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  :)

And the Winner is..............

The winner of a Tree of Life is ......   Anne Gray Congratulations. I will contact you shortly.

 This is the Tree that Anne chose........

The names drawn in order were;

1. Anne

2. Ginger

3. Donna

4. Gizzymou

5. Stephen

6. Amelia

7. Patty

Thank you all for entering. I had hoped for more entries but on the upside it gave the people who did take the time to enter more of a chance.

Tree Giveaway...............

So what do you do with a collection of tree's?

Well I'm thinking of a giveaway. All you have to do is comment at the bottom. I will use Random.org to choose a winner(s). So I will need to know your name and contact email as well as the Tree you would like. Try to put 3 choices. Winner 1 will get their first choice, 2nd winner will get their first choice but only if winner 1 hasn't chosen etc......

So lets begin....

Tree 1.... Purple berry

Tree 2 ... Neon Orange delight

Tree 3 ... Peanut Red berry

Tree 4 ... Neon Blast

Tree 5..... Bubbly Hummer

Tree 6 ..... Blue Crystal

Please only one entry per person. Start date is now and I will draw a winner etc on the 1 June 2013.

What are you waiting for, choose your top three and you just may get your first choice..

Good luck :)

BWG Bead Bazaar

Had a wonderful day on Sunday 12 May. Went to Daventry to attend the Beadworkers' Guild Bead Bazaar. Hubby drove myself and a friend so we could spend.
I didn't get too much - I'm too obsessed with trees and brought a few bits and bobs to make those.
One thing I did buy that I have wanted for a while is a Ricks' Beading Loom made by The Beadsmith. Beadweaving was one of the very first things I did as a real beader! I had a penfriend in the USA at the time and he kindly sent a loom over. The only problem with the conventional bead looms of course are all the threads left over to weave in or make into a fringe. With the Ricks' loom you only have 2 threads at each end to tidy up.

So next on my list of things to do is;
1.  Get the Tree's out of my system.
2.  Finish my 5th Chalice.
3.  Do some loom work.
4.  Think about next years challenge piece for the BWG.

Back to the Bead Bazaar.
I really wanted to go and see the challenge pieces - I didn't win ( my work isn't that good) - but I enjoy taking part. So many lovely pieces and to see people's work and version of  'Under the Sea'.
I myself made a jellyfish. I would add a picture but it would be sideways......

They also had the display of this years colour theme of gold and bronze and of course this looked fabulous - so many talented beaders' out there.

Also this years fundraiser which is ocean themed as well was all made up and ready for tickets to be brought. I contributed 5 'postcards' for this. Was so great to see them all made up into picture postcards for display.

After all the shopping and talking it was time to head home to put our feet up and have a lovely cup of coffee.

Next year I would like to actually be a part of the 4 days that is the BWG AGM retreat................

More............

2 in one day hahahaa.....

Well in this morning I told you about the Tree of Life. Well this afternoon another 3 have been made. Oh dear I think I'm addicted to these little trees. I have no idea what I'm going to do with them all, and they are all so very different.

First made was 'Blooming Love'............ I of course had to add a blue heart for the down times we have.

For this one I wanted to do a black tree. It turned out OK but exactly how I wanted, still happy with it and I like the way the mushroom actually stayed in place.

I keep looking at my Neon beads..... I tried all the neon colour's and the orange is the one that worked for me this time. I kept them on the edges only, I like this windswept neo..

I'm going to have to get some more wire. A bunch of different colour's. Going to Daventry on Sunday for the Bead Bazaar being held during the Beadworkers' Guild weekend.

More Trees!

Well I have deviated away from what I should be finishing!  I had started a 5th chalice, this one has more height and a different bit here and there - BUT I have been distracted.

I love making the Tree of Life bits and bobs. I made 3 yesterday!
First I just sat there and then looking at my Neon beads inspiration hit me - Neon Tree. I'm not too happy about colour combination and I think a darker wire for the tree would look better......... hmmmm may have to try that later on :)

Second Tree of the day came quickly after and I made the Red Berry Tree or Apple Tree, depending on how I am looking at it. I quite like this one as it has real body to it.

Tree number 3 and the last for the day, is my crystal owl tree. I think this is my favourite so far. I've hung it in my window which when the afternoon sun shines through it sparkles wonderfully. I may have to make a few more like this as well.

The only problem I have with these trees is that I didn't have the nice thick semi hard wire to make my own circles. I solved this problem by going to the local market/boot sale and picked up a few bundles of bangles - problem solved. These are too big to be worn as a pendant but they look fantastic in the window. I think I like the idea of the window decoration a lot more as you and others get to enjoy it more.

I really should get back to finishing my chalice and to be honest I don't have that much more to do on it, but it's those trees they keep yelling at me to make them..................... 

The Tree of Life

The Tree of Life - Beaded of course.

I saw these many years ago and always wanted to make one, well today I finally did. I first looked at a couple of tutorials, but in the end I ignored them and just made one my way. What other way is there really if you want to make it different?

After searching everywhere for a metal ring, ( I didn't have any wire thick enough to make one) I set to and cut lengths of wire to make the tree with. I was going to use silver like all the rest you see, but I liked the idea of a coloured one instead.

So what do you think? It's not perfect, but then it is my first attempt and I know what I will do differently next time.

Bullseye

I made this as part of the Beadworkers Guild challenge for 2012 titled Bullseye. It represents a Target with Arrows in it and has a wee quiver holding 2 more arrows. I didn't have long to make this in fact I only had a few hours. Why only a few hours? Well the bead group I belong to decided to do a group entry as well - we won by the way - which took up most of my time. It wasn't until the day of the deadline that I decided I would enter! So starting at 10am, I worked all day on this, unfortunately I wasn't able to make the Target as I wanted due to the time restraints and I'm not that great at bead embroidery, so to make the target I got some lovely strong carpet tape and taped the beads down, only after a year have the beads started to come away and so the Bullseye as you see it is no more. I am remaking the Target properly this time.

Now the arrows well I had to ponder how to make the feathers of the tail and came up with a way which worked.

Below is a link for the tutorial on how to make the arrow tail. Simply Copy and paste the web address and then scroll to the bottom of the page.  Enjoy :)

www.beads-jewelled.co.uk/Supplies.php

My first Blog

Hello, well this is my first ever blog so please be patient with me.

What to write about.........

Well I am a Beader, mother, grandmother, and somewhere along the line I am also a daughter!
Let's start with the Beader. I have beading most of my life - so a really long time!! I was about 12 years old when I caught the beading bug. I brought little kits from a local sewing shop to make animals letters and even a 3D rabbit. I also convinced my art teacher in high school that I should be able to do beadwork as a part of my learning - he agreed though wasn't really impressed untill I brought my little loom to school and produced a North American Indian ceremonial necklace, then He was hooked as well and asked me what I was going to make next.
I'm from New Zealand and beading hasn't really caught on there like other countries and when growing up it was extremely hard not only to get beads but also to find any books that I could learn from. It wasn't until about 15 years ago that I discovered a wonderful magazine in my local bookstore - 'Bead and Button', it was an eye opener for me as to what could be done with beads. I was even more hooked and started doing a lot of new stitches (for me they were all new!), and well I have never looked back.

I love Beading and I will till the very last.