Diamond Pellets!

Hello everyone!

As promised in my last blog post, I'm here with news of another new pattern release and this time it is available as a free download direct from the Preciosa Ornela website. These little diamond shaped components are quick and easy to make and can be used in a variety of ways. I've made a couple of bracelets, a pair of long dangly earrings and a pair of smaller earrings, but you could easily make a necklace or a multi-strand bracelet or even a charm style bracelet - there are lots of possibilities!

Have you tried the new Pellet™ beads yet? They are quite unusually shaped beads with a flat top and bottom and a pinched in waist and they have lots of design potential and come in a wide range of beautiful colours. If you want to try out these beads but are not sure where to start, why not try the free pattern above. Alternatively I also have a free Pellet Bangle pattern with Bead & Button which you can download, or you can purchase the latest issue of Digital Beading Magazine (issue 8) and the instructions for my Pellet Stars bracelet and earrings set are on page 37. I also have another Pellet™ project coming out in a future issue of Bead and Button magazine so watch this space.

And if you need even more ideas for ways to use these exciting new beads, take a scroll through this Preciosa Flickr album to see the full collection of pieces I made using Preciosa's Pellet™ and Thorn™ beads.

If you are inspired to follow any of the above patterns, feel free to send me a picture or why not share it on the Preciosa Facebook page? Preciosa are always interested in seeing pictures of your work using their beads and you could even try entering their Beads For Blog Post programme to see if you can win yourself  a kilo of their beautiful beads!

See you next time!

Kerrie ♥

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 ♥

Prima product of the month - January/February!

Hello everyone!

It's the Prima Bead product of the month time again and this time the members of the blogging team were asked to become 'guest designers' and imagine that we were writing a project for their catalogue. Each member of the team was sent a couple of toggle clasps, some bicone mirror beads, a pack of crimp beads and a reel of elastic but we were also told that we could incorporate other Prima Bead products that we have previously been sent. As soon as I saw that my bicone mirror beads were red and black I thought of my visits to Spain and words like 'flamenco' and 'pasodoble' started to echo in my mind. Then, when I saw that one of the toggle clasps was a hammered silver circle with a round hole in it - a plan began to take shape. Rather than use the toggle as a clasp I only used half of it and turned it into a brooch/pin which I have called Ojo Del Toro, which I am hoping means eye of the bull. The finished piece represents the eye of the bull in a bullfight with the red and black lances piercing the skin, but before anyone starts writing to me, please note that this is a symbolic piece and does not in any way mean that I support bullfighting!

I will be submitting the PDF of my instructions to Prima Bead, but to make this pin I took the silver hammered toggle and glued a brooch pin to the back of the toggle on the widest part.

 

Next I took some head pins from a findings starter pack and threaded the bicones onto them before turning a loop at the top. Then using the jump rings from the starter pack I suspended the bicone 'lances' from the 'eye' so that they dangle and dance at the base of the brooch.

That's it for this time but I'll be back soon with more beady news. In the meantime, leave a comment and let me know what you think of Ojo Del Toro.

Bye for now!

Kerrie ♥

 

Pellet Stars!

Hello everyone!

Just a quick post today to let you know that the instructions for another piece I made using Preciosa Ornela's Pellet™ beads have been published in issue 8 of Digital Beading Magazine. This time it is the quick and easy Pellet Stars bracelet and earrings set. I mixed opaque blue Pellets with silver seed beads to make a summery looking set but you can create a very different look using other colour combinations - I haven't taken any photos but I made myself a pair of earrings using olive Pellets mixed with gold seed beads and they are my new favourite ear decoration!

This bracelet also features in a full page Preciosa advert in the current issue of Bead Style magazine and Digital Beading Magazine. If you are looking for Pellet beads you can find them at Kandra's Beads and Robin's Beads as well as other stockists of Preciosa beads.

There are two more Pellet projects waiting in the wings; one in an upcoming issue of Bead & Button magazine and another which will be a free project with Preciosa. So, if you are looking for ways to use this fun new bead shape, be sure to complete the 'Follow by Email' box at the top of my blog so that you don't miss any news.

See you next time!

Kerrie ♥

 

Marcia DeCoster Presents ...

Hello everyone!

Do you remember back in October of last year when I was lucky enough to spend the day with Marcia DeCoster? Besides wanting to meet her to see her beautifully intricate work 'up close and personal' and to thank her for years of encouragement and support, I also wanted to thank her for including me in her new book Marcia DeCoster Presents: Interviews with 30 Beaders on Inspiration & Technique. As we sipped tea and stroked each other's beadwork, we talked about our love of the Internet and how it has helped so many beaders from around the world connect with each other giving us the opportunity to share work and ideas, congratulate each other on successes, pull each other through the hard times and form lasting friendships even though we may never have met in person. The network that bonds the worldwide beading community is one of the primary ideas behind Marcia's new book and I am hugely grateful to be a part of this.

The '30 Beaders' are from all over the world (from the United States, South Africa, Australia, Germany, Singapore and more) and each has their own style of beadwork from cute beaded critters to elaborate embroidered collars and everything in between. There are no instructions in this book, it is a book filled with pictures of gorgeous beadwork designed to fill you with admiration and inspiration, a book to make you oooh and ahhh as you turn each page. Marcia has also asked each artist a set of interview questions about materials, techniques, design ideas and aspirations and she has also included a special question that is unique to each person. Even if I were not fortunate enough to be included in this collection I can hand on heart say that I would still want it to be on my bookshelf - it is a simply beautiful book.

Thank you Marcia!

Kerrie ♥

Farewell 2013!

Hello everyone!

Well it's that time again, the end of another year. At this point in time I like to stand on an imaginary threshold and look over my shoulder reviewing the past year while taking an excited peek at the coming year. For me, 2013 was a year of incredible highs and terrible lows with one event that very nearly stopped me beading, it nearly stopped me breathing if I am honest but I am hopeful that 2014 will be kinder to me and that nothing will ever take the shine off my beads. Looking back I can see that I have been blogging for 6 years now and written 152 blog posts. My work has changed and yet stayed the same but my confidence has grown and I have formed some strong relationships with various people and companies in the bead world and although I carry a lot of sadness right now I find myself in a good solid place ready to move into the new year and to bead on. There are lots of plans in the pipeline which I will share throughout 2014 but before I put the lid on 2013 I have a few links and pictures to share - December has been a busy month!

The first piece of news is that one of the Kumihimo pieces I created for Prima Bead has been published in the latest issue of Bead & Button magazine and it made the cover! Looking at that cover really makes me smile and appreciate the good things that happened in 2013 as although I designed the project, it is very much a collaborative piece involving some of the people and companies that I have joined forces with: the tools and the push to learn Kumihimo were provided by Prima Bead, the grey seed beads fit in with my Midnight Garden collection and came from my friend Kandra at Kandra's Beads, the silver flowercup beads are by Preciosa Ornela and came from www.yorkbeads.com, the beautiful clasps came from A Grain Of Sand and of course the project was published by Bead & Button magazine.

In the same issue of the magazine there is also an 'Artist Profile' featuring my recent work and in it I talk a lot about my collaborations with Prima Bead, Preciosa and York including my recent work with striped seed beads and many of the new bead shapes on the market. The hard work of the recent couple of years seems to have come together beautifully and I am very grateful to all of these people and more for giving me the opportunity to show what I can do.

 

Just a few days prior to the Kumihimo project and profile being published in the magazine, Bead & Button also released another one of the projects I created for Preciosa Ornela as a FREE digital download. This time it is a quick and easy bangle that uses the new Pellet™ beads and all you need to do is to click on this link and then either sign in or register to download the pattern.

And a few days before that, issue 7 of Digital Beading Magazine (another favourite of mine) was released and I have two designs in this issue, one of which was shown on the cover of the magazine. Holiday Hearts (shown above) was created for Preciosa Ornela earlier this year as part of my striped seed bead collection but we decided that these quick and easy rustic looking hearts made perfect tree decorations and so I made a few more to decorate the editor's Christmas tree!

The other project that appears in Digital Beading Magazine is one of the designs I created for Preciosa using their exciting new Thorn™ beads and the project includes instructions on how to make these eye-catching bracelets and rings.

So that is how the year ended and today I am reflective and thankful but tomorrow I will begin working on the glittering pile that beckons me and seeing where the path of 2014 leads me.

Happy New Year everyone!

Kerrie ♥

Neon Nights!

Hello everyone!

Just a quick blog entry today to let you know that Bead & Button magazine have released another FREE download of one of the patterns I created for Preciosa Ornela. This time it is my stained glass effect Neon Nights pins which I originally blogged about here. Simply click on this link and then either sign in or register to download the pattern and start beading.

If you would like to purchase some of the Preciosa size 10 neon seed beads that I used to make these pins, then my friend Kandra stocks them here.

That's all for now - see you next time!

Kerrie ♥

Prima product of the month - November/December!

Hello everyone!

As we are all busy bees and as the end of the year is approaching, Prima Bead combined the November and December assignments and sent each member of the blogging team similar items, asking us to make something to wear to an imaginary New Year's Eve party. I was really looking forward to getting my teeth into this one as my mind was full of ideas when I first opened the box and saw lots of gorgeous items from the Jewelry Basics range. However, unfortunately I have a little family crisis on my hands at the moment and although I don't want this to prevent me from fulfilling my beady commitments, I have had to scale down my plans and just make a couple of items rather than the elaborate party wear I had intended. Nearly all of the items I received from Prima were a mix of classic black and silver including a very long strand of lovely black glass pearls so first of all I mixed the pearls with some black rondelles to whip up a quick and easy cocktail ring:

A few days before this I had been busy writing up the instructions for my Twin™ bead lariat and as the pattern was still fresh in my mind, I decided to make another one of the flowers using black Twin beads and suspend it from a strung necklace of the black glass pearls interspersed with sterling silver beads. I have recently begun working with A Grain Of Sand and I will be incorporating some of their stunning clasps in my work and I thought this black and silver clasp finished off the new necklace perfectly.

And finally, just because I couldn't resist  the elegant simplicity of it (and you know me and ribbon!) I added this lovely little metal bow to a length of black ribbon to make an easy wrist corsage.

I will have lots of other things to show you before the end of the year (crisis permitting!) but this is the last 'Prima product of the month' post for 2013. I'm looking forward to continuing to work with Prima and I can't wait to see what the team receives in January.

See you next time!

Kerrie ♥

Catching the 94050 to who knows where ...!

Hello everyone!

I think you know by now that I am a big fan of making the most of the technological age that we live in: I Pin, I blog, I Tweet, I Facebook, I'm LinkedIn and I put my photos in the bucket. My computer enables me to do all of the above as well as connect with beaders around the world, share photos, order beads, write tutorials and it emails patterns to my customers whether they live in Guadeloupe or Tasmania or virtually everywhere in between. I am truly grateful for having these opportunities at my fingertips and I love that the beading world has no real boundaries which is why I enjoy it when beads go on a journey:-

This story starts with these gorgeous striped seed beads from Preciosa Ornela which were made in the Czech Republic. Remember those beautiful shade number 94050 beads that I fell in love with earlier this year? If you read their description of 'brown with a black and white stripe' you may never look at them twice and although these have an AB finish, they still hide their beauty when they are packed tightly together in their bags - but take a look what happens when they are set free!

Although these beads already have a long and interesting story of their own, the next chapter saw them sent to me in England. At first I just opened the bags and marvelled at their glossy beauty, mesmerised by the rich colours and flashes of gold with visions of faraway spice markets, ripe juicy berries and exotic blooms filling my mind. And then I got out my Fireline and wove them together.

The finished pieces were then returned to Preciosa in the Czech Republic where they were professionally photographed and shown on Preciosa's website and Flickr page before being sent back to England.

The next instalment saw the two pieces temporarily separated and the Pinstriped Petals went to discover the delights of Australia and to be photographed for Digital Beading Magazine. If you would like to purchase the pattern for this design, it is available in issue 6 of the magazine.

The little Flower Slides on their burgundy ribbon, flew in the opposite direction to the USA where they were photographed by Bead & Button magazine and the pattern for this is now available as a free download.

These particular travelling 94050's will soon be making their way back to England again as their work in spreading the word about their beauty is done. But I still have lots more waiting to be woven and with the world at my fingertips, who knows where they will go ...

See you next time!

Kerrie ♥
 

Prima product of the month - October!

Hello everyone!

Yes it's time for my fourth Prima product of the month post. You may remember that for our first assignment everyone in the group was asked to create something using items from the Stainless Steel Elegance collection, the second challenge involved Prima's Kumihimo range and last month we were all sent 'Tis the Season products. This month was a bit different as all the team members were sent a fun questionnaire to enable the folks at Prima to hand pick our October products and tailor them more towards our likes and strengths. It will come as no surprise  to you to learn that I may have mentioned 'beads' once or twice in my answers and so when my box arrived I was pleased to see that it contained lots of seed beads together with a few sweet little charms and some unusual black findings. Although I thoroughly enjoyed the first three challenges, I had to brush up on some almost forgotten techniques and learn some new ones in order to keep up, so it was nice just to be able to bead this time. Apart from the beautiful colours of seed beads, the first thing that caught my eye was a little seahorse charm and so I mixed it with some silver-lined teal seed beads from Prima and added a few pearls from my stash and a little piece of cream organza ribbon to create 'The Mermaid's Assistant'. I intended this to be a whimsical little item that you could hang in a window, or perhaps on the rear-view mirror of a car, as the seaweed drapes beautifully around the seahorse's head and the little basket of pearls swings freely from the tail, but you could always add a chain and wear it as a necklace.

Next I pulled a hank of pre-strung seed beads out of the box. These were already nicely arranged in sections of two different coloured pinks with purple and they would look great simply strung as they were, but instead I took my scissors to the strands and separated the beads into piles of the same colour. Then I brick stitched three little hearts and added a connector to the front of each one to create Love, Faith and Hope Pins.

By then the end of the month deadline was approaching but I wanted to make sure that I used those black findings in something. So I quickly whipped up a couple of little herringbone flowers with the black seed beads Prima sent me, added a red crystal to the tip of each one as a contrast and hung them from black jump rings and earwires. I just had enough time left to make a matching bracelet by attaching a smaller flower to a length of black chain. I then added a clasp and lots of decorative dangles made from the head pins, jump rings and the remaining crystals and seed beads to make Fiery Nights bracelet and earrings set.

So that's it for another month! I have no idea what the 'product of the month' will be for November but Prima Bead has a huge range of products so let's wait and see!

See you next time!

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 ♥