Bead Blog

Busy Busy at Bead.TV!

Things have been busy busy at the Bead.TV studio over the last month. In one week we managed to squeeze in filming with Dianne Cracknell (otherwise known as Dizzy Di) and Helen Harle. Both of these talented ladies were award winners in the British Bead Awards 2010. I had a good chat with Di about her award winning pieces and found out more about who she is and what she does! You can see the film now on Bead.TV along with a whole host of her beautiful and surprisingly easy wirework projects.

 

Helen travelled all the way from Cornwall to West Sussex to see us and it was lovely to catch up her, as I hadn’t seen her since the Big Bead Show in October. Helen filmed lots of projects taken from her brand new book ‘Creating Colorful Aluminium Jewelry’ as well as her award winning piece ‘Summer Love’. It’s intriguing to see such beautiful jewellery springing from something as plain as a drinks can! Helen loves creating vibrant floral jewellery with them and told me that she is always on the look out for elusive pink cans. She said: “It’s really hard to find bright pink ones and they’re perfect for flowers.”

 

Lots of our viewers have been requesting more advanced beadweaving projects so in response we filmed the first of these with Yvonne Horrocks from Anita’s Beads. Yvonne designs and teaches a range of beadweaving projects at Anita’s and came up with a beautiful triangle pendant just for Bead.TV subscribers. We have added it to our new Beadweaving Channel! Yvonne really enjoyed her filming (despite a sleepless night the night before) and we’re hoping to have her back in the studio soon.

 

We had the lovely Linda Jones in the studio today! Linda filmed a whole bunch of projects from her new book Creating Beaded and Wire Earrings and these will be up for you to watch on Bead.TV soon so keep your eyes peeled. We had to improvise with Linda's mic - she was wearing a very nice jumper dress - but it unfortunately had no where to clip her mic!

On Location

Unfortunately the rest of the world doesn’t always appreciate the importance of beading and this can cause trouble when we go out filming! We were hoping to bring you more fused glass films with Kate O’Connell, filmed on location at her studio. Unfortunately the local council decided to dig up the road outside so as roadwork noise would be a nightmare backing track we had to postpone!

Don't forget Bead.TV is now available on your iPhone and on portable devices like your iPad, so you really can watch it anywhere!

Happy Beading!

Chloe x

Issue 25 is back from the printers hurrah!

Its very strange seeing it in print – my first issue as editor of Bead was a bit of a whirlwind I have to say – talk about deep end! There was lots to learn and take in but I’ve enjoyed every second of it.

There’s lots of exciting stuff in this issue, including loads of great projects like Mel Brooke’s Dia de los Muertos necklace and Lynn Firth’s Tila Connections bracelet. You can also read about unique artist Lesley Todd of Bird Ahoy and our new Reader’s Profile feature. We had a fabulous response to this issue’s Readers’ Challenge so check this page out and see the deadlines and themes for the next few issues. 

I’m currently working hard on the next issue: our Winter Sparkle Special as well as being busy getting ready for The Big Bead Show and filming lots of new projects for Bead TV. I’m looking forward to catching up this week with Mel Brookes and Linda Jones who are both popping in for a spot of filming too.

It’s been an exciting month for me. I’ve been privileged to be involved in the judging for The British Bead Awards, as well as seeing Bead issue 25 come back from the printers. On a personal front I’ve been getting used to my new home and making plans for getting a car (Hurrah – no more crazy train commutes!) I’ve also been discovering all the local bead shops – there’s a new one in Arundel, which has a ‘shop kitten’ - he’s great and chases beads around the floor!

I hope you enjoy Issue 25. Don’t forget I really want to hear from you. If you have any feedback you can email me chloe@ashdown.co.uk

 
x Chloe x

 

Shape Experiments

When on holiday recently I bought myself some lovely "paddle" shaped beads and ever since I've been pondering just what to do with them.

Tonight I managed to actually spend some time playing around with them and after a few experiments I think I'm on to something.

At the least it's given me some great ideas for projects to film for Bead-TV

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!

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

Photo Fun

Today was an exceptionally busy day at the office. Between meetings, finalisng projects, answering post, sending out magazines and returning people's work, making phone-calls and doing paperwork I also managed to squeeze in a 2-hour+ session of filming for Bead-TV and photographing 2 projects for the next issue of Bead.

The projects I filmed for Bead-TV were 3 that appear in the next issue and will be free to view for readers until the issue after comes out. They were:
- My new Reversible Rivoli Pendants
- St petersburg chain doubled
- A lovely wirework and stringing project from Sue Simmons of The Bead Shed.

Filming was hard today as it was unbelievably hot in the studio and sitting for 2 hours under hot lights soon gives you a headache!
But, I like filming for Bead-TV as it gives me a chance to explain projects in different ways and hopefully to help those of you who learn in a more visual way a helping hand.

Back to the office for some fresh air and then taking photos.

We had 2 projects to photograph as well as lots of items for the Market Place, reviews and gallery pages.

The first project was my Rivoli Pendants and after some playing around we realised these looked best photographed threaded into a neckwire and laying flat on a patterned background paper. So after taking lots of photos of the pendants at different angles and threaded on differently and turned over (5 pendants, each with 2 sides which can be shown = thousands of possible combinations!) we then took lots of them on a white background, individually, in groups, sitting up on their sides etc as well as some of the beads used. All of these photos can potentially be used to illustrate certain steps or tips as well as show the pieces up closely to help you make them- all in all we often take hundreds of photos of each project!

Next up were some earrrings- and there were 7 different examples of them so we were spoilt for choice as to how to show them.

We had a lot of fun playing with different ways of showing them- I wish I'd thought to take photo of all of them!

Some involved hanging them on fantastic contraptions:

Some involved hooking them over the edges of different papers:

and there were lots of other methods involving different ways of hanging them or laying them down flat, so again hundreds of photos which myself, the photographer and page designer will mull over until we decide what works best- check out issue 18 to see what was chosen!

More Pendants

I'm off to Arundel today to work on the magazine, open the post, send out copies of Bead and also do some filming for Bead-TV.
On the way there I take advantage of the 90 minutes train journey to finish my 4th Reversible Rivoli Pendant and begin my 5th. This 5th one is what I will use when filming tomorrow so I need to bead up a few samples to show the different stages.

I'm really enjoying making these pendants (which will appear in issue 18 of Bead- out 21st September) and as each one only take 1-1^₁/₂ hours to bead they're a nice project for when you want to finish something quickly.

Jean Power
Editor of Bead

Rivoli Pendants

I'm making some more of my Reversible Rivoli Pendants which will appear in the next issue of Bead. I wanted to check my instructions, make some more for the main photo and make some samples for photographs and for when I film the project for Bead-TV as it will be one of the free to view ones for issue 18.

Bead-TV

Today I did some more filming for Bead-TV.
I have to admit- this is not the favourite part of my job- as soon as I know the camera is on my brain turns to mush and I feel like a rabbit in the headlights.

But I love the fact that so many of you use it to watch techniques and projects and learn from it, so that keeps me going!

Bead-TV is a subscription service offered by the publishers of Bead magazine where you can watch presenters such as myself and other designers from the magazine demonstrate techniques and projects so it's perfect for those of you who learn in a more visual way.

I'm delighted that with every issue of Bead we'll now be offering a few different projects and techniques direct from our pages FREE to readers until the next issue hits the shelves (when of course there will be new free films).

Today I was filming a few different things:
1- A free film to accompany my project in issue 17
2- A project from issue 6 of Bead- Crystal Charm Pendants (this was a 2-part project with the first part in issue 5 and already available on Bead-TV)
3 - A short film about issue 16 of Bead which is out now- and selling out fast!
4- A short film to remind everyone to submit their entries for The British Bead Awards

When I arrive at the studio the first thing is to set up all the background etc so that it looks more "beady".
The same studio is used to film for Cat World TV and Dolls House World TV so it if often laid out for them. Setting it up just involves adding some nice necklaces etc in the background and adjusting the lights- all of which usually ends up taking well over an hour. Then it's on to hair and make-up to make me look somewhat presentable.

I then go over in my head what I'm planning to demonstrate and ensure I have all my beads, tools, diagrams etc handy so I can access them without stopping.

Then a deep breathe and we're off!

Each film is then edited for sound, close-ups etc before it is added to the website

if you're interested in what I was making the crystal charm pendants featured in issue 6 and were a follow-up to a project- crystal charms- which appeared in issue 5. Issue 6 is still available as a back issue but issue 5 can only be bought as part of an iMAG subscription.