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 ♥

Resolutions!

Happy New Year everyone!

Did you make any New Year's resolutions?  I made the usual ones of course; eat more healthily, take more exercise and all the other ones that are usually broken by the second week in January, but I also resolved to keep moving forward with my beading.  I have exciting plans for an exhibition in 2012 and my butterfly mind keeps flitting to thoughts of that, but first I think that 2011 is going to be all about teaching.  I have 6 workshops lined up in the UK and Germany and I'm also planning on making more patterns available to purchase via my website, but all of that means a lot of detailed planning, writing instructions and drawing diagrams instead of designing new beadwork.  I do have a head full of new ideas to try out though, so watch this space!  In the meantime, I thought I'd remind you that one of my resolutions for 2010 was to start selling patterns directly from  my website and I now have 5 available - details below.  These are in addition to the 26 patterns that I have had published in magazines since 2008 and you can see details of all those on this page of my website.  Most of them are still available from the publishers as pdf's or back issues, so if you see one you like but can't find, drop me a line via the contact form on my website and I'll try and track it down for you.  All of the patterns below are available from this page of my website.

Core Beaded Beads tutorial

Poppy tutorial

Twinkling Tilas tutorial

Double Daisy tutorial

Rivoli Daisies tutorial

Bye for now!

Another new tutorial!

Back in July, I made Mum a flowery pendant for her birthday, as a sparkly Swarovski crystal Rivoli had caught her eye and she wondered if I could make it into a little flower for her.  Well, as you know, I do like a beady challenge and so I experimented with bezeling the Rivoli for the centre of the flower and then worked on creating some little petals.  I was quite pleased with the end result (and so was Mum!) and I thought that several of them sewn together would make a lovely bracelet, but what with one thing and another, I have only just found the time to work on it.

I thought you might like it too, and so I have spent the last couple of weeks writing instructions, taking photos and drawing lots of diagrams, and the tutorial is now for sale on my website.  This is the fourth tutorial that I am selling directly from my website and I am trying to make them as detailed as possible so that despite the fact that some of them may look quite complicated, all the steps are broken down into easy stages although you will need to know the basic stitches of course.  This is a 21 page tutorial (the longest so far!) but I am keeping my pricing structure simple, so all of my patterns are currently for sale for £6.

One of the things I really love about beadwork, is being able to create a lovely, wearable little piece using only beads, thread, a crystal or two and very little else, and this is a classic example of that - just a Swarovski Rivoli, some seed beads and thread is all that goes into making a beautiful little daisy with a centre that looks like liquid gold.  Of course, you can make these in any colour you wish as there are so many gorgeous Rivoli colours to choose from!

If you would like to make yourself, or someone you love, a Rivoli Daisy, the pattern is available here

A new tutorial!

I finally managed to lay my hands on some of the new Miyuki Tila beads last week.  I think they have probably been out for a little while now, as I have seen several lovely Tila bead creations on my travels through Blogland, but this is the first time I have had chance to experiment with them.  If you haven't seen them, they are square (5mm x 5mm) but also quite flat as they are only 1.9mm thick, but the big difference is that they have TWO parallel holes running through them!

I must admit that I found them quite a challenge at first, as it was more difficult than I thought to use them with my usual stitches, but after a few false starts I came up with this design which I have called Twinkling Tilas as they remind me of stars.

I have been good and already written the pattern up and it is now available to purchase via my website.  The instructions cover the single row bracelet and also how to make the wider cuff style bracelet.  These little stars are quite versatile and you could turn a single one into a pendant, make two for a pretty pair of earrings or use them to embellish other beadwork!

I bought my Tila beads from The Bead Shop (Nottingham) Ltd and they have a great range of gorgeous colours so you could create lots of different effects - I'm sure the iridescent crystal colour would make a fabulously sparkly bracelet, or even a choker ... perfect for the upcoming party season!

The pattern for Twinkling Tilas is available here .

See you next week!

Catching up and a new pattern ...

Gulp!  No blog posts for 7 weeks!  Where have I been?  What have I been doing?  Well I can promise you that I haven't been idle, but things have been a bit hectic just recently, so I'm afraid the blog had to have a little rest.  I've been busy behind the scenes, working on new ideas, writing patterns, judging contests, getting involved in challenges and discussing some exciting new teaching plans.  Hopefully I will be able to blog a bit more regularly again now and keep you up to date with what's happening.  So let's start by telling you that I have just finished writing my second tutorial 'Poppy' and it is now available to purchase via my website.

I had a very similar pattern to this one published in Bead magazine at the beginning of 2009, but the back issue is no longer available and several people have recently asked me if I could write my own instructions for it.  I had a group of wonderful 'testers' help me to fine-tune this pattern and so we think we have most of the wrinkles ironed out.  It's amazing how people can interpret things in completely different ways and I learnt a lot about writing patterns from this experience - thank you guys!  The tutorial is now 14 pages long and although it is written in English, there are lots of diagrams and photos to make things easier, and there are also instructions for optional leaves included.  I made the poppy above in traditional red and black, but take a look at the 'Readers' Gallery' page on my website (under Poppy) as there are lots of pictures there that people have kindly sent me, showing poppies in all sorts of colours with some fantastic inspirational design ideas - poppies definitely don't have to be red!