Magazine submissions

I've been sorting a few photographs out on my PC and came across a folder with some of my magazine submissions in.

I don't think I have blogged about all of these before, and I cannot remember much detail about them now, so I will just share the photos with a few words.

Stardust Earrings

Cube Bracelet, I got front cover of Bead for this one.

Zesty Necklace, with beads made by Tan Grey.

Four Seasons choker.  Had lots of fun with this piece, loads of embellishment.

Slave Bracelet, not a very politically correct title and for that I apologise.

Chocolate & Marshmallow Discs. 

Flower Cabochon Pendant, one of those decorative pebbles you can buy in homeware stores, beaded around.

A twisty sapphire blue beaded necklace with a Murano heart focal.

Figaro Chain earrings, dangly and interesting, but without being heavy.

Lillybells bracelet.  A mixture of beadwork and stringing.  Each glass bead is nestled in it's own little beaded cup.

One of my favourites.   A lucite flower bracelet with a watch face.  Very full, bustling with colour.

Loop Earrings.  I loved making these, they remind me of a Spanish dancer doll I had when I was young.

Gemstone Twist - you said tumblestones were uncomfortable?  Not when they are sewn into a spiral with seed beads.

Blueberry Cluster, a very heavy piece with various sizes of glass cats-eye beads.  Incredibly tactile.

And I will leave you with this one, my Daisy Chain.  This piece can be made as long or as short as you like, and it is threaded together like you would a real daisy chain.

If you would like any of these patterns, I am sure I will still have them somewhere, just ask and I will email then over  :)

January Giveaway

This is my last blog as "Artist of the month" over on the Bead Buddies Forum.  It's a pity really as I have so many projects very nearly finished, that I wanted to share, but they will have to just be blogged about as they are completed  :)

Well, I said that this year I would do a giveaway at the end of every month.

The January giveaway will be a necklace from my "Sprite Collection".  This collection was made whilst on holiday in Marrakesh way back in January 2011.  We flew out there on New Years Eve, I started the collection at Manchester Airport, continued it on the plane and did bits on the hotel balcony every afternoon.

So this is what is on offer, a pretty pink beaded flower on a St Petersburg chain.  It is finished with a beaded toggle clasp. No metal parts.

I will use a random name generator to pick the winner on Sunday 3rd February.

If you would like to enter all you have to do is either comment on this blog or pop on over to my Facebook Page, find this post and pop a comment on there.

Good luck  :)

Lime & Choc Bracelet WINNER IS.....

Remember this little offer?

http://soozintheshed.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/chocolate-lime-giveaway.html

Well I was going to use a random name generator but as there is just one person interested I am not sure it would work too well  :)

Therefore the winner is ...... (Drum Roll).......ALLY !!  Email me your postal address Ally and I will pop this in the post to you.

If you forgot, or simply didn't fancy this piece, do keep checking back because this year at the end of each and every month I am going to do a little giveaway.  It might be something from my blog that month, or perhaps from my stash of work already done.

Beadweaving at Hobbycraft

On Monday I held a little beginners beadweaving class at Hobbycraft in Carlisle.

The stitch was Peyote stitch.

My demo piece was rainbow bright while the ladies chose a more demure black and white colourway.

It went well, and they did great.

Next month we will master the 'Spiral Staircase' stitch.

Chocolate & Lime Giveaway

A little giveaway for you.

Hand-made beadwoven bracelet in a milk chocolate and zesty lime colourway.

A fringed band topped with sparkling lime flowers and finished with 3 lime AB glass hearts that pass through a loop to fasten.

No metal pieces at all within this piece.

Would you like it?

If so you can let me know in a few different ways.  Either comment on this post within Blogger, comment in the Chatterbox in the Bead Buddies Forum, or look for the Chocolate & Lime Giveaway thread  on my Facebook page and pop a comment in there.

I will gather up all the names, pop them into a random name generator on Wednesday and it will pick a winner for me.  Everyone can enter  :)

Good luck.

A Beaded Pen.

This is a little present I made for my lovely Mother-In-Law - a beaded pen.

She loves green, so I mixed up about 7 different shades of green Japanese Miyuki Delica beads and just beaded them at random.

The pen comes blank, with a pattern sheet so you can draw your own design if you like, but as I was just doing random colours I only needed the row amounts and how many beads to put on.

The panels are made flat, then "zipped up" to close into a tube, the pen then comes apart and you slide the beaded tubes in place.

Makes for an unusual pen to have in your handbag, don't you think?

Travelling Bracelet Adventures

Do you remember me telling you a couple of weeks ago about the Travelling Bracelet Project?

Well, if not, CLICK HERE for a little reminder  :)

Sadly, my time with the bracelet is now up and I have to pass it onto to another lucky beader, but in the meantime let me show you where the bracelet has been whilst in my care.

First, it took a little trip into my workplace, Hobbycraft, Carlisle.

Where it said hello to lots of lovely beads.

My colleagues were all very interested and a few were talked into being included in this blog  :)

Here is the beautiful Amy, a lovely picture with the flowers making a stunning backdrop.

And this is Nathan... of course boys can wear travelling bracelets  :)

At this point I entrusted the bracelet to my Manager's care and she took it down to Bournemouth for a meeting (360 miles away) and managed to get the CEO of Hobbycraft - Catriona Marshall to pose for a photo with it  :)  How fantastic!

Catriona Marshall - CEO of Hobbycraft

When I got it back, the next stop was Higham Hall, where I teach various crafts throughout a residential weekend.

Unfortunately the weather wasn't too kind for a decent photo against the magnificent scenery, but this mountain is Skiddaw, usually under some cloud, but under a lot that day.

I shall miss the bracelet, it is packed up and waiting to go to the next person once I have an address.  It was very comfortable to wear and attracted a lot of attention.  I shall follow it's further adventures with interest  :)

If you fancy signing up for a go, visit this website.

http://travelingbracelets.blogspot.co.uk/p/sign-up-for-traveling-bracelet.html

The Ukrainian Travelling Bracelet.

I am so pleased to be part of the fantastic travelling bracelet project.

http://travelingbracelets.blogspot.co.uk/

The Ukrainian bracelet arrived with me last week, in a HUGE box.

The bracelet is so well made, and beautifully designed.  It really is a pleasure to have it, if only for a little while.

I will be taking it on my travels next week, wherever I might go, it will accompany me.

February Colour Challenge 2011

Over on the Bead Buddies Forum we have a monthly colour challenge.

This month it was colours beginning with the letter 'B'

Beetroot Red / Bronze / Beige

I started this months in good time, as I usually ended up just chucking something together in the last two days.  However, it did take me best part of the month and I finished it with just two days to go.

Taken from the Diana Fitzgerald Shaped Beadwork book, I made a whole load of 3D Hexagons in various colourways, then sewed them all together in a very random order.

For the clasp I made a toggle clasp from the same tiny Delica beads, sizing it so it would fit into one of the Hexagons.

The whole piece (over the course of a month) took around 13 hours to make.

January Colour Challenge 2011

Over on the Bead Buddies Forum we have a monthly colour challenge.

This month it was colours beginning with the letter 'A'

Aubergine / Aquamarine / Alabaster

So, late last night, I was rushing about trying to get something done - it is surprising how quick that month goes.

I had planned to do something different, but couldn't find the beads I needed, so I made some little flowers instead and then added them to some bookmark blanks.

The middle bead is an Aquamarine coloured glass pearl, and the petals are made from a peach Alabaster coloured seed bead, along with an Aubergine purple seed bead and some Aquamarine silver-lined seed beads.

"Sprite Flowers" and more.

On New Years Eve I jetted off on a little holiday to Marrakech in Morrocco.

Now, being a beader, I couldn't go without a stash of beads - just in case there was any spare time.

I took 5 bags of seed beads in Pink, Yellow, Pale Blue, Dark Iris Blue and an AB Dark Grey, a pack of needles and a reel of KO beading thread. Oh, and two strings of glass pearls.

I bought some Airline safe nail cutters at Boots the Chemist in the Airport (they cut thread beautifully and you can take them on the Plane!)

I took out the box at the Airport - it is such a boring place once you have done the Perfume sniffing and Book browsing - and had no idea what-so-ever on what to make !

So I made a flower..... and another.......and another.......and so it went on.  Once I had a few flowers I made a bracelet base for them.  Then a necklace chain......... and on it went  :)

For some really odd reason, every time I looked at them I thought "Sprite"!  so Sprite is now the name of the collection.

This first necklace is a dangle of three flowers on a herringbone rope with a peyote toggle for a clasp.

Next we have a twisted spiral staircase rope, again with a toggle clasp and a pendant slider with three flowers. 

This necklace has no flowers, but is made from the same beads, under the twisted grey part are sections of colours, which are hard to make out in the photo.  The twists are interspersed with cream glass pearl beads.

This simple pink flower is attatched to a simple herringbone rope.

This is a Cecile's Wheel pattern, which I have done before.  It's a lovely design and looks great in these colours.  My Mum took a fancy to this so it is now in her jewellery box.

Onto the bracelets, this is a shaggy twisted bracelet, it fastens with two bead dangles which push through a loop.

This one is quite similar, but a slightly different variation of bead numbers.

And this one is a peyote band richly adorned in lots of different flowers.

A ring !

And finally a few pairs of earrings.

I think I am ready to move onto something else now :)