New Year - new website!

Hello everyone!

After a hectic close to 2015 I'm finally back to update my sadly neglected blog and the big news is that I am starting 2016 with a sparkly new website! I created my original website back in 2008 using a template package and it was everything I needed at the time, but as things have developed with my little business I felt it was time to have something more professional and so I turned to the guys at Dijitul to help me. If you were familiar with the old website you will notice that the new one looks very similar in content (but hopefully a bit more streamlined!) but it now has a modern e-commerce store section to enable the smooth running purchase and delivery of my patterns.

The photo above is a screenshot of the new homepage but there is plenty more to see such as a new gallery page, an updated published work page and a handy 'Contact Me' box that appears on every page. The intent is for the website to be uncluttered and easy to navigate and so pages have been kept to a minimum with a menu at both the top and bottom of every page to save lots of going backwards and forwards. Most of the images are clickable to enable you to take a closer look and the published work page has clickable links to all of my free patterns that are available from Preciosa and Bead and Button magazine as well as images of all my other patterns. I also have some lovely shiny new buttons at the bottom of every page which will take you straight to my Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest pages, and if you visit the 'Tutorials for Sale' page and click on the image, title or 'More info' section of each pattern you can even like or share the item via Facebook or Twitter!

In other news I'm also happy to report that my Chilli Flower bracelet has been used in the Preciosa Ornela advertising campaign and appears in the latest issue of Bead and Button magazine. I've had a few requests for a tutorial for this design and there is a chance that will actually happen in the coming months but I can't give you any more information yet as we are still working out the final details of where and when.

So that's all my news for now. I'd like to thank you all for reading my blog and for following my beady travels throughout 2015. I'm not 100% sure which direction I will take in 2016 but I have lots of ideas in the pot so it should be another interesting journey and I hope that you can stay with me to see what happens next. I wish you all a very Happy New Year and I hope that 2016 holds many contented hours of beading for you.

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 ♥

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 ♥

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 ♥

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 ♥

 

The sparkle shower continues!

Hello Everyone!

Remember in this blog post how I talked about the sparkles that are currently appearing in my life? And how I had decided to adjust my previously carefully mapped course and instead to raise my face, open my arms and dance in the sparkle shower while it lasted? Well, one of those 'sparkles' is my work with Preciosa Ornela and I have to say that not for one moment do I regret welcoming this particular shining opportunity into my life. My first 'assignment' was to show ways to use their Twin™ beads, next came the striped seed beads followed by the neon beads and my latest work for them uses the brand new exciting Thorn™ and Pellet™ beads.

 

As you know, up until recently I have been a hardcore seedbeader and so other bead shapes always make me scratch my head and wonder how to use them, but I had no problem at all with the Thorns and Pellets as they work so well alongside the seed beads. For my first design I used some silver Thorns and mixed them with some plain black seed beads to create the dramatic and spiky looking Thornstar ring and bracelet set.

The shape of the Thorn beads looked so much like petals that I thought I had to try making some flowers with them. So still mixing them with seed beads I made little flowery Thorn Daisy components and threaded three onto black satin ribbon to create a wrist corsage style bracelet. I loved the fluffy look of the centre of these flowers and they were so quick and easy to make that I also made a set of three Thorn Daisy rings.

There are lots of other experiments I would like to do with the Thorn beads but  at that time they were very new and I only had a small supply and so I moved onto playing with Pellets. I soon discovered that despite their unusual shape (kind of squat with a waist) they have LOTS of design potential. I went on to mix them with other beads but for my first piece I wanted to show how they look on their own and so out came Pellet Bangles. I love the way these beads snuggle together!

After all that dramatic beadwork I was ready to try something a little more feminine. So I chose some pale Pellets and mixed them with matte gold seed beads and pearls and a length of cream organza ribbon to create the softly romantic looking Pretty Pellets.

By that time more Pellet beads were available in a greater variety of colours and I was really drawn to the opaque red. I always love the look of black and red together and the way that the seed beads curved and ruffled around the Pellets really reminded me of a flamenco dancer's dress - hence Flamenco Pellets for my next piece.

Having discovered what nice little circles these beads make, I was keen to try them in different colours and rather than making interlocking circles I added a lovely shiny black glass pearl in the centre of each component to make the Pellet Wheel bracelet. In this piece you can really see the way the Pellets nestle into each other's waist.

Moving on from the circles I thought it would be nice to try using the Pellets in a different way and so although they naturally want to nestle, I stood them up straight and edged them with seed beads to keep them in place. There are many different colours to choose from but I thought that these turquoise and silver beads worked really well with black beads and silver findings. Diamond Pellets are very simple to make and they work up into very lightweight and easy to wear bracelets and earrings in no time!

By that point my deadlines were approaching but I still had so many beads and ideas that I had to squeeze in one more design to show yet another way to use these new beads. I also thought that I had used rather a lot of black seed beads so far and so this time I chose opaque blue Pellets and mixed them with silver seed beads and glass pearls to make the Pellet Star bracelet.

And then everything had to be quickly packaged up and sent back to Preciosa for photography. Although I try very hard to take decent pictures, I could never hope to achieve the results that the Preciosa photographer does and  I am sure you can see why I am very happy with our collaboration and why I am looking forward to my next 'assignment'. I have only used a small selection of Preciosa's photos for this blog post, but you can see the full set here. I hope you have enjoyed looking at my beady experiments and I also hope that perhaps these ideas have inspired you to purchase some of these exciting new bead shapes to see how you can incorporate them into your designs. Many of the designs shown above are destined to be shared as magazine projects in the next few months and I will of course give more details about when and where as soon as possible.

 

So that's it for this week and now I am off to catch another sparkle ...

See you next time!

Kerrie ♥

Neon News (and sparkles do not last forever) ...

Hello Everyone!

Following on from my big stripe reveal a couple of weeks ago, I have more news as Preciosa have now sent out their August newsletter showing all the pieces I made with their neon beads during May and June of this year. Preciosa very kindly linked to my Midnight Garden work and that prompted one or two people to ask about the garden and what happened to it and whether I have abandoned it, so I'd like to reassure my readers that everything is as it should be. In true fairytale style, the garden has been temporarily frozen while the gardener (that's me!) juggles lots of sparkly things that have been sent her way. Sparkles do not last forever and should be accepted with playful delight when they appear. When the sparkles begin to dim, I will contentedly return to my Midnight Garden. BUT in the meantime ... ta da!

When I first opened the package of neon beads it truly was like lifting the lid on a box of sunshine and I was a little apprehensive about where to start. Neon beads are very 'now' and I have seen several people say that neons are not for them and to be honest, I may have said the same thing a few months ago (after all I am a middle aged woman not a teenager!) but it is my job to show alternative ways of using beads and hopefully to inspire and so here is my neon collection. First of all I made a little trio of bracelets using the pink, orange and yellow neon seed beads:

Next I began experimenting with the Farfalle and as I haven't worked with these before I decided to keep it simple and created a set of roll on/roll off bangles. I chose the green Farfalle as a base and added the yellow, orange and pink seed beads as I thought it gave them the look of fruit or flowers amongst the foliage:

By then I was really getting into the swing of the neon beads and so I decided to make a much bolder bracelet to really try and capture the neon summer moment. For this one I mixed the neon Twin ™ beads with seed beads and pearls to create a floral explosion which I named Tropicana Cuff. The piece was used in the Preciosa advert in issue 57 of Making Jewellery magazine:

After having mixed Farfalle with seed beads and Twins ™ with seed beads I thought it would be good to try and mix all three bead shapes in a single piece. I chose the green and orange beads as I think these colours go together so well, but when I started working with the long orange Twins ™ and the round green seed beads and the piece gradually expanded, all I could think was that they reminded me of a plateful of peas and carrots and so that name stuck and here is Peas and Carrots bracelet:

Pink and orange was another colour combination that really appealed to me and so for the next piece I decided to concentrate on using the pink and orange seed beads but toned them down a bit with the use of black seed beads, pearls and ribbon which resulted in Jardin De Cancan:

And by then I was running out of time but I still had lots of lovely beads crying out to be sewn together and so as I enjoyed the look of mixing black beads and neon beads, I whipped up a set of three flower pins.  This is where I think neons could be worn at any time of year by any age. Imagine how a single Neon Nights pin, with their stained glass effect, would liven up a simple black jacket in deepest darkest winter!

So there you have it - the results of my neon experiments and where two months of my life went! The beads I was given to work with are actually the opaque neon beads and so despite looking very bright when they are in their original bags, they have a lovely soft matte feel to them and the yellow neon beads seemed to be amost a primrose yellow. I found these beads to be a joy to work with and I hope that my experiments will perhaps inspire you to look at neon beads in a new light. Some of these pieces will appear as projects in future issues of various beading magazines so be sure to use the 'Follow by Email' box at the top of my blog if you want to be kept informed of all the latest beady news.

See you next time!

Kerrie ♥