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!

English Rose

Several months ago, I was asked to create a necklace project for the beautiful new German beadwork magazine Perlen Poesie -  'English Rose' is the result of my experiments and the instructions can be seen on page 58 of the latest issue of the magazine.  Once again, this is a necklace that can be worn in several ways as the 'rose' is removable and so you can change the colour of the flower, wear it high at the neck or lower down, knot or plait the stems or let them hang freely and cluster gently beneath the rose.  This is quite a difficult piece to photograph as it is very long, but the following picture shows the soft drape of the stems and leaves as they are held in place by the flower.

The next picture shows the 'Silver Shadow' version of the necklace and also highlights the silver spines on the leaves.

The following picture shows the 'Burgundy Bloom' version of the necklace and the strong red provides a real contrast to the pale pink version - change them to suit your mood or your outfit!

Another view of the true 'English Rose' version of the necklace, showing the rose worn high at the neck with the stems gently braided.

And finally (now that I have learnt how to make them!) a collage of the 'English Rose Collection'.

I hope that you like the new necklace and that you will enjoy making your own - as always, feel free to send me a picture of your own version and I will gladly add it to the 'Readers' Gallery' page on my website.  The Bead Shop (Nottingham) Ltd stock this magazine or you can subscribe directly via this page of the magazine's website.

Royal Quiver!

Following the news that Maid Marian's Quiver won joint second place in the seed bead category of the British Bead Awards, I learnt that it will also be a project in a future issue of Bead magazine. I only had some hastily scribbled notes from the first time around and so I had to make another one, writing the instructions as I went. I thought I would try making it in different colours to see what effect this would have on the finished piece and my first thought was to try red roses.  Can you believe though, that in my huge stash of beads, I didn't have any red beads in just the right shade! I'm not really a natural when it comes to mixing colours and so I spent ages ferreting around for other suitable combinations of colours for the roses, leaves and quiver that would complement each other.  I eventually decided on purple roses! I think I ended up with a rather regal effect and hence Maid Marian's sister piece has been named Royal Quiver.

Beading Hearts!

The Power of Beading Contest ends today (although you can still buy the pattern for my Awareness Pins here with all monies raised until September 30th going to charity) so it's time for a fresh start and a new project, although this one is also for charity.

Some of my fellow Etsy BeadWeavers team members have volunteered to take part in Jeanette Shanigan's 2009 Breast Cancer Donation Project - "Bead artists have the heart to take on breast cancer". Each year a theme is set, this time it's hearts, in 2007 it was butterflies and the 2008 theme was roses. Jeanette collects all donated beaded squares and stitches them into quilts which are then auctioned off at the Bead & Button show to raise money for charity.

I have spent the last week making four squares to donate to this wonderful project and it has been a lot of fun as well as a personal challenge. I started out by mulling over various heart related proverbs and sayings to see what images they would conjure up in my mind. When I began to think about it, I was amazed by just how many heart clichés there are, but I settled on three and set about experimenting with stitches to see which ones would be most suitable - I wanted each square to be different and have it's own little theme. I was only going to make three squares, but then I had another idea and made a fourth square "United Hearts" with a red and white heart on a blue background symbolizing 'the pond'!

I have never had to restrict the size of my beadwork before and as the rules state that each square must only be 1½ inches by 1½ inches, it took me quite a while to get the bead count of each square exactly right. The finished squares also have to be stitched to interfacing, ready to be sewn up into a quilt and this was the part I found most challenging as 'normal' sewing is beyond me - let's just say, you don't want to see the back of my squares!

So here they are shown from the top in the order that I made them; Ace of Hearts using Square stitch, Look into your Heart using Herringbone and a small acrylic mirror, Hearts and Flowers using two-drop Brick stitch, size 15 seed beads and a freshwater pearl and United Hearts using three-drop Brick stitch with a Square stitch heart attached.

Although it will be some time yet, I look forward to seeing the finished quilts and I hope they raise a substantial amount of money for the designated charities. In the meantime, I would love to hear what you think about my squares.