Brick Stitch Bloom!

Hello everyone!

Surprise! I expect you thought I'd given up on blogging, didn't you? Well what with Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, LinkedIn and now Instagram it can be hard to find time to do any actual beading, but I do have a genuine top secret reason for my absence which I will post about in the coming months. For now though I wanted to drop by and let you know that the fabulous Jean Power has a new book out called "Woman's Weekly Guide to Beading". I was very fortunate to be asked to be a guest designer for this book and my project "Brick Stitch Bloom" can be found on page 150.

Jean has nearly a shelf-full of beading books to her name now and this is another great comprehensive book that has something for everyone from beginners up to the more experienced beader. It is neatly broken down into chapters covering the basics of beading, stringing, wirework and woven beadwork. My little flower brooch is in the woven beadwork section of course and it's much easier to make than it probably looks. I have to say that the illustrations in this book are some of the best I have ever seen and the art department has done a marvellous job with my original diagrams that now look really lovely and easy to follow. The UK edition of this book is called "Woman's Weekly Guide to Beading" and the US version is called "Beading Learn It. Love It" so although you might see two different covers (as shown below) they are actually both the same book.

When I was invited to submit a project for the book I was given a specific colour palette to use and the following project brief: design a small floral project that incorporates peyote or brick stitch with 17-19 step-by-step instructions. As you can imagine, this ticked a lot of boxes for me because it is just the type of beadwork I love to do and so I chose to make a 9 petalled brick stitch flower brooch and it took exactly 19 steps to explain how to make it! I used beautiful Preciosa Ornela seed beads in shade numbers 331 19001 46025 (purple) and 331 19001 63021 (green) and added a white glass pearl to the centre. This innocent looking little flower does actually hold a design secret, so if you want to know what that is - go and treat yourself to a copy of Jean's wonderful new book!

See you next time!

Kerrie ♥

Time for a little Floral Elegance ...

Hello everyone!

Well only two days after my last blog entry - here I am again with news of a new pattern that has just become available. This time it is another pair of earrings from the Preciosa Ornela 'Charlotte Collection' which I have named 'Floral Elegance' and you can find the instructions for these in the latest issue (issue 10) of Digital Beading Magazine. Each flower has extra long petals which flare out at the tips to reveal the glittering fire polished stamens and yet because they are made from tiny size 13 Charlottes, they are as light as a feather to wear. I suspended my flowers from long gold ear-wires so that the flowers would delicately dance and sway about my neck and as these beautiful beads have a cut side, it means that the light bounces off the flat surface giving the flowers a gorgeous sparkle.

I hope you enjoy creating your own Floral Elegance and don't forget that we would love to see what you make from this pattern, so please feel free to send me a picture or to share your pictures on the Preciosa Facebook page or the Digital Beading Magazine Facebook page. Digital Beading Magazine is always on the look out for photos to share on their 'Show it off' reader creations section too, so why not make a pair of these (or even adapt the pattern to your own tastes) and send in a photo of your work?

See you again soon with details of another new pattern!

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 ♥

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 ♥

Two new patterns!

Issue two of the new on-line only beading magazine Digital Beading Magazine is now available and once again it has 158 pages packed full of a wide range of projects and techniques to satisfy everyone.  Although this magazine is based in Australia, being on-line means that you can download it as soon as it becomes available and see what everyone else is seeing ... that means no annoying waiting for it to arrive and no hefty overseas shipping fees.  You can simply purchase it (or subscribe) and immediately start flicking the pages on your computer and decide what you would like to make first.  I have two projects in this issue and the first one is Galactic Gumdrop earrings which mixes the new gumdrop beads from York Beads and a few seed beads to create a pair of out-of-this world earrings.

And the second project is Bohemian Bloom which takes a hank of multi-coloured Czech hybrid seed beads and turns them into a fun flower brooch that will bloom beautifully with everything in your wardrobe.

There will be two more new patterns from me in issue 3 of this magazine which will be available in April, so if you don't want to miss anything, be sure to either complete the 'Follow by Email' box on the top right-hand side of my blog or 'like' my Facebook page. 

Bye for now!

Kerrie ♥

Coming out of hibernation ...

Well, here I am, slowly nosing my way out of hibernation, stretching, sniffing the air and gradually adjusting to Life After Mum.  I am picking up my needle and thread again, accepting all sorts of beady offers and blowing the cobwebs off the Midnight Garden - I am back in business!  Mr. and Mrs. Prickles have also come out of a long sleep in order to lend their support to York Beads who had to close for a whole week following hurricane Sandy due to a complete loss of power.  Mr. and Mrs. P. owe their very existence to York, as without them, there would have been no beautiful dagger beads to adorn them and then they would have looked like very different creatures indeed - have you ever heard of the naked mole rat?

When I was a 'hobby beader', if I had read the term 'wholesale' I would have immediately switched off, thinking that I would not be eligible to buy from them - but I have learnt that actually, York sell 'wholesale to the public' which means you do not need to be a business or have to do anything complicated or scary.  True they do have a minimum purchase amount, but that is only $100 (currently around £63/79Eur/97AUD) and as we all know, it is not hard to spend that kind of money and more on those must have beads, and there is nothing to stop you getting together with a group of friends to organise a bulk order.  So if you want to get your beady paws on some of the most innovative Czech beads around (such as the dagger beads, spike beads or the new gumdrop beads) go to the York Beads website, click on 'Sign In Here' and 'Apply For An Account' and if you have any difficulties, feel free to email them via the 'Contact us' page.  Oh and right now they have a very attractive sale on of 10% off all items with free flat rate domestic shipping and an international shipping rate of only $16.95.

So that's all from me and Mr. and Mrs. P. for now, but we will be back soon with news of new designs, tutorials and published projects, so if you don't want to miss anything, make sure you either click on the 'Follow by Email' button located on the top right of my blog or click 'like' on my Facebook page.

Bye for now!

Kerrie ♥

Hedgehogs in the garden!

Well here I am ... already 8 months into my beady experiment of using one colour of beads for a whole year to create a themed body of work - Midnight Garden.  I am quite pleased with the meandering route the garden is taking with lots of twists and turns and the occasional unexpected but welcome nocturnal visitor.  So I was very happy when Perry at York Beads sent me some dagger beads because when I saw them my first thought was 'hedgehogs' - and really, what self-respecting rambling midnight moonlight garden would be complete without a couple of magical hedgehogs snuffling around the place?  And so here we have Mr & Mrs Prickles - she is a little smaller with a lovely shiny body and a playful twinkle in her eyes and he is larger and sort of dull (and a bit camera shy!) but he's solid and dependable and I think you can tell that they are very much in love ♥ ♥

Bye for now!

Kerrie

 

 

Midnight Garland!

After my last post about the new Thorn Flowers, I thought that my work with 'spike beads' was done and that in true butterfly style I could flit on to another shape, another bead, another flower.  But then Perry at York Beads offered to display a couple of pieces of my spike bead work at his booth at the Bead & Button show in June and it seemed like a wasted opportunity to just send what I had already created and so another idea started to form.  After ten days and many hours of making lots of intricate heart shaped leaves, some twisty vine and a few thorn flowers and thorn flower buds - Midnight Garland is ready to be packaged up and sent off on her travels.

And if you were hoping for a Midnight Garden story:  Deep within the Midnight Garden an insignificant looking vine appears.  As the moon waxes the stem begins to grow, small tendrils sprout and uncoil into tiny heart shaped leaves that twist and creep along the ground.  Little buds start to form and as they swell the petals begin to part showing glimpses of an inner light.  The Midnight Garland grows and grows, climbing and spreading throughout the garden, gathering strength until gradually the petals unfurl revealing the centre - and at that special midnight full moon moment the powerful silver spikes point moonwards ...

Bye for now!

Kerrie