The Cape Town Baby Expo 2011

After much hard work and many late nights of preparation, The Baby Expo has come and gone. I had a really good time and I learned so many new things and met so many lovely people.

My super star sister helped me to set up and also to sell.

I was there too... :)

Frangipani Brooch/Pendant

This pretty frangipani (which is much prettier in real life than in the photo) can be worn as either a brooch or as a pendant.

I have a couple more frangipani casts locked away, waiting their turn to be turned into jewellery, but I can't wait till the trees are full of flowers again and I can cast many more! I have always and will always love a frangipani! :)

My lily in the September Ideas Magazine

My long awaited Ideas Magazine arrived today. I am very happy to have my work in Ideas, but I was a little disappointed with a few things. Firstly they printed my blog address as '.co.za' instead of '.co'. Secondly, they have a little icon at the bottom of the page that says 'go online to http://www.ideas.co.za/ to see how Andrea made this pendant' but if you actually go online and try to find anything related to me or the pendant, there is nothing there yet! (Apparently it will be online be by the time the magazine hits the shelves, but I feel it should be there in time for the subscribers, who get their magazines about 10 days before it's available in the shops.)

There are a few other things that leave me a little puzzeled, but I think some sleep would be more helpful than dwelling on these problems. Despite the errors and other little things that leave me wondering, it is always a lovely thing to have one's work in print, so thanks to Ideas for putting me in their magazine!

Marvelous Mushrooms

My sister came to visit a few days ago and she brought some mushrooms. I have wanted to try to cast this kind of mushroom for quite a while, so although mould making was not originally part of the plans of that day, I decided to steal a few and build a tree. It will probably be a week or so till I make enough flasks to fill my kiln, but I am looking forward to seeing the results of these mushrooms!

The lovely mushrooms

Work to be done

Some new casts waiting to be turned into beautiful jewels!

This pod is particularly dear to me-I collected it while on holiday in Thailand, about seven years ago. It was a very special time as I got to meet up with a wonderful Australian friend whom I had not seen in 10 years. We spent a month exploring all we could of that very beautiful country-it was a truly magical time. I plan to turn this pod into a ring (/weapon of self-defence, should the need arise).

Bluegum worm: I plan to turn these mini bluegum pods into stud earrings, but I discovered that they make a rather nice worm. Think I need to cast a lot more and look into bracelets and dangly earrings.

New Iris Pod Pendants

New iris pod pendants, fresh from my bench. Hope you like :)

Facebook page opened today!

There are a few friends who have been telling me (for the longest time) to open a facebook page for "The Lovely Ones". I am not entirely sure why it has taken me so long. Anyway, I hope they will be happy now, I certainly am :) 

(I still need to figure out how to put the little face book button on to the blog, and how to link all these pages to each other, but I think I have accomplished enough for one day; that will have to be another day's task!)