Prima product of the month - November/December!

Hello everyone!

As we are all busy bees and as the end of the year is approaching, Prima Bead combined the November and December assignments and sent each member of the blogging team similar items, asking us to make something to wear to an imaginary New Year's Eve party. I was really looking forward to getting my teeth into this one as my mind was full of ideas when I first opened the box and saw lots of gorgeous items from the Jewelry Basics range. However, unfortunately I have a little family crisis on my hands at the moment and although I don't want this to prevent me from fulfilling my beady commitments, I have had to scale down my plans and just make a couple of items rather than the elaborate party wear I had intended. Nearly all of the items I received from Prima were a mix of classic black and silver including a very long strand of lovely black glass pearls so first of all I mixed the pearls with some black rondelles to whip up a quick and easy cocktail ring:

A few days before this I had been busy writing up the instructions for my Twin™ bead lariat and as the pattern was still fresh in my mind, I decided to make another one of the flowers using black Twin beads and suspend it from a strung necklace of the black glass pearls interspersed with sterling silver beads. I have recently begun working with A Grain Of Sand and I will be incorporating some of their stunning clasps in my work and I thought this black and silver clasp finished off the new necklace perfectly.

And finally, just because I couldn't resist  the elegant simplicity of it (and you know me and ribbon!) I added this lovely little metal bow to a length of black ribbon to make an easy wrist corsage.

I will have lots of other things to show you before the end of the year (crisis permitting!) but this is the last 'Prima product of the month' post for 2013. I'm looking forward to continuing to work with Prima and I can't wait to see what the team receives in January.

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!