. We explored twisties, hearts and flowers. Was just what I needed to get me all enthused again and filled me full of new possibilities. So watch this space for pics!

I shopped a little re stocking on tiara bases and boxes also a whole new selection of semi precious beads to play with. Probably shopped a bit too much but haven't had a big bead spend up for a while so don't feel too guilty and my postman is really friendly so that helps when all the little parcels start to arrive - hee early Chrimbo!

As you already know if you've read my blog before I am rubbish when it comes to the admin side of things. So this week I set myself a little challenge and have been trying to add 2 new items to my Etsy shop everyday to try and get up to date again. So far so good so go have a nose at all the new stuff!! www.elisaloves.etsy.com

So it's the weekend again, have a great 1! E x

Wedding tastic!

So the last week has been super hectic but lots has been achieved. My How To article was published in the Surrey and Hampshire crafters newsletter so feel free to get inspired. http://www.scribd.com/full/37716392?access_key=key-lr8izc9nbvyckl9ugge
Below is a picture of me modelling the fascinator with Clint at the wedding.
I'm sure you can believe that I still haven't fired the copper clay creations I made last week although managed to take a picture. At least they are getting a good drying! I personally didn't get on so well with this stuff, I found it messy and it dried out really quick. Silver Clay was soo much easier to use, I guess you get what you pay for hey as copper comes in at under half the price. The pieces I've made below have used some lovely stamps I bought on etsy and some stolen from my card making box.

Weddings were a key theme as not only did I go to my cousin Ellie's but also did my first wedding fair yesterday. Below are a couple of samples Liliana Tiara and a lovely bride to be at the fair trying on the red Lara Tiara. Lets see what this week brings! x x

Bellydancing and some treats for my friends

The Tesco charity bellydance went really well. Despite the rain and wind we completed 4 dances including a veil and stick dance. Above is a picture of Joles and I in our costumes.

Last week I was making some little treats for my friends so that was really fun. My friend had a wedding to go to and wanted a fancy spritz of pearls and crystals for her hair so I put together the above fascinator comb. I was really pleased how it turned out.

Below I had made my friend Lucy a bracelet which unfortunately broke so I made her a new and improved version with some Elisa beads thrown in to make it totally unique. The weekend was spent in Brighton with my cousin as it was her hen do, little creativity took place unless you call mixing cocktails creative - they tasted lovely so maybe!

My creativity has been good this week so I might have to do 2 updates this week, I've made a fab red tiara and played with copper clay already......loving it! x

Lets go fly a kite...

So the Bank Holiday proved to be great fun. Saturday we had farewell and birthday drinks for 1 of my closest friends who has gone and landed herself a job in the big smoke. Check her out at www.maddieillustration.co.uk she is an ace designer. Sunday a little worse for wear a few of us headed to the seafront at Southsea where the annual kite festival was taking place. I enjoyed several displays, being hit on the nose with my boyfriends dive bombing kite then flying that same kite quite successfully!

Monday I made some beads - eventually after a false start. I had to wait for my knight in shining armour to come and turn the propane on. I spent half and hour fighting with the propane canister and it just wasn't budging - I had done it up too tight as I didn't want it to leak. Nothing like being over cautious! So these were the little fellas I was proud of. My shaping still needs work but I'm happy.

Have a lovely weekend! More wedding dress shopping with Nicole and dancing with Rakshanda for charity for me. x

My mini top hat got finished and I had a torch session!

It was really fun this week craft wise. Although I've been feeling a bit tired I've had a lot of crafty energy! Tuesday I got the torch set up and had a play. I didn't realise how out of practice I could get in just having 2 months off. My beads were a bit disappointing and the 1's that looked totally cool cracked in half as I tried to encase a 96 coe base packed with 96 coe frit in schott clear 90, doh!
Wednesday I went round to see a crafty bud after work and the mini top hat got created! This is for me to wear at my cousin's wedding later in September. I am quite please with how it has come out and luckily the black ribbon does well in hiding the wire wrapping involved in keeping the feathers and crystals upright.
So it is Bank Holiday weekend for me so an extra day of fun, who knows what it might bring! x

P.s if your a friend of mine on facebook it's 10% off all orders for the weekend! :)

Waken and New glass goodies!

So I'm back... Germany was great! Not only did I get to see 1 of my favourite bands Iron Maiden but saw lots of new bands that mixed up classical and even bagpipes with rock, I loved it. We'll definitely be hitting another festival next year. I also remembered my love for cherry beer - scrumptious!
From the moment I got back it was all go, Poppyfields Design and I had a jewellery party on Friday night then I was back in the studio Saturday for a day of fused glass jewellery. In between eating, working and trying to get through the festival washing pile I finally stuck some bails and wire wrapped the ground pendants - the results are below.

And these little beauties are still waiting to be created into jewellery......

So August is already half way through and all my ideas are coming together slowly. I finally signed the contract on our Pop up shop for December and have lots of jewellery projects to work on. Alongside this my cousin is getting married in September so I feel a show stopping fascinator top hat creation brewing....watch this space!

My lampworking seems to have been put on a bit of a back burner since discovering fused glass so I think September calls for a re-awakening of these magical delights.

Huuuuummmmmm........... have a lovely week, E x

Holiday!!!

Just a quick 1 today.

My creativity has been focused on some commission pieces to match the Summer Berries necklace, I have posted them above. I'm continuing to enjoy wirework designs and love the randomness!
I'm off to Germany for a short break with some of my favourite people so it's set to be a great time. Live music, camping and cold beer!
See you when I get back, have fun! E