Finding the missing link

Something of beauty from little rings

I know it’s a cliché, but I’ve loved art and craft all my life. However it wasn’t until my four children became more independent that I decided to get serious about it. In my late thirties I went back to college, starting right at the bottom with a GCSE in Art and Design, and culminating in a BA (Hons) in Craft Design. After finishing my degree I had big ideas about earning a living as a ceramicist. Real world finances intervened and I started looking for other materials that didn’t need quite such a big initial outlay. I played around with resin, mosaic, textiles, bead weaving…you name it I’ve probably tried it. I had so much fun, but still didn’t feel I’d really found my ‘thing’. Then by chance I picked up a chainmaille kit at one of the Hobbycraft shows in Birmingham, and that was it. The magic of combining little rings of wire and making something beautiful still amazes me.

Keeping a paw in

Mad Mog's mad mogs - Radar, Willow and Smokey

I’d been chainmailling for a couple of years before deciding to take the plunge in June and starting up Mad Mog Jewellery. Friends and family kept saying I should sell my work, but it’s a very scary thing to think about. My business name was inspired by my totally delinquent cats. Radar and Smokey are the Bonnie and Clyde of the cat world, and Willow is a little cross-eyed tortoiseshell who can melt the hardest heart with a look.

She who dares

Copper tones for Autumnul style

The first thing I aimed at doing was getting a presence on the web. I don’t drive, so I am restricted as far as craft fairs are concerned. I set up a shop on Folksy and Etsy, made a Facebook and Twitter page, got a domain name, web space and suchlike. I am working on my website and hope to have that live soon. I have done a few local fairs. I only sold a few pieces, but the experience and feedback made them worth doing. Getting your name out there so that people actually know you exist is the number one priority. I aim to do more local fairs next year. It’s slow going, and I often feel totally out of my depth, but it’s also very exciting and I’m really glad I plucked up the courage to give it a go.

Showcase your concern.

Intricate chain maile close up

We will be keeping an eye on Jules’ progress and are sure that she will be a great success with her stunning style. We’ll be sending her a little parcel of goodies for her contribution to the Bead Barmy blog.

Have you managed to turn your beading hobby into a business? We’d love to hear about it, whatever stage you’re at, whatever size and however successful it’s been. Tell us about reasons why you started, the ups and downs and what the future holds. Please send us a bit about yourself to creative@beadsunlimited.co.uk in an email entitled ‘Bead Barmy Hobby to Business and we’ll be in touch. Ideally, we’d like a few pictures of your work included and one of yourself. Please ensure that the pictures are no more than 5mb in total for each email.

Facebook can be a fantastic platform for testing the waters with a new business venture and maintaining a rapport with customers when running an established concern. This is what, regular Bead Barmy reader, Helen Bowen, told us about her experiences, both good and bad.

Selling for free on Facebook – what’s not to ‘like’?

Helen Bowen - speaking from experience

Up until about a year ago, making jewellery had been nothing more than a hobby for me.  I was a busy stay-at-home mum just snatching time whenever I could to make gifts (and the odd commission) for friends and family.  I loved my hobby and feedback on my work had been fantastic so starting up my own small business seemed a logical step.  I think it was at a local beading group that I first heard about selling on Facebook.  I didn’t have the time or money to invest in building my own website or the knowledge to dive straight into setting up a shop on Etsy or Folksy, selling for free on Facebook seemed a great way to dip my toe in the water.
With limited free time available, Facebook provided the ideal platform for me to create an online presence.  I didn’t need any technical skills and building a page was so quick and easy. The third party applications available provided all the functionality I needed to upload photos of my jewellery and I could take payments via Paypal.  I had a basic business page up and running within a matter of hours!

One step at a time

Helen Bowen's stunning beachcomber bracelet

Those early days seem such a long time ago now.  I remember the initial struggle to reach the first 25 fans needed to secure a user name for my page and the excitement of my very first sale.  It was hard work and meant a lot of late nights working on new jewellery pieces and maintaining my page, but it was also extremely rewarding.  I loved the real-time interaction with fans and the ability to get immediate feedback on my work as well as give and receive advice on all manner of things.  My Facebook sales were financing my hobby but the best thing of all, was that I was growing my business at my own pace.

A sound investment

On trend, vintage style

Before I knew it, my page was celebrating reaching 800 and then 1000 fans with lots of repeat customers, some great reviews and a new network of Facebook business friends to boot. You see, the real joy of running a business from Facebook (aside from it being free and easy to do!) is that you become part of a community.  If you invest the time and effort to interact with your fans, posting useful and interesting content, gathering opinions, seeking advice as well as providing it, your time will be rewarded not only in increased sales and referrals but in new friendships. Use Facebook simply as a marketing tool, continually spamming fans with offers, posting your page links on other business’ walls and growing your fan base artificially through untargeted networking such as ‘marches’ or ‘silent tagging’ and it’s unlikely that you will see the same returns.

Blank faces

Autumn tale bracelet - a seasonal delight from Helen Bowen

The trouble with Facebook is that, from a business point of view, nothing about it is actually ‘face’ to ‘face’ at all.  In fact, it really is a very faceless market in which to try and trade. As a customer, you may not be able to easily identify an individual behind a business page or work out how to communicate with a trader aside from posting publicly on their wall. For the business user, balancing the professional business image that will win the trust of potential customers with the desire to interact informally with fans can prove problematic.

Beware of other costs to your business

Hot under the collar - Tropical Nights necklace

At all times, a business page must abide by the Facebook terms of service, contravention of which could see it closed down without discussion.  Your page exists also at the mercy of the Facebook developers who may add or remove functionality without warning so if you are a creature of habit, the ever-changing world of Facebook is probably not for you!  A business on Facebook does not own the content or the data on its page and if Facebook disappeared tomorrow, so would your business and your customer base. And this is not the only risk to your revenues.  Whilst the informal nature of the Facebook platform can make interacting with customers easy and fun, you can also find yourself the victim of some less friendly attention because of it. The copying of jewellery designs, content and marketing ideas from a Facebook page happens more than you might think. I’ve learned from my own tough experience.  Some rival page-owners are happy to steal your hard work without a second thought and it is very difficult to protect a Facebook business particularly if you do not have measures in place from the outset.  Strategies for dealing with such online copycats are varied and numerous but I’ll write about those another time.

Learning from the Facebook experience

Out and about - Helen's afternoon tea shop display

I suspended my Facebook page in early December. It was a difficult decision but one that I don’t regret. I get a real buzz from creating new pieces but the stress of having my business ideas and designs stolen caused me to lose my creative spark for a while. My growing business was also starting to impact negatively on family life. The dining room had become a workshop, all but basic housework activity had ceased and dog walks had become necessary sprints around the common rather than the old rambles in the woods.

My page was still there, a link sitting on my profile page that led to bizarre place, frozen in time. Still 1064 fans and yet a weird eeriness about the page that came with being the only person interacting with it.

Over the following weeks, I came to some decisions about my business and its future ‘face’ on Facebook.  It’s all too easy to convince yourself that boosting fan numbers and gaining feedback on every status update and new photo is the sign of a healthy business.  Facebook is a wonderful environment for building brand awareness and networking, but it does not have the flexibility or functionality that will allow your business to truly differentiate itself.  It will also never reach those potential customers who don’t like or trust Facebook as a social media let alone as an online shopping site.

A different outlook

Pleasing Precious Peacock bracelet

Ring O’ Roses – Handmade Jewellery now has a very different Facebook presence.  I still share my love of jewellery and creating with friends, fans and even my competitors and I have a beautiful gallery of some of my work on my page.  But, I now preview my latest pieces on my blog and sell my items through other channels including a local craft centre and Etsy.

So, if you are thinking of starting a jewellery business, it definitely pays to use a Facebook business page, especially if you enjoy interacting with your customers.  Just be aware of the potential pitfalls and don’t become consumed by it.  And if you already run a business on Facebook, take some time out occasionally to reassess your page.  You’ll be amazed what you can achieve in the time not spent chasing fans, comments and likes or waiting for the photo uploader to work.  You might even find you ‘like’ it

About the author

Helen Bowen is a member of the Guild of Jewellery Designers and a Self-Representing Artist in Jewellery Designer (SRAJD). She is owner/creator of Ring O’ Roses – Handmade Jewellery and writer of the ‘A Pocketful of Posies‘ blog.  From her home in Warwickshire, she designs and makes beautiful individual pieces with a strong reference to nature and a real eye for colour and detail.  She works on commission but also creates for general sale.

Chloe was given a ‘bead soup’ of black and red beads including Czech rocailles, bugle beads, glass nuggets and twists. The brief was to use the beads in any way she fancied, incorporating any additional beads of her own should she wish to. Chloe told us about how she came up with her designs and the challenges she faced: 

Taken as red

This was exciting as I am usually arranging ‘Bead Soups’ for Bead readers and rarely get the opportunity to have a go myself! The colours were a bit of a challenge for me, although I work with black a lot, red is a colour that I never usually touch and combining the two was something new and slightly out of my comfort zone.

Watch out for low flying ladybirds!

Ladybird, ladybird

My black and red ‘soup’ immediately made me think of ladybirds! I made a few, with both the size 8 rocailles and size 11′s. I planned to use several but rejected nearly all of them as they just weren’t working. In defeat, I used just one which was the most successful (I have to admit to throwing one ladybird across the room in frustration – sorry ladybird). I strung him onto Beadalon wire with the large glass twists and some Swarovski Xilion beads using a simple clasp for a fun bracelet.

Lovely star earrings perfect for a glam night out

Star of the show

Next I made some star earrings using some of my own tiny size 15 rocailles to create a herringbone star. I loved the black chunky glass nuggets and was excited to use these in some earrings. I finished these off with more Swarovski crystals hung on eyepins. I love my earrings to be big, with lots of long dangles and these definitely ticked the box.

Inspired Japanese lantern beads

Chloe's favourite bead soup design

My favourite creations of my ‘Soup’ challenge were my Japanese lantern beads. I admit that this design was a little inspired by Vanessa Walilko’s ‘Unfoldings of the Implicate Order’ necklace which won first prize in the British Bead Awards Seed Bead Jewellery category last year. This was the first time I had seen dramatic, intricate work using bugle beads and the colours were the same as my palette. I played around with the design until I got the structure right. These use a combination of triangle weave and peyote stitch with silver lined size 10 and black size 8 rocailles and are really versatile. I had some Jelly Yarn from America and was yet to play with it – this was the perfect material to string them on.

Japanese Lanterns tutorial and prize giveaway

Chloe very kindly wrote a tutorial so you can try your hand at making these lovely lanterns. If you’d like to give them a go and be in with a chance of winning all the materials needed for the project, please take a look here.

Pink Hot!

Chloe also runs has her own website full of gorgeous desings. If you’d like to see more of Chloe’s work, please visit Pinkhot Jewellery

All at sea

Found treasure from Bojangles Jewellery

Pretty soon, your stories started trickling in to our inbox. Maree from Harwich was one of the first people to contact us. Maree makes a large selection of beaded jewellery but one of her specialities is her sea glass designs. Living by the sea, she has a wealth of found items at her fingertips and sea glass makes gorgeous jewellery. Maree gave us an insightful look into why and how she started down the hobby to business route.   

The face behind the jewellery

Pester power

I started Bojangles Jewellery by Maree back in October 2010. The name was taken from the Robbie Williams version of Mr Bojangles, which I love. There were several reasons why I started. My eldest had just started school and my youngest is due to start school in September 2012 and the hubby and family keep asking (or rather moaning) me when I was going to return to work. With the economy the way it is, only living in a small town and no one to look after kids in holidays I didn’t know what I could do. 

Treasure from the sea

A flying start

So I made a few pieces and put them on my facebook page and asked people’s opinions and they sold straight away. I set up the name, my Facebook group and then my website. I also attended several local craft fayres last Christmas. I did ok but the main thing was learning what people liked and didn’t like and what prices they were prepared to pay. 

Friends in crafty places

A selection of Maree's work at Home Grown Crafts

I was very lucky having an old school friend who, in April 2011, decided to open up a local craft shop selling craft materials and renting out shelf space to local crafters. I’ve had my shelves since April and it has its ups and downs but I’m slowly getting my name around. I have made many bespoke items through the shop, which is called Home Grown Crafts in Dovercourt, Essex.
I’m now booked up at many local Christmas fayres and have even done demonstrating in the shop using Beads Unlimited stock!
When sales are down and more and more people are turning their hobby into a mini business, I just read my reviews and see peoples faces when I give them their bespoke items. It always brings a smile to my face. 

Home Grown Talent

After Maree mentioned them, we took a look at the Home Grown Crafts website and it’s well worth a visit. There are lots of lovely crafty tutorials, some great craft products for sale and more. If you are in the Dovercourt area, they also run children’s craft parties, life drawing sessions and a whole range of exhibitions.   

Showcase your concern

One of Maree's many lovely key chains

Have you managed to turn your beading hobby into a business? We’d love to hear about it, whatever stage you’re at, whatever size and however successful it’s been. Tell us about reasons why you started, the ups and downs and what the future holds. Please send us a bit about yourself to creative@beadsunlimited.co.uk in an email entitled ‘Bead Barmy Hobby to Business and we’ll be in touch. Ideally, we’d like a few pictures of your work included and one of yourself. Please ensure that the pictures are no more than 5mb in total for each email.

A token of thanks

We will be sending Maree a parcel of goodies as a token of thanks for telling us her story.

When Kay popped into The Brighton Bead Shop recently to show us some of her gorgeous designs, she seemed like a prime candidate for our new ‘Hobby to Business’ feature. Here’s what she told us.  

Changing lanes

Kay Vincent - Crafting in the face of adversity

My life was fairly normal until just after I turned 30. I was an A-Level ICT teacher at a sixth form college in Brighton, but had a keen interest in crafts and occasionally wrote articles for craft magazines.
Then I decided to take a year off to do a Master’s Degree in computing at Brighton University.  

Unfortunately on the third week of the course I was squashed by a car outside the university, which broke my right scapula, elbow, femur, tibia & fibula, plus my pelvis, knees, and three bones in my left foot.
Fortunately my hands were left pretty much unscathed, so as I was lying in my hospital bed I started to use crafts as ‘occupational therapy’. Fairly soon I was making Christmas cards for that year, and even selling them to the staff.  

Leaves and flowers polymer clay pendant

Creative learnings

When I was well enough to recuperate at home I started to really concentrate on crafts and writing, because I wasn’t sure if I would ever be able to work full-time again, so I needed a job I could do from home at my own pace.
At the time, the Job Centre had a scheme where you could learn to set up a small business, and so I enrolled on the course and gradually started selling my crafts.  

My small business became more of a microscopic business for a couple of years because I returned to the University to finally finish my MSc course. But now it is growing again and I am running workshops and demonstrations on how to make beads and jewellery using polymer clay.  

Breaking the mold

Pretty in pink polymer clay heart

I first came across polymer clay in the early 1990s, and immediately loved it. To add interest to my jewellery I started adding handmade ‘focal beads’ to necklaces and bracelets. They were quite crude efforts at first – just rolling the clay into balls and poking them with a pin – but then I learned how to mix the colours to create millefiori “canes”, where the design goes all the way through a cylinder (like in a stick of Brighton rock). By then I was totally hooked.  

Kitchen table business

Sunny style polymer clay flower

One of the best things about making polymer clay beads is the fact that it requires very few tools. It literally can be the start of a ‘kitchen table business’ because the clay hardens in a normal kitchen oven rather than a kiln. And if you are already into jewellery and beads then you probably already have most of the kit you need, such as round-nosed pliers, wire cutters, beads and findings etc. You just need to add a pasta machine (usually about £20) and a super-sharp slicing blade (around £5) to get started. From there, the creative possibilities are endless. I’ve been using polymer clay for over twenty years and am still finding new things to do with it.

Give it a go

Fancy a go at making these lovely petals?

For people interested in learning polymer clay techniques I run a range of courses throughout the year, usually suitable for beginners and intermediate clayers. I have also just started the South Coast branch of the British Polymer Clay Guild and will therefore be able to offer more workshops within a few miles of Brighton during 2012. The next workshop is 3rd December 2011, where I will be showing people how to create petals and flowers. 

Catch up with Kay

Delicate polymer design necklace from Kay Vincent

If you are interested in Kay’s workshops please email her at Kay@bpc.org.uk. Kay is still working on her website but in the meantime you can find her on Facebook or Twitter @polymerKay. You can also dip into Kay’s musings on her entertaining blog. We found her polymer clay cruise article really interesting. If you have a passion for polymer the British Polymer Clay Guild website is well worth a visit. There’s a friendly forum on the site where you can meet fellow enthusiasts and show off your creations plus all the latest news and details of workshops. If you fancy having a go at this addictive technique, you can find an extensive range of polymer clay at Beads Unlimited.

Showcase your concern

Intricate workings in shades of blue

Have you managed to turn your beading hobby into a business? We’d love to hear about it, whatever stage you’re at, whatever size and however successful it’s been! Tell us about reasons why you started, the ups and downs and what the future holds. Please send us a bit about yourself to creative@beadsunlimited.co.uk in an email entitled ‘Bead Barmy Hobby to Business’ and we’ll be in touch. Ideally, we’d like a few pictures of your work included and one of yourself. Please ensure that the pictures are no more than 5mb in total for each email.

A token of thanks

We will be sending Kay a nice parcel of polymer clay as a thank you for telling us her story.

Grace Nadin-Salter contacted us with her inspirational story about, the charity, India Direct. This is what she told us. 

Home from home

A fun beading session

My husband and I run a charity called India Direct. We were set up fifteen years ago by our friends Dave and Karen Armstrong and their Indian partner Martin, who was looking after 13 homeless children in his back yard in a thatched hut.  It was washed away in the monsoon and he was desperate.  A neighbour agreed to let the children live in his cow shed but clearly this was not a long term solution.  Martin came to the UK with only his plane ticket and went to a Christian conference hoping to find people who would help him.  He met Dave in the coffee queue who rose to the challenge. Fifteen years later we look after 165 children in two homes in Tamil Nadu. One of the homes has 80 children who were orphaned by the 2004 Tsunami. 

A little beading goes a long way

Happy beading!

Every time we go over, we take beading activities for the children to do.
This year, we accompanied 19 students from Poynton High School, Cheshire on our visit to the children’s homes. The students taught the children how to make simple necklaces and bracelets, which they absolutely loved! I had also been out in March and taught them how to make simple turned loops and clasps. It gave the children a real lift to do something different. These are children who have nothing except the love and care that our children’s homes can give them. Boys and girls love beading, and learn really quickly.  We hope to expand this in the future to give them a little bit of income making jewellery to sell for their own pocket money. 

Tell us a story

Grace also runs a small jewellery making business called Just Grace Jewellery. She donates 15% of her profits to India Direct. If you’d like to find out more about this lively and vibrant charity, please visit www.indiadirect.org.uk 

If you have a beading tale to tell, please contact us at creative@beadsunlimited.co.uk. It can be charity based or just an unusual way that you’ve made beads work for you!

Once again, the Mother of all festivals proved to be a perfect playground for both young and old and our stalwart fledglings rose to the occasion and found some very interesting jewellery along the way! Whilst waiting for the sun, Daisy found shelter from the storm and got creative. She made this great ‘dream catcher’ style necklace (see main photo). Daisy told us  

At Glastonbury I made a necklace. I made it in the Arts and Crafts tent. The Arts and Crafts tent was in the Kidzfield. I made it with plastic beads and pipe cleaners. I enjoyed making it.   

Out and about

An unusual find in the Shangri La area

Meanwhile, Tom was scouring the Shangri-La area for boys accessories when he spied this fabulous spanner bracelet. Shangri La is a relatively new part of this great, temporary city, which came into being in 2009. It’s Blade Runner- style landscape is a magical world, that evolves as the years go by, for punters to lose themselves in. Tom told us about his find  

I bought it at Glastonbury for £5. It was in the Shangri La area. It was made in a furnace. When it was in the furnace it was bent to fit on someone’s wrist. 

It’s all here

Alarming accessories!

Both kids also managed to come back from a little shopping jaunt, pleased as punch, with these rather alarming accessories. You really can find anything you want or need, even if you didn’t realise you needed it or wanted it in the first place! It’s all on site, from a pint of milk for that much needed first cuppa of the day, to traffic cone hats and fairy wings (if you really must). This is what, with true kid logic, Daisy told us about their purchase:  

My brother Tom and I bought a ring at Glastonbury. The ring goes all the way up our fingers so we call them finger rings. We bought them from a jeweller.  

In case you were wondering…

Cool tatts!

What do those kids have on their cheeks? No, we didn’t let them have their faces tattooed in a moment of Glasto madness – well not permanently anyway! Wateraid is one of the charities that Glastonbury Festival supports, along with Oxfam and Greenpeace. This year, they were giving away temporary tattoos as a light-hearted way of drawing attention to global water issues. A fantastic way to get the kids involved and give them a little more awareness of the world around them. Something which is all too easy to forget when you have entered the cocoon of the greatest show on Earth. Anyway, the tattoos were certainly well made, they took about a week to wear off even after several showers!

Dress to impress

Danielle with a group of obliging sunbathers

By Saturday afternoon, with the rain a distant memory, the adults were ready to do a little self-styling of their own. Snappy dressing takes on a new meaning at Glastonbury. My niece, Danielle, managed to combine elegant jewellery with wellie chic for a classic festival look! It is, of course, essential to look your best at all times, as you never know when you’re going to have to pose with a group of lounging lizards.   

Out and about in Sunday best!

On Sunday, an impromptu gathering of ‘fancy dressers’ met by the cider bus (where else) at midday to show off their creativity. Funnily enough, it was the men who spent the most time and energy on their outfits! Whilst I use the word ‘creativity’ in it’s loosest term in this context, this is the kind of behaviour that keeps that famous Glasto spirit alive! A fine time was had by all!

More Glastonbury tales

Thursday 7th April 2011

The height of opulence

The hotel in Zheijang was very extravagant, with huge chandeliers in the lobby and marble bath tubs in the bedrooms! However, we couldn’t spend all day soaking up the opulence as we had a factory visit today to see the charms being produced. A full write up of how these delicious items evolve from their grubby beginnings can be found in Visions of China - Gemma’s Diary Part 2  

More food, glorious food!

We had lunch at 12 o’clock sharpish followed by a two hour drive to our next hotel close to the plastics factory. We are certainly seeing a lot of China!
In the evening I tried to find some food while Geoff rested. It was the same as the previous hotel, but took me a lot longer to find this out! Everyone was trying to help me, but we were not getting very far! After about 10 different staff trying to speak to me in Chinese, a lady who was on her way to the Karaoke bar (and had also had a few drinks!) came to speak to me in broken English, She managed to order some more noodles to be sent to my room for me! She tried to get me to go and sing with her, but I politely declined! She asked for my phone number so I could go with her the next day to the bar!!
I shared my noodles with Geoff, it was enough to feed about six of us!  Shattered by this point, off to bed around 11! 

Friday 8th April 2011

a myriad of bright colours at the plastics factory

Today we visited the plastics factory. A full write up will be coming soon from Geoff all about this fascinating process. We took lunch at midday in a nearby restaurant, that had rows of pictures for you to choose what you want to eat, and a few things that were already cooked, like a pig snout!
The restaurant was also a karaoke place and people sang the whole time were there. Lunch finishes promptly at 1 and everyone is back to work.  Again there was enough food to feed tons of us and we did our best. Our chopstick skills are impressive now!
This was followed by a two and a half hour drive to Hangzhou and check into our hotel. Our hosts left us at this point, so we had the next day to see the sights by ourselves. Unbelievably, we were hungry again and dinner was calling. I did a little googling to find a vegetarian restaurant nearby and we were off!
Dinner was great, spicy veggie chicken in batter, bean curd rolls, vegetables in pastry and pancakes and cucumber. Yum! Back to the hotel where the karaoke bar was in full swing! Ear plugs were provided in our rooms, but after our busy day, sleep was no problem for me! 

Saturday 9th April 2011

On her day’s off from being chief buyer, Gemma pursue’s her film star career!

Up for breakfast at 9, our hotel has a view over the lake form the breakfast room. Lovely.
A short walk takes us to some tourist gift shops and the boats to take us to the islands in the centre of the lake. The island is called ‘Three Pools Mirroring the Moon’ as it has three pagodas on the water. We spent the day strolling around the park by the lakes, lots of people were saying hello to us and a few even asked to have their picture taken with me! It was like being a celebrity!

Beautiful blossom

The parks were beautiful with lots of blossom trees and a peony garden. There were some peacocks and albino peacocks which were beautiful.  We looked at the carp at ‘Viewing Fish at Flower Pond’. The fish eat the petals that fall off the blossom trees. 

A great way to spend the afternoon

We had lunch looking out over the water, there was a table of men next to us playing cards and gambling. They were all drinking tea from giant flasks that were topped at the restaurant. What a lovely setting to while away an afternoon. 

Helpful policemen

We strolled some more and then tried to get the boat back to where we started from, but it seemed that we only had one way tickets! We decided to walk over the bridge to the main road to get a taxi, this was harder than it sounds! It was really busy at the park, a bit like Piccadily Circus! It took us over 40 minutes to get a taxi, and that was with the help of some friendly policemen! Some of the taxis wouldn’t even stop when waved down by them! They eventually flagged one for us, and we were off! 

A tad busy!

When we got back to the hotel, we headed straight to the bar for a well earned beer!
Dinner at 8, to the restaurant next to the hotel. It was my favourite meal so far, the waitress was super helpful and talked us through how to do everything. There was a tray with two halves in the centre of the table with a burner underneath. One half was really spicy and the other not. We chose various things from the menu like mushrooms and turnip, they were then put into tray and cooked in front of us.

Dancing with noodles

We ordered noodles, a man picked up a piece of noodle dough and stretched it out, he then did a dance with the dough as if it was a ribbon! It was incredible, he was turning it around and in the air and behind him. I asked the waitress why was he doing it and she said ‘to make it good!’
She then popped it into the tray to be cooked. Delicious! We could also create our own sauces from a selection of things from garlic to soy to peanut sauce to dip our food in! All of this and some beer for less than £12!!

Monday 4th April 2011

Geoff up bright and early – way before me! We were picked up at 8 to go to the glass lamp work factory, approximately 2hrs drive from Beijing. The factory is made up of several units. One for the making the glass part, one for cleaning another for finishing etc.

Pandora style beads out to dry

They use LPG gas to heat the glass as the temperature doesn’t need to be too high. on average a bead worker will make 200 lamp beads per day. Metal rods are coated with a white substance then left to dry, then the glass is heated until it can be wrapped around the rod with any detail being added, like silver foil, or patterns. The beads are shaped while still hot then placed in a ‘dish of dirt’ to cool slowly.
When the beads are cold the metal rods get tapped at the end with a hammer to loosen them then the beads taken off.
The next thing is to clean the centre of the bead and they are moved up and down a wire coil to clean any dust away. Next to be washed, then dried. The small batch they showed to us were dried by hairdryer but larger batches get put out in the sun on a large table to dry.
Back to the hotel in the afternoon. Tons of work to be done, like deciding what new beads to order and what colours, shapes etc! We were officially craving some English food, so took a taxi to find some! We had a pizza and a basket of what they called Potato Gather Together which was a basket of chips, waffles and potato smiley faces! Brilliant!

Tuesday 5th April 2011

Look at all that fabric! Jealous? Us?

Sightseeing day! We went to the Forbidden City in the morning which is incredible! I don’t even know how to describe how big the place is – it is vast!
Geoff rested in the afternoon and I took a taxi to a fabric market. It was enormous, bigger than a normal UK shopping centre – just for fabric! It was heaven! I spent several hours just wandering round. I bought enough fabric to make a few dresses and a dressing gown for, my fiance, Chris!
Work, work, work in the evening, adding new stock items to spread sheets and more discussions about what to get!

our intrepid explorers

Wednesday 6th April 2011

Last day in Beijing. Show rooms in the morning to meet with Sandy to tie up loose ends  and questions that had arisen. Mr Chen had bought gifts of Rice wine for Geoff and Green Tea for me which was very kind.
We went to the airport at 11.30. Arrived at our hotel in Zheijang at 6pm

Please keep checking back for more updates from Gemma over the coming days!
Here are the links to our other China Trip posts if you’d like to take a look.
A Trip to China – New Beads on the Horizon

Visions of Cina – Gemma’s Diary Part 1 

Visions of China – Gemma’s Diary Part 2

Cleaning beads - it's a dirty job!

It’s a dirty job

It will come as no surprise to know that the manufacture of your favourite charms is a relatively grubby industrial process. We visited a typical plant in Zheijang province, northern China. The three principal buildings were based around a sizeable central courtyard and we are pleased to report that the working areas were well lit & ventilated with workers kitted out in unfashionable protective industrial workwear. The workplace is relatively small, around 20 workers on the day of our visit, expanding to nearly double that figure at full capacity.

Raw zinc - this is how a charm begins it's life

The raw materials

The untreated raw zinc arrives in huge lava looking lumps and is often refined into bullion effect bars for easier use.

refined zinc

Moulded to perfection

That’s the easy bit, now we have to turn that into lovely jewellery pieces. The first question is how many pieces are required? For shorter runs a rubber mould and centrifugal system are used, the moulds are cheaper and quicker to produce but only last a hundred or so runs.

moulds

Metal moulds are more robust but require a significantly more labour intensive process. The mould is placed into the casting machine, the zinc is melted, drawn into the mould, stamped and dropped into the hopper beneath. Next up is the tumbler, which rotates to knock the bead off of the sprue (the waste metal left after casting). The bits we are looking for of course are the smaller items which easily detach and fall into a tray underneath. Waste not want not is the philosophy with any leftovers so they are all shovelled up and melted back down for re-use.

One of the workers sieving the rough charms

Rough and ready

The tray of rough charms is then sieved to remove more waste then off we go to antiquing. This effect is produced by using large porous bags to dip and drip to create an even coating. They get dipped a couple of times, then washed in small batches.

polishing tumblers

Shiny, happy beads

The final manufacturing process is several hours in smaller polishing tumblers. The workers sort the finished items, remove any small fragments of waste that remain and weigh and bag up the items. These workers described themselves as the happiest in the plant because they were sitting down all day
 

sorting and bagging - a coveted job!

The small downside of short run rubber moulds is that the holes often require a little extra definition. In this case a worker needs to place strips like thin rubber bands into the moulds. The top and bottom of the moulds are fixed together and placed in the centrifuge. Molten zinc is poured into the mould and spun for a few seconds. The items have to be removed from the sprue by hand but from there the rest of the process remains the same.

Gemma shops till she drops!

Stocking up

We had a very good morning here as you can see by the Beads Unlimited buyer (Gemma) shopping in the storeroom. I could write the same length again about the lunch which never seems to end and is always enough to feed an army.

There will be more from Gemma in the next day or two with more factory scenes, no doubt, more food pics and a sneaky preview or two of beads to come!

The top picture shows Geoff with one of the bead workers families.