Naughty Dragons

We are having staffing problems here again at Glitterwitch.
For those of you who haven't met our staff, please see the post below for details.

Things are getting a little tense at Glitterwitch HQ .......

The dragons are up to their tricks again

They've been skating on beads 'cross the floor!

Apart from the noise and the mess that it makes

The beads all pile up by the door

Then when Alfie arrives, he trips on the beads

And lands with a bump on his head.

The dragons run off and all you can hear

Are the giggles from under their bed.

The Spiral Witches are watching

They tell Alfie all will be right soon

Just wait one more week and help will arrive

By the light of the silvery Moon

Short and sweet this time as I have a lot of beads to pick up from the floor, I do hope the witches have come up with a plan to sort out the naughty dragons.

I will leave you with a sign seen recently in a Belgium Brewery giving directions to the toilets, just because it made me smile.

Never mix Dragons & Witches

Most of you know that I have a few helpers to share the workload at Glitterwitch.

• Alfie the Elf is in Charge of 'Elf 'n' Safety
• Lena is a Purple Accounting Dragon (sister to Lorna)
• Lorna is a Purple Marketing Dragon (sister to Lena)
• Pearl is a Spiral Witch in charge of Beading advice (sister to Purl)
• Purl is a Spiral Witch in charge of knitting advice (Sister to Pearl)

The Dragons sisters are rather mischievous and are always getting themselves into trouble. The Spiral Witches on the other hand are hardworking  and just get on with their work quietly singing to themselves. Poor old Alfie tries to control the dragons, but just lately that has been becoming more difficult.

Eventually the lovely Spiral Witches decided that something has to be done!

The Spiral Witches are friendly and kind

They work hard just to make my life better

But they don't like the way that the dragons do things

So they sat down and wrote a long letter

They wrote to some cousins on far distant shores

And explained how the dragons behave

They said its not right, it just has to stop

Its driving us all to our grave

We know what is needed, the cousins agreed

Someone who won't shy away

From meeting the dragons and sorting them out

And making them earn all their pay!

So far, far away in the dark dead of night

They set off with their trusty black horses

Their mission to find and recruit a new witch

As the Head of Non-Human Resources!

Well, goodness know what will happen next, I guess we will just have to await developments.

I will leave you with my favourite quote about work:

I always give 100% at work. 13% on Monday, 22% on Tuesdays, 26% Wednesdays, 35% Thursdays and 4% on Fridays!

The Face of Glitterwitch

Ever wondered about the face behind the Wonderful World of Glitterwitch? Well wonder no more!

A couple of months ago I got an email from Kent Life Magazine asking if they could interview me for an article entitled "Silver Entrepreneurs" I wasn't sure if that meant that I didn't quite make gold, or simply that I am old! Either way there is no such thing as bad publicity as they say, so I thought why not.

The interview was conducted over the phone, where they also broke the bad news that a photographer would be coming around. Well, some of you may know that I am not as active as I have been in the past due to illness, and so there is a little more of me than there used to be.

No matter how much I squirmed, it was no good - the photographer was coming. Resigned to my fate, I thought "Oh well, lets just go for it".

The September issue of Kent Life Magazine arrived last week, and there I am in all my glory photographed at Glitterwitch HQ.

If you look carefully behind me you can see the dragons on the cupboard top being watched over by Alfie (Elf 'n' Safety).

Click here  to read the full article from Kent Life's website

I was asked to give my top business tips for anyone (over a certain age) thinking of setting up their own business. I wonder if you agree with the ones I suggested. Would love to know what you think.

I am now off to update the website with some lovely new items for September - where has this year gone? Well they say times flies as you get older - can't argue with that one!

I will leave you with this quote from Jane Russell
"Publicity can be terrible, but only if you don't have any"

Click here  to visit our website which now has a Christmas Crafting Section.

The Demise of 'Elf 'n' Safety!

Those of you looking for the Blog on Greenland Beading, I am afraid it has had to be postponed until later in the year. Apologies for that, but I seem to have lost my notes. Well, when I say lost them - oh perhaps I had better explain!

Many of you know that I have two dragons that help me out at Glitterwitch. Lorna the Marketing Dragon and Lena her sister who is in charge of accounts.

Alfie, the Elf is in charge of 'Elf 'n' Safety and keeping the mischievous dragons under control. But recently, it has all gone wrong .........

Alfie the Elf has a girlfriend,

 He sneaks off to see her each day.

So, with no 'Elf 'n' Safety to stop them,

The Dragons decided to play.

Now, when Dragons are full of excitement

They giggle and snort a blue flame.

My paperwork's burnt to a frazzle

And the Dragons just think its a game!

Alfie's in love and besotted,

He doesn't see what's all around.

He sits in the sun with his girlfriend,

In awe of the person he's found.

So with 'Elf 'n; Safety neglected

The Dragons are off on a spree

My staff have all gone and left me

So I guess now it's all down to me!

Oh dear, what can I do, I just hope Alfie settles down soon and gets back to work, and goodness knows what those Dragons are up to now!

That's all for this week folks, I will leave you with this thought:

My craft room is not messy, I just have everything on display, like in a museum!

Using Beads & Wire

Yesterdays National Beading Week Blog was all about the Spiral Folk made from beads and wire, so I thought today we would look at what else you can make using beads and wire.

As you may know, I am very fond of knitting and so have made several bracelets, by threading beads onto wire and then knitting with it.

But, don't worry if you can't knit, there are lots of other things you can make. Threading beads onto Memory Wire is great fun and relatively easy to do. You can create many different looks by adjusting the colour or size of the beads - here is one of my favourite ones.

But maybe you don't want a bracelet. Well how about some flowers then.
French Beaded Flowers are made by threaded seed beads onto wire and then twisting the wire to form the flowers

Of course there are lots of other fun things you can make with Beads and Wire, I like to have a play, when I get the time and here are a few of the things I have made.

As you can see from all the above, I am no expert with these things, but I do like to "have a go" and am always delighted with the results.

 I hope this has given you a small insight into what you can make with Beads and Wire and maybe given you the incentive to have a go yourself.  We have a Pinterest Board - Crafting with Wire - that has lots more ideas and a couple of tutorials on it - click here to have a look.

Of course, youtube is a good source of information about these sort of things, but be careful - it has a habit of stealing your time and making you wonder where the afternoon went!

If you want to have a go at knitting a bracelet with beads and wire click here to see the kits on our website in a great range of colours.

That's all for today - tomorrow is all about Greenland Beading!

Can Beads have Character?

Can beads and wire have character? Surely not!

 Well  click here to meet the Spiral Folk over at Spiral Rose and you might change your mind.

Cathy Rose, the face behind the business explains:

I started Spiral Rose just over two years ago, and at the time I was making wire-wrapped jewellery. I wanted to expand my range to include items that nobody else made, and the Eureka moment came when someone suggested I should make fairies.

Using wire, pearls and lucite flower beads, I came up with a 2.5 inch high fairy that immediately proved popular and it wasn’t long before people started asking for adaptations, like elves, witches, angels and even steampunk fairies. The Spiral Folk were born!

I thought it would be fun to personalise the figures, giving them charms to represent hobbies and occupations and started posting silly photos of them on the Spiral Rose Facebook page.

It soon became clear that while the Spiral Elves were helpful little souls, 

The Spiral Fairies, on the other hand, were mischievous little tykes who regularly got into trouble, often involving the over-consumption of food and alcohol! (Did you know that fairies puke glitter?)

Followers of the Facebook page really embraced the Spiral Folk and started suggesting scenarios for photo shoots and stories about their lives. Requests came in for ‘Mini-me’ Spiral Folk that actually looked like real people! (Have you ever tried to draw a recognisable face on a 10mm pearl? It’s not easy!).

Do you recognise this one - of course it is our very own Andy Murray!

The Spiral Folk community has grown and they’ve found homes all over the world. They have a variety of jobs and hobbies including medics, Police officers, fire fighters, musicians, sports stars and crafters. Or how about Spiral Cavemen?

Cathy kindly made two Spiral Witches who help me out on the Glitterwitch Facebook page, they are called Purl & Pearl and are very well behaved and hard working.

So, can beads and wire have character? Of course they can!

If you’d like to commission a Spiral figure, contact Cathy on her Spiral Rose Facebook page here. Prices start at £6 plus p&p

That is it for today folks, tomorrows blog is more about using Beads & Wire.

How Wood You Use These Beads?

When you think of using beads for crafting, what do you think of? Making jewellery perhaps?

Beaded jewellery is, of course, lovely, but there are so many more things you can do with beads.

We have a range of Wooden Beads on our website and it never ceases to amaze me the things that customers use them for. I have set up a Pinterest Board  all about these beads and thought I would show you some of the ideas here.

Lets start simple, this would look great attached to a parcel.

   

Now, I am sure you have all seen these before.

This is a bit more ambitious, but doesn't it look lovely?

So, do you feel inspired to have a play with some Wooden beads?

I will leave you with my favourite idea from one of my lovely customers, Claire from Cobweb Creations . She makes the most wonderful Magical, Quirky collectables. Let me introduce you to Warwick Cobweb

Can you see how she has used to wooden beads. Isn't he just adorable?

If you would like to see more from Cobweb Creations click here to visit her Facebook page and then you can follow her magical world.

You can quote code NBW2015 during National Beading Week to get 10% off our Wooden Beads, click here to see our range on the website.

Tomorrow we ask the question Can Beads have Character?  Pop back tomorrow and and see what you think.