Happy Friday everyone! This is my new Haunted Focal and the above picture is the front and back of the same bead. I'm really getting into relief work lately and this bead was so much fun to create! I feel some skull beads coming on too.. ooOOoOOooO!

Rainbows make me smile.. cupcakes make me smile.. cupcakes WITH rainbows on 'em make me practically explode with happiness! Just thought I'd pass along a smile to all of you :)

Have a great day!

Love,
keiara

Hi everyone! I'm gearing up for Halloween (and a show in October) so I'm working overtime on creating some new spooktacular beads! Here is my new Ghost Kitty Focal. Isn't he cute?? I started with my usual kitty shape but tweaked it slightly to allow for a more 'draping' effect at the bottom. What do you think?

Here they are!!! My lovely friend, Naomi, came over yesterday for a tea party and dread day. It's lucky I plied her with wonderful sandwiches, cheeses, veggies and cupcakes.. cause it took 5 1/2 hours to install these dreads! These are Colinette Cherry wool and I LOVE them! They are very light and comfy. It was a bit awkward to try to sleep last night.. but I'm sure that will get easier :) This is what they look like down. They fall to about the middle of my back now that I've trimmed them a bit. I also layered the front a little after these pics were taken. Is it weird to want a more 'natural' layered look when you have bright pink wool for hair?!?

A lovely customer contacted me and asked if I could create some of my kitty focals to match pictures of fabric swatches. I told her I'd give it a go and these are the results! The black kitty shown above was the first one. I tried to capture the overall feel of the pattern as well as getting in as many of the different colours as possible. Considering the entire kitty is only 30mm tall, I'm quite pleased with the results :)

Hey guys! Happy Friday :) As I was sitting down to have some lunch the doorbell rang. When I answered it the delivery guy was holding this HUGE package and I thought he must have the wrong house. No, sure enough, it was addressed to me. I took the package and glanced down. COLINETTE! My hair!! Woohoo! I hurriedly signed the electronic doohickey and raced inside to open the package. Pictured above are three skeins from the package. From the back: Velvet Birberry, Florentina and Cherry. The picture does NOT do them justice. Each and every colour (and I got LOADS) is rich and bright and utterly divine. I'm sitting here stroking yarn. I've finally lost it.

Now I will strip my hair, shave the underside and dye it all magenta before installing my first set of dreads. I'm going with a mix of the Cherry and Velvet Birberry. I can't WAIT!

I'll take pictures along the way.. this is gonna be so much fun!

How about you? Anything fun planned for the weekend? We're having a 'family lunch' with Jen & family tomorrow which I'm REALLY looking forward to. Kaia will get to hang out with Ariana again and I'll get to love on Jen's little boys. They are SO adorable! I could just squeeze them til they pop :) Ok, I promise I won't do that.. but I'll be thinking it real hard!

I'm off to melt more glass.. lots of custom work this week keeping me busybusybusy!

Have a great weekend :)

Love,
keiara

Hi guys! I made some new dread beads! These beads all have 5mm holes so they also fit Troll, Pandora, Biagi, etc. bracelets. The first one is Cassie Cow. I think she's SO cute! I will definitely be making more animal dread beads. I can see someone with a whole farmyard in their hair! (Ok, that person is most likely me once my dreads are in.. haha.)

Yes, I do. Love felt, that is. It's really quite an obsession. If it's made of felt, I want it! I recently stumbled across the wonderful Etsy shop of Betty Shek. You can already see the problem, can't you? THEY'RE GORGEOUS! I love absolutely everything bit of felt in her shop! The first heart is my favourite. It's perfectly made and the level of detail is amazing. It's also stuffed so it's slightly puffy too! I will be wearing this one on my jacket just as soon as it's jacket weather again ;)

Happy Friday!! Here are some beads from yesterday. This one is Amethyst Desert Fleur Focal. I'm really liking bright frit backgrounds swirled with organics lately. Add a stylized flower and, hey, I dig it ;)

I'm planning ahead with dread beads! From left: Starfish Beach, Pink Freesia, Sweet Cupcake and Twilight Tree. These were all made on 5mm mandrels so they can also be worn on Troll, Pandora, Biagi, etc. bracelets! Expect to see a lot more dread beads from me.. I have to build up a supply to choose from! ;)

I'm off to spend some time with Sam.. who is arriving any moment! Hope you all have a great Friday and a wonderful weekend!

Love,
keiara

Yeah. Wow. So. Henna. You'll note the hint of concern on my face combined with the slight pout. What this facial expression is saying is, "WTF have I done to my hair?!?" The picture really doesn't illustrate the full horror. It's a putrid shade of orange with a distinctly greenish-yellow undertone. It's so much less than attractive! Hey, the good side is it easily washes out! Oh wait, no it doesn't. Well at least I can colour over it! Uh uh, no can do.. unless I want straw for hair. I can always try even MORE henna and see what happens?! With that being my only real option, I decided to take a completely different route to turn this frown upside down: I ordered a bunch of gorgeous wool to turn into dreads! Yes!! I ordered loads and loads of gorgeous colours and now, armed with several tutorials about how to install double-ended slub wool dreads, I am finally going to throw caution to the wind and try it :D I've always thought they looked amazing and wanted to try them but had NO concept of just how easy they really are (and not actually 'dreads' in the sense that they're just braided into your own hair). Stay tuned for future hair posts.. this is gonna be interesting!

Hi everyone! I know, I know.. long time no blog. I'm a bad girl! I've been absolutely overwhelmed with custom work lately. I promise to make blogging a higher priority in the future! This is what's new with me: key beads! This one is called Unlock Africa and it's my second attempt at a key bead. For this key I wound the glass directly onto this antique brass skeleton key. Neat, huh? I'm really enjoying the process. I love antique keys anyway and this makes them infinitely cooler. Cause beads make everything cooler. It's true!

Speaking of cool.. I'm currently sitting here with my head wrapped in cling film. Ok, so that's not really cool. But the reason is pretty nifty! I've applied some Lush henna to my hair! I know many of you are already upset at the idea of me having any haircolour other than the bright red. Alright, maybe that's a stretch (unless you're Laura!) but I really had to do something different. I've been colouring my hair for so long now that it was becoming quite stripped and coarse. I happened to stumble into the Lush at Covent Garden last Friday (OMG I could totally live there!) and they had blocks of henna. I figured I'd give it a try and see what happens. It's supposed to be really great for your hair and this particular one is a bright red shade. Keep your fingers crossed for good results! I'll post pics tomorrow!

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow.. my BIL is bringing his gf over and we're going to dinner. Yay! He's such a darling and we haven't met his gf yet so I'm excited. Actually, the rest of the week is shaping up to be awesome. On Friday Saffie and Imogen are coming over (I hope she's still planning on it!) for a visit. Then Saturday Kaia's friend, Ariana, is coming over and I always love her visits. Ariana is the daughter of my American ex-pat friend, Jen, and she's such a sweetheart. We're planning to take the girls to see a film and, of course, we're having a BBQ because, hey, you can't NOT have a BBQ on 4th of July! I love 4th of July :) I decorate the house in all red, white and blue and make a bunch of red, white and blue food. It's such fun! It's especially interesting celebrating the holiday over here in England. It makes me giggle. I celebrate my country's independence from the evil oppression of Britain.. now don't mind me while I live in your country ;) Heehee! Anyway, it's gonna be fun and I can't wait!

How about you guys? Anything fun planned for this week or weekend? Anyone else wanna celebrate 4th of July with me?? lol ;)

Whatever you're doing this week.. I hope you have a good one!

Love,
keiara