Bead Blog

Great Minds Think Alike

The idea of Beader's Block (similar to writer's blockbut  with more colour!) has been on my mind a lot recently. Not only do I feel as though I've been suffering from it for months but I also am planning on writing about it in issue 25 of Bead.

In each issue of Bead we feature our "Readers' Polls" (where we ask questions on our forum and print your answers and comments) and our "Top Tips" where I let you know my top 5 tips on a certain subject.

So, for issue 25 I thought I would combine the 2 areas and have them both about the same subject- "how do you deal with beader's block?"

Off I headed to our forum and soon saw that one reader was having just the same thoughts and had posted her own thread on the subject- perfect timing!

So, if you want to join in with her thread, or the polls (and here) visit our forum to have your say.

As I said I seem to have been suffering from it recently and although I have been beading and working away it is on items where I have a specific deadline or agenda- none of "my own work".

Until today that is. All it took was someone to mention the name Miriam Haskell and I remembered a diamond and leather bracelet of hers that I always wanted to bead a variant on. The words joined with a deadline were all I needed- inspiration had struck and off I go!

Jean Power

Fun With Klimt-Esque

Issue 22 of Bead magazine has the theme of "Colour" and one of the projects that will appear is "Klimt-esque" by Penelope-Jane Derringer which won our readers' Challenge in issue 19.

I thought it would be interesting for this issue to send out the instructions for a project beforehand to some volunteers to see what colour combinations they chose, what they thought of the project and how theirs varied and this was the perfect proejct to do it with.

In the course of discussing the project, and illustrating the steps, with our lovely proof-reader, Lynn Davy, I mentioned how much I disliked beading square stitch and before you know it she kindly offered to bead the samples and leave it up to me to play with them and turn it into the finished necklace...

I was a bit worried about what colours she might choose but as soon as the parcel arrived my fears were gone- she chose lovely golds, browns, violets and greens and I really had fun assembling them and completing the necklace

This is a really fun project which is ideal for playing around with colour, size and texture and I did enjoy it.

Unfortunately I can't promise you'll be as lucky as me and find someone willing to bead the bits you don't like doing!

The Show!

The day is finally here and after an early start (leaving the house at 5.45 with an added panic when I thought transport might let me down) it was a fanstic day- of course!

I got to Sandown at just gone 7am and was the only one in the big hall for half an hour so got to wander around and eat my breakfast looking forward to the day ahead- it still looked very empty!

When others began to arrive we set about setting up the display for the British Bead Awards and it was a joy to get to see all the pieces again and know that keeping the results a secret would soon be over.

At 9.30 am I got changed out of my unglamorous (but warm) clothes and out on my new dress and best jewellery all ready for the day and my next task of filming a piece for Bead-TV with the queue to get in (which by 9.30 had filled the cafeteria, snaked 3 times around the foyer and was trailing down the stairs!)

Then the doors were open the day had begun properly.

The next 7 hours went in an absolute blur but some higlights were getting to catch up with old friends, meeting up with forum members- and eating cake with them- and presenting the awards.

I was very nervous about standing in front of people and announcing but as soon as I began the joy of letting people know they'd won soon overshadowed my nerves.

I spent a lot of the day trying to avoid the magazine's stand with its large screen TV playing films of me demonstrating making projects from the magazine- very disconcerting! But I did try to hang around to encourage people to vote for their favourite choice of covers for the next issue.

 

By around 4.20pm I had done all my work for the day and had a quick chance to wander around and shop but by then my brain had shut-down so all ideas of my shopping list went out of the window and I went for the items I just not leave without buying! So I bagged a lovely cab from Designer Cabochons and a lampwork bead on an antique key from By Keiara.

Of course I put my camera away as soon as the show opened so have no photos here after that- but check out issue 19- out the 18th November- to see photos of the show as well as all of the finalists of the awards.

Jean Power

Getting ready for the show- part 2

it's just 2 days until the Big Bead Show now and we're all geting even more excited.

Of course, in-between all of the preparations, we're still working away on issue 19 and Bead-TV as normal. I've actually just got back from filming two projects for the next issue- my Onye Pendant and St Petersburg Pots both of which have been shown here recently.

Whilst planning issue 19 it soon became obvious that we had 2 possible contenders for the front cover- and despite multiple votes being cast in the office we were no closer to making the final decision.
So, I came up with the bright idea of getting all of the show attendees to vote for their favourite- what better people to decide than the largest group of beaders gathered at any one time in one spot in Europe?
The next discussion was how people would actually vote. 
An obvious suggestion was beads or buttons being thrown into pots which led me to think of coins being thrown into a wishing well and once my mind had gone that way it soon seemed obvious.
If people did vote with coins then we could potentially raise a bit of money for a charity- and as this is the 25th anniversary of Breast Cancer Awareness month it seemed an obvious choice.

So, if you're coming along on Saturday do remember to vote for your favourite with any coin and once I've counted them all up when I get home I'll let you know just how much we raised.

Jean Power
Editor of Bead

Issue 16 has arrived

Issue 16 has just got back from the printers and today there are a few copies in the office for us to look at.

When the magazine is printed it happens in two batches with the first batch going out to the news trade so it can get to newsagents, subscribers and all the bead shops with a later batch coming into the office to be used as back issues and also to go out to contributors along with their pieces from that issue being returned.

Following our re-design for issue 15, we've now introduced a new binding for this issue which really effects how the magazine looks and feels- I hope you all like it.

The photo shows some of what I plan to be up to today:
- The bags of beads need photographing and cataloguing for Bead Soup before they're sent out to participants
- One project, a knotting one for issue 17, needs its instructions written up and matched to the diagrams which have come from the designer
- A seed bead project, from Lynn Davy, needs its instructions checked over and me to turn her hand-drawn diagrams into computer-drawn ones.

I'm proud to say that Bead magazine is different from many others in that we only run projects which have come in as submissions from designers.
Even if the project designer works for, or runs, a bead shop their projects are subject to the same submission criteria and process as all the others we run. We never run a project just to fill space or to please an advertiser. Even if someone has submitted projects to us many times before we still need to see and approve a new project before it gets scheduled to appear.
This can add a lot of extra work to each issue but I feel it's essential to ensure that the quality of the projects we use remains high.

It's always a treat opening the post and seeing what projects have appeared for me to work on, what letters readers have sent in or what pieces people have sent in for the gallery and challenge.

Speaking of challenge-  the voting has now started for your favourite piece in this issues challenge. To find the full details visit our forum.

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm also now twittering, well attempting to, so if you want to follow me visit here.