Playful Perfection!

Hello everyone!

I've written a book! My poor old blog has been very neglected throughout 2016, but back in May I dropped a hint that I was busy working behind the scenes on a big top secret project which I can now reveal - the Playful Perfection project book in association with PRECIOSA Traditional Czech Beads™.

I spent the best part of a year planning and writing this book, and with enormous help from Preciosa Ornela, the result is a 150 page hardback book containing 30 projects divided into 4 sections: Necklaces, Bracelets, Other Jewellery and Decorations. Each project includes a paragraph about my thoughts and inspiration behind the design, useful information about the piece (such as size, technique and difficulty level), a list of required materials and tools and step-by-step instructions with detailed diagrams. The projects use a variety of widely available shaped beads and easy to source seed beads and findings.

Playful Perfection is actually a collection of some of my design work with Preciosa Ornela over the last 4 years, and so it pulls together 19 projects that have previously been published in various international publications and also includes 11 brand new and exclusive projects. Some of the older projects have been reworked (for example Pirouetting Pips which was originally published in the Australian publication Digital Beading Magazine as a delicate gold and silver bracelet is now a striking black and white choker style necklace) however, please be aware that only 11 of the projects are new to publication and so you may already have some of the others in your pattern collection. If you would like a sneak peek inside the book, there is a video showing all the projects here.

The book will be available from distributors of PRECIOSA Traditional Czech Beads and bead stores around the world, but there is a limited supply of signed copies of the book for sale directly from my website which will be available on a first come, first served basis. This is a substantial book weighing close to 1kg, so the postage costs are quite high. It will be dispatched using standard Royal Mail services and prices include a signed copy of the book, packing and postage broken down into within the UK, Europe and the rest of the world. I will work as fast as I can signing books, hand writing envelopes and walking to and from the Post Office, but I am a one woman show and despite being a gym bunny I can only carry so many 1kg books at a time, so please allow sufficient time for delivery. Please also note that the upcoming holiday season may cause postal delays and is beyond my control.

Other exciting news is that I've also teamed up with The Bead Shop (Nottingham) Ltd. who will be hosting a book signing event on Wednesday the 14th December from 5pm until 8.30pm. I'll be there signing books and chatting to people and the store is offering anyone who purchases a copy of the book at the event a £10 gift voucher to spend in the store. But it's not just me - this is part of a late night shopping event and so there will be local artists selling handmade items, mini workshops and even festive refreshments, so it promises to be a really fun evening.

Writing my first book has been an amazing and very rewarding experience but it has also been enormously hard work. I have put my heart and soul into producing the very best work that I can and I am happy with the end result because it is very 'me', so I do hope that it brings you many happy hours of beading enjoyment. This book has my name on the cover, but its creation was very much a team effort and so I would sincerely like to thank Preciosa Ornela as a whole for the opportunity and the continued support of my work, the Preciosa Ornela team members and graphic designer for a huge amount of technical help and patience and my husband Simon and my friends for all of their encouragement, reassurance and practical help - thank you!

Kerrie ♥

National Beading Week 2016!

Hello everyone!

Later this month the second ever National Beading Week gets under way here in the UK, running from the 30th of July to the 7th of August. Following on from last year's success, it promises to be an even bigger and better celebration of all things beady with lots of exciting events taking place around the country. Take a look around the website by following the link above and find out how you can get involved in National Beading Week!

I'm delighted to have teamed up with The Bead Shop (Nottingham) Ltd. again this year and I will be teaching my Daisy Chain Bracelet at the shop on Saturday the 6th of August. It will be a 3-hour class and although we won't be able to make a full bracelet during that time, we will cover all the important points and there will be detailed instructions provided to enable you to confidently complete your bracelet at home. I will also be bringing along some finished samples to give you ideas of other ways to use these realistic little flowers. You can see some of the bracelets I've made below, but there are virtually endless colour variations you could try. The Bead Shop stocks a wide range of the beads and pearls we will need, so we will have great fun choosing colour combinations before we get started - always one of my favourite parts of the class!

My class will run from 10am until 1pm and in the afternoon The Bead Shop will be hosting one of their regular informal bead groups from 2pm until 5pm, which I will also be attending. If you stay for the afternoon session you can carry on with your bracelet or bring another project with you to work on while chatting to other beaders. These sessions always have a lovely relaxed and friendly atmosphere, refreshments will be available (the shop asks for a £2 contribution for this) and the light and airy classroom is right above a store full of beads. So Saturday the 6th of August promises to be a very enjoyable day and while composing this blog post, I have just heard that there are only 4 places left on the workshop - so if you are thinking of booking, don't leave it too long!

See you next time!

Kerrie ♥

Kazuri Kritters and Creative Beading!

Hello everyone!

National Beading Week has arrived and so it's been a busy few days with more demonstrations of my designs lined up at The Bead Shop (Nottingham) Ltd tomorrow, but I had to drop in and share some other news with you. Firstly, I've just received my copy of the August 2015 issue of Bead and Button magazine which has a picture of my Kazuri Kritters in the 'Your Work' section on page 17. You may remember that I made these pins in November of last year as part of my work as a design team member for Many Hands Marketplace - Kazuri West and you can see the original post and the stories I wrote for each animal here. The pins were originally going to be published as a project in Bead and Button, but it was later discovered that they are not as simple as they perhaps look and so they are not really suitable for a project. However, as my original intention was to help promote the work of the Kazuri ladies I still needed to find some way to do that and so a wonderful collaboration took place - Preciosa's excellent photographer took some pictures of the pins for me (because really, my photography is not so great!) and the editor of Bead and Button magazine agreed to publish the picture and some links in the 'Your Work' section. I'm sorry that I cannot provide you with a tutorial for these pins, but I do hope that you love these charming handmade animal shaped buttons as much as I do and that perhaps you may give some of them a new home.

The other piece of news is that I have also received a copy of the new Kalmbach publication Creative Beading Volume 10: The best projects from a year of Bead and Button magazine. I have several of these lovely hardback annuals on my shelf now and I am delighted to have had four of my projects selected for this issue. Flowercup Cascade which is the Kumihimo project I wrote for Yorkbeads is on page 194 and my Preciosa projects Flamenco Pellets, Twinflower Lariat and Organic Twist can be found on pages 74, 120 and 213 respectively.

That's all the news for now so I'll get back to preparing for my demos. Don't forget, I'll be at The Bead Shop (Nottingham) Ltd tomorrow but I will also be at the Bead Art Fair in Hamburg doing demonstrations at the Preciosa stand from August 21st to 23rd - I hope you can join the "Flower Party"!

See you next time!

Kerrie ♥

National Beading Week!

Hello everyone!

There's an exciting new event taking place here in the UK this year - the first ever National Beading Week! The event is sponsored by The Beadworkers Guild and takes place from 25th July to 2nd August 2015 and is intended to be a huge celebration of all things beady and to help spread the word about the wonderful world of beads. Even though I have many beading friends around the world who all know what I am talking about if I slip names like Delicas, Pips and Fireline into the conversation, I still get lots of blank looks when 'other' people ask me what I do, so National Beading Week seems like an excellent way of introducing people to BEADS! There are all sorts of exciting things planned up and down the country, from workshops to contests and even some bead bombing! You can find out what's going on where if you click on the menu at the top of this page. I am delighted to be involved in National Beading Week and so I will be doing demonstrations of four of my projects using Preciosa traditional Czech beads (as shown below) at The Bead Shop (Nottingham) Ltd. I'll also be taking part in an informal Question and Answer session where you'll have the opportunity to bring along a beading project, have a cup of tea and a biscuit and chat to other beaders - I'm not saying I will know the answer to all your questions, but it promises to be a fun event!

So if you are in the area during National Beading Week, you will be able to find me doing demonstrations of the above projects at The Bead Shop (Nottingham) Ltd on Saturday 25th July from 10.00am until 11.00am and from 11.30am until 12.30pm and again on Tuesday 28th July from 10.00am until 11.00am and from 11.30am until 12.30pm. The Question and Answer session will be on Saturday 25th July from 2.00pm until 5.00pm. There's no need to book any of these, simply turn up and stay for as long as you want or drift in and out, but I will be demonstrating the projects, showing finished and part made samples and passing on some of my 'top tips'. I will also have some free leaflets of the projects with me which you can take away and the bead shop will have the beads and some kits available to purchase. There are already some of the samples on display in the shop (as seen below) so feel free to pop in any time to take a closer look at them.

Come and join in the fun at the bead shop - and don't forget to spread the word about National Beading Week!

See you next time!

Kerrie ♥

Garden Party!

Hello everyone!

I've been pretty quiet on the blogging front lately but, as usual, there has been a lot of unseen activity going on. Some time last year the editors of the German beading magazine Perlen Poesie asked if I would be interested in having a project and an artist profile article in their magazine and as I have followed and enjoyed this magazine since its inception in 2009, I was quick to say 'yes please!' I already had some experience of working with the people at PP as my 'English Rose' necklace project was published in issue 8, I taught my 'Popper Flowers' project at the first Bead Art Fair in Hamburg (organised by Perlen Poesie) in 2011 and I was also one of the judges for their 2013 IBA contest so I knew that working with Perlen Poesie was likely to be a smooth and enjoyable process and I wasn't disappointed. I'm very fond of maximising opportunities and so I decided to involve Preciosa Ornela in this project too and I chose to use pastel coloured Preciosa Traditional Czech Beads to create a lush flowery necklace which I thought would be suitable for the summer issue of an international Bead Art Magazine. You can see the result, 'Garden Party', in the picture below.

The instructions for the necklace are on page 92 of the magazine but as it's made up of individual flowers and leaves it would be very easy to adapt it to a bracelet or even a pendant or earrings if flowery collars aren't your thing. If you would like a copy of Perlen Poesie magazine you can order it direct from their website (in German or English), or if you are in the US you can purchase the English language version from here or ask if your local bead store carries it or can obtain it for you. If you are in the UK, then The Bead Shop (Nottingham) Ltd stocks the English language version. You can also find an 11 page profile article about me and my work which starts on page 10 of this issue and I have to say that I am VERY pleased with the way this turned out. Freddie and Andrea Ott flew to the UK to interview me as they wanted to see me in my 'natural habitat' and as you can see from the photo below, that is just what they got! The picture below shows me in my favourite beading spot, chatting to Andrea and working on my trusty beading tray that Mum painted for me and lined with a piece of her old velvet curtain. You may notice that the tray is now held together with yellow sticky tape but I will always treasure it and I'm quite happy that my 'warts and all' tray now appears in an exclusive magazine - how fortunate that the sticky tape matches the daffodils on the window sill!

The duo spent a couple of hours at our house with Andrea asking me lots of questions and recording my answers while Freddie took numerous pictures of both me and my work. Then we all headed off to one of my favourite places, the village of Edwinstowe to meet Robin Hood and Maid Marian before having a lovely fish and chip lunch and a leisurely stroll around Sherwood Forest. Next it was back home to decide which pieces of my work they would take to Germany with them for more detailed photography work - I have rather a lot of beadwork so Andrea found it hard to decide which pieces to take and Freddie's case left here bulging at the seams! It might seem a bit unusual for the editors of a magazine to go to these lengths but this is where that level of dedication and enthusiasm pays off because although they already knew about me, this time they got to know the real me, enabling them to write an accurate article. Once back in Germany, Freddie and Andrea took some staged shots of my work and of course I can't give too much away but I would like to show you this one - the way they have Podger, Flash and Crusty set up in a garden of tasty looking flowers with absolutely no input from me lets me know that I made an excellent choice in working with Perlen Poesie magazine again.

So after months of behind the scenes work the magazine is now out and you can buy it, you can read the article (as well as several others such as an interesting article on the history of simulated pearls) and you can make the 'Garden Party' necklace along with lots of other beautiful beadwork projects. For me, this is not the end of my work with Perlen Poesie as I will be at the 2015 Beaders Best Bead Art Fair in Hamburg and I will be giving more details about that in a future blog post. In the meantime, if you are in the area and you would like to see 'Garden Party' in the flesh, she is currently on display at The Bead Shop (Nottingham) Ltd so feel free to drop in and have a look and perhaps buy yourself some beads while you are there.

See you next time!

Kerrie ♥

Spine Flowers!

The date for my next beading workshop is coming round fast and so I have spent the last 2 weeks busily preparing for it; writing instructions, drawing diagrams, taking photos and beading samples.  The class will be held at The Bead Shop (Nottingham) Ltd on May the 26th and is called 'Kerrie Slade's Herringbone Flower', but you know me, I like to have a name for my pieces and so I have called this tutorial 'Spine Flower' because of the stripes in it.

This one is a fun little project that is quite quick to make and the finished flower has lots of potential.  The actual workshop is to make a single flower that can be worn as either a pendant or a brooch, but I am sure that you will find other ways to use your Spine Flower.  It can also look quite different depending on what colours you choose to make it in -  maybe pretty pinks and lilacs or perhaps something similar to my Gothic red and black version?

This project has been set at beginner/intermediate level and ideally you need to be familiar with herringbone stitch, but as usual, I have written comprehensive instructions with plenty of diagrams and photos and of course I will be on hand to help out with any difficulties (if you are thinking of booking this class but are not sure if it will be suitable for you, please contact either myself or the shop staff to check).  It is a 3 hour workshop and costs £40 per person with all materials and refreshments provided.

Hope to meet you on May the 26th!

English Rose

Several months ago, I was asked to create a necklace project for the beautiful new German beadwork magazine Perlen Poesie -  'English Rose' is the result of my experiments and the instructions can be seen on page 58 of the latest issue of the magazine.  Once again, this is a necklace that can be worn in several ways as the 'rose' is removable and so you can change the colour of the flower, wear it high at the neck or lower down, knot or plait the stems or let them hang freely and cluster gently beneath the rose.  This is quite a difficult piece to photograph as it is very long, but the following picture shows the soft drape of the stems and leaves as they are held in place by the flower.

The next picture shows the 'Silver Shadow' version of the necklace and also highlights the silver spines on the leaves.

The following picture shows the 'Burgundy Bloom' version of the necklace and the strong red provides a real contrast to the pale pink version - change them to suit your mood or your outfit!

Another view of the true 'English Rose' version of the necklace, showing the rose worn high at the neck with the stems gently braided.

And finally (now that I have learnt how to make them!) a collage of the 'English Rose Collection'.

I hope that you like the new necklace and that you will enjoy making your own - as always, feel free to send me a picture of your own version and I will gladly add it to the 'Readers' Gallery' page on my website.  The Bead Shop (Nottingham) Ltd stock this magazine or you can subscribe directly via this page of the magazine's website.

Teaching Timetable ...

There's not much to report at the moment as I have been busy writing instructions, drawing diagrams and taking photos for my new workshops.  I have managed to sneak in the odd hour or two for putting a new idea into beads for my next tutorial (after all there has got to be some light relief from all that computer work) but it will probably be some weeks before the new design is finished or added to my website - it's going to be a little bit different from my usual style with lots of citrus colours and an asymmetric twist, so watch this space!  In the meantime, I suddenly realised that I haven't actually posted details of my new classes, and as there are still some places left I thought I should tell you about them as the first class is next week!

I will be teaching four 3 hour workshops at The Bead Shop (Nottingham) Ltd.  The first one on February the 3rd is 'Spring Daisies' and I will also be teaching this again on May the 14th.  The other workshop is 'Herringbone Flower' and I will be teaching this on March the 12th and May the 26th.  The city centre venue is lovely and spacious and bright, with a beautiful bead shop stuffed full of sparkly goodies on the ground floor, all materials are included, workshop students receive a 10% discount voucher to be used in the shop after class, there are lots of tasty fairtrade refreshments on offer and the atmosphere is fun and friendly - what more could you wish for?  Full details and booking information can be found here.

A new tutorial!

I finally managed to lay my hands on some of the new Miyuki Tila beads last week.  I think they have probably been out for a little while now, as I have seen several lovely Tila bead creations on my travels through Blogland, but this is the first time I have had chance to experiment with them.  If you haven't seen them, they are square (5mm x 5mm) but also quite flat as they are only 1.9mm thick, but the big difference is that they have TWO parallel holes running through them!

I must admit that I found them quite a challenge at first, as it was more difficult than I thought to use them with my usual stitches, but after a few false starts I came up with this design which I have called Twinkling Tilas as they remind me of stars.

I have been good and already written the pattern up and it is now available to purchase via my website.  The instructions cover the single row bracelet and also how to make the wider cuff style bracelet.  These little stars are quite versatile and you could turn a single one into a pendant, make two for a pretty pair of earrings or use them to embellish other beadwork!

I bought my Tila beads from The Bead Shop (Nottingham) Ltd and they have a great range of gorgeous colours so you could create lots of different effects - I'm sure the iridescent crystal colour would make a fabulously sparkly bracelet, or even a choker ... perfect for the upcoming party season!

The pattern for Twinkling Tilas is available here .

See you next week!