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 ♥

Prima product of the month - September!

Hello everyone!

I'm sorry about the month long silence but don't worry, I have not been idle and I have been busy meeting all sorts of beady deadlines which I hope to post about in the near future. Right now though, it is time for my Prima Bead Blog Team monthly post. Thankfully, we were given until October the 4th to complete this one which helped a lot as I only finished the last two pieces today. So despite only being October, did you know that 'Tis the Season?

Yes that's right, this month the products we were sent were all from Prima's Tis the Season range and the Prima Bloggers each received a huge box full of charms, trinkets and baubles and were asked to make an item of jewellery and a home decor item. Now when I say a huge box I mean HUGE - just take a look at what I found when I unpacked the box ...

My box was actually delayed and so I didn't receive it until last week which didn't give me much time to meet the deadline, but as it turned out, that was actually a good thing for me. If you follow my blog you will know that at heart I am a hard-core seedbeader and so my work with Prima is quite a departure from my normal work. So being short of time I decided that rather than stressing about incorporating these items into complicated beadwork, I would let that go and think up some quick and easy makes to show some ideas of ways to use these lovely items. I wouldn't enter a beading contest with the things I've made, but I would make them all for my friends and family and I think that is really what Prima wants. So ...

On the fifth day of Christmas my true love sent to me - five place cards made from various charms from Prima and some card, foil stars and a few beads from me.

On the fourth day of Christmas my true love sent to me - four pairs of earrings made from round tag charms and large hole beads and earring findings from Prima and some jump rings and ribbon from me.

On the third day of Christmas my true love sent to me - three decorative dangles made from a variety of beads and charms from Prima and some cotton thread from me.

On the second day of Christmas my true love sent to me - two sparkly baubles made from different charms and some chain from Prima and two glass baubles from me.

And on the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me - a present for under the tree made from beads and charms from Prima and a clasp from me.

So there you have it - a variety of decoration and gift ideas using the Tis the Season range from Prima! And for my next post it will be back to more complicated beadwork.

See you next time!

Kerrie ♥

The pattern shop is filling up!

It's been a busy year (and it's about to get busier for the next few months!) but I've managed to find time to add two more patterns to my website.  Both of these have actually been published in magazines already, but  after receiving requests from people asking me to make the patterns available from my website, I have completely rewritten them and added lots of new diagrams and photos.  The first pattern is Daisy Chain (originally published in Bead magazine) and as the pictures below show, you can make your little daisies into a variety of finished pieces - from a complex looking necklace or bracelet to a simpler pendant or pair of earrings.  All of these finished pieces are surprisingly simple to make and full details are included in the tutorial.

The second pattern is for my English Rose necklace (originally published in Perlen Poesie magazine) and is bit more advanced than Daisy Chain, but again, there are lots of diagrams and photos to help you create the finished piece.  The project is to make the necklace shown and the idea is that you make several 'roses' as they are interchangeable, but it would be easy to adapt it to make a bracelet (to save you making several feet of beaded rope!) or you could just make the 'rose' and turn it into a pendant or a brooch.

So the pattern shop is gradually filling up and there are now seven patterns to choose from.  I will be adding one more in the next few weeks and then I really MUST start preparing for my workshop in Hamburg as it is coming around frighteningly fast!  Bye for now!

A belated Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!  I'm not quite sure how it got to be the 21st of January already, but better late than never.  I hope you all had a very beady holiday season.  I know I did, and although I didn't get quite as much beading done as I had intended, I did a lot of thinking and have some exciting new plans for this year ... but I'll tell you more about that next week ;0)

In the meantime, let me tell you that the latest issue of the UK magazine Bead is now in the shops and I  have a small project 'Pretty Pearls in the Net' on page 106.  Unusually for me, this one can be made in under an hour and is a delicate pair of earrings that was inspired by a new blouse I bought.

And finally for this week, I was happy to learn that the lovely Myra of Raicreations Designs has passed on the Sunshine Blog Award to my blog.  Isn't that a wonderfully inspiring and uplifting picture?  Thank you Myra!  I don't usually pass on awards as I hate to leave anyone out, so instead, I would ask you to follow the links on my sidebar to discover a host of talented creative bloggers.

See you next week!

Swingin' Poppies ...

Things are still pretty hectic around here but I have managed to do a little bit of beadwork at last! First is my new range of earrings featuring ultra long sterling silver kidney earwires. The earwires themselves are nearly 5cms long and so once the flowers are added the earring is approximately 7cms from tip to tip. First in the range is Swingin' Poppies featuring a cute pair of little handwoven poppies in dramatic red and black.

I have a pair of these myself and although I wouldn't normally wear such long earrings, I have to say that as the wires are so thin and barely noticeable, you just get the effect of little flowers dancing round your neck - it feels great and very summery! I know they are not very clear, but here's a picture of me wearing my Swingin' Poppies.

I also made myself a pair of earrings to match a new blouse I bought for my holiday. I just happened to have some cylinder beads in almost exactly the same shade of green as the blouse and then I found some tiny freshwater pearls that seemed to complement the dots in the blouse perfectly. They are made using a combination of brick stitch and netting and hang from sterling silver Creole hoops.

Dragonfly Dreams

I'm still busy making a variety of small flowers for earrings rather than concentrating on any large projects at the moment. Life seems to be quite hectic just lately, and so these little projects are still satisfyingly beady but quick enough to fit in around other commitments. I have been branching out with my colour schemes a little too - I'm still using a limited range of colours in each piece (well it just wouldn't be me otherwise would it!) but the colours I have been putting together are a little bit more experimental. I have just finished a pair of earrings I made for myself, I don't often wear my own jewellery despite my friends nagging me to do so, and the inspiration for the colours in these is a pretty top I have - it's a busy mix of teal, turquoise, coral, bright red and yellow green and I absolutely love it.

We are going to a live music concert tomorrow night at the Lowdham book festival to see Show of Hands and so I thought I would wear my favourite top and make myself some coral and teal earrings to go with it. The only beads I had that were a good match to the top were some tiny size 15 seed beads that I once ordered by mistake (I normally work with the slightly larger size 11 seed beads) and so I have been experimenting with petal shapes using the smaller size - a success I think, but my eyes definitely need a break now and my purse is quivering at the thought of me possibly wanting to build up a collection of size 15's! The photo above shows the raw materials and the photo below is of the finished pair of earrings.

It's been a busy week on Etsy this past week too. I was thrilled to find my work in five beautiful treasuries and I created my first treasury too - Dragonfly Dreams. As I understand it, you are not supposed to feature your own work in a treasury that you curate, it is more to acknowledge and promote other Etsy members, so I created my treasury around a dragonfly theme with a mixture of beadwoven pieces from the Etsy Beadweavers team (of which I am a member) and other delightful handmade items I found - a couple of which also use my new favourite coral and teal colour combination! I enjoyed searching through Etsy to find items to fit my theme and discovered lots of wonderful talent in the process and I'm looking forward to 'snagging' a spot for my next treasury which also has a fun theme!