Bead Blog

Phew - What A Day

Well, our 4th ever Big Bead Show is now over and 2 days later I'm still recovering!

I had such a lovely day and got to meet so many readers and stall-holders and had great fun looking at what everyone had bought and what was new out there to buy.

We had our meet-up at 2pm so thanks to everyone who came (the crazy cupcakes were courgette (zucchini) and camomile- just right for summer!)

I got to see what everyone had bought which was a real treat and meant meant new items quickly went onto my shopping list.

In the end I bought-

- Some size 15 galavnised seed beads which were the only thing on my shopping list. I need these to finish a project I'm currently working on
- Some lovely rondels in bronze which I'm debating how to use
- Some lentils and square beads which I couldn't resist
- 2 cat bead from the lovely Keiara Wells (whom we profiled in issue 22) one of these was imediately given away as a present before I even had a chance to take my photo

Quite restrained I'm sure you'll all agreee!

Hope all those of you who came along had a good time- and hope to see you all on the 30th October for the next Big Bead Show!

Jean Power
Editor of Bead

Issue 22 Off To Print

Having gone up to 8 issues a year it's less than 2 weeks until issue 22 of Bead comes out.

This issue is our Colour Special and features some fantastic projects and articles from award-winning designers.

I have already written about some of the projects that will be featured (here, here and here) as well as testing projects and taking the photos but here's a sneak preview of some more of the pages:

A polymer clay project from Christine Dumont

A lampwork project from Keiara Wells

it also includes lots of seed beads and wirework as well as articles and tips on using colour

Today our main job was getting the cover done- a real challenge as we wanted to feature as many of the projects inside as we could but keep the cover colour themed, co-ordinated and unmessy- not an easy job!

It took us all day with lots of photos being taken and layouts tried but we got there in the end.

 

Here are some of our attempts throughout the day:

Check the issue out on the 21st April when it hits the shops to see what we went with!

Jean Power

Editor of Bead

What's in a name?

As issue 21 of Bead gets ready to go to print (it will be out 17th March 2010) I am reminded of just how much variety we feature.

I recently received a letter from a reader saying we had too many seed bead type projects in an issue but when I looked back at the issue referred to I found that out of 13 projects only 6 were solely seed beads.

The other 7 included: 1 card making, 1 making paper beads, 1 lampworking, 1 PMC and crochet, 1 beadwork and stringing, 1 wirework and one 1 knotting- a pretty mixed bag!

Whilst I personally love seed bed work I also love to mix techniques and travel between wirework, chain maille, polymer clay, stringing, knotting, crochet, PMC, felt-making... the list goes on. In fact just about anything I can get my hands on!

So, if you're a fan of mixing it up then I hope issue 21 has plenty to offer you.

There are 12 projects in the issue (plus our extra free download) and they include:

Lampwork-

Wirework-

Crystals-

Fashion jewellery-

and of course lots of great seed bead work-

Hope you enjoy it!

Jean Power

Editor of Bead