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 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

Viking Weave Fun

The class I'm teaching today is Viking Weave which is a technique I love.

Not only is it relaxing and mesmerising once you get going but before you know it a lovely hand-made chain has grown.

We begin each class working in copper until everyone is happy with what they're doing and then move onto silver. The thought of getting rid of your first bit of work isn't nice but it's worth it in the end!

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

 

Colour of the year

Last year Pantone announced that their colour of 2010 was turquoise.

As issue 22 of Bead is themed around colour it's only right that we have a project based on turquoise so I've made these fun, fashionable wirework earrings.

Issue 22 will be out 21st April and issue 21 much sooner at 17th March.

Colourful Wirework

I love mixing wirework with colourful beads and this new project, which will feature in issue 23 of Bead magazine is no exception.

It's quick and easy to make and with the crystals you'll soon have a sparkly set to show off!

Jean Power
Editor of Bead

Wirework Fun

As well as editing Bead magazine I work as an author, designer and teacher and this weekend I have my teaching hat on as I head away to Earnley Concourse in Chichester once again for a fun weekend of teaching.

I love coming here as it is asuch a friendly environment to learn with great class rooms, staff and food!

It's was a very busy class with 4 different projects over the 3 days, and with all the cake breaks there's no time for slacking!

Missing Bead Mojo

I seem to not have done much beading so far this year and it took me a little while to work out why that was. I realised that both of the main projects I have on the go at the moment (a beaded snake and a beaded sea urchin) had reached the point where I needed to take my scissors to them and start again.

I hate this bit so was obviosuly delaying doing so- with the result that no beading was being done at all.

So, I decided to take myself in hand and knuckle down and do it. But then reaslised that I couldn't actually find the essential beads for my urchin- so beading mojo gone again.

Instead I have lots of wirework I need to get on with for a class I'm teaching soon so finished off this wirework bangle instead.

Wirework Day

Although my main job is editing Bead I still work as a teacher, designer and author- all bead and jewellery related I'm pleased to say.

Today I'm chopping and changing between jobs on Bead (issue 20 is about to go to the printers and I'm working on issues 21, 22 and 23) and preparing last minute samples and instructions for a weekend residential Wirework Projects Class which is in a couple of weeks.

 

I have taught at this residential school a few times before and it's always a treat. Not only do you get more time to spend on actually making, but add to that good food, lovely surroundings and opportunities to relax with everyone in the evenings, and a good time is had by all.