I have been admiring peoples textured beads for some time and wanted to make some of my own. I tried rolling beads on some rough sandpaper but there wasn’t enough texture and I kept rolling the texture I made off and getting bits of sand on my beads – not good. I asked for help from some more experienced clayers – on PCC forum and I also emailed some people direct who had photos of textured beads on flickr. Many people were...

My husband has bought himself a new dremel because he needs it to do something in the loft, it’s a posh cordless one! When he was ordering all the bits he needed he also ordered a dremel workstation for me (he has been in charge of drilling holes in beads so far). So the quest to master dremel buffing will resume but should be easier cause I can use both hands. Any tips for using this set up gratefully recieved.

 I made myself a new necklace to go with some new clothes my mum kindly bought me. I have another one planned with a series of different beads but need to make some more green flower canes first. I was having trouble getting texture on my beads but with help from some friends on Poymer Clay Central and Flickr I am now happy with them. I used my nutmeg grater in the end to get the texture (need to get a new one now before I need nutmeg again but...

Finally got round to photographing these cake forks. They are a bit different from my normal style being made to match my sister in laws crockery (not the same one who got the paisley cake forks in case you were wondering). They are being delivered at the weekend, I hope she likes them!

Happy birthday mum! She has already opened these so I can now show you what I have been busy doing. I didn’t give her all these, mum got the four on the right, the larger sizes as I knew she already had many of the smaller ones. I am using the blue one in the middle and it is lovely to work with. So much nicer to hold than the plain aluminium handle. I’ve been busy but look forward to having a bit more time to blog again soon....

As well as making my mums birthday present (will show you soon – can’t show you now as she might read my blog) I am also making cake forks for my other sister in law. She has Dorset Fruits Crockery by Poole Pottery so I decided to make her some matching cake forks. She has a set for each of the family with their own fruits and they have plums (as shown), apples, grapes and pears. I am still experimenting with inlaying or having a...