O beads!

O beads are perfect for bead embroidery

I just love it when a new bead begins. Happily my friend, bead artist Sabine Lippert, invited me to join in the fun right at the start of this little bead's life. Sabine has thought up a great little bead, subtle, easy to use, and a very pretty addition to the bead stash.
The first bag of samples got my creative ideas going right from the offset. O beads are, simply put, miniature do-nuts of glass, perfectly formed to nestle between beads.

Various designers around the world have put them through their paces, to check they work up well in lots of different stitches.  I'm loving them in Albion stitch, and Netting, they bring a whole new dimension to Right Angle Weave, and they are the perfect bead for bead embroidery lovers... It's been an age since I did some bead embroidery and now I can't resist!

O beads weave in nicely too

Meanwhile, whilst we've been busy testing both the beads and our ingenuity, somewhere in  Czechoslovakia ... the bead master behind the new bead has been busy cooking up recipes for a truly delicious palette of colours. It takes many months to go from the charcoal grey test beads we have to play with, to a rainbow of colours and finishes, months where we ache to try the new colours and are tormented by preview pictures that simply make our fingers itch!

Below are some of the first O beads, worked into tassels, earrings, and bracelets. I think they are destined to be one of my favourites!


O beads will be available from December 1st and I'll be creating these (and more) patterns as downloads and kits just as soon as the bags of those lovely colours arrive. I'll post the info just as soon as everything is ready.