Bead Blog

Issue 23 off to print

So soon!

I know it was only recently I was telling you that issue 22 of Bead was off to print but going up to 8 issues a year means that issue 23 (which will be on sale the 26th May) is already on its way.

As usual I have tried to pack the pages with as much beady goodies as I can and this issue continues our great mix of different technqiues and materials so some of the items we have are:

A wirework and crystal set

Inspired lampwork beads

Quick and sparkly seed beads

 

More advanced seed beads

Chinese knotting inspired seed beads

A sparkling tiara

Quick and easy polymer clay

Scrumptious stringing

plus 5 more projects as well as all of our usual profiles and articles.

Esepcially a great report back from the recent Big Bead show

Keep an eye out for it in your local bead shop or newsagent - or why not subscirbe to the paper copy or iMag to ensure you don't miss out?

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

More Fun Fashion

As issue 22 of Bead is colour themed I was trying to think of obvious colour schemes for this project and the most obviously one, which I'm sure most of you know, is a rainbow.

All together now: "Red and yellow and pink and green, purple and orange and blue. I can sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow too"

I hope you don't end up with that in your head all day!

Funny how the song doesn't actually match the colours of a rainbow- a bit of artistic license?

Anyway, this quick to make pendant can be made using the colours of the rainbow or just a graduated series of one colour would be lovely too.

Jean Power

Editor of Bead

 

Fun Fashion

As much as I love seed bead work even I get bored with projects that take me 30+ hours!

So, I love being able to swap and change with wirework and stringing to create more fashionable items in minutes

This necklace took minutes to make and takes advantage of the great shape of bicone crystals to make a great pendant and necklace

Look out for lots of these projects appearing in upcoming issues of Bead