Mangobeads Me and 'My Folklore Collection'

Well it's a little time since I did this for sure. Time to rectify that I think :)

As many of you know David and I took over a small workshop 18 months ago. We now have a 10 station lamp work studio where we host our own workshop and invite visiting tutors to teach here in North Devon.

I won't deny it's been a tough 18 months, apart from the usual business related problems I gave up my days at home and became a full time working girl at the studio.

Sadly it meant I also gave up a lot of my bead making time, it also took away for me the spontaneity of my creativity as I have had to plan my bead making around deliveries, workshops and general business related stuff.

In January this year I can truthfully say I was feeling uninspired and a little sad and sorry for myself. I Love the workshop and everything it brings us but I seemed to have given up my life to it and was beginning to loose site of where I was going with my bead making.

Having had so little time to make beads the selling side of things has really fallen for me such a sharp contrast to how things were when I first started silver coring back 4 years or so ago.

So with Flame Off looming and the prospect of being a 2012 demo artist very much on my mind , we decided something had to change :)

Because my bead making time had become so precious I had started expecting a lot of myself in the few short hours I could manage at the torch.My designs had become big and complicated and had a high failure rate which added to my despondency .

So I decided to go back to a set of beads I made back in 2008, they were aptly called at the time 'Folklore' as the colours and design were very reminiscent of canal boats, and Romany gipsies. Having kept the beads I decided to return to the colours and designs I had tried out then .....

We also decided to put a torch back in my old workshop and clean it up. We removed the cob webs and the toads that had moved in, stocked it with glass and lit up !!

Now I can make beads in the evening and at weekends as and when I want to. Its just lovely to have my own bit of space to be creative in again.

So most mornings I shall spend at the workshop and then I plan to come home keep up with the housework and make beads again :) utilising my time much more effectively.

Now I am sure you will have noticed that I am accumulating a few of my 'Folklore' beads :) This is in anticipation of Flame Off in April this year. I will be releasing these beads at the event and they will then subsequently be available on my web site :)

I have had lots of lovely lovely comments on them and a huge amount of interest and encouragement, so thank you all :)

So it's just to let know that the Mango behind Mangobeads is still here and shes looking forward to getting back into the swing of things with her bead making.