International Beading Week - It's Here!

Hello everyone!

Well here we are, after all the anticipation and behind the scenes preparation - International Beading Week is upon us! There are all sorts of great offers and events taking place all over the world, so be sure to check out the menu on the IBW website. I've often said how much I appreciate the way modern technology enables us to connect, and I generally consider myself to be an international beader, but the build up to IBW has been a particularly exciting time for me. For the last couple of months I've been working with companies from the UK, Czech Republic and Germany, posting books to the USA, Portugal and Austria, answering beady queries from Cameroon, Nigeria and Canada and processing contest entries from the UK, USA, Ukraine, Germany, Greece, Slovenia, Lithuania, Italy and India!

You still have one week to send me your contest entry photos to be in with a chance of winning a copy of my book and a kilo of beads from the PRECIOSA Traditional Czech Beads™ brand, as shown in the photo below. Find one of my patterns, make it with beads from Preciosa and send me a picture, it's as simple as that - just imagine what sparkly things you could make with that lot!

For my next IBW initiative, I've teamed up with Beads Direct to design an exclusive kit, which has been launched today and is available to purchase from their website. Designed and written by me and beautifully packaged by Beads Direct, Pretty Pellets is a softly romantic looking bracelet made with PRECIOSA Rocailles, Imitation Pearls and Pellets™. You have the option to make a simple single row bracelet, or a more elaborate double row cuff style bracelet. Each kit contains sufficient materials to make two single row or one double row bracelet and comes in either gold or silver colourways.

We hope you enjoy making your Pretty Pellets - be sure to join in with the International Beading Week buzz and share photos of your bracelets on Facebook on either my page, Beads Direct or on the International Beading Week page using #IBW.

Happy International Beading Week!

Kerrie ♥

Art Clay Silver Masterclass with Beads Direct!

If you are a regular follower of my blog you will know that one of my favourite UK suppliers is Beads Direct and that I have been lucky enough to work with them on a couple of occasions.  So when they told me that they were going to be running an Art Clay Silver Masterclass with two of the UK's top instructors and asked if I'd like to join them, I jumped at the chance!  I have never worked with any kind of metal clay before (you know me, I am normally a strictly seedy girl!) but I have often admired the finished work created using this medium and when I saw that one of the classes was to make a silver leaf, I thought that this would work well alongside my current work.  The classes were held at the easily accessible Yew Lodge Hotel just off Junction 24 of the M1 and as we arrived we were all welcomed by the Beads Direct staff who pointed us in the direction of tea, coffee and biscuits.  Nearly everyone arrived early and so it was lovely to sit in the plush hotel foyer and get to know the other students and learn how far they had travelled, what kind of beadwork they enjoy and what they hoped to achieve from the course.  After a round of introductions and a quick health and safety chat, it was straight down to work and our instructor Natalia let us all choose a leaf that she had picked from the hotel grounds that morning - I think the hotel guests who were having their breakfast in the warm dry glass-fronted restaurant must have wondered what on earth the woman foraging in the wet foliage was up to!  I chose a small leaf and carefully began to coat it with my Art Clay under the watchful gaze of Natalia:

Natalia explained to us how to mix each coat to the right consistency, gradually building up the coats of clay on our leaves as we carefully dried each layer before moving onto the next one.

We then learnt how to set a decorative stone into our leaves and eventually our leaves were ready to go into the kiln to dry while we wandered around the room chatting to the other students and staff.

Although they aren't perfect, our leaves were not bad for a first attempt and we were all happy with the results of our work, keen to try out other ideas and hoping to eventually achieve something more like our tutor's inspirational work!

I had a thoroughly enjoyable day and I can't wait to incorporate my little silver leaf with its peridot crystal into some of my seed bead work.  If you would like to have a go at using Art Clay Silver, Beads Direct offer a comprehensive starter kit complete with instructions and they also sell a great range of tools for when you are ready to branch out. Don't forget to keep an eye on the Beads Direct website, blog and Facebook page to see what other exciting events they have planned for the future!

Another Creative Challenge!

Do you remember last year when Beads Direct gave me a beady challenge?  I really enjoyed that experience of being stretched creatively when asked to design something different, and yet  being bound by certain constraints (such as a particular size and colour of beads to work with) and so I was very happy when a couple of weeks ago E-Beads threw down the gauntlet and challenged me to make their logo using beads!

I knew straight away that the basic 'dandelion clock' would be fairly easy to create in beadwork and I set about using a combination of Swarovski crystal pearls and seed beads to get the look I wanted.

It still took me several attempts (and many hours!) to get the bead count right so that my piece had exactly the same number of large beads in it as the logo and to ensure that it laid flat without too many ruffles.  As I worked, I kept wondering how on earth I was going to create the 'flyaway petals' included in the logo . At first I tried turning my dandelion into a brooch and attached the petals with wirework, but I didn't really like the look of it.  Next I tried creating a flat piece of beadwork with the beaded dandelion and petals attached to it, but I couldn't really see how it could be worn as it would have been quite large.  Then I noticed an image of a little bag with the logo on, on E-Bead's website, and that's when I came up with the idea of embellishing a bag with the logo and so I beaded the nine separate petals and attached them to the bag and then added a narrow beaded handle and some surface decoration.

As I had already created the dandelion and stem, I thought it would give the finished piece an added dimension if I also made that part of the logo wearable and so I attached a brooch/bail to the back of the dandelion so that it can be pinned to the bag, or removed and worn as either a necklace or a brooch.

Below is a picture of the original logo that I was working from and both myself and E-Beads would love to hear what you think of my version of their logo.  Leave a comment on my blog, or email E-Beads via their website or become a 'fan' of their Facebook page and leave a comment there.

Let me know what you think and what your solution to including those tricky 'flyaway petals' would have been!

Bye for now!
Kerrie ♥

A beady challenge!

A little while ago, Claire from Beads Direct asked if I would be interested in being part of a ‘creative challenge’. The idea was that myself and two members of staff from Beads Direct would all be sent an identical ‘mystery pack’ containing a selection of beads, and we each had to come up with a design based around those beads. Our usual styles of work are all very different from each others, and so the challenge was intended not only to stretch us individually but also to show what diverse designs can be created from the same set of beads. I received my envelope just over two weeks ago, and this is what was in it …

When I first opened the envelope, I was very relieved to see lots of seed beads. I was also thrilled to see the labradorite, I have never worked with it before and often heard about ‘the flash’ but never actually seen it for myself. I looked at the pearls and the silver beads and thought that they shouldn’t present a problem and then I noticed the huge bag of extension chains! I think you know by now that I like to escape to fairyland whenever I can, and so first of all I created a piece inspired by the labradorite and the pearls that also incorporated the extension chains. I imagined a very rare moonlight night, a warm still night, a night full of magic. Only on a night like this, if you are very lucky, something special happens and ‘Under a pearly moon ... the labradorite blooms’.

No sooner had I landed from that flight of fancy and finished this piece, when I thought that perhaps I had not fully entered into the spirit of the challenge as I hadn’t used everything in the pack, and I had also substituted some of my own beads for the seed beads sent to me. It was the last day of the challenge by now and I knew it had to be something relatively quick to make – something that didn’t involve 8 feet of peyote rope! I began looking at the labradorite again, and in the sunshine, it reminded me of the colour of the sea, deep swirling sea with mythical creatures beneath the surface. The pearls seemed to complement the marine theme and yet the seed beads whispered that they would like to become flowers, fantasy flowers. I imagined a Selkie, trapped in human form as her husband had hidden her sealskin. I saw her standing on the shore, looking longingly out to sea but unable to return to her home, and that is when ‘In a Selkie’s garden’ came to life.

I hope that you like the new pieces, but please do let me know what you think (and whether you think I really ought to be locked up!) and I would also love to hear what you would have done with the wonderful contents of that pack. Don’t forget to take a look at the Beads Direct website to find lots of beautiful materials just like these!

Growth and change ...

It's funny how things change.  I remember back in around 2004, I hadn't been beading for very long and believe it or not, I didn't really know where to buy beads.  I used to buy packs of Mill Hill beads from a large DIY store, and as these were really only meant to embellish embroidery projects, they came in tiny packs and it worked out very expensive if you wanted to make a large beaded project.  Then I heard about a new family-run on-line bead shop that was opening and an open day that they were going to hold at the owner's house.  I went to that first event and had a wonderful time rummaging through the tubes of beads and asking quite simple questions, like the difference between a seed bead and a cylinder bead, and what pliers I would need to create wrapped loops.  That bead shop was Beads Direct and although the company has now changed hands, I have been buying beads from them ever since they first opened.  I have always received excellent, fast and friendly service, with the beads usually arriving the day after ordering them and all beautifully packaged.

Beads Direct has expanded a great deal since those early days and I have grown too, so it was a lovely surprise when Claire, the marketing manager, contacted me to see if I would be interested in doing some work together, which of course I am more than happy to do.  I think just about every one of my published projects, over the years, has used at least some beads from Beads Direct and you can see their great range of seed and cylinder beads here.  Be sure to check out the other goodies they have to offer though as well, such as crystals, pearls, semi-precious stones and a great selection of clasps.  There's lots to look at on their website too, like a collection of 'how to' videos and they also have their own blog - Claire recently asked me some questions about how I came to start working with beads and you can read my answers here.  We are discussing the details at the moment, but one of my projects will soon be available from the Beads Direct website, so keep your eye on their website and blog for details!