http://www.didihandmadejewellery.co.uk I'm a Feoffee!||||24||||2012/5/12 Bungay is an old market town, steeped in history. Though there is evidence of an ancient Roman settlement here, (we have a Roman well, for example), and we have both Saxon and Norman churches, the town is more associated with its mediaeval and Georgian history. The Great Fire in 1688 saw off many... http://www.didihandmadejewellery.co.uk/blog.asp?date=12/05/2012&EventID=24 http://www.didihandmadejewellery.co.uk/blog.asp?date=12/05/2012&EventID=24 A beader's life||||23||||2012/2/26 I've spent the last four evenings attempting to bead around a wooden egg. As I've successfully beaded around small round glass beads before, and made a couple of beaded bezals for oval semiprecious stone cabochons, I thought – this can't be that difficult.Oh, but it is! An egg is not round and it ... http://www.didihandmadejewellery.co.uk/blog.asp?date=26/02/2012&EventID=23 http://www.didihandmadejewellery.co.uk/blog.asp?date=26/02/2012&EventID=23 Spoil Yourself Sunday||||22||||2011/10/23 Bungay's Fisher Theatre was the venue for WIRE's (Women in Rural Enterprise) fundraiser for Breast Cancer Care, well supported by members and lots of ladies bent on having a good time whilst supporting a worthy cause.The raffle bra (pick a square – most went for the outside before venturing into nip... http://www.didihandmadejewellery.co.uk/blog.asp?date=23/10/2011&EventID=22 http://www.didihandmadejewellery.co.uk/blog.asp?date=23/10/2011&EventID=22 Colours for Autumn and Winter 2011||||21||||2011/9/1 If you love colour then you probably already know about the 1,750+ colours in the Pantone colour printing palette. Each year Pantone release a new colour of the year - this year it is Honeysuckle, a beautiful shade of pink. Pantone have released a range of colours for autumn and winter 2011 which wi... http://www.didihandmadejewellery.co.uk/blog.asp?date=01/09/2011&EventID=21 http://www.didihandmadejewellery.co.uk/blog.asp?date=01/09/2011&EventID=21 DiDi Jewellery and The Castle Ruins||||20||||2011/7/4 If you are a Harry Potter fan you'll be wishing you were in Bungay this July! This year's summer festival has a Harry Potter theme (all of the books were printed here in Bungay, amid the kind of secrecy and intrigue found in the books themselves) and part of it is our own version of the famous shop... http://www.didihandmadejewellery.co.uk/blog.asp?date=04/07/2011&EventID=20 http://www.didihandmadejewellery.co.uk/blog.asp?date=04/07/2011&EventID=20 Beside the Seaside||||19||||2011/6/2 Taking advantage of a fine sunny day, we scooped up our little granddaughters and took them off to the seaside!First to Southwold where we eschewed the more popular end of town for the harbour. I love this part of the town - you can drive down there, or park in town and have a good walk across the c... http://www.didihandmadejewellery.co.uk/blog.asp?date=02/06/2011&EventID=19 http://www.didihandmadejewellery.co.uk/blog.asp?date=02/06/2011&EventID=19 New Shop on Folksy.com - Bonny Lass||||18||||2011/4/29 As a mad beading person I like working with beads other than semi-precious to hone my skills and try out new techniques. Long gone are the days when I could just relax in front of the tv of an evening. Now I have to be making something!The latest has been these cute little Union Jack brooches: All... http://www.didihandmadejewellery.co.uk/blog.asp?date=29/04/2011&EventID=18 http://www.didihandmadejewellery.co.uk/blog.asp?date=29/04/2011&EventID=18 Beaded Beach Huts and other brooches...||||17||||2011/4/4 With this summer's craft fairs in Southwold in mind, and with increasing confidence in my bead-stitching abilities, I thought I'd have a go at beading some beach huts to make into brooches. Experienced bead-stitchers can do amazing things with beads replicating old masters and even photographs in wo... http://www.didihandmadejewellery.co.uk/blog.asp?date=04/04/2011&EventID=17 http://www.didihandmadejewellery.co.uk/blog.asp?date=04/04/2011&EventID=17 Sew contented||||15||||2011/2/9 Having been given Mastering Beadwork by Carol Huber Cypher for Christmas I spent the peaceful time between Christmas and New Year happily trying out new bead stitches.I've always liked sewing (I have O level Needlework!) and combining that with my absolutely slavery to beads means that I was in heav... http://www.didihandmadejewellery.co.uk/blog.asp?date=09/02/2011&EventID=15 http://www.didihandmadejewellery.co.uk/blog.asp?date=09/02/2011&EventID=15 Call me a Romantic!||||14||||2010/11/28 Since adding the restringing service to the website I have been busy repairing customers" own necklaces and bracelets and I love doing it as restoring someone's much loved jewellery, which often has a sentimental value given by someone they love, is very satisfying.And now the craft fairs have start... http://www.didihandmadejewellery.co.uk/blog.asp?date=28/11/2010&EventID=14 http://www.didihandmadejewellery.co.uk/blog.asp?date=28/11/2010&EventID=14 DiDi Basics||||13||||2010/9/21 The new Basics range has proved very popular at the Craft Fairs I've taken them to. They really do answer a need for those times when the outfit itself doesn't want the jewellery to compete but to complement. And as semi-precious stones come in such a huge variety of colours I really can make some... http://www.didihandmadejewellery.co.uk/blog.asp?date=21/09/2010&EventID=13 http://www.didihandmadejewellery.co.uk/blog.asp?date=21/09/2010&EventID=13 Aldeburgh and Southwold||||12||||2010/9/7 I couldn't have asked for a better location for this summer's craft shows than Aldeburgh and Southwold. Both are beautiful towns on the lovely Suffolk coast and even though we stall holders are inside for most of the day we meet some great people and there is always an opportunity to nip out and see... http://www.didihandmadejewellery.co.uk/blog.asp?date=07/09/2010&EventID=12 http://www.didihandmadejewellery.co.uk/blog.asp?date=07/09/2010&EventID=12 Where the Bee Sucks||||11||||2010/8/3 We are blessed here in Bungay to have such an abundance of nature all around us. I counted five species of butterfly on the buddleia outside my backdoor in one just one day and a recent walk on Outney Common yielded a sighting of cinnabar moth caterpillars chomping on ragwort:I was also pleased to ... http://www.didihandmadejewellery.co.uk/blog.asp?date=03/08/2010&EventID=11 http://www.didihandmadejewellery.co.uk/blog.asp?date=03/08/2010&EventID=11 That's Very Molly!||||10||||2010/6/6 After a week of lovely warm sunshine the late May bank holiday was, of course, cold, wet and windy. Nevertheless the hardy holiday makers at Southwold came along to the craft fair where I was displaying not only my semi-precious jewellery but also some glass and lampwork pieces. The atmosphere amo... http://www.didihandmadejewellery.co.uk/blog.asp?date=06/06/2010&EventID=10 http://www.didihandmadejewellery.co.uk/blog.asp?date=06/06/2010&EventID=10 4 Market Place||||9||||2010/5/18 There is a shop right in the middle of Bungay, opposite the ancient Butter Cross (with a larger than life size statue of Justice on top and the old goal cell, now blocked up, underneath) that used to sell all the gear gentlemen needed for huntin' and fishing. It was a wonderful shop, selling fishin... http://www.didihandmadejewellery.co.uk/blog.asp?date=18/05/2010&EventID=9 http://www.didihandmadejewellery.co.uk/blog.asp?date=18/05/2010&EventID=9 Earsham Hall May Fair||||8||||2010/5/18 After a week of beautiful spring weather the wind turned but we managed to get the tent up between the showers the day before and it stayed up (just!) for the May Fair at Earsham Hall on the first Bank Holiday of the month.We are frequent visitors to Earsham Hall - they are famous hereabouts for the... http://www.didihandmadejewellery.co.uk/blog.asp?date=18/05/2010&EventID=8 http://www.didihandmadejewellery.co.uk/blog.asp?date=18/05/2010&EventID=8 The Best Wood in the World||||7||||2010/3/6 March brought the sunshine with it, the perfect conditions for a visit to the snowdrop wood.We missed the snowdrop open days at Raveningham but here we could see them growing wild for free! This wooded area, between the river and the main road, hosts thousands of snowdrops, last visited with my brot... http://www.didihandmadejewellery.co.uk/blog.asp?date=06/03/2010&EventID=7 http://www.didihandmadejewellery.co.uk/blog.asp?date=06/03/2010&EventID=7 River Waveney in Winter||||6||||2010/1/6 With my family all staying with us for a few months after the Big Move from Spain, the summer vanished in the twinkling of any eye. Nice to have a house full but also nice to have the house to ourselves again, allowing me to do what I really love doing - working with fabulous semi-precious... http://www.didihandmadejewellery.co.uk/blog.asp?date=06/01/2010&EventID=6 http://www.didihandmadejewellery.co.uk/blog.asp?date=06/01/2010&EventID=6 Good Vibrations||||5||||2009/8/15 July is the month of the annual Bungay Festival when all of Bungay’s clubs, societies and other organisations stage special events to celebrate Bungay’s culture. My contribution is to produce the full-colour brochure listing all of the events, which our local employer, Clays the bookprinters, print... http://www.didihandmadejewellery.co.uk/blog.asp?date=15/08/2009&EventID=5 http://www.didihandmadejewellery.co.uk/blog.asp?date=15/08/2009&EventID=5 Outney Common||||4||||2009/6/24 To the North of our town lies Outney Common – 400 acres of beautiful heath and fenland, records for which date back to the 15th century when it was manorial land. Cattle (and at one time donkeys) have always grazed on the common and, in the late 19th and early 20th century there was horse racin... http://www.didihandmadejewellery.co.uk/blog.asp?date=24/06/2009&EventID=4 http://www.didihandmadejewellery.co.uk/blog.asp?date=24/06/2009&EventID=4 Mary's Fashion Show||||3||||2009/5/15 The local flower club wanted to raise funds for the flowers that two of its members will be using for their entry at the Chelsea Flower Show next week, so they invited Mary, who runs the Four Seasons boutique, to put on a Fashion Show. Mary invited me along to give a little talk about... http://www.didihandmadejewellery.co.uk/blog.asp?date=15/05/2009&EventID=3 http://www.didihandmadejewellery.co.uk/blog.asp?date=15/05/2009&EventID=3 April 2009, All the Fun of the Fair||||2||||2009/4/27 The day of the Norwich Bead and Textile Fair arrived after much anticipation, and my sister in law, Chris, and I set off with glee. It was a beautiful spring day - sunny blue skies picking out the masses of pale yellow primulas which lined the banks on the drive out there. We took the pretty ... http://www.didihandmadejewellery.co.uk/blog.asp?date=27/04/2009&EventID=2 http://www.didihandmadejewellery.co.uk/blog.asp?date=27/04/2009&EventID=2 March 2009, Walberswick||||1||||2009/4/4 We wanted to do something low key but special for my birthday, so we took ourselves off to Walberswick, the pretty village lying on the other side of the Blyth river estuary from Southwold. It was a warm spring day, but overcast and a weekday, so we knew there wouldn't ... http://www.didihandmadejewellery.co.uk/blog.asp?date=04/04/2009&EventID=1 http://www.didihandmadejewellery.co.uk/blog.asp?date=04/04/2009&EventID=1