Winter Sparkle!

The new 'Winter Sparkle Special' issue of the UK magazine Bead has hit the shops!  I received a copy today and I have to say it ticks every box; it's wintry, it's sparkly and it's special!

It's packed with all sorts of  themed project ideas from quick party makes to more intricate sparkly wear.  My project Daisy Sliders is on pages 13 - 16 and is a straightforward brick stitch and herringbone project that quickly produces a very pretty and feminine design that can be worn in a number of ways.

I made a necklace and earring set in an icy blue and called it Winter Sky.

And a bracelet or wrist corsage in gold and I called this one Winter Sun.

If you have a go at my project, don't forget to send me a picture and I'll add it to the Readers' Gallery page on  my website.  I can't wait to see what colours you choose for your Daisy Sliders!

Catching up and a new pattern ...

Gulp!  No blog posts for 7 weeks!  Where have I been?  What have I been doing?  Well I can promise you that I haven't been idle, but things have been a bit hectic just recently, so I'm afraid the blog had to have a little rest.  I've been busy behind the scenes, working on new ideas, writing patterns, judging contests, getting involved in challenges and discussing some exciting new teaching plans.  Hopefully I will be able to blog a bit more regularly again now and keep you up to date with what's happening.  So let's start by telling you that I have just finished writing my second tutorial 'Poppy' and it is now available to purchase via my website.

I had a very similar pattern to this one published in Bead magazine at the beginning of 2009, but the back issue is no longer available and several people have recently asked me if I could write my own instructions for it.  I had a group of wonderful 'testers' help me to fine-tune this pattern and so we think we have most of the wrinkles ironed out.  It's amazing how people can interpret things in completely different ways and I learnt a lot about writing patterns from this experience - thank you guys!  The tutorial is now 14 pages long and although it is written in English, there are lots of diagrams and photos to make things easier, and there are also instructions for optional leaves included.  I made the poppy above in traditional red and black, but take a look at the 'Readers' Gallery' page on my website (under Poppy) as there are lots of pictures there that people have kindly sent me, showing poppies in all sorts of colours with some fantastic inspirational design ideas - poppies definitely don't have to be red!

Daisy Sliders

It's been a little while since I've had any new beadwork to show you, but here is my latest design which I have called 'Daisy Sliders' - shown in Winter Sky and Winter Sun.  I created these for the Winter Sparkle Special of Bead magazine, which is due out in October of this year.  I fell in love with this beautiful, softly sparkling organza ribbon in my local craft shop, and I knew that I wanted to find a way to use it in a finished beadwork piece. I chose Swarovski crystal pearls in soft shades of pale blue and gold to fit the theme, and teamed them with some marbled and matt seed beads to make these simple flower 'sliders' which can easily be threaded onto the ribbon.  The ribbon is then tied in a big bow which gives a really lovely feminine feel to the finished piece.  I think they would be perfect for a wrist corsage for a prom or an anklet for a beach wedding - let me know what you think ...

See you next time!

Special issue!

The new 'Special colour issue' of Bead magazine is now in the shops and even if I wasn't lucky enough to have work in there, I would still be rushing out to buy it!  This issue is packed with 115 pages of inspirational beady eye candy, a real variety of great projects and fascinating insights into how some designers go about choosing colours.  My project, 'Maid Marian's Quiver' is on page 30 and 'Royal Quiver' is also shown on page 33 to give an idea of how different this project can look, depending on what colours you choose.  I know some of you have been wanting to make your own version of this piece and I can't wait to see pictures of your creations - please do send me a photo and I will add it to the 'Readers' Gallery' page on my website!

My 'Colour Musings' are on pages 34 and 35, along with a selection of pictures to try and illustrate my ideas about colour and to show how I have used it in my work so far.  As you know, I am by no means an expert on colour and although I have a colour wheel and a couple of books on colour theory, I still don't really understand the technical side of it, so I've just kept it to some basic ideas which I hope you will find interesting and maybe try one or two of them in your own work.

I was also really pleased to see the tutorial for my Core Beaded Beads is given a mention in the 'Bead News' section on page 61.  So all in all, this really is a special issue for me!

See you next week!

A belated Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!  I'm not quite sure how it got to be the 21st of January already, but better late than never.  I hope you all had a very beady holiday season.  I know I did, and although I didn't get quite as much beading done as I had intended, I did a lot of thinking and have some exciting new plans for this year ... but I'll tell you more about that next week ;0)

In the meantime, let me tell you that the latest issue of the UK magazine Bead is now in the shops and I  have a small project 'Pretty Pearls in the Net' on page 106.  Unusually for me, this one can be made in under an hour and is a delicate pair of earrings that was inspired by a new blouse I bought.

And finally for this week, I was happy to learn that the lovely Myra of Raicreations Designs has passed on the Sunshine Blog Award to my blog.  Isn't that a wonderfully inspiring and uplifting picture?  Thank you Myra!  I don't usually pass on awards as I hate to leave anyone out, so instead, I would ask you to follow the links on my sidebar to discover a host of talented creative bloggers.

See you next week!

Colour conundrums!

I heard recently that the issue of Bead magazine that Maid Marian's Quiver is scheduled for, is going to be a 'colour special' and so I have been doing a lot of thinking about colour.  Of course I often think about colour when choosing beads for a new project, but this time I have really been questioning my approach to those choices and trying to gain some level of understanding about the use of colour.  I think I have said before, that I am not a natural when it comes to choosing colours.  I know what I like to look at and what appeals to me, but when it comes to actually choosing the right beads for a project, well, I struggle.  I think I am beginning to realise that the form of the beadwork could be more exciting to me than the colour.  When I have an idea for a new project, I first envisage the shape, the stitches that might work and the mechanics of creating that piece and that's when I can't wait to get started.  The next step usually involves rummaging around my bead drawers, pulling out a main colour that would probably work and then struggling to find something that I think goes with it.  This stage often takes far too long for my liking and can dull my enthusiasm, and for me, it doesn't seem to be getting any easier with practice.  All this thinking has given me a few ideas regarding the use of colour in beadwork though, so if you want to know what they are, make sure you get your copy of the April 2010 issue of Bead magazine!

On the subject of Bead magazine, issue 19 is now available and has my Mistletoe Earrings project on page 12, a picture of Maid Marian's Quiver on page 81 and a sneak preview of my Pearls In The Net project on page 119.

Staying with colour, I managed to create a couple of Etsy treasuries at the end of last week.  One was to showcase the work of some of my fellow Etsy Midlanders teammates, and the other was just for the fun of it.  I always like to have some kind of theme for my treasuries and so this time, colour was the obvious choice!

Right, that's it for this week and now it's back to the beads and racking my brain about what goes together and what doesn't.  Let me know your thoughts on using colour and whether you find choosing colours plain sailing or like me, feel that sometimes it can be the hardest part of beading ...

Royal Quiver!

Following the news that Maid Marian's Quiver won joint second place in the seed bead category of the British Bead Awards, I learnt that it will also be a project in a future issue of Bead magazine. I only had some hastily scribbled notes from the first time around and so I had to make another one, writing the instructions as I went. I thought I would try making it in different colours to see what effect this would have on the finished piece and my first thought was to try red roses.  Can you believe though, that in my huge stash of beads, I didn't have any red beads in just the right shade! I'm not really a natural when it comes to mixing colours and so I spent ages ferreting around for other suitable combinations of colours for the roses, leaves and quiver that would complement each other.  I eventually decided on purple roses! I think I ended up with a rather regal effect and hence Maid Marian's sister piece has been named Royal Quiver.

Crazy Daisies!

Not much exciting new beadwork to show you this week I'm afraid, just a little pair of earrings I've made as a present to myself to match a new top. They really are as bright and colourful as the picture shows and I call them my Crazy Daisies! The centre is a hot pink Miracle Bead and the petals use a sparkling shade of lilac lined cylinder beads.

I also wanted to tell you about the new issue of Bead magazine that is out this week. This is the third anniversary issue and there is an interesting 'Where are they now?' article which looks back at some of the artists that have been featured since the magazine started. It's fascinating to read what having their profile in this internationally available magazine meant to the various designers and how their work has evolved since that time. My profile originally appeared in issue 12 of the magazine and was quite a bold move for me. Here is what I said in my profile update - click on the picture to enlarge it (used with kind permission of Ashdown).

My mistletoe earrings are also shown in the 'coming next issue' section of the magazine and although I have shown them in this blog before, I've added a refresher picture below. That reminds me, there will be no new blog entry for the next 2 to 3 weeks, but if you click on the links under 'Blog Archive' there are 63 previous posts - feel free to make yourself at home and have a look back through my beading history. I hope to have some pretty new pictures to share with you before too long ♥

Spring in Spain!

I've just returned home after a lovely two week break staying with Simon's parents who live in Spain. We try to visit every year, usually around Christmas, but for one reason or another it was a bit later this year and so this was the first time I have ever seen Spain in spring. Of course I am always on the lookout for beady inspiration and when I visited last January, I was struck by just how much green and orange there was everywhere; clusters of orange dates hanging from green palms, the odd orange coloured pomegranate still clinging to a leafless tree, the glossy green leaves of the orange trees laden with fruit and some gorgeous coppery bougainvillea bracts. I came back from that trip, fired up and raring to go and made several pieces using beads in various shades of green and orange.

 

This time, there was a much greater variety of colour with splashes of vibrant yellow mimosa everywhere, hot pink mesembryanthemum flowers cascading down cliffs towards the cobalt sea, fields of delicate pale pink almond blossom, pomegranate trees covered in shiny bronze leaf buds, vast areas of sage green olives and artichokes and pure white sails against a clear blue sky. I took lots of photos and made lots of notes, so as soon as I get some free time, I intend to start experimenting!

In the meantime, issue 15 of Bead magazine came out while I was away and I have two projects in this issue; the last in the series of my flower pins Periwinkle Pin which uses increasing and decreasing brick stitch to give the petals their distinctive shape and a simple netted sun catcher which is also shown on the cover!

Thanks to everyone who left comments on my previous post. There is still time to enter my anniversary giveaway, just leave a comment on the 3rd March 2009 entry and I will draw one lucky winner's name out of the hat on April 4th.

An anniversary and a giveaway!

Monday March 3rd 2008 was the day I started a blog and you can see my first tentative step here. I wasn't sure if I would take to 'blogging' as I used to be a reclusive kind of girl, but one year and 45 posts later and it's still going strong and I've discovered I like it! I also find it fascinating to be able to scroll back through that years worth of entries and see my portfolio of work. The collage below shows the projects I have had published during that time.

In order to celebrate my blog anniversary, I am going to hold a little giveaway! The earrings below were made to compliment my 'Daisy Chain' necklace which was published in Bead magazine in September 2008. Leave a comment on this blog entry and in one months time I will put all names (excluding spam!) into a hat and the first name out will win the cute little pair of daisy earrings on gold-filled hooks as shown in this photo (photo courtesy of Ashdown Publishing). Don't forget to make sure I have a way of contacting you in case you are the lucky winner!

As an anniversary gift to myself, I am going to give myself permission to be more carefree about blogging. I have tried to post something every two weeks, but I don't want it to become a pressure and I don't want to bore my readers by having to come up with something just because it's blog time. So in future, if I have something to blog about, I will and if I don't, I won't!

I'm also happy that I have received gifts from others in the shape of seeing my work in two Etsy treasuries! The first treasury 'Rain Beautiful Rain' was curated by Sue of Beadweaver and includes my 'Frosted Flower' made-to-order necklace. The second Treasury West 'Is it spring yet?' was curated by Jama of These Precious Things and includes my 'Bougainvillea Bouquet' made-to-order necklace along with lots of other Etsy BeadWeaving beauties - thank you ladies :0)

See you whenever I have something to blog about - oh and don't forget the giveaway!

Botanical beading experiments ...

I've spent many happy hours beading since my post last week, but I have very little to show for it I'm afraid. When I first read the Etsy Beadweavers challenge theme 'Tropical Holiday', images of big bold hibiscus flowers sprang to mind. I sorted through all my beads and chose some gorgeous shades of orange, red and green and then spent several days working on the shaping of the petals, experimenting with increasing within the petals and also on the outside edges. The trouble with beadwork, or maybe it's the charm, is that it's sometimes very difficult to tell whether a design idea will work, without spending several hours (or even days!) trying something out, only to discover that a slight adjustment 20 rows ago would have been better! I'm also not very good at visualising the finished look of a flower after creating only one petal, so I tend to keep going and then decide if I like the finished result. To me, none of this is time wasted, it all provides valuable lessons about the different effects created by varying the choice of stitch, count and bead - as long as I remember to keep good notes that is! Anyway, the hibiscus just wasn't up to scratch but I still want to enter the challenge, so I have put all the part beaded orange petals into a bag with my notes and will return to it later. I am now working on new flowers that shout 'tropical' to me and I'm using hot pink seed beads - any idea what flowers I am working on? It's going well and so I should have photos of the finished piece to show you next week.

In the meantime, issue 14 of the UK magazine Bead is now in the shops and has the second in my series of flower brooches as one of the projects - Poppy Pin.

I was also very happy to learn that my Poppy Supernova choker was selected by the lovely Irith of RioRita as one of the items in her beautiful Etsy treasury 'Rainbow the Fourth' - thank you Irith!

Off to a flying start!

Happy New Year everyone!

I'm getting back into the flow of things after spending Christmas and New Year with my parents. We had a lovely time with lots of beautiful crisp frosty days. Long walks, good food, a drop or two of home brew and a glass of elderberry port which is only brought out on Christmas morning. I didn't manage to get much beading done over the Christmas break, although I did make Mum a bracelet and I got the hideous job of doing my accounts out of the way!

I've been busy beading since I've been back. I'm going to try and enter the Etsy Beadweavers challenge this time, the theme is Tropical Holiday which should provide a good antidote to the freezing temperatures here. I hope to have pictures to show you within the next week or two.

Things are busy on the publication front too. My Frosted Flower necklace is in the next issue of Beadwork magazine, my Poppy Pin will be in the new issue of Bead magazine and my Hibiscus Twist necklace is due to be in the next issue of Bead & Button magazine due out in March.

Other good news is that the lovely Caroline of Crafted Gems has included my Poppy Supernova choker in her gorgeous Etsy treasury 'Red Red and more Red'. Thank you Caroline!

Flower Power!

It's a cold, grey and snowy day here in Mansfield and so I thought I'd brighten things up by posting some cheerful beaded flower pictures. I have designed a series of three flower brooches, the first of which, Primrose Pin, is in the new issue of Bead magazine which is out now. Next in the series is Poppy Pin, followed by Periwinkle Pin.

The second photo of the full set is courtesy of Bead magazine - don't they look great nestled on the grass like that?

A little rant ...

I've been blogging for 8 months now and from the start I wanted this to be a happy place to visit and so I kept it bright and breezy with lots of pretty pictures of my two passions of beadwork and flowers. But like my picture in the previous post, this is just an image that doesn't tell the whole truth. This picture was used in my profile in the latest issue of Bead magazine in which I hinted at some of the darkness, and yes it is a picture of me beading in our garden. I heard from one or two people that they liked that image, that they wanted to be me, wearing that dress, beading in that garden. I don't dispute that I am a very lucky person but like most photographs, that picture is posed. Perhaps the way I have portrayed myself is the reason I receive quite a few emails almost demanding to know how to do something without even a please or thank you, or why a few people think it is OK to 'buy' something from me and then not send me the money, or to send me aggressive or abusive messages, or to copy my work without acknowledging me? To be fair, I also receive lots of wonderful messages too and I take the good with the bad and respond to every one in the same kind and friendly way that I would like to be treated.

I hadn't really meant to say all this, but it ties in nicely with the main subject of today's post. My lovely husband Simon was made redundant last month and has so far not found another job. On top of that, on Monday he was diagnosed with sarcoidosis which is an auto-immune disease in which the body attacks itself - in Simon's case it is in his lungs and already his lung capacity is down to 60% of what it should be. It was a scary thing to hear and we knew nothing about this condition, but I have since heard from lots of my beady friends who have or know someone with this problem and with the right treatment the outlook is good. We will get through this together. I am very thankful for the new friends I have found through my beadwork and for those who treat me as an equal human being and see the person behind the image. To the few who seem to either want to be me or have a piece of what they think I have, I would say "Welcome, but not everything in my garden is rosy!"

There, that's got that off my chest - normal beady service will be resumed next week!