Wedding Belles!

Hello everyone!

Well a lot has happened since my last blog post, hasn't it? Written on the very cusp of a global pandemic, I don't think any of us really knew what the following year had in store. Just over a year ago I was living in a busy town, going to the gym nearly every day, doing beadwork demos on live tv, juggling various work and life commitments, meeting my friends for coffee and cake and just generally living a wonderfully busy but happy life. When Covid-19 struck, it was an almost immediate lockdown for me as my husband Simon has a serious lung condition and needed to be shielded. However, we are very fortunate, and the timing couldn't have been better for us. As luck would have it, that very same week I was visiting my parent's old house in the middle of the countryside and so Simon joined me (complete with no end of technological paraphernalia from his employer) and we've been here shut away from civilisation ever since. It took a while to get used to the slower pace of life (and to being in the house of painful childhood memories) but gradually I adapted and started learning and relearning all sorts of skills, like growing my own vegetables and learning to bake, and I also discovered that I am not cut out to be a hairdresser! The one constant all through this time (and the thing that helped me maintain my connection to the outside world) was that I carried on beading. I'm grateful for so many things, but at this point I would like to say a big THANK YOU to Preciosa Ornela for not only enabling me to continue doing the work that I love, but also for providing me with a creative outlet and a platform to share my work and ideas.

I've made many finished pieces during the last 14 months, but the items I wanted to share with you today are three wedding themed projects. This kind of work is months in the making and it can easily be 6 months to a year before the first imaginings appear as the finished article. I began working with Preciosa's new ranges of Light Ivory Wedding and Pearl Pastel Lining beads and seed beads as far back as June 2020. My first step is usually to spend time with the beads to get a feel for them and to see if there are any obvious design ideas. It was easy with these as although they are all beautiful beads suitable for many occasions, it was clear that a wedding theme was what Preciosa was looking for. When I got married (27 years ago!) I was completely ignorant about beads and beading and so I bought myself a pearl necklace and earrings, but if I did it again it would be a different matter and I would probably be completely festooned in beads. For this reason I found it easy to step into full on 'bridal mode' and come up with a range of items for the imaginary bride, bridegroom and bridesmaids. The first piece (shown above) was the Floral Hairband which uses very basic beadweaving techniques to create a variety of flower motifs which are then sewn onto a length of wide ribbon to tie around the head. I like this because it's a bit different to the usual tiaras, it's easy to match the colours to the rest of the wedding colour scheme and it looks super cute on little bridesmaids too. Of course this idea works just as well if you wanted to make an every day summer hair accessory.

Preciosa then asked me to design a buttonhole for the groom. This was unusual as I am usually left to design whatever enters my head, but I must admit that I enjoyed the challenge of having an exact brief and so started to research what all the best dressed grooms are currently wearing. I noticed a trend for nature inspired buttonholes - feathers, flower buds, grasses and leaves, lots of leaves. So then I thought, wouldn't it be great if the groom had a nature inspired decoration that wouldn't wither and die but that could be a special keepsake that would last long after the memorable day. And so, Everlasting Boutonniere was born - I must admit that naming my projects is always a major part of the designing fun for me as I love words and language! The finished piece here consists of a simple beaded leaf and a spray of twisted silver wire with some lovely little forget-me-nots and a heart captured in it, all held together with a couple of beaded bands and a bow of ribbon to match the wedding colours which can then be pinned to a jacket lapel. I used the grey Pearl Pastel Lining rocailles for the leaf and added a spine of Light Ivory Wedding rocailles in ivory to tone with the forget-me-nots and heart. If you'd like to make one of these, you can download the pattern here.

The final project in this collection is the Wedding Belles set. These Pearl Pastel Lining beads are really very pretty and they were just crying out to be made into little flowers which lend themselves so well to a bridal theme. I'm a big fan of beaded ropes and have spent months of my life weaving miles of them, but this time not only did I want to create something quite delicate looking, I also wanted the flowers to stand out and to be the main focus and so I chose to create a little cluster of flowers which could be suspended from fine sterling silver chain. I gave each flower a long stamen of size 6 beads and mixed the colours up to use more of the lovely beads and to pull everything together. I also added matching size 6's along the length of the chain and this resulted in an elegant very wearable necklace which is light to wear and has great movement. These flowers are incredibly quick to make and so it is easy to make an entire matching set of necklace, bracelet and earrings for the bride along with coordinating items for the bridesmaids. A pair of earrings or a single flower as a pendant or bracelet charm would also make a great thank you gift for a maid/matron of honour or bridesmaids.

As you can see, I also made a tiny set of jewellery for the beautiful little bridesmaid in our make-believe wedding and this angelic picture makes me smile every time I see it. And so, I finish this blog post as I started, feeling fortunate and grateful. I have spent many years learning about beading and trying to perfect what I do and this doesn't only involve spending hours sat alone in silence with a needle and thread, it also includes learning to write easy to follow patterns, painstakingly drawing diagrams and the art of running a small business. But everything has come together, which means that with great thanks to Preciosa Ornela for their continued support, I can share more free patterns with you and whether you have a wedding on your horizon or simply fancy making yourself a summer hairband, I wish you many happy hours of beading.

Take care, stay safe and see you next time.

Kerrie ♥

 

The Floribunda Story!

Hello everyone!

Do you remember Floribunda Bangle? Back in 2013 (Gulp! Was it really 7 years ago?) Preciosa Ornela gave me the opportunity to create a collection of work to showcase their striped seed beads. This was perfect timing for me because Mum had recently passed away, and having an important creative assignment that I could immerse myself in was just the thing I needed to be able to quietly process my thoughts and feelings as I came to terms with my loss. I spent several months experimenting with these beautiful beads, creating a variety of finished pieces - some wearable, some for decoration and some purely whimsical. One of the items was Floribunda Bangle.

I always knew that Flori wasn't shy. Big and bold, full of movement and fun, she was a popular girl from the moment she came to life and for several years after. She received lots of attention on social media, graced the cover of a magazine, became a calendar girl, was also selected to appear in the Playful Perfection book and even got a mention on live TV on JewelleryMaker.

Fast forward to the summer of 2019, when suddenly Preciosa Ornela asked if I could make matching earrings and a necklace so that a full Floribunda set could be used for an exhibition in Prague in 2020. I already had lots of work on at that time, but it seemed such a great privilege that of course I happily agreed. Now, I believe that 'Floribunda' is Latin for "many flowering", so I knew that to make a necklace worthy of being Floribunda Bangle's big sister would require a LOT of flowers. Of course I could have saved time and effort and made a single flower to hang on a chain, that might have looked lovely and elegant, but Flori wouldn't have approved, so I made a start.

I tried to do a rough calculation of how many flowers I would need to make, how much time I had and how many flowers I would need to make per day. However, I am not the least bit mathematically minded, and so I ended up having to make nearly double my original estimate to create a really dense cluster of flowers that encircled the neck. It took 80 flowers to fill a neckwire and to make matching earrings and each flower took approximately 1 hour to make. I beaded in the evenings, at weekends, on car journeys - every spare minute was spent working on Floribunda flowers and when I closed my eyes, all I could see were stripes!

Florence, my beautiful model, helped me a great deal. She patiently wore the part-made necklace, and at the end of each day I added a few more flowers, wondering how many I could make the next day, just how many more would I need to make and would I have enough striped beads to finish it? Beading is a wonderful satisfying pastime, but any professional beader will tell you that when the pressure is on, it can turn into something else. It was August and the UK was experiencing a heatwave, my clammy fingers kept losing a grip on the needle, the perspiration ran into my eyes, the Fireline thread cut into my fingers and made them bleed, but I had to keep going to meet the deadline. To keep me motivated, I tried to imagine a gorgeous catwalk model wearing a set of beaded jewellery that I had made.

After nearly two weeks, I was satisfied that I had made enough flowers to bunch up nicely on the neckwire and I breathed a sigh of relief. All I had to do then was make a couple more flowers for a simple pair of earrings and I was done. A few quick pictures were taken, some rough notes made and then the Floribunda necklace and earrings were carefully packaged up, ready to be sent to the Czech Republic for professional photography and to take their place in the exhibition. I crossed my fingers that everything would arrive safely.

And now, seven months later, here is the beautiful model wearing the full Floribunda set of bangle, necklace and earrings. When I look at the picture below, I can hardly believe that I am looking at my work. Despite my small frustrations during the making of the necklace and earrings, I am delighted to have been part of this, and I would like to thank Preciosa Ornela for entrusting me with this undertaking.  The pieces are currently on display at the Museum of Contemporary Glass Art Portheimka in Prague, representing beads and seed beads from the PRECIOSA Traditional Czech Beads™ brand as part of the Stardust - Luxury Czech Jewellery exhibition. The exhibition runs from the 9th of March 2020 to the 14th of June 2020 and is open to the public.

I hope you enjoyed learning a bit more about what goes on behind the scenes in the making of these pieces. I am already working on the next exciting project, so watch this space ...

See you next time!

Kerrie ♥

Two-Cut beads - or not to cut!

Hello everyone!

Things are still a little bit topsy-turvy in my life at the moment, so this will be another brief post, but I wanted to show you a few little pieces I made using PRECIOSA Two-Cut Beads. I have quite a lot of cut beads in my collection, ranging from Two-Cut and Three-Cut, to various sizes of Bugles, and although I love the way the light glints and reflects off the cut edge, I've been more a collector of cut beads rather than a user. I must admit that I used to shy away from any cut beads as I feared that they would have sharp edges that would sever my beading thread, undoing all the hard work in a carefully crafted piece of beadwork. However, not long ago, Preciosa Ornela asked me to work with some of their Two-Cut beads and so I put my fears to one side and gave it a go.

Instead of jumping in with both feet, I thought I would take my introduction to weaving with cut beads slowly. I decided to make a simple Kumihimo bracelet to start with, which would enable me to use thick S-Lon thread, therefore reducing the thread-slicing risk. The lovely rhythmic braiding process gave me chance to look closely at the beads, to get to know them a bit better and to start to relax. I chose red and blue Two-Cuts and mixed them with some white size 7 rocailles and white S-Lon to give a patriotic feel - the colours of both the UK and Czech Republic flag! I made the bracelet long enough to wrap twice around my wrist, and added a little button and loop closure.

Although I was happy with the results of my first piece, I still didn't quite have the confidence to use my usual Nymo or Fireline with them in basic beadweaving stitches. So next I did a bit of embroidery using Ultrasuede and heavy duty 14lb Fireline to create a Gothic style brooch. I used a mix of Two-Cuts, Drops, fire polished beads and Charlottes to circle a glass button with a skull and crossbones design and completed the look with a drooping black ribbon bow. I had absolutely no problem with the Two-Cuts and the thicker Fireline, so by now I was starting to wonder if I had spent years missing out on using cut beads in my designs because of my unnecessary fear of them.

So for my final Two-Cut piece, I went back to what I know best - 6lb Fireline and herringbone stitch! I made lots of little beaded tubes with grey AB Two-Cuts in both shiny and matte, threaded them onto sterling silver beading chain along with some cream 4mm glass pearls, and then added a sterling silver clasp to make a three row bracelet with lots of movement. This is the sort of beadwork I love to do and I made 24 of these little tubes with absolutely no trouble at all. None of the beads cut my thread while I was working with them and the bracelet has been worn repeatedly with no problems. So there - accepting the opportunity to work with PRECIOSA Two-Cut Beads not only gave me chance to work with interesting bead shapes and colours, it also cured me of my phobia of cut beads!

See you next time!

Kerrie ♥

Design Team Member for Many Hands Marketplace - Kazuri West!

Hello everyone!

I'm delighted to announce that I have recently become a design team member for Many Hands Marketplace - Kazuri West. Perhaps you are already aware of the story and maybe you have even used these gorgeous beads in your own work, but I have only recently been introduced to them. The beautiful Kazuri beads are ceramic and made in Kenya and the stunning Samunnat beads are polymer clay and made in Nepal. Both of these small businesses were set up to help disadvantaged and vulnerable women escape their impoverished and often abusive situations by making and selling beads. Once I learned the background and saw the beads, I was happy to lend this initiative my full support and help to spread the word.

Through training and support these two collectives have grown, enabling the women to not only create amazing beads but also to photograph them and do all the things that come with managing your own small business. In turn, this has given the women confidence and hope and helped them to support their families and gain a level of independence they never thought possible. Many Hands Marketplace - Kazuri West is the main distributor for the beads these ladies craft and you can read the full story including the history of these organizations and the incredible work being done both in Kenya and Nepal here.

I have a small collection of both the Samunnat and the Kazuri beads to play with, but I was immediately drawn to these gorgeous 'Bindu' beads from the Samunnat range because of their detailed patterns and vibrant colours. These beads are so pretty that they don't really need any extra adornment and would look perfect simply strung with some spacer beads or crystals to create a necklace or bracelet, but seeing as I am primarily a beadweaver I wanted to find a way to incorporate them into my usual style of work.

As I rolled the silky smooth beads around in my hands I thought about the women who created them, the hardships they had endured, the love and care that they all put into each bead and the hope for change that this work gave them. Some particularly touching words that I had read on the Samunnat website also echoed around my head: "Each bead is a gift and a story of one woman's life." So with those thoughts in mind I decided to create a collection of 'Samunnat Flowers' as a tribute to the women who carefully crafted each bead and as symbols of femininity and of hope unfurling.

I used Preciosa Ornela seed beads in teal, matte white and black to weave large curved petals to provide a simple plain backdrop and then I added a single shining Bindu bead to the centre of the flower to let the focal bead take centre stage.

If you would like to use some of these beautiful beads in your own work and help to support the women of Kazuri and Samunnat, the beads are available to purchase from their website. They are also currently running a jewellery design contest to win some great prizes and you can read the full details and contest rules here.

See you next time!

Kerrie ♥

Marcia DeCoster Presents ...

Hello everyone!

Do you remember back in October of last year when I was lucky enough to spend the day with Marcia DeCoster? Besides wanting to meet her to see her beautifully intricate work 'up close and personal' and to thank her for years of encouragement and support, I also wanted to thank her for including me in her new book Marcia DeCoster Presents: Interviews with 30 Beaders on Inspiration & Technique. As we sipped tea and stroked each other's beadwork, we talked about our love of the Internet and how it has helped so many beaders from around the world connect with each other giving us the opportunity to share work and ideas, congratulate each other on successes, pull each other through the hard times and form lasting friendships even though we may never have met in person. The network that bonds the worldwide beading community is one of the primary ideas behind Marcia's new book and I am hugely grateful to be a part of this.

The '30 Beaders' are from all over the world (from the United States, South Africa, Australia, Germany, Singapore and more) and each has their own style of beadwork from cute beaded critters to elaborate embroidered collars and everything in between. There are no instructions in this book, it is a book filled with pictures of gorgeous beadwork designed to fill you with admiration and inspiration, a book to make you oooh and ahhh as you turn each page. Marcia has also asked each artist a set of interview questions about materials, techniques, design ideas and aspirations and she has also included a special question that is unique to each person. Even if I were not fortunate enough to be included in this collection I can hand on heart say that I would still want it to be on my bookshelf - it is a simply beautiful book.

Thank you Marcia!

Kerrie ♥

Catching the 94050 to who knows where ...!

Hello everyone!

I think you know by now that I am a big fan of making the most of the technological age that we live in: I Pin, I blog, I Tweet, I Facebook, I'm LinkedIn and I put my photos in the bucket. My computer enables me to do all of the above as well as connect with beaders around the world, share photos, order beads, write tutorials and it emails patterns to my customers whether they live in Guadeloupe or Tasmania or virtually everywhere in between. I am truly grateful for having these opportunities at my fingertips and I love that the beading world has no real boundaries which is why I enjoy it when beads go on a journey:-

This story starts with these gorgeous striped seed beads from Preciosa Ornela which were made in the Czech Republic. Remember those beautiful shade number 94050 beads that I fell in love with earlier this year? If you read their description of 'brown with a black and white stripe' you may never look at them twice and although these have an AB finish, they still hide their beauty when they are packed tightly together in their bags - but take a look what happens when they are set free!

Although these beads already have a long and interesting story of their own, the next chapter saw them sent to me in England. At first I just opened the bags and marvelled at their glossy beauty, mesmerised by the rich colours and flashes of gold with visions of faraway spice markets, ripe juicy berries and exotic blooms filling my mind. And then I got out my Fireline and wove them together.

The finished pieces were then returned to Preciosa in the Czech Republic where they were professionally photographed and shown on Preciosa's website and Flickr page before being sent back to England.

The next instalment saw the two pieces temporarily separated and the Pinstriped Petals went to discover the delights of Australia and to be photographed for Digital Beading Magazine. If you would like to purchase the pattern for this design, it is available in issue 6 of the magazine.

The little Flower Slides on their burgundy ribbon, flew in the opposite direction to the USA where they were photographed by Bead & Button magazine and the pattern for this is now available as a free download.

These particular travelling 94050's will soon be making their way back to England again as their work in spreading the word about their beauty is done. But I still have lots more waiting to be woven and with the world at my fingertips, who knows where they will go ...

See you next time!

Kerrie ♥
 

Spikes in Bloom!

I've just returned home after a lovely couple of weeks visiting family in Spain and there were so many beady things happening in the run up to our departure, that I didn't get chance to tell you about the new pattern I have with Bead & Button magazine.  Some time ago, Perry of www.yorkbeads.com asked me to create a piece using his new spike beads that would be used in an advertising campaign.  As you know, I love a challenge and so I was thrilled to be asked and excited about the opportunity, but I was also very nervous as I had no idea whether I would be able to create anything suitable.  I had already designed several spike pieces and each one was the best that I could make it but as this one was going to be used for an important advert, I knew I needed to try and create something completely different.  I had heard some of my beady friends tell me that they were not fond of spike beads as they looked too aggressive and so that sparked off the idea in my mind to try to find a new way of using these beads, a way that softened their initial dangerous look, something that made them look more feminine and if I could, something that would give them an elegantly floral appeal.  I spent a considerable amount of time experimenting with these 5 x 8mm baby spikes and eventually I mixed them with my trusty Midnight Garden Toho 176B's and a length of grey organza ribbon and found a way to make them bloom.

Just like the Gumdrops in my Garden pattern, this is now another FREE on line pattern.  All you need to do is follow this link and either log in or register and you will be able to download the pattern for Spikes in Bloom.  The pattern includes instructions for making a bracelet, pendant and ring but there are all sorts of other possibilities too and I look forward to seeing your creations.  I find the rings are particularly addictive to make and as you can see, I made myself a whole handful!

And below are copies of the adverts so far, the top one can be seen in the June issue of Bead & Button magazine and the bottom one appears in the current issue of Digital Beading Magazine.

I hope you have fun with the new pattern.

See you next time!

Kerrie ♥

International Flash!

If you follow me on Facebook you will know that I have recently been doing some work with bead giants Preciosa Ornela - a Czech Republic based company that manufactures a vast range of high quality Czech glass beads in all shapes and sizes.  I started off by creating some pieces using their two hole Twin™ seed beads which was quite a challenge for me as I had not worked with that bead shape before and you can see the results of my efforts by following this link.  My next assignment was to work with Preciosa's striped seed beads and although most of these beads come in larger sizes than the beads I usually work with, I felt much more at home with them and I began creating an assortment of striped beadwork.  I would love to be able to show you all the new pieces and to talk more about my experiences with these striped seed beads, but  I am afraid that I have to be a little bit mysterious as Preciosa sometimes has other plans and so I mostly have to keep things under wraps until I am given the go ahead. BUT ... I can tell you that one of my striped bead 'critters' has been used in a full page magazine advert for Preciosa!

I am very proud of 'Flash' my little beaded owl as he was made in England (by me) and then he flew all the way to the Czech Republic to have his picture taken professionally and now here he is starring in a full page advert in the US magazine Bead Style!

I hope to be back with more stripey news very soon.

Bye for now!

Kerrie ♥

Goodbye Mum!

Sadly, Mum left us on Monday the 24th of September, but thanks to the fantastic support of the hospice, district nurses and carers, she was able to spend her final days peacefully at home, just as she had wished.  I used to call Mum my 'Rose Fairy' because with her beautiful blonde hair, soft pink skin and sparkly blue eyes she reminded me so much of Cicely Mary Barker's 'Rose Fairy' and she was happiest spending time pottering about in her garden tending to her collection of gorgeous roses.  I will miss Mum enormously but I am comforted by the belief that she will be watching me and cheering me on as I continue on my beady travels through life. Mum was my number one fan when it came to my beadwork and although I used to cringe with embarrassment when she would whip a magazine out of her handbag to show anyone who would stop and look at my latest published design, or thrust her wrist at a passing stranger to show them her bracelet saying 'Look, my daughter made that!' - I was of course very glad to be able to give her something to be proud of.  In the early days, I was lucky enough to share a table at several local craft fairs with Mum, she with her wonderful knitted creations alongside me and my beadwork and later, as things grew and I attended bigger fairs, she would help me out by setting up my display, talking to customers and carefully packaging sold items and of course helping to calm my nerves and bolster my confidence.

Mum was always coming up with ideas for new beadwork designs for me too and she was a constant source of inspiration - had it not been for Mum and her battles with cancer, I would never have designed my Awareness Ribbon Pins or the Pilgrims Cross both of which helped to raise a substantial amount of money for various charities.

There is so much more I could say about My Mum, but I think that you get the picture and although I have many photographs of her, I think that the one below is my favourite because it shows her 'under my wing' and captures the obvious love that flowed between us.

Mum and I used to speak about what might happen after this life and we thought that perhaps we may become flower fairies with important jobs to do.  Mum decided that she was going to wear a gown of softest velvety purple petunia with a fluffy bumblebee hat and she was going to dance through the sky painting sunsets and THAT is the image I am going to keep in my head forever.

Goodbye Mum.

Kerrie ♥

Gumdrops Galore!

Being a freelance designer sometimes means that I am asked to create designs using new types of beads or beading products that hit the market - and that is just what happened with the new Czech Gumdrop Beads designed by Perry Bookstein of York Beads.  These pressed glass beads have softly rounded tops and a flat base with a hole running from side to side near the base.  They come in a tempting array of approximately 15 colours with mouthwatering names like 'Magic Raspberry' and 'Peach Melba' - but of course, as I am currently immersed in moonlight I had to choose something that would fit into the Midnight Garden and so I chose 'Silver Bullet' and 'Orion'.  I thought it would be good to show that these new beads can be incorporated into designs as simple or as complicated as you want them to be and so first I made a straightforward pair of 'Galactic Gumdrops' earrings ...

For my next trick I wanted to create something a little more intricate and as the gumdrops vaguely reminded me of acorns (probably due to my recent trip to Sherwood Forest!) I thought I would try to make the kind of nuttily leafy bracelet that you would expect to find in my beaded garden.  So I bezelled the bottom of each gumdrop to make it look like the cup of an acorn and brick stitched some little oak leaves.  Next I wove everything together in a pleasing cluster and tied the bracelet with a soft grey ribbon to give me 'From Midnight Oaks Magic Acorns Grow' ...

 Bye for now!

Kerrie ♥