Relic pendant

Did Anne gaze out from here?

In September we had an outing to Hever Castle. Anne Boleyn lived there as a child, and so it was on the wish list of places to visit. The girls in my family are all caught up in the drama of Philippa Gregory's awesome series of books on the royal women who shaped our history so magnificently.
At Hever, although it was made over by William Waldorf Astor in the 1920's, it remains a 13th century castle at heart, complete with winding stone stairs and casement windows. Who could help but be utterly inspired!

A view of the orchard at Hever

My ongoing project has been the symbols and trinkets designs which I've blogged about before, here. It's still got me fascinated, and the inclusion of secret compartments within the designs is becoming a bit of a habit. The Tudors were great lovers of trinkets and beautiful jewels were sewn on to garments as well as being worn as jewellery.
Lovers would exchange bejewelled message pendants and these too would be sewn onto sleeves. Some romeo's were painted with a sleeve full, to give away when someone caught their fancy? or maybe to show off how popular they were!

Relic Pendant in Pewter

Meanwhile, back at home, on my desk were some Czech glass stud beads in the perfect shades of pewter and bronze, just itching to be used. The new bead shapes and designs are coming thick and fast out of Czechoslovakia,
as a new generation of bead makers explore the glass. It is lovely, exciting and inspiring to get the new beads to play with.
The result is the Relic Pendant. A little container for a message or treasure to be concealed within. Worked in Albion Stitch and clearly way more influenced by my visit to Hever than I realised whilst I was beading.
I've written up the pattern, which is also available as a download, and put together kits in the first two colourways inspired by the beautiful patina of time aged metals.

Relic Pendants in Bronze and Pewter

Show time already?

Who knew!... it is a beyond lovely experience to be invited to teach six different classes and to then have them all fill up too.
I'm heading out for four days at the Great British Beadshow, where I'll be teaching the masterclass and two more workshops. Then a little mid May lull to regroup and get my boxes shipped ahead, before setting off to Milwaukee for my first ever Bead and Button show.
It's no secret that I love teaching, and I'm getting the anticipatory tingles of having some designs I'm really looking forward to sharing with everyone.
The build up has been an epic of bead ordering, kit packing, colour deciding, do-overs and re-works. Lost packages and held up parcels, plus plenty of track stopping moments like that 'have my heart set on it' 2.5mm crystal? sorry, now out of production! Or, 'We have 900 in that colour pearl and you say you need 1500?, would a different colour for the rest do?'... Finally the compromises and colourways came together and it's been lovely to sit and work with each one in turn, just to triple check as I go.

'Acantha' left to right:
Rust/Scarlet; Lime/Teal: Silver/ Pink: Turquoise/ Violet

I have some truly lovely friends who, when I hit the wall, come along with pack lunches awesome chocolate brownies and rolled up sleeves, and just get stuck in, while I peel myself off the wall and back to having a sense of humour. Big hugs and a huge thank you to Dawn and Sally.

Acantha, showcases SilverSilk and Czech spike beads. As part of the Symbols and Trinkets series, Acantha is a 'Dowsing for Happiness' amulet. The colourways are listed beneath the photo so class attendees can have a good look and choose favourites ahead of time.

'Indiaman' left to right:
Silver/ Fern: Indigo/Teal:
Bronze/Violet: Plum/Astral Pink

'Indiaman' is a two day class for B&B. Named after the trading ships of the East India Companies, crossing oceans to bring so many jewelled treasures to our shores. This design is full of 'colour on colour' scrunchy texture, and features Albion stitch in lots of variations.

Ambrosina, is a medley of netting techniques and will be taught for the Guild and later this year at Beader's Best in Hamburg too. It has starting points in a design I made for a friend, and it's been a joyous journey to revise, explore and create a completely new design from that first idea.In this class, students will have many design options to play with.

'Ambrosina' left to right:
Lime/Coconut: Raspberry/Plum;
Mint/Turquoise: Earth/Ivory

Looking at the boxes all packed and ready to go, the samples up on the display boards and the crisp piles of class notes, it feels nice to have come out the other side of total mayhem.
Now I'm looking forward to days and days of beady fun.

Day trip to Wells

Cloister, Wells Cathedral

I love going to Wells, the saturday street market is great, lots of really good food stalls too. But this time, we decided to be tourists and visited the Bishops Palace and grounds. How weighted with history are these sheltered and moated grounds. Most of the centre of Wells is like a film set for a medieval or gothic drama, specially f you know which alleys to wander through. The twin towered cathedral is huge and solid from the outside, etherial and timeless inside.
The palace grounds are beautiful, peaceful and calming in the soft English sunshine. There is the little bell that the swans have learned to pull at a certain time, to be dutifully fed through a window above. Or you can go play Robin Hood on the ramparts overlooking the moat and the Bishop's see, as in see all that? it belongs to the church, see?

The Wells pool with the Cathedral beyond

Also in the grounds are the Wells. This is the water source for the whole town.
four million gallons of water a day bubble up in several different spots on the floor of this pool, it is mesmerising to watch. Yes, technically springs, but called Wells in this spot for as long as anyone can remember... undoubtedly a Somerset thing.
So I love the sense of history, I am comforted by the longevity of the buildings, the continuity of worship and ritual, even by the stories on the memorial plaques that bring the dead back to us as real people who strived and achieved, or not, just as we do. But just tickling away like a naughty whisper is... why did they build the church on top of the only water source in the region... and the awful feeling of knowing exactly why.
Back in the sunshine, we sit and enjoy coffee and I doodle some motifs to add to my collection and the story about talismans. Here are two of the pieces that began the idea.

I was educated in a convent school, which I loved and hated in equal parts. One summer then nuns were told to hand in their large ornate and very gothic crucifix pendants, which were to be replaced with smaller far more modern brushed steel crosses that were almost not crosses at all. I could see that some nuns were profoundly upset to loose their iconic talismans. Not comfortable with having to build a relationship with a new symbol. This momentary glimpse into lives which held so very few possessions gave me an insight into the subject that has become a fascination in my work.

Eye for Scrying

Scrying Compass

One of these two pieces will be a workshop next year, I've worn it a lot and have finally resolved how to offer a class without making everyone french knit a cord with very fine crochet cotton (! labour of love alert!), as I explore this theme more the shapes for the symbols resolve and rearrange. This will be a fun class too as we get into multiple layers and some really cute beaded end caps.

Button Love

simple bezel on a mother of pearl button

There are buttons and then there are little round works of art that simply should not hide in a button box. You can fairly confidently take it as a given that I have a stash of buttons. I will wax lyrical over them another day. Today I'm showing you just one really beautifully smoothed and carved mother of pearl coat button. I found it at a flea market, lurking among some frighteningly garish plastic buttons, with a broken shank. I rescued it for the princely sum of 50p and the promise of a new life. Because the back of the button was a bit uneven I attached it to a backing with a beaded bezel.This also gave me something to attach a brooch pin to without having to break out the ...whispers... g.l.u.e..., or as my chums in the Guild refer to it... 'the G word'.

In the spirit of recycling and the absence of a really good commercial equivalent, I use plastic from the side of a milk carton... it is just the right thickness to support a bit of bead embroidery, but thin enough to be fairly easy to stitch through... it also survives if your brooch accidentally ends up in the washing machine... which is why I don't use cereal box card any more.

Sew the brooch pin to one side of the plastic, the base rows of bead embroidery to the other, lining things up so the pin is a wee bit above centre so the brooch will lie nicely. Then apply a piece of Ultra Suede to cover up the stitching (I cut two weeny slots for the ends of the brooch pin to fit through, and yes a dab of the G word works a treat at this stage. trim it all flush to the embroidery and finish off the edges with a row or two of beading.

Button love in a different place

The bezel is a simple peyote ring, the edge of the backing has a row of stitching to hold it all together, which is hidden with a row of double Delica beads embroidered in place, then lots and lots of little beaded leaves which start and finish just under the Delica beads. I kept the colours really simple, and the bead types quite plain too, originally made for a quite sombre event, I find I wear it often because somehow the colours have a chameleon quality.
The first photo shows my Button love brooch nestling in a new Hebe I've just potted up, it's called 'Heartbreaker' and is a lovely vivid magenta with cream and soft sage green varegation. The second picture shows the pin hanging from a nail on a stone wall. I love the way that this paler setting brings out all the sand and creamy coloured beads I used, whereas the other one really brings out the dark maroon beads.

Czech spike beads

OK so sometimes it is essential to stop stashing beads and start working with them. It is also really cool to support a great idea and I love the story of Perry Bookstein's creation of these Laura McCabe inspired deliciously spiked beads.
So there I was hopping from foot to foot in the bead shop when I went to pick up my Czech Glass spikes last week. But guess what, I was way too restrained and only bought two packets...  definitely need to go back for more as the ideas are jumping about... what was I thinking two packets!!

Time Traveller's compass

You would imagine that I spend most of my time sitting and playing with beads, but actually it's not that often I get to just bead, so as a special treat this weekend himself watched the cricket and didn't mind a bit that I spent two whole days under a tree in the garden with my bead tray...bliss.

OK so this design I'm calling the Time Traveller's compass... it's part of a series of new pieces based on a story and really the next stage in my ongoing fascination with treasure and talismans. I will get around to posting about this properly one day, it's something I love researching, exploring, and working with as a form of creating adornment...

Meanwhile my design is reversible and uses some adorable Czech crystals along with some swarovski ones too. it's a kind of Talisman for a modern age, a beady compass for navigating life, for me it's also part of some new works using Albion Stitch.. whispers quietly... maybe for book three!! Buy the kit, more materials or instructions only here.

The cord is a beady rope I'm calling honeycomb, it is a variation of netting and works up really quickly.
No more time to blog... I need to go order some more spikes!

Country Garden workshop

Country Garden

We had a great time on saturday at the studio in Dorset, with a full house for my new Albion Stitch Country Garden corsage workshop.
I love teaching and sharing my designs with my students, it's a total battery re-charge for me as there is really nothing more flattering that a whole group of people signing up to spend the day with me!
To start the day we had a good discussion about colour, one of my sidebar themes for all the new workshops this year. As a result the range of colour mixes for the show and tell at the end of the day was lovely to behold.  Yeay for blue and mustard coloured flowers how fab do they look! and I am loving the pink and green mix in one flower. It gets my fingers itching to bead some more...

a day of beading, show and share

Another enjoyable aspect of teaching is seeing finished pieces. In this class there were not one, but two 'Enchanter's Tassels' completed from a previous workshop. With the best will in the world there's only really enough time to make samples in  a few colourways and bead variations. Just enough to check that it really works and will be workable for everyone in class or at home.

Two variations of Enchanter's tassel

So when students take the colours or shapes for a walk, then bring in the end results for me to see, it is a brilliant treat. Enchanter's tassel is a fluid, jointed design worked in layers of Albion Stitch. I'm really liking the Herringbone stitch cord, worked in size 15 seeds. It takes an age to stitch, but is so worth the investment of time to get such dainty detail, go girls!

Grisaille charm to go

Grisaille Charm
 a kit to make two
 shadow and light charms

I promised to show and share.... and would have done sooner, but life gets busy and before you know it a week or even two have gone by. Those lovely monochrome beads I bought at the bead fair made it to the bead tray and I had a lovely couple of evenings trying different ideas.
To the mix of grey and white pearls and crystal, I added some matt ivory and metallic pewter seed beads. You would think that working in Grisaille would be easy, but with less colour than usual to play with, getting the texture and balance right seems more exacting, plus you get a new player at the table, shadow. I've not really noticed shadow when working with coloured beads, but it really plays a role with a monochrome palette.
I've worked the design with some sections of colour reversed out and it's amazing how different the same pattern can look just by changing the bead from light to dark. I love this shadow and light idea so much the kits will include enough beads and findings to make two charms. Grisaille Charm will be posted on the website along with a kit, including two of those lovely freshwater pearl droplets... as soon as I've written the instructions.

Hamburg bead fair classes

Double sided Daisies

I love getting new designs ready for workshops, events and publications, but the sitting and waiting until I can show and share is sometimes a really fidgety business... the more I like a design or a new thought in beads, the harder it is to keep it under wraps. The fun part, I guess, is putting it away, then setting off in a different creative direction for the next piece... essential so that no one is miffed that you've duplicated an idea or process, tricky eh?!!
At last I can show and share the pictures of the workshops I'll be teaching at the Hamburg Bead Fair in August, if you're going to the show, come join a class with me or one of the many amazing bead artists who'll be gathering to teach their designs too (feel a bead party coming on!), you can find out more here.

Summer Tassels

Anyhoo, in Hamburg I'll be showing some new Albion Stitch techniques I've been trying out, my favourite of the moment a double sided Daisy pendant. I've been working on some more ideas linked to these designs, lots of lovely new shapes and structures... which will remain top secret for a little while longer, doh! but for now I'm busy wearing a Daisy pendant which is green on one side and pink on the other, perfect for cheering up the sensible winter woolies.

The second design I'll be teaching is a delish Summer Tassel, I'm exploring different ways of layering my beadwork and this design takes Albion stitch in yet another new direction with some cunning construction. The kits for the class contain lovely polka dot dagger beads which I've been hoarding in my stash for just such a project.

one for a sparkly vampire lover

Bella's Charm Bronze version

My latest beading project began with the lovely vintage photograph shown here. I don't know who the person is, I picked her out of a box of old photographs in a junk shop.
I loved the detailing on what was probably her 'best' outfit and the fact that she's wearing both a brooch and a pendant necklace, her favourite treasures maybe.
I am intrigued by treasures and trinkets with secret compartments,
talismans, and the way our personal treasures have layers of meaning. 
Like a touchstone, our treasure can anchor us to a loved one, a moment in time, or an ambition achieved. Simple lockets with photographs and curls of hair, or gifts given to celebrate graduation, childbirth, marriage, coming of age, symbols to protect the traveller and on it goes.
I also like the way these treasures travel with us through our lives and witness our best and worst.

Bella's charm is a pendant with a secret compartment, just big enough to hold a slip of parchment with a wish, hope, dream, prayer, spell or incantation written on it. Embellished with sparkling chatons and gleaming pearls it is worked in a mixture of stitches. I made the first one in the lovely warm shades of sepia photographs, bronze and gold. Then I thought I'd take a look and see how it worked out in a lighter mix of silver and aqua... which became my instant fave... until I tried blood red and pewter, the perfect gothic mix!
The pattern, materials pack and full kit are on the website if you'd like a Bella's Charm of your own.

Sunset bronze, Midnight pewter or Moonrise silver

wax on... wax off....

If your first thought was of a certain scene in the Karate Kid movie... I know how old you are! me too!
Are you sitting comfortably? then I shall begin...
When I started beading I was curious about the various thread conditioners you could buy. I still have my little blue box of Thread Heaven, and a chunk of 'Crystal Wax', a fluffy old piece of beeswax and a candle stub left over from my embroidery days. As a beginner I also had the vague notion that one or all of these, liberally applied, would aid my beading no end.
Having tried them all, been a fan of each for a while, I came to the conclusion that non are essential, but each very useful for certain tasks.
I also found that I was in want of something in between, not as heavy as beeswax, not as hard as crystal wax, for those times when I want to condition my thread to have a little 'resistance'.
So this is why, one sunny frosty January morning I head off deep into the Somerset countryside to my friend's cottage. Yes, gasp in envy at the idyllic setting, the gorgeous garden, the orchard beyond the wiggly stone wall. Dash past the curious goose, chat with the comfortingly fussy hens, and into the big stone floored kitchen which smells of warm baking and where the kettle is already singing on the range. I'm here to collect some beeswax.

Beader's Blend

My Beader's blend thread conditioner is the result of a lot of experiments mixing together different types of wax. One of the essential ingredients is beeswax. It already has a long tradition of use with stitching and embroidery, to stiffen and protect threads and prevent them knotting; we are talking sensible seam sewing here (think patchwork quilting rather than embroidery floss and fine silks). It is also used in Goldwork to help thread glide more smoothly, the same reasons we like it for beading threads. The beeswax I'm using is very pure as it comes straight from my friend's hives. Some years it is dark and golden, other years a paler yellow. Back home and in my own kitchen there is a lovely smell of honey and beeswax and the first batch of Beader's Blend is gently cooling.

Beader's Blend cooling in the kitchen

In my recipe I include a blend of two kinds of crystal wax along with the beeswax, and serve up the results in little foil wrappers topped with a pressed flower from my garden. Each summer I harvest forget-me-not flowers and pop them into the flower press with the hope that there will be enough to keep up with demand until next year's flowers appear.
Use Beader's Blend to lightly condition threads where you need a bit of extra grip, or if your thread tension could do with a bit of help. Just lightly pull your thread across the cake, then run the thread through your fingers several times, this will warm the wax and give a very fine coating. Customers tell me it works well for their embroidery projects too.

Batch bake beading

Well, it's the time of year when anyone with an ounce of craftiness is either sitting smug or in a tail spin. I'm referring to that subtle pressure to hand make lovely presents. The smugly smug gals started last January and are now happily doing artful giftwrapping. For the rest of us, life got in the way, or we spent the summer gardening, or like with me, didn't really think about it until the weather turned a bit nippy, which is honestly too late.... almost.
I often thought that it would be lovely to spend my spare time all year industriously making things, then book a booth at the local Christmas market. Having just walked around the one in Bath on this bitterly cold November day, I can honestly say that I'm not sure I could stand the chilly winds of commercial reality!

knitted and felted and waiting for beads

Anyhoo, it's batch bake beading time and although a bit eleventh hour here's a project that is definitely
do-able at the rate of beading up one an evening.

First get a ball of Wash+ Filz-it! felting yarn, and a 4pin knitting dolly. Knit yourself 20 -25cm (including the bit in the bobbin). Sew the ends together then felt it. I make several and put them in with a regular washing load. You can easily knit five or six in an evening.

Once dry your knitted bangle will have shrunk a bit.
Also the join may look a bit blobby but will disappear under the beading.

Now for the beady bit. I tend to use up oddments of beads, bags of weird sizes and cheap and cheerful's which may not be ideal for precision beading, but you know, you fell in love with the colour...

seven bead netting, three sets fit a treat

Work the netting around the knitting. I find three sets of seven beads fits well. You can use a bigger  or different coloured bead for the centre/intersection bead. Not sure about netting? there's a good tutorial here So keep beading and rather than stretching out the knitting, push it into the beading so that it is the beaded net which stretches over the knitting. I use a little wooden stick, or knitting needle, or blunt end of a biro.
Tweek the size at this stage if needed, by squishing up the knitting more or less to get the diameter you want. It will look a really weird shape until you've beaded right round.

Once the beaded tube ends meet up, zip them together and the bangle is suddenly perfectly circular and good to go.

One ball of yarn will make about 8 -10 bangles... and there are lots of lush colours to choose from.
Make a gift tag to explain that these bangles are a bit stretchy, can be rolled on, and hand washed too.
If you're feeling generous, tie two or three together with a pretty ribbon and hand them over. If not, pop one in one of those cute organza bags.

finished bangles... can I really bear to part with them!

I am a big fan of netted beadwork, it works up satisfyingly quickly. If you'd like to explore some new ways with netting, my book on CD Beadnet covers all sorts of shaped and hollow form netting, with lots of colourful projects. One of my favourites is the spiky 'Sea urchin' bangle, it's really easy to bead.

Sea urchin bangles in monochrome

Falling leaves

I love autumn, the colours that paint themselves across the countryside, the crisp air with a hint of bonfire smoke, the promise of a last few sun bright days before the long, long dreary winter sets in. I love the urge to harvest the fruits of the season, make jars of jewel coloured fruit jam, spice laden pots of pickles and chutneys, non of which I do being a hopeless cook...

Instead I take the camera for a walk, feast on the outrageous colour combinations in the leaves, relish the ripe berry colours of rowans, rose hips, horse chestnuts and acorns.

With pockets full of inspiration, and a good splash through crisp autumn leaves to satisfy the bit that never grows up, the next lovely part of the process is to raid the bead stash. Only beads that honestly match the colours in my leafy harvest.

So out with the Vitrail rivoli's, silver lined and metallic cylinder beads and a few fire polished crystals and I'm ready to bead me a Michaelmas bracelet. 

Michaelmas, the feast of St Michael and all Angels is on the 29th September is one of the four quarter days spaced three months apart (the others are Lady Day 25th March, Midsummer 24th June, and Christmas Day) and celebrates the Autumn equinox.

Anyhoo, I'm liking the results, and specially the way the colours change, depending what's next to the beadwork... so I could buy a mustard, brown or burgundy colour jumper and it would look fab with either... or all.

Getting started

I've spent many a happy hour browsing blogs, a magical world of creativity, awesomeness, honesty, humour and inspiring work... so now it's time to dive in and share a corner of my world.
First up, today has been a day of 'I don't wanna' when the internal three year old is on tantrum mode over the must do paperwork, the chores, the drizzling rain. So the incentive has been to get through them quick sticks and back to some lovely beading.
I'll be teaching this mixed media workshop on the 21st of October here. It's called 'Steamer' inspired by Steampunk and uses some natty plumbing bits and pieces. I've picked out a new colourway I want to try (rich coral, palest watery turquoise and soft sandy grey...mmmm).

Steamer mixed media necklace