Bead Blog

Christmas beading- or not

I'm away from home at the moment so don't have all my stash and supplies with me. I was excitedly beading a lovely snake ring from Sharon Erwine but the reel of thread I bought with me keeps breaking so I've had to abandon that unfortunately.

I did try to struggle on determined to get some beading in but after the thread snapped for the 5th time I realised it was pointless. Not only would I end up spending 4x the time beading the piece but I would never be able to wear it.

I also brought with me some origami and other paper kits but need glue and craft knives for them which of course I didn't bring- typical!
So instead I'm working away on diagrams and instructions for issue 21 of Bead- and itching to get home to my beads!

Jean Power

Bangles, Bangles, Bangles pt 2

Phew- my third bangle is all done.

But it was all to waste as heavy snow has stopped me from actually travelling to Bead's offices to take the photos I was meant to today- and also my cramming on making paper beads on Friday was a waste too!

Oh well- by the time January comes and I can make my way there I'll be glad I finished it all now.

Wishing you all a fabulous Christmas and a great start to 2010!

Jean Power

Paper Beads

For each issue of Bead magazine (my main job is editing it) we film 2-3 projects and techniques which readers can watch for free on Bead-TV.

This usually works great- I know so many people learn better from watching so I really enjoy being able to help them with the films.

But of course it's the week before Christmas and with the recent snow, getting people into the studios to film hasn't been easy. So today I came up with the bright idea of going in on Monday and filming making paper beads.

Except of course I've never actually made any.

I mean I get the principle and know how to do it, but just have never done it.

So, to ensure I don't look a complete fool on film, my Friday evening is spent practising and practising.

Hmm, finding time for that Christmas shopping is looking less and less likely!

Bangles, Bangles, Bangles

A visit to Arundel today to the Bead offices to take the project and step photos for our next issue.

Fortunately I had managed to get my second bangle done in time!

But unfortunately it was then decided that these would look great on the cover of the next issue- but that as an odd-number of items is more appealing to the eye than even numbers I just need to bead one more...

It's no problem for me as I love them and want to make many more. It's more the fact that it's the week before Christmas and these take 8-10 hours to finish- and I now have until next Monday to get another one done!

Once again, wish me luck!

Beading Panic

With Bead going to 8 issues from now on it's panic stations all round as I get used to the new time-table. Instead of my usual 8 weeks between each issue, 6 of them will be just 5 weeks apart. And as you all know 3 weeks is a lot of time to lose in beading!

To cope with this I realised that we needed to bring forward the photoshoot for our next issue to next week. And guess who hasn't finished their projects for it...

So, after my trip to Arundel this week it's back home to work and life and trying to magically finish my two projects.

One of them in a lariat in arrow chain which takes me all of Saturday to bead. Bang goes my Christmas shopping!

The other is a set of bangles using right-angle weave and which I truly underestimated the time they would take.

I reckoned on having 5 made by next Wednesday but seeing as the first one has taken me 10 hours and I still have my usual work etc to do, I suspect I may just manage to squeeze another one in.

The main obvious effect is the panicked state of my beading tray- as you can see I appear to be working on a few things at one. I took a count and there are the bits for 5 different projects going on there- I guess a few minutes to clear it off would help- not just physically help me bead and see what I'm up to, but mentally help to clear the clutter.

Wish me luck!

Opening The Post

A trip to Arundel today to work in the office for a couple of days and my first task is opening the post.

This is always a treat as you never know what you're going to find!

Todays delights include the sets of beads for the next bead soup, pieces from Kerrie Slade which will appear as a project in our Colour Special (out in April 2010) and 4 lovely projects from Lynn Davy which are scheduled in up-coming issues.

Back To Work

After my trip away I'm fully back to work and issue 20 is nearing completion.

I previously wrote about taking project photos for this issue and my Crystal Geodes project.

Well, the pages are now all laid out and proofed and I can give you a sneak preview of how the main photos will look- not at all like the one I showed you!

It was decided that in the one I previewed the gold dish was so shiny that it became hard to see the actual beads/ charms and this one showed them off more.

Next week I will be filming them for Bead-TV as they will be one of the free projects to watch with issue 20.

Hope you enjoy beading them!

Back To Beading

Back home safe and sound and of course I'm straight back to beading and work (and trying not to panic about the 1,300+ emails that came whilst I was away...)

I first made these "Sea Urchins" when Carol Perrenoud visited the UK back in 2003 and have always meant to bead another one.

As soon as I started my Colour Challenge I was itching to bead one with yellow dagger beads and violet seed beads. Unfortunately I found it hard to track down large, solid-yellow dagger beads in the UK in the quantity I needed- 135.

I did manage to find 20 small ones in a solid bright yellow and some large ones in a transparent yellow but neither were what I wanted.

But last night I raided my bead stash and found these transparent yellow small ones so thought I'd give it a go with them.

But now I've started I'm not sure.

I still used size 8 seed beads but think I should use size 11 instead so the daggers/ spikes are still the same scale as they are on the others.

But can I bear to start again?