Hogarth Crystal Curve

I made this neclace as a present for my friend Hazel's birthday. The design is from Bead and Button April 2012. I used 8mm Swarovski cystal bronze pearls and 4mm Swarovski bicones in Topaz, Light Colorado Topaz and Smoked Topaz. Apparently it's a flattened Russian Spiral - I've never worked a Russian spiral rope, so that's another one to add to the to-do list. A Hogarth Curve is an 'S' shaped curved line also referred to as a "Line of Beauty". Each spiral is worked as an individual component, producing a very satisfying pile of beaded discs. I can see lots of possibilities with this design, particularly in the use of colour and it can be worked without the pearls in the centre of the spiral.

... and A Happy New Year

 

 

 

 

And now for this year's Christmas cake or more accurately cupcakes. The design is by Jan Clement-May and is in the latest magazine from Squires Kitchen. I have to confess my only contribution to this group was Santa. The rest was all done by Jen and what an amazing job she did!

 



Merry Christmas

 

 

 

 

Towards the end of last year I discovered Squires Kitchen in Farnham. Squires not only sells just about anything you could ever want for cake decorating, it also publishes its' own magazine "Cakes and Sugarcraft" including incredible designs. This family of polar bears sitting on their very own iceberg was our Christmas cake last year and was a joint effort by myself and Jen. It is a design by Carlos Lichetti, who manages to inject so much character into his sugarcraft creations. Jen and I are complete amateurs at sugarcraft, but we love the excuse to play and be able to eat the fruits of our labour later.