I'll be honest here; I don't often visit the local craft superstore. My official line on this is that prices are high and that they'd rather sell you a pre-designed project than inspire genuine creativity, but the main reason is that I'm too lazy to walk half a mile uphill out of town to the industrial estate by the railway station. Normally, therefore, I only make the hike when I'm feeling creatively stagnant and need to actively look for materials that inspire me. Continuing in the confessional theme: I'm also a materials snob. There, said it. I like my semiprecious stones, and barring seed beads and spacers everything else tends to seem just that little bit inferior.
With all this in mind, here's a series of four necklaces I made from Gutermann Czech glass teardrops I bought from the Hobbycraft clearance bin at a pound a piece. The colours are luminous, they make up quickly and easily and they've drawn more compliments at work than anything else I've made in ages. They're around 17" long each, so they sit nicely on the collarbone where their relative delicacy works in their favour. Hopefully they'll do well as cheaper pieces on my craft fair table, but if not, they'll make great gifts or nice additions to my work wardrobe.
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Teardrops (In my eyes)
I'll be honest here; I don't often visit the local craft superstore. My official line on this is that prices are high and that they'd rather sell you a pre-designed project than inspire genuine creativity, but the main reason is that I'm too lazy to walk half a mile uphill out of town to the industrial estate by the railway station. Normally, therefore, I only make the hike when I'm feeling creatively stagnant and need to actively look for materials that inspire me. Continuing in the confessional theme: I'm also a materials snob. There, said it. I like my semiprecious stones, and barring seed beads and spacers everything else tends to seem just that little bit inferior.
With all this in mind, here's a series of four necklaces I made from Gutermann Czech glass teardrops I bought from the Hobbycraft clearance bin at a pound a piece. The colours are luminous, they make up quickly and easily and they've drawn more compliments at work than anything else I've made in ages. They're around 17" long each, so they sit nicely on the collarbone where their relative delicacy works in their favour. Hopefully they'll do well as cheaper pieces on my craft fair table, but if not, they'll make great gifts or nice additions to my work wardrobe.
Saturday, February 16, 2013
Bead soup!
My bead soup arrived from Poland today - thanks Agata!
I already have a couple of projects in mind for these. Can't believe the detail on the polymer clay focals, either!
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Getting back in the swing...
Looks as though I need to work on the layout for this thing, but that can come later.
For now, though, here's a quickie bracelet I made this morning. My normal beading habit is to work out of a cereal bowl on the corner of the computer desk - our flat is small, space is at a premium and, critically, I've never been capable of separating my beading addiction from my online chatting addiction. When I design, I tend to tip a bunch of materials I think might work into the bowl and then see what connections I can make. The upshot of this is that at the end of any given project, I have a bowlful of unused beads that need sorting and putting away. Sometimes, it sits there glaring at me for a week or more.
The bracelet below isn't so much a project as an attempt to not have to put my toys away.
It's all fairly obvious, but for the record: haematite rounds and hoops, tiger eye rounds, 24k gold-plated faceted delicas and the ones in the middle of the hoops are actually garnets despite what my camera has to say about it.
It's all fairly obvious, but for the record: haematite rounds and hoops, tiger eye rounds, 24k gold-plated faceted delicas and the ones in the middle of the hoops are actually garnets despite what my camera has to say about it.
Bead Soup Blog Party 2013
Hello to any new visitors!
As you may or may not have noticed, this hasn't been updated since 2009. This is because I've largely moved my beading activity to my tumblr, as being quicker and easier to update. Still, I haven't been to blogspot in a while and now I return, I find that it far less faff than it used to be. So, who knows, I may set up residency here too, with the caveat that when you give me a huge blank screen to type into I'll invariably ramble like a very rambly thing.
In the meantime, here's a (reasonably) recent picture of the kind of stuff I do.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
NIFTY GIFTY...
It's practically a law: whenever I make something I really, really like, the camera won't do it justice.
No idea what I was on when I designed this one - I'm sure there's a reason for it being threaded on ribbon, I'm just not completely sure what that reason might be. I think it had something to do with the large-diameter holes in the African magazine beads I'd originally planned on using. This is the way my mind works. Or not.
The centrepiece is a rectangular sardonyx; this and its siblings cost more than I've ever paid for a string of beads before. Still, it would've felt wrong to have wasted my birthday money on something I didn't love.
It's a beautiful stone, but I swear the thing I like most about this one is the way the knots in the ribbon act as spacers.
It's practically a law: whenever I make something I really, really like, the camera won't do it justice.No idea what I was on when I designed this one - I'm sure there's a reason for it being threaded on ribbon, I'm just not completely sure what that reason might be. I think it had something to do with the large-diameter holes in the African magazine beads I'd originally planned on using. This is the way my mind works. Or not.
The centrepiece is a rectangular sardonyx; this and its siblings cost more than I've ever paid for a string of beads before. Still, it would've felt wrong to have wasted my birthday money on something I didn't love.
It's a beautiful stone, but I swear the thing I like most about this one is the way the knots in the ribbon act as spacers.
Monday, March 09, 2009
FEAR AND LOATHING IN THE FUTURES GALLERY...
...Yep, that's me at the Coventry Womens' Forum last Saturday, hawking and also wearing my wares.
I feel uniquely privileged to have had the chance to be a part of such an uplifting and inspiring cultural event, and have spent the past few days rejoicing in renewed awe of my empowered feminine self.
No, really.
...Yep, that's me at the Coventry Womens' Forum last Saturday, hawking and also wearing my wares.
I feel uniquely privileged to have had the chance to be a part of such an uplifting and inspiring cultural event, and have spent the past few days rejoicing in renewed awe of my empowered feminine self.
No, really.
Friday, March 06, 2009
IN THE SWIM...
This, for the record, is what you get when you use a bead supplier with a minimum spend limit. You browse for a bit, you dither, you think about all the useful thread and findings you could buy to make up those last couple of pounds and then you buy cloisonné goldfish. I hear they've made this a law in certain countries.
Of course, once you've bought them you have to work out what to do with them. For a while I was leaning towards simply leaving them bagged up somewhere prominent as a reminder that I was running low on thread and clasps, but then I figured everybody's allowed to be whimsical sometimes, right?
The barrettes are made in three stages. First, I wire on a layer of semiprecious chips. After that, I apply the fish and the bubbles. After that, I go back to the couch to lick the physical and mental wounds I've acquired from working with large lengths of springy fine-gauge wire.
Making them drives me barmy, but I'm sort of hoping not all of them will sell so I can adopt one for myself.
This, for the record, is what you get when you use a bead supplier with a minimum spend limit. You browse for a bit, you dither, you think about all the useful thread and findings you could buy to make up those last couple of pounds and then you buy cloisonné goldfish. I hear they've made this a law in certain countries.Of course, once you've bought them you have to work out what to do with them. For a while I was leaning towards simply leaving them bagged up somewhere prominent as a reminder that I was running low on thread and clasps, but then I figured everybody's allowed to be whimsical sometimes, right?
The barrettes are made in three stages. First, I wire on a layer of semiprecious chips. After that, I apply the fish and the bubbles. After that, I go back to the couch to lick the physical and mental wounds I've acquired from working with large lengths of springy fine-gauge wire.
Making them drives me barmy, but I'm sort of hoping not all of them will sell so I can adopt one for myself.
ALL IN THE WRIST ACTION...
I love making bracelets. They're little bite-sized pieces of beading heaven, a safe place to investigate colours and textures without worrying about putting in hours of work on something that might turn out ugly or too heavy for the thread.
Better still, if I make three or four in a day they hang on the stand in a very satisfying sort of way. You've been productive, Sarah, they tell me, and I believe them and treat myself to a bit of chocolate as a reward.
Anyhow, clockwise from top left:
I love making bracelets. They're little bite-sized pieces of beading heaven, a safe place to investigate colours and textures without worrying about putting in hours of work on something that might turn out ugly or too heavy for the thread.Better still, if I make three or four in a day they hang on the stand in a very satisfying sort of way. You've been productive, Sarah, they tell me, and I believe them and treat myself to a bit of chocolate as a reward.
Anyhow, clockwise from top left:
- Wood rounds and tree agate chips - very naturalistic and a bit oriental.
- Garnet chips with garnet leaf and lamp glass centrepiece - terribly, terribly sophisticated.
- Wood rounds, glass rounds, moonstone oval - I liked this one so much I made two.
- Small and large haematite rounds - some say funereal, I say a classic. You choose.
DANGLY BITS...
...Y'see, I swore I wouldn't get into the whole pendant thing. Pendants are for people who can do clever stuff with wire - stuff like cutting the ends of it in a manner that won't draw the wearer's blood.
It starts in such tiny ways, doesn't it? I'm not terribly confident with elastic, either, and it didn't really seem like such a huge deal to apply an extender chain to make a bracelet fit nicely. Out of extender chains? They're awfully expensive, aren't they? Why not simply buy a length of chain to cut up and make my own? Chain arrives but won't fit the bracelet clasps? Well, I have to do something with it, don't I?
I should probably mention at this point that the wastage of a couple of quid would not have flung me into penury.
I should probably also mention that these pendants contain no sharp ends - just glass, semiprecious stones, wood and these really funky little wire spirals I make with one twist of the round-ended pliers and then some clever stuff with the pad of my thumb.
...Y'see, I swore I wouldn't get into the whole pendant thing. Pendants are for people who can do clever stuff with wire - stuff like cutting the ends of it in a manner that won't draw the wearer's blood.It starts in such tiny ways, doesn't it? I'm not terribly confident with elastic, either, and it didn't really seem like such a huge deal to apply an extender chain to make a bracelet fit nicely. Out of extender chains? They're awfully expensive, aren't they? Why not simply buy a length of chain to cut up and make my own? Chain arrives but won't fit the bracelet clasps? Well, I have to do something with it, don't I?
I should probably mention at this point that the wastage of a couple of quid would not have flung me into penury.
I should probably also mention that these pendants contain no sharp ends - just glass, semiprecious stones, wood and these really funky little wire spirals I make with one twist of the round-ended pliers and then some clever stuff with the pad of my thumb.
JUST CAN'T GET ENOUGH...
Two days before an event is a very, very awkward time to realise you don't have any double-length strings made up. The photograph to the left depicts several hours of undiluted adrenaline, cursing and decaffeinated Earl Grey tea.
It's always nice to have some longer strings available, of course; almost everybody likes a necklace they can knot and loop and mould to their own personal style. They look pretty, they sell well.
They suck the living soul out of me. Three tiny beads, one less tiny one, repeat until 1) you reach 45 inches, 2) the beads run out or 3) your brain creeps out of your left ear and flings itself to its death via the nearest window.
Pretty, though, ain't they?
Two days before an event is a very, very awkward time to realise you don't have any double-length strings made up. The photograph to the left depicts several hours of undiluted adrenaline, cursing and decaffeinated Earl Grey tea.It's always nice to have some longer strings available, of course; almost everybody likes a necklace they can knot and loop and mould to their own personal style. They look pretty, they sell well.
They suck the living soul out of me. Three tiny beads, one less tiny one, repeat until 1) you reach 45 inches, 2) the beads run out or 3) your brain creeps out of your left ear and flings itself to its death via the nearest window.
Pretty, though, ain't they?
IT TAKES ALL SORTS...
These were the jumping-off point when I realised I was likely to have a busy craft fair schedule for 2009 - a bunch of eclectic bead strings grouped by colour and featuring all the fun lamp glass beads I'd not been able to slot in anywhere else.
There's at least a dozen little stories hidden in this photo - the big red clay square from the beading carousel my parents bought me from Costco last year, the purple foil glass discs I bought in the form of five or six bracelets from the local charity shop, the little 4mil glass rounds in midnight blue that I still think are the prettiest colour I ever saw... I could go on about these forever. There's even some in here from the first bag of lamp glass beads I ever bought, from the British Heart Foundation shop next to the Etna restaurant in Coventry city centre. Back then, I had no idea what I was getting into.
Of course, some beads are more special than others, and so are some necklaces. Take a look at the second necklace from the bottom? It's another very simple design, chiefly because I thought the featured beads spoke for themselves. Discover their story at http://mzuribeads.com/.
These were the jumping-off point when I realised I was likely to have a busy craft fair schedule for 2009 - a bunch of eclectic bead strings grouped by colour and featuring all the fun lamp glass beads I'd not been able to slot in anywhere else.There's at least a dozen little stories hidden in this photo - the big red clay square from the beading carousel my parents bought me from Costco last year, the purple foil glass discs I bought in the form of five or six bracelets from the local charity shop, the little 4mil glass rounds in midnight blue that I still think are the prettiest colour I ever saw... I could go on about these forever. There's even some in here from the first bag of lamp glass beads I ever bought, from the British Heart Foundation shop next to the Etna restaurant in Coventry city centre. Back then, I had no idea what I was getting into.
Of course, some beads are more special than others, and so are some necklaces. Take a look at the second necklace from the bottom? It's another very simple design, chiefly because I thought the featured beads spoke for themselves. Discover their story at http://mzuribeads.com/.
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