The celebrations continue, with the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Dickens. Living in Rochester, it was impossible to avoid the activities so we headed down to Rochester castle for the festival parade of Dickens characters and marching bands.

There were hundreds of people dressed up, some more authentically than others! I'll let you decide which are which. Each set of characters were from a different Dickens novel. Lets start with some down and outs!

Dickens Characters in front of Rochester Castle with authentic fairground in the background!

The parade over, the characters paraded in front of the Mayor and the great great grandson of Charles Dickens himself, Gerald Dickens (3rd from left)

I don't think it matters where in the world you are, you can't have missed Her Majesty The Queen's Jubilee celebrations! Avoided heading into London for the pageant mainly due to the weather but did go to the local beacon lighting last night. 4000 beacons were lit all over the commonwealth; this was the one outside Buckingham Palace...

This was the one from The Great Lines, Chatham, Kent!

Ok, ours was a bit more rustic, but hey! We got some fireworks though and saw 3 other beacons from the top of The Great Lines.

The celebrations are still going on today but some of us have work to do! More orders to go out and then I'm heading up to Rugby ready to teach tomorrow...

Firstly apologies if you have been trying to view the galleries and just got a big exclamation mark! The technical hitch has now been fixed!

Secondly I just wanted to let you know there are more items in the shop waiting to embellish your work! Now available: sew on coins in gold and silver, jars of seed beads and tubs of sequins both in various colours.

Browse these items here!

Ok it's a little late but this special Jubilee edition is still in time for the jubilee!!!

As well as an insight into the Queen's Coronation robe there is a link to lots of Jubilee events to get involved in. For those of you not in the United Kingdoms, enjoy the article on American artist Georgia O'Keeffe in this issues A-Z of art and some creations of Jean Paul Gaultier to inspire you! Click on the image above to read the May/June issue of Aurata Embroidery.

There are new items making their way into the shop this week including 'tub o' sparkles!' and 'jar of jewels'! Visit the shop to see what they are!

I've been in San Fransisco for two weeks (see some of the highlights below) but now I'm back and have a pile of work to do which means lots more for you! The new newsletter will be out this week, and there are more items waiting to go in the shop. There are yet more new pictures of your work on display (keep them coming!) and I hope to add more videos this month of some of the goldwork techniques. If you are enticed by the gold metals in the shop but not sure what to do with them, then keep an eye out for these!

Sun rise over the bay, a view of the Golden Gate bridge, the Jean-Paul Gaultier exhibition