Two-Cut beads - or not to cut!

Hello everyone!

Things are still a little bit topsy-turvy in my life at the moment, so this will be another brief post, but I wanted to show you a few little pieces I made using PRECIOSA Two-Cut Beads. I have quite a lot of cut beads in my collection, ranging from Two-Cut and Three-Cut, to various sizes of Bugles, and although I love the way the light glints and reflects off the cut edge, I've been more a collector of cut beads rather than a user. I must admit that I used to shy away from any cut beads as I feared that they would have sharp edges that would sever my beading thread, undoing all the hard work in a carefully crafted piece of beadwork. However, not long ago, Preciosa Ornela asked me to work with some of their Two-Cut beads and so I put my fears to one side and gave it a go.

Instead of jumping in with both feet, I thought I would take my introduction to weaving with cut beads slowly. I decided to make a simple Kumihimo bracelet to start with, which would enable me to use thick S-Lon thread, therefore reducing the thread-slicing risk. The lovely rhythmic braiding process gave me chance to look closely at the beads, to get to know them a bit better and to start to relax. I chose red and blue Two-Cuts and mixed them with some white size 7 rocailles and white S-Lon to give a patriotic feel - the colours of both the UK and Czech Republic flag! I made the bracelet long enough to wrap twice around my wrist, and added a little button and loop closure.

Although I was happy with the results of my first piece, I still didn't quite have the confidence to use my usual Nymo or Fireline with them in basic beadweaving stitches. So next I did a bit of embroidery using Ultrasuede and heavy duty 14lb Fireline to create a Gothic style brooch. I used a mix of Two-Cuts, Drops, fire polished beads and Charlottes to circle a glass button with a skull and crossbones design and completed the look with a drooping black ribbon bow. I had absolutely no problem with the Two-Cuts and the thicker Fireline, so by now I was starting to wonder if I had spent years missing out on using cut beads in my designs because of my unnecessary fear of them.

So for my final Two-Cut piece, I went back to what I know best - 6lb Fireline and herringbone stitch! I made lots of little beaded tubes with grey AB Two-Cuts in both shiny and matte, threaded them onto sterling silver beading chain along with some cream 4mm glass pearls, and then added a sterling silver clasp to make a three row bracelet with lots of movement. This is the sort of beadwork I love to do and I made 24 of these little tubes with absolutely no trouble at all. None of the beads cut my thread while I was working with them and the bracelet has been worn repeatedly with no problems. So there - accepting the opportunity to work with PRECIOSA Two-Cut Beads not only gave me chance to work with interesting bead shapes and colours, it also cured me of my phobia of cut beads!

See you next time!

Kerrie ♥

National Beading Week 2016!

Hello everyone!

Later this month the second ever National Beading Week gets under way here in the UK, running from the 30th of July to the 7th of August. Following on from last year's success, it promises to be an even bigger and better celebration of all things beady with lots of exciting events taking place around the country. Take a look around the website by following the link above and find out how you can get involved in National Beading Week!

I'm delighted to have teamed up with The Bead Shop (Nottingham) Ltd. again this year and I will be teaching my Daisy Chain Bracelet at the shop on Saturday the 6th of August. It will be a 3-hour class and although we won't be able to make a full bracelet during that time, we will cover all the important points and there will be detailed instructions provided to enable you to confidently complete your bracelet at home. I will also be bringing along some finished samples to give you ideas of other ways to use these realistic little flowers. You can see some of the bracelets I've made below, but there are virtually endless colour variations you could try. The Bead Shop stocks a wide range of the beads and pearls we will need, so we will have great fun choosing colour combinations before we get started - always one of my favourite parts of the class!

My class will run from 10am until 1pm and in the afternoon The Bead Shop will be hosting one of their regular informal bead groups from 2pm until 5pm, which I will also be attending. If you stay for the afternoon session you can carry on with your bracelet or bring another project with you to work on while chatting to other beaders. These sessions always have a lovely relaxed and friendly atmosphere, refreshments will be available (the shop asks for a £2 contribution for this) and the light and airy classroom is right above a store full of beads. So Saturday the 6th of August promises to be a very enjoyable day and while composing this blog post, I have just heard that there are only 4 places left on the workshop - so if you are thinking of booking, don't leave it too long!

See you next time!

Kerrie ♥

New Chilli bead!

Hello everyone!

I'm here with news of the new Chilli™ bead which has recently been launched by the PRECIOSA Traditional Czech Beads brand. Once again I was fortunate enough to be involved in creating some promotional pieces using the new beads and so I spent a couple of happy weeks turning them this way and that and having a whole lot of fun with them. The Chilli measures 4 x 11 mm and is a narrow elongated bead with a flat edge and two holes which you can see in the picture below.

I've worked with a lot of shaped beads in the last few years and one of the things I particularly liked about the Chilli bead is that it works well with either the convex or concave side uppermost, or even on its side. Modern beads come in such a wonderful range of colours and finishes that it's nice to be able to admire them from every angle and so for the first piece I made I captured an upturned Chilli between pairs of Chilli beads on their side and then added a cluster of them in the centre with the curved side on top. I used a base of black Ultrasuede and a liberal sprinkling of chrome seed beads to complement the lovely mottled black and silver finish of colour number 23980/15481 and then turned it into a brooch.

I liked the way this piece turned out and so I made another very similar piece using Chilli beads in colour number 23980/86800 which has a really nice speckled finish. Again I used black Ultrasuede as a backing, but this time with slightly smaller black seed beads and a burst of shiny silver seed beads in the centre for a touch of drama. Rather than a brooch I turned this one into a pendant by creating a hanging loop of seed beads and threading a length of black satin ribbon through it.

For the next piece I used silver Chilli beads (colour number 00030/27000) with shiny silver seed beads and black Twin beads to make some star-shaped components. Because the Chilli beads have two holes they mix perfectly with the other two-holed beads and so Chillies and Twins are a match made in heaven. I attached the individual components together using jump rings and some more Twin beads as connectors and then whipped up a pair of matching earrings to complete the set.

 

As much as I love the classic black and silver combination, I wanted to introduce a little more colour and femininity into my final design and so I decided to make a romantic flower bracelet. For this one I used some beautiful transparent purple Chilli beads (00030/15781) and a lovely transparent pale blue (00030/14464) and mixed them with silver seed beads. I popped an 8 mm crystal AB fire polished bead into the centre of each one and attached the completed flowers to a simple herringbone rope.

There is a Flickr album full of stunning photos of Chilli bead pieces made by other designers which you can scroll through for inspiration and you can also see the full range of colours and finishes available in this album. Preciosa has four free Chilli bead projects available to download from their website and some stores around the world already have the new beads in stock too so you can get started right away. Don't forget that Preciosa is always happy to see your designs using their beads, so be sure to show them your Chilli bead creations via their Facebook page.

See you next time!

Kerrie ♥

Pirouetting Pips!

Hello everyone!

Just a quick post today to let you know about a couple of new publications. The brand new sparkly issue of Digital Beading Magazine has just been released and as usual, it is packed with 164 pages of must make projects and inspirational interviews. You can find the instructions for my 'Pirouetting Pips' bracelet on page 66 of issue 11 and if you'd like to see how it looks when worn - check out page 6 as the editor of the magazine is wearing it! This bracelet uses the lovely new Pip™ beads from Preciosa Ornela and it's a fun piece to wear as the flowers twirl around. Don't forget to have a look at the back cover of DBM too as there's a sneak peek of my Chexxagon necklace which will be in issue 12!

The second piece of news is that Creative Beading Volume 9: The Best Projects from a Year of Bead & Button Magazine has just been published and I am very pleased to have two projects included in this lovely hardback annual. Gumdrops in my Garden and Spikes in Bloom have both been included in the 'multiple-technique' section of the book, two floral projects that use gumdrop beads and spike beads from www.yorkbeads.com

That's all for now but there will be another couple of brand new patterns released in a few weeks time.

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 ♥

Into each garden some rain must fall ...

Of course I have corrupted a line from Longfellow's 'The Rainy Day' in the title of my post today, but it perfectly expresses my feelings.  Due to family illness the Midnight Garden exhibition has had to be cancelled - but that does not mean an end to the Midnight Garden!  Unexpected and disappointing things happen.  In my real life garden a cheeky little mouse has made a tasty meal of my baby carrots and voracious slugs and snails have made short work of my runner beans - I was looking forward to eating those homegrown vegetables myself, but it was not meant to be this year and it does not mean I will not plant new ones.  The walls of the Midnight Garden are still firm,  the twisting twirling leaves and vines are still thriving and the owls, hedgehogs and turtles are still watchful and waiting for a time when new creatures will join them.  The garden was already beginning to take on a life of its own and new ideas were starting to take shape, so perhaps this change of direction was always on the cards - the gardener just wasn't aware of it!

So, although I cannot go through with the physical exhibition in September, I will continue with my personal colour challenge (albeit at a slower pace), I will still be the caretaker of the Midnight Garden and I will carry on with my freelance work.  Talking of which - I have just managed to complete a couple of new Thorn Flower bracelets in different colourways!  These will join the existing bracelet at the York Beads booth at Bead Fest in Philadelphia from August the 17th to the 19th.  And don't forget that you can purchase the pattern for the Thorn Flowers via this page of my website!

 

To round off today's post I would like to thank everybody for the wonderful support the garden has received so far.  I would also like to reassure you that although my work will no longer be displayed at Stitchncraft in September, I will still be working hard on creating this body of work and I will of course keep you updated with all news on my blog or Facebook page.

Bye for now!

Kerrie