Spilled ink and old wood

Original Nouveau Droplet necklace in
Atlantic Wash, with a second colourway
called Firecracker in the background

One of the immense delights of being a teacher and seller of my patterns, is seeing them made up and being worn by a satisfied student or customer, there is no greater complement.
For me, the joy is even greater when I see that my suggestions for playing with colour have inspired too. My beadwork patterns deliberately don't give any bead colour codes (gasp!). Firstly because not all beaders will be able to source the same beads, (certainly more true when I started than perhaps now that beads can be bought on line). The second reason though, is more sneeky on my part, because I really want to encourage the creative process and get everyone to feel they can play with colour. In class it is always great fun to see the different colour stories, each an inspiration and often the source of unplanned bead buyingas I am tempted by yet another lovely mix.

The most delicious interpretation
of  Nouveau Droplet

I was busy on such a buying mission the other day when a fellow addict leaned over and revealed a Nouveau Droplet Necklace in the smudgiest, dark ink spilled on an old desk loveliness of a colour mix. It made me think of 17th century interiors, oak gall dyes, candle lit wooden panels and worn metal sconces; great colour mixes start their own stories, which is why I find sharing colour ideas such a magical exchange.
Happily she was willing for me to photograph her creation, shown here against the nearest prop we could find in the store, a stack of baskets!

Victoriana in Bead magazine

now that the latest issue of Bead magazine is on the news stands I can show and share the Victoriana floral locket. To create this Winter special magazine, Chloe the Editor invited designers to be inspired by an era, and I got Victorian.. which as y'all know is a perfect fit as I love all things vintage inspiration. I used my oval acrylic windows as templates and took the prettiest snippets from scans of old postcards which were saved by my Grandma. Pretty postcards like these were often posted in the morning and arrived by lunch time! I have one which was an invitation to afternoon tea that very same day, a testament to the power of a penny stamp and a great organisation; I guess they are also the forerunner of our emails and text messages.

Two Victoriana Lockets for Bead magazine

My 'Locket' has room for two images sandwiched between  acrylic windows, so is completely reversible. The project in the magazine give instructions for the embellished bezel, bail and a dainty beady ring, through which you can thread some ribbon to finish off the vintage look.

If you don't have vintage post cards, there are lots of on line sites offering free or very reasonably priced down loadable images, You can also spend a small fortune and many happy hours in craft stores choosing papers and ephemera in the papercrafting section.

Make a matching birthday card and gift

I admit happily to being utterly charmed by anything that is made personal, such as home made greeting cards and small hand made gifts. These will win my heart every time, so I'll definitely be using this design for some presents.

Pink and pretty

Acantha, spiky lariat workshop

So that's really not me at all is it, pink and pretty. OK so the idea is... I wanted to try some new ideas but working in a set of colours outside my 'comfort zone' to see if different things would happen.
First is Acantha (Greek for thorn, the nymph who fended off Apollo too).
The Acantha is a divining rod, a dowsing for happiness lariat. Part of the symbols series, and using lots of lovely Albion Stitch. I also used some adorable 2mm Czech glass pearls and some of the Silver silk chain. Always good to add in new products... plus some of the lovely Czech spikes too.
Go back, 'Symbols series'? yes, a new adventure in Albion and combined stitches is the Symbols series, a kind of continuation of my Treasures and talismans classes. My love of antiquities and story telling combined into one new exciting project for which Acantha, The Time Traveller's Compass, and a few more pieces are a little part... 'exciting no?

Estelle bracelet, sparkly arm candy for fun.      

So having started thinking about what workshops I'd like to be teaching next year, I carried on playing with the pink and pretty idea and came up with (hopefully not too similar to anyone elses?) a really quick and easy bezel that can be worked to capture Swarovski stones of different sizes.... so far a cute little bracelet and necklace with a pendant set, but bound to be worked on some more...
Mostly though I'm happy that the experiment worked, I'll be happy to go back to my preferred colours... but pink is definitely the new accent colour... or maybe a dark plum...

Estelle pendant, variable bezel to fit
different size Swarovski stones.