Pretty Darling bracelets

Lace edged velvet ribbon from
VV Rouleaux

I had a lovely surprise last week when I discovered that my Pretty Darling bracelets had made the front cover of Bead magazine. It's always fun to design for magazines, but it has to be kept a secret until the magazine is published. I'm not good at keeping beady secrets! So I'd forgotten that the project would be appearing.

I had these pretty ribbons on my desk from VV Rouleaux one of my favourite stores for inspiration.Which got me thinking about those  old fashioned lace trimmings threaded through with ribbon ties.

Pretty Darlin Bracelets
image courtesy of Bead Magazine

I'd been meaning to stitch the ribbons onto a bag, but I'm glad now that I left them on my desk where they started a beading idea instead.
Pretty Darling is a mix of easy stitches, seed beads and fire polish crystals. I made it in girly colours for this spring issue magazine, but Red and black would be luscious for dressing up days, or how about matt metallics for serious work wear?

Bead magazine is available in print
or digitally.

ooh! on the cover!

I love creating designs for magazines, it's so lovely when an editor asks for something special and I get excited when I come up with new ideas, so it is Soooo hard to keep quiet until the design is published!

Chantilly Tassel

I loved designing this Tassel for Chloe at Bead magazine. This was my first go with the Swarovski Chaton (8mm), I used a simple right angle weave variation to create a layered bezel... Then just added lots of romantic strands of flowers. I even got organised and have a materials pack for this spicy coloured one and a lovely pale pink version here. So it's always lovely when having created the design, then kept really mouse quiet about it for a few months, they go and do something lovely and put it on the cover. Thank you Chloe!
Once I'd started it was utterly tempting to keep on experimenting with the Chaton stones, which is how Bella's Charm evolved too. I also realised that I could finally get on with the dragonfly design that I'd been promising for so long.