A Game of Chess

Chess, a thinking persons game. One of strategy, ambush and forward thinking. I love the game even though I am terrible at playing it. To win I must first choose the right opponent - you know someone who doesn't play!

I've always wanted a beautiful Chess set and a few years ago I saw one that had a Dragon fantasy theme, alas it was beyond my meager earnings. So it got me thinking, what if I beaded one instead. My mind was full of ideas.

So........ A few months ago I started on my journey to make a beaded chess set. I googled it to see if anyone else was as crazy as me to do this and I found only a few. I knew I only wanted a small set, this way it could be a travel game as well.

With just an idea I started beading, it took me a few tries before perfecting my central part of the design, then the individual pieces evolved naturally. The Knight was the most difficult, but after about 5 attempts I finally found a way of making it and is one of my favourite pieces.

The board I designed on BeadTool and then tweeked it as I made it - the board itself took me about 2 months to make as I would only do a few lines a day. The board measures only 20cm x 20.5cm.

The colours to choose for my set in was the easy part - Purple and White! After all what other colour is there????

I have played a few games with the Hubster and out of the 3 so far I have won 2 :)

I am currently in the process of writing a Tutorial for the Chess Set.  This will be available hopefully by the end of September.

I will also be running a giveaway of the Tutorial from my Facebook page once my Beads-Jewelled page reaches a 1000 likes.

Cheers, Bye for now

Battle of the Beadsmith 2015

Wow it's been a while since I did a blog post! Time flies when your having fun I guess ;)

Well I did it. I sent in my application to Steven Weiss of the Beadsmith to participate in the all Beady Goodiness that is Battle of the Beadsmith 2015. Group C Battle 29.
Once I knew I was on the list - panic of course set in.
What the hell was I going to do. I knew I wouldn't be able to make anything as good as those other's specially when I don't do the embroidery bit - I'm  a bit of a bead weaving purist in that respect. So my piece had to be great but woven!!!!! Not easy.
I formulated an idea to link me back to New Zealand - home of the long white cloud and the NZ Christmas Tree, the Pohutukawa.
So idea formed, now for the execution.
No mean feat. It was going to have to be individual components that would then be joined together to look like one.

It took quite a few attempts to get the Pohutukawa flower parts right, but I managed it.
Then on the long white cloud - that was the easy part.
A few leaves, pieces of Paua and PauaKawa was ready to be assembled!

Before it was all sewn together I played around with how I wanted it to look, which once decided meant I had to make more 'flowers'.

I am very happy with I made, but I know it doesn't come close to the visual impact of my battle buddy for round 1.

           

 Voting has of course started for Round 1  Group C Voting  Group D Voting - Get in quick.

NEW WEBSITE

My my oh my, starting a new website sounds great, but boy does it take a lot of time to create.
I've just started to create it and there are still so many photo's I have to take etc..... I do have some old pics but looking back at them now, they just don't seem up to scratch.

So a link is what you need isn't it to check it out well I have 2 type in either one it doesn't matter as you will still end up in the same place.

So save it to your favourites list. www.beads-jewelled.co.uk             

or if you prefer   www.beads-jewelled.com

Please let me know what you think, I would love to hear from you.

I also hope to add a gallery of Customer's work from my designs, so if you have brought one of my tutorials then email me your pics beadjewelled@hotmail.com with the subject line "Customer Gallery".

Check back regularly with the website as well - you never know what may have changed!
I'm hosting it through a different company to what I had before and I must say it's so much easier and I can control most things within the pages. This is of course fantastic, but I find myself becoming very critical - which is good. I want the pages to look great.

Well it's 3am as I'm typing this - yes I have been working on the site - though the part I'm working won't be visible to the public for quite a few days yet -and of course I couldn't sleep!!!!

So enjoy your day, evening or whichever part of the 24hr cycle your in..

Happy Beading :)

Websites and Life....

Hi all, I know right it's been such a long time since I wrote anything! Ooopsie.

Well since my last blog I became a Nannie again - number 4 born in November! So I am a Granny of 4 now, man do I feel old.

Anywho....... My website is about to close due to having to renew it and well the funds just aren't there to pay for it at the moment, so in good Kiwi spirit I am looking at freebies or really cheap. Of course the freebies have the hosts name in the title, but that's ok for now.

So I now have accounts with Wix and Moonfruit. Once I have gotten my pages the way I like them the links will of course be posted on my Facebook page.  

https://www.facebook.com/BeadsJewelled

Check it out! I do have a folder with things for sale on this site and then of course there is my etsy shop as well.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/BeadsJewelled

So all that should be ok for now.

I'm also getting to grips with a Windows 8 - oh what fun this! I also have to transfer quite a few photo's over to the new computer as well, so all this is taking time.

I am working on a couple of things but I'm not allowed to say just yet - all very hush hush you see. BUT
I will be teaching a workshop in March. Medway Beaders will be hosting me in March - more details later. I will be teaching how to make my Chalice - excited I am :)

Well I got to dash now, breakfast is calling and I have to go out in some horrible rain for the day.

Happy Beading..

Competition

I have been rather busy with a few things lately, getting ready for my stall at Spitalfields in September, but also putting the finishing touches to my competition entry for the British Bead Awards run by Bead magazine.

I am not allowed to post any pics yet or even tell you what it is or the title!

I kind of put it to one side for a while because I decided to get ready for the stall instead, but in my usual manner I decided at the last minute that I would indeed finish it, so a week before closing I got stuck in and finished it. Now the first round of this is by photo only and you can only send in 2, this makes it interesting because as we all know beadwork looks so much better in the flesh!
I found it difficult to take a good picture of piece, but in the end I did find 2 that we ok and showed it off to good effect.

There is nothing more that I can do now for my piece, I just have to be patient and wait until the 6 September to find out if I have been lucky enough to make it to round 2. Then it won't be till the Big Bead Show in October to find out the results of who wins.....

I'm doing a Market.......

Only a short post today as I have so much to do.....

Well, what am I doing? I have booked  a table for the Spitalfields Market, not just yet but in a couple of months - 28 September. Keep the date, and if your in London that day (it's a Saturday) come and visit me.

I'm looking forward to doing my first market in the UK, I am currently making stock and getting gear ready for the big day. So much to think about, packaging, stock, business cards, table props etc etc, the list seems endless, and then of course buying in more beads and findings to make into pretty things to sell.

I am of course trying to keep cool as well in the heatwave that is currently sweeping the UK, staying in the shade with my beads or inside with the fan going - it's a hard life but someone has to do it :)

Pam's Poppy

Not doing any of my personal beading until I have made 2 Poppies - these will then be mailed back to Pam Kirk to be made into a wreath to commemorate 100years since the start of WWI. Her aim is to make 441 poppies - 1 each for every soldier killed in Afghanistan. To find out more visit Pam's page Click here. Alternatively you can visit her facebook page Click here.

I have so far made only 1 of my 2 poppies and hope to finish the 2nd within the next day or 3!

Poppy number 1 all made.

So all you beader's out there visit Pam's page contact her and get involved in a great cause.

Happy Beading  :)