Leaf Bracelet - Kit review

Last October I visited the Welsh Bead Fair in Cardiff and bought some kits from Spellbound Beads. I chose this leaf bracelet as it reminded me of the Saraguro beadwork that I had seen exhibited on the Beadworkers Guild stand that I really loved, except it looked a bit easier!

I can't find the name of the kit right now as the bag I kept the instructions in is packed away while decorating & I couldn't see it on the Spellbound Beads website either but I still wanted to write about it before I forgot!

The instructions for the kit were really comprehensive, nicely laid out and easy to follow. There were plenty of beads and the colour choice is beautiful, I know there were other lovely combinations too. The patter itself was much easier to work than expected and went very quickly so a win-win! I bought other kits there too and after doing this bracelet I'm glad I did because I felt that this was good value for money and an easy way to try something different. Here is the link to the Spellbound Beads website, but don't click if you don't want to be tempted to spend lots of money!

Kaliedescope

Here is a new multi-stitch necklace that I finished this weekend. I wear a lot of purple and teals so I wanted a necklace that would work with both colours. I used a variety of stitches, including dutch spiral, circular peyote and spiral rope. It was a lot of fun to make the components and then decide how to piece them together to create the necklace.

A favourite necklace.

Referred to my one of my work colleagues as "your amazing necklace"! I had originally overlooked the pattern for this necklace in Bead & Button but wanted something fairly easy to accomplish during the busy build-up to Christmas so chose it while flicking through some back issues in search of inspiration. I have been going through a real monochrome phase as you can see from the main colours and added the lovely tortoiseshell effect glass beads to jazz it up a bit. I really like the finished piece and it was fun to make, I may well add more rings to it at a later date.

Copper Rose Pendant.

I love Eastern art and architecture and was influenced by these when I was designing this pendant. I chose the pink to remind me of cherry blossoms and added copper.

Calypso Flowers

I wanted to try a totally different colour scheme for this piece. I used swarovski crystals in Caribbean opal and lime and a pumpkin orange delicas. The pattern is a favourite motif from Suzanne Cooper's Victorian and Variations. I'm glad I tried it but I don't think the colour combo is successful and won't be using it again. The great thing about beading is that you can frog it & use the beads in something else.

My Version Of A Slant On Bails.

Life is back to normal after the school holidays, so hopefully normal blog service will also resume. My son is happily back to school in year 1, apparently his new class is super-fun!

As I mentioned in my last post I decided to make my own version of Mary Champions A New Slant On Bails from the latest issue of Bead Style Magazine. So the next night I sat down once kiddo was in bed and hubby at the gym to work out how I was going to do it.
First of all, I decided to add spirals at each end of the wire instead of bead covers as I didn't have enough. For the bails I thought delica tubes with a loop would work and decided on crystal shadow twist beads and bicones and hematite seed beads and delicas for a monochrome look. I even drew a quick sketch with notes which I will do more often as it made the actual beading process more easier and quicker.

The delica bails worked well in the design I thought but I think that next time I would add some embellishments to make them more ornate. I enjoyed the process of translating the design into something I could make with what I had on hand and I really like the shape.

I have managed to keep to the bead buying ban but I will soon need to order some more findings.

Through the loops

I am an avid collector of beading magazines, in fact I'm fast running out of space to keep them. I collect Bead & Button, Beadwork, Bead Unique, Step-by-Step Beads and Bead magazine.
Despite my huge collection, I don't very often make something from a current issue, I seem to keep them a while, ruminate on the projects and make something months after I have had the mag. This week has been an exception though. I got my B&B about 2 weeks ago & instantly wanted to the through the loops collar, I think this is for two reasons, 1. it reminds me of the simple lace collars that I made when I first started seed beading & 2. The materials needed were readily available, just 3 tubes of seed beads, sometimes it's hard to get hold of the more unusual supplies, here in the UK.

I like the finished result but I have to say I found the beadwork a bit fiddly and repetitive, this is not a fault of the instructions, which were excellent, it's just not a technique that I warmed too.

Brick and Strands Bracelet.

The brick and strands bracelet is a pattern I saw on on about.com years and years ago when I first started beading. I never made one at the time but I wanted a quick and easy pattern and to use up some beads that were in my leftover's box. It worked up quite nicely and I have some ideas for variations too.

2nd Crystal Bracelet.

Here is the 2nd bracelet I made using the pattern from Bead & Button's Brilliant Crystal magazine. I used Dark blue pearls and hematite firepolish beads for this one. the band is such a lovely fit and great fun to make that I want to make another one but I think 2 is enough for now!

Crystal Bracelet.

I fell in love with this bracelet and the colour combination when I first saw it in Bead & Button's Brilliant Crystals magazine. I really enjoyed making the bracelet and the colours are great, I have made another one which I will post later.

Forest Crystal Burst Ring

So like many of you out there I'm now completely in love with bezelling rivoli's. This ring is made using Laura McCabes Crystal Sunburst method. The surrounding crystals are some amazing jet abx2 crystals that my husband bought me as a surprise. The abx2 effect is beautiful, I can't get over how different the colours are in this finish. I am running out of Rivoli's so I'll have to try something else for a while until I get some more

Rivoli Earrings.

In the pursuit of expanding my earring collection, I made these simple bezelled rivoli earrings using instructions from Laura McCabes book. I used steel grey delicas and galvanised silver size 15's. I like the simplicity of these but I think I will need to also have a pair of Crystal Burst earrings, after all a girl can never have too much sparkle!

Crystal Blue Earrings.

Last night I sat down to watch the Da Vinci Code on TV. I didn't have a project ready to work on so I picked up the beads left over from the little black dress earrings and started playing with right angle weave. I tried using different sizes and created a lovely curve which I then joined together and strung on the earwire with strands of 3mm crystals.

I quite liked the film, it was diverting at least, I much preferred the book though.

Little Black Dress Earrings

Although I wear earrings almost everyday, I make very few of them. I thought it was about time I rectified the situation, so for the next few
weeks I am going to try & focus on expanding my earring collection, apart from the rings I am making as gifts of course.

These earrings are from a design called Little Black Dress Earrings by Marcia DeCoster published in Beadwork Magazine Dec/Jan. You can find a link to Marcia's blog on the right.

These earrings were a real delight to make! Relatively quick & easy and they use just a small amount of materials to great effect. These are for me, but I think they would make a wonderful gift for someone who loves earrings.

Serengeti Ring

Here is a ring I made using Phyliss Dintefass's
pattern published in the most recent Beadwork
magazine. It is an interesting technique which I
enjoyed making but I didn't like the colour combo
enough to make another for an earring. It makes
a nice big ring though.

Red Daggers Necklace.

The inspiration for this necklace was the Beadalon Daggers necklace that I mentioned in an earlier post. Mine is slightly different, the pale grey triangles are 2 drop brick stitch with matte grey ab delica's with large red glass drops, the dark grey triangles are made with size 11
hex seed beads in single drop brick stitch. The necklace strap is peyote. It was a fun necklace to make and it drapes very nicely
around the neck.

Dutch Spiral Version 2

I loved doing the dutch spiral so much that as soon as I had completed Safari, I tried another version. I'm quite into beadwork on neckwire's
at the moment so I made a shorter version using purple, grey and white ab seed beads and accented it with a silver crystal shadow square ring. I love it but if I'm honest, it doesn't
really suit me so this will probably be going in my present bag. I have a nice collection of beaded items all ready made up stored in a nice gift bag that I dip into for birthday presents.

I haven't blogged much the last few weeks as I have been pretty busy, going away, searching for holidays online & various other things. I haven't done a lot of beading either as I have been reading instead. I read a great book called PopCo by Scarlett Thomas, it was a really interesting read and quite fun too, I have another of hers to read which I am looking forward too, The End of Mr Y.

Safari Dutch Spiral Necklace

I have never taken much notice of the Dutch Spiral Stitch but after seeing Belinda's amazing Necklace Symphonie de Tulipes I really wanted to try it out. I also decided to break out of my usual colour combinations and was inspired to use this scheme of greens and oranges after taking this photo at Longleat Safari Park last week. I used 2 colours of green size 8's, Topaz 4mm crystals and orange size 15's. I graduated the size of the loops towards the front. I will be making something else with this stitch, there are so many possibilities! Thank you to Belinda for introducing me to it!

Link to Belinda's amazing necklace -> http://beadfetish.blogspot.com/2009/04/symphonie-de-tulipes.html

Some links to free projects.

My beading mojo seems to be taking an Easter break this weekend, I have started a few projects but nothing looked good, what with that & running out of beads for my green & magenta flower necklace and this peyote tube necklace, I felt the need to trawl the net for some inspiration. I found a lot of free projects,some I had seen before and some new to me. Since I don't have a new project to share, I thought I would share some of the projects that I have added to my beading to do list instead.

Beadalon Free Projects

http://www.beadalon.com/designworkshop.asp

There are lots of great free designs on this website, but these are the ones I think I will actually make;

http://www.beadalon.com/argyle.asp A necklace featuring beaded cube beads, designed by Nicole Schlinger

http://www.beadalon.com/daggers.asp Another necklace by Nicole Schlinger, this one has 2 drop triangles as the main element & looks really fun to make & wear.

http://www.beadalon.com/sparkleflower.asp A departure for me, these wirework earrings by Meredith Roddy caught my eye when they were featured in magazine adverts a while ago.

Beaded Bead Projects

I love beaded beads. The 1st ones I ever made were the spinning top beads from Florence & Gwen at Bead Infinitum and I still make them, they are quick, easy & extremely versatile. If I am stuck for a special last minute gift idea, I invariably use some swarovski crystal pearls for a few of these and then string them with more pearls and 4mm crystal bicones for a bit of sparkle. unfortunately I don't have any pics as they are usually out of the door as soon as I make them. I really must make one for myself.

Bead Infinitum's Spinning Top http://www.beadinfinitum.com/Kits/SpinningTopInstructions.pdf

I found a few other links to some beaded beads that I would like to try as well;

Janie Warnick's Versatile Bead

http://www.angelfire.com/tx3/janiesbeads/versatile.html

Cathy Lampole Perla Perle Beaded Beads

http://cathysbeadwork.blogspot.com/search/label/directions

I hope you enjoy the links, I'm off to gather supplies for the dagger necklace.

Fringe Bracelet

I seem to have a bit of a crush on the purple/pink colour combination, shock horror, how girly! Could I finally be getting over the brown & turquoise that is usually my staple? This bracelet is made with the fringe technique & delicas & drop pearls. Another quick & easy project to appease my instant gratification demands!