Ripple Crown Pins!

Hello everyone!

I notice it's been nearly two months since my last blog post and I am wondering where that time went. I guess it went in a frantic whirl of meeting various deadlines for magazine and book projects (all to be published later this year or early next), followed by visiting family for a couple of weeks and then coming home to find my trusty 8 year old PC had virtually died. My computer is sort of limping along at the moment but this is the last blog post I will ever write using it. I am very attached to this desktop as I bought it in 2007, just before I turned my beading hobby into a business, so every pattern I have ever created, every diagram I have ever drawn and every blog post I have written have all been done on this computer. After doing a lot of research, I have decided to jump ship this time and I have invested in a shiny new iMac which is sitting waiting patiently in its box, ready to take over from Old Faithful.

So because of technological interruptions I am a bit late in letting you know that the latest issue of Digital Beading Magazine is out now, packed with 178 pages of projects and inspiration. Although I don't have a project in this one, there are a couple of adverts in there that use my work - the newest one being the Ripple Crown Pins that I showed you in my last blog post. I can also tell you that the instructions for these little pins will be available from the Preciosa Ornela website in the coming months.

I am actually very sad to announce that issue 15 is the last ever issue of Digital Beading Magazine as Kelly (the editor) is moving on to an exciting new chapter in her life. I have been on the design team of DBM since the first issue back in December 2012 with 14 projects and an artist's profile published during that time. I have thoroughly enjoyed working with Kelly and I would like to publicly thank her for all the support and opportunities she gave me (one of my favourite is pictured below) and I wish her and her family all the very best for the future. I hope you have enjoyed reading DBM as much as I enjoyed designing for it and don't forget that you can still purchase the current issue and back issues via this page of the website.

That's all for this time but I do have some exciting news bubbling under the surface, so I will be back with details of that within the next few weeks.

See you next time!

Kerrie ♥

Pipflinks!

Hello everyone!

Hmmmmmm, where have I been since the last blog post? Well, first I had flu and then I had a BIG project to design and make which kept me very quietly beading and writing for at least 4 solid weeks - I can't tell you any more about that just at the moment, but all will be revealed in about 3 months from now. In the meantime I have some other beading  news for you, in that not only has Preciosa Ornela published another new pattern from me on their website, I have also invented a new word. A pair of easy to make cufflinks using the Preciosa Pip™ beads - I give you Pipflinks!

You might remember that I made a pair of cufflinks as part of The Wedding Collection, but I went on to use those flowers in my Pipflower bracelet published by Bead & Button magazine, so I decided to turn the other double layered flower design into a pair of elegant cufflinks instead. I'm a big fan of cufflinks both for men and women and I've made lots of floral cufflinks in the past. Although they can look very smart on a man with the right sort of attire, I also think they make a lovely finishing touch to a woman's outfit. Imagine wearing quite an austere androgynous suit to the office five days a week ... as you reach across the boardroom table at the meeting, your jacket sleeve rises to reveal a flash of electric blue Pipflink! Of course if cufflinks are really not your thing, there's nothing stopping you turning these flowers into earrings, rings or whatever takes your fancy and you can download the FREE pattern here.

I hope you enjoy my latest pattern and as always, feel free to send me pictures of anything you make from this pattern or post them on my Facebook page or Preciosa's Facebook page - we'd love to see them. Another of my new Pip™ bead patterns will be published via Preciosa soon, but I'm afraid I can't guarantee you that a new word will be included as well next time!

See you next time!

Kerrie ♥

Rose Window Rivolis!

Hello everyone and Happy New Year to you!

I always like to look both backwards and forwards at this time of year and I'm actually giving myself a little pat on the back right now. It turns out that I had 17 projects published last year via the Preciosa Ornela website (based in the Czech Republic), Bead & Button magazine (based in the US) and Digital Beading Magazine (based in Australia). That is a whole lot of designing, beading, pattern writing, diagram drawing and proof reading and much of it evolved as the year went on - I think if I had known that kind of workload was ahead of me this time last year, I might have run away to hide in the woods. Taking stock of the past year is a good lesson to me and reminds me of what I can achieve step by step, or should I say 'bead by bead'. Anyway, turning my attention forward instead of back, it looks as though 2015 might be a quieter year for me publication wise, but I do have one or two things in the pipeline which I will of course share with you as soon as possible. In the meantime, there are now around 60 of my designs available in various places, so if you are looking for some inspiration, feel free to scroll through my blog and take a wander through my website or look here, here and here.

You might recognise the first pattern to be published in 2015 as it has been published before, but Rose Window Rivolis has been reworked in a different colour and is now available as a FREE download from the Preciosa website.

All you need to create yourself a pair of super sparkly earrings or an eye catching pendant are some 16 mm Rivolis and a sprinkling of Charlottes. I have made a pair of these earrings in both gold and silver now and they really do catch the light as they twirl, with the Rivolis glinting through the lacy overlay of the cut beads. Although these earrings are around 7 cm long, they are very light to wear as I've used the minimal amount of beads by capturing the Rivolis with netting stitch. Of course if dangly earrings are not your thing, adding just one component to an earring finding still gives a touch of shimmer in a much more toned down way.

I'm happy to say that the earrings have also been used in another Preciosa advert, this time in the February issue of Bead and Button magazine. The Preciosa photographer has truly captured the detail in this shot and you can really see the gorgeous warm sheen of the Crystal Honey Rivolis - thank you!

So that's it for this time. I hope 2015 is a sparkly year of endless creativity for you and that it holds many happy hours of beading.

See you next time!

Kerrie  ♥

The Charlotte Collection!

Hello everyone!

I'm back sooner than expected as Preciosa have now sent out the April newsletter which is all about Charlotte beads including a fascinating insight into how they are made and their history. This means that I am able to show you the items I created for Preciosa which previously had to be kept under wraps. Preciosa asked a number of designers (including my friends Karolína and Romana from the Czech Republic) to create pieces using these wonderful glittering beads and if you take a look at the whole album you can see what a diverse range of things we all created - everything from stunning tasselled earrings to delightful shoes decorated with peacocks!

Although I had a few Charlottes in my collection I had only ever used them for accent beads. However, for this project I wanted to make items made solely from these tiny beads to try and show how the cut edge reflects the light and elevates beadwork to new shimmering heights. The first piece I made is ornamental - three little golden flowers with a shiny black pearl centre. It is hard to capture in a photograph just how much these little flowers actually gleam!

The three flowers were very fiddly to make, so for the next item I made three easy 'Dangle Bangles' in a striking red and black combination with a simple piece of ribbon to keep them all together.

Next I thought I would go back to flowers and so I created a pair of little flowery earrings with elongated petals and fire polished stamens. These are so light that you hardly know you are wearing them and yet they make their presence known by glittering beautifully as you move.

Although I had spent many hours beading by that point, I felt that due to the size of the beads, the collection looked a bit insignificant and so I mixed some apricot Rivolis with a lacy stitch to create a more substantial bracelet.

By then I had two bracelets, a pair of earrings and an ornament so I thought perhaps I needed to make a ring. I used another Rivoli and created a large floral ring with long silver petals and you can really notice the cut surface of the beads in this piece.

I had probably spent the best part of a month working with Charlotte beads and yet I only had five small items to show for it which was making me feel anxious. I had spent the previous year working with large Pellet and Thorn beads, brightly coloured neon beads and size 6 striped beads in primary colours - all of which work up into noticeable pieces in a relatively short space of time and now I was faced with gorgeous but tiny size 13 beads and I was running out of time. I sifted through the bag of Charlottes wondering what I could do to pad out my collection and my eye was drawn to a lovely but unusual shade of blue and I set about creating a large flower brooch with a couple of green leaves. It might look simple but I lost count of the hours that went into this piece and I can tell you that because of the ruffled nature of the flower, there are literally thousands of beads in it! I was happy with the outcome though as I felt that it added the necessary extra dimension to the collection.

And by then I was almost out of time but I just managed to make the Rose Window Rivoli earrings I showed you last week. Although I love the density of my blue flower brooch it was refreshing to be able to make a few Charlottes go a long way in these earrings by using an open stitch to capture some Rivolis.

So there you have it! The above represents about six weeks work and it all fits into a very small box - but when you open the lid of that box you are dazzled by the brilliance of those very special Charlotte beads. If you haven't already, I would urge you to try them as they really will give that touch of luxury to your work.

See you next time!

Kerrie ♥

(All photos courtesy of Preciosa Ornela) 

Doing the Organic Twist!

Hello everyone!

Do you remember way back in July 2013 when I blogged about my experiments with Preciosa Ornela's striped beads? The patterns for four of those pieces have already been published (Sliding Stripes, Pinstripe Petals, Floribunda Bangle and Rustic Hearts) and you can now find the instructions for Stripitwisticus Major and Minor in the April 2014 issue of Bead & Button magazine. Of course the sensible people at Bead & Button changed my slightly eccentric project name to 'Organic Twist' but it's still the same garland of leaves and flowers that is just waiting to be wrapped around your wrist or neck.

I used the same green and yellow striped seed beads for the vines and leaves in both of my sets but for one set I made matte cobalt flowers and for the other I used vibrant red and white striped beads. The editor at Bead & Button chose a mix of matte and shiny grey seed beads to make her test piece which gives it a completely different, more elegant look. I loved working with these beads and plan to use them more often (when time permits) and I think that the irregularity in the shape and size of some of these particular beads really lends itself to natural organic looking designs. When you pop the end flower on the bracelet through the viney loop at the other end, it really does look and feel like it has just grown there.

I hope you enjoy doing the Organic Twist and as always, feel free to send me pictures of your variations and colourways. There are three more of my Preciosa patterns due to be released in the next couple of months using Twin™ beads, Pellet beads™ and Charlottes so be sure to complete the Follow by Email box at the top right of my blog if you don't want to miss anything.

That is all for this time - apart from to let you know that I am no longer a Prima Bead Blog Team member. It's been a fun eight month ride resulting in lots of pieces that I might never have otherwise made, but I decided that this was the right time for me to leave the team and concentrate on other areas.

See you again soon!

Kerrie ♥

Meeting Marcia!

Hello Everyone!

I've been aware of Marcia DeCoster's amazingly intricate beadwork ever since I first started beading and I remember marvelling over her creations in my copy of Masters: Beadweaving back in 2008 before I had ever had anything published.  When I first started out, I never dreamt that I would be creating my own designs or that I would ever meet some of my beading heroes and heroines, but when I joined Facebook in 2009 (to follow an old school friend on her travels around the world) I discovered a huge online community of beaders and made a connection with several of my favourites - Marcia being one of them. We've kept in touch over the years and Marcia has always been very supportive of my work, so when I found out that she was coming to England and she asked if I would be able to meet in person ... what do you think I said?

Marcia has been teaching some workshops in The Midlands and so Simon and I drove to meet Marcia and her husband Mark at the house of their hosts, Stephney and Tim. As you can probably imagine, the boys have heard enough about beads to last them a lifetime and so they stayed in the kitchen chatting about football, prize marrows and beer, while us girls took ourselves off to the sitting room to fondle beads. Marcia had previously asked me to take LOTS of beadwork with me to show her and so I took her at her word and took two shoeboxes filled with everything from Popper Flowers to Yorkie. Marcia loves the internet just as much as I do and so as well as stroking beads she was busily taking pictures and providing her Facebook friends with a live account of proceedings via her iPad!

I made Marcia a couple of little owls as a gift and as you can see from the picture below, they were slightly alarmed by the bead orgy that surrounded them and so they remained perched on high.

Of course Mr. and Mrs Prickles are old hands at this kind of thing and so they wandered over to inspect Marcia's beautiful work without a moments hesitation. Just look at them trampling all over Marcia's gorgeous bracelet.

After a delicious lunch of homemade pizza and coleslaw, the boys headed off to a brewery museum and we went to visit a local group of ladies who were busily beading and quilting and producing all sorts of lovely work. I hadn't taken any work in progress with me, so instead I sat next to Marcia who patiently showed me how to do Cubic Right Angle Weave as she worked on samples of her newest designs. Things took a slightly unexpected turn as we got up to leave though, as Marcia dropped some of her tiny beads and we all got on our hands and knees trying to find them. Picking gold beads off a blue carpet is quite a fun game, but finding the turquoise beads was a different matter!

Next it was back to the house for another cup of tea and a bit more chat as we waited for the boys to stagger back from the brewery. As you can see, we were all having a lovely time and I am so glad that I also got to see some of Stephney's amazing beadwork too - you can't see it very well as it is behind the door, but I was particularly taken by a loomwork family tree complete with intricate beaded script.

And finally the day was drawing to a close and it was time to begin untangling the mound of beadwork on the table and to pack everything away. During the day I'd had the opportunity to handle some of the actual pieces from Marcia's new book Beads In Motion and at the end of the day, Marcia kindly signed my copy of the book which I will treasure as the perfect keepsake from a very memorable day.

See you next time!

Kerrie ♥

Prima Bead product of the month - July!

Hello everyone!

Do you remember me telling you about the new Prima Bead Blog Team and how our first products to review were items from the new Stainless Steel Elegance range? Well with just two days to spare I have completed my first task using 7 of the 8 stainless steel products that were sent to me.  If you follow my blog you will know that my real passion involves weaving hundreds of teeny tiny seed beads into various weird and wonderful shapes, but as there wasn't a single solitary seed bead in the welcome pack I received from Prima Bead I had to change tack and blow the dust off my pliers. First of all I made a fun pair of earrings which I have called 'Inspirational Dangles'.

The ingredients for these joyful little earrings that swing and dance as you walk are:

• Stainless Steel circle link chain.
• Stainless Steel rhinestone lever back earrings.
• Stainless Steel 4 mm jump rings.
• Metal accent beads.

As I still had quite a lot of the circle link chain left, I decided to make another pair of swinging earrings but this time I snuck in a little bit of beadweaving too, using my free Gumdrops In My Garden pattern from Bead & Button magazine.

The ingredients for these cute summery earrings are:

• Stainless Steel circle link chain.
• Stainless Steel rhinestone earring posts.
• Stainless Steel 4 mm jump rings.
• FREE Gumdrops In My Garden pattern.
• Gumdrop beads.
• Cylinder beads.

And finally I used up the last of the chain, the third style of earring findings, the stainless steel round beads and a couple of lovely metal accent beads from the welcome pack to create a pin, ring and earring set which I've called City Nights.

The ingredients for this stylish urban set are:

• Stainless Steel circle link chain.
• Stainless Steel bail hook earwires.
• Stainless Steel 4 mm jump rings.
• Stainless Steel 4 mm round beads.
• Stainless Steel 3 mm round beads.
• Metal accents from the Jewelry Class in a Box.
• Ultrasuede.
• A few cylinder beads.

So the only thing I didn't manage to use this time around were the spring ring clasps but let's wait and see what the August product of the month is - maybe I will manage to incorporate them into something next month.

I had a lot of fun working out what to make with these beautiful Stainless Steel Elegance items and I hope that my little makes will inspire you to experiment too. The high quality findings were all a pleasure to work with and although sterling silver would normally have been my metal of choice, I would definitely work with stainless steel again as despite taking more effort to manipulate than silver, it has a lovely look and feel to it and I like the slightly edgy look it lends to designs. Of course being non-tarnish and hypoallergenic is a plus point too.

If you would like to keep up with my beady news, be sure to complete the 'Follow by Email' box at the top of my blog.

See you next time!

Kerrie ♥

Fab Four!

Hello everyone!

The latest issue of Digital Beading Magazine is now available and although I don't have a project in this one, I do have a slot in their regular 'Fab Four' feature alongside Edgar Lopez, Aurelio Castano and Lucy Duckham.

So if you want to read my answers to questions such as 'What do you enjoy most about the creative process?' or 'What were your early beaded creations like?' or even 'Tell us about your work with Preciosa?' then follow this link to purchase your copy of the latest issue. It is packed with a wide range of inspirational projects and at $US4.95 for 163 pages it's great value for money too!

See you soon with more beady news!

Kerrie ♥

Bead Circle interview!

A couple of weeks ago, Mandi from Bead Circle asked me if I would like to do a recorded interview with her and having done something similar before I happily agreed.  These things can be nerve-racking but also very rewarding and so thanks to the wonders of modern technology (Skype!) with Mandi in Texas on a bright sunny morning and me in the UK on a dark and snowy evening, we spent a fun half hour chatting about beads and dragons and future plans.  I have listened to the recording once and my initial reaction was to run out of the room screaming because I couldn't believe how fast I spoke, why I was making such weird swallowing noises or how I managed to inadvertently squeeze the words 'you know' into every sentence!  But then I chuckled to myself and I thought, well that IS me, that is apparently what I do but who cares?  It was a great opportunity for me to talk about something I love ... BEADS!  So if you want to hear me raving about my love for little shiny glass things with holes through the middle ... click HERE

You can also be in with a chance of winning a free copy of my Rivoli Daisy pattern - all you have to do is leave a comment on the Bead Circle page answering the following question “If you could only bead in one colour, what colour would you choose?”.  One winner will be picked next week.

Don't forget to subscribe to Bead Circle too as Mandi hosts lots of regular contests, tutorials and podcasts and she also offers a free beaded pen eBook.  Thank you Mandi!

Bye for now!

Kerrie ♥

Goodbye Mum!

Sadly, Mum left us on Monday the 24th of September, but thanks to the fantastic support of the hospice, district nurses and carers, she was able to spend her final days peacefully at home, just as she had wished.  I used to call Mum my 'Rose Fairy' because with her beautiful blonde hair, soft pink skin and sparkly blue eyes she reminded me so much of Cicely Mary Barker's 'Rose Fairy' and she was happiest spending time pottering about in her garden tending to her collection of gorgeous roses.  I will miss Mum enormously but I am comforted by the belief that she will be watching me and cheering me on as I continue on my beady travels through life. Mum was my number one fan when it came to my beadwork and although I used to cringe with embarrassment when she would whip a magazine out of her handbag to show anyone who would stop and look at my latest published design, or thrust her wrist at a passing stranger to show them her bracelet saying 'Look, my daughter made that!' - I was of course very glad to be able to give her something to be proud of.  In the early days, I was lucky enough to share a table at several local craft fairs with Mum, she with her wonderful knitted creations alongside me and my beadwork and later, as things grew and I attended bigger fairs, she would help me out by setting up my display, talking to customers and carefully packaging sold items and of course helping to calm my nerves and bolster my confidence.

Mum was always coming up with ideas for new beadwork designs for me too and she was a constant source of inspiration - had it not been for Mum and her battles with cancer, I would never have designed my Awareness Ribbon Pins or the Pilgrims Cross both of which helped to raise a substantial amount of money for various charities.

There is so much more I could say about My Mum, but I think that you get the picture and although I have many photographs of her, I think that the one below is my favourite because it shows her 'under my wing' and captures the obvious love that flowed between us.

Mum and I used to speak about what might happen after this life and we thought that perhaps we may become flower fairies with important jobs to do.  Mum decided that she was going to wear a gown of softest velvety purple petunia with a fluffy bumblebee hat and she was going to dance through the sky painting sunsets and THAT is the image I am going to keep in my head forever.

Goodbye Mum.

Kerrie ♥