Old and new memory piece

When I started on this amazing beading adventure, the first ever beading book I owned and poured over was 'Beads, Make your own Jewellery' by Stefany Tomalin. It not only gave me my first lessons in knots and thread, but also a doorway into a world where Stefany lived, surrounded by beads and their history. Many moons later, and I will embarrass neither of us by revealing how many moons, I had the huge pleasure of meeting Stephany for the first time at a Bead Society event. It gave me pause to think about that younger self and how a first glimpse into the world of beads revealed my tribe to me. How I too now live surrounded by beads, enjoying the process of digging into the history of this amazing craft.
Stephany had recently been to Czechoslovakia and had a few treasures for sale, I bought some huge (3cm x 1cm) spike beads and resolved that I should do something with them. Here they are next to some regular old 17mm spikes.

A more recent memory was from earlier this year when I had great fun teaching at a beading retreat in Hilzingen, Germany. Andreina, one of the attendees, very kindly showed me the techniques with right angle weave and pinch beads that are hugely popular in Europe, because I fell instantly in love with a necklace she was wearing. With her consent I'll be sharing a few of my experiments in up coming workshops; which is why I was playing around with the techniques at the time that this particular design was happening.

Rummaging in my bead box I also came up with some ceramic spheres, these are sold in bags at garden centres, designed to be scattered in plant pots to hide the soil and keep in the moisture, and of course who could resist them in the perfect shade of turquoise?

Pinch beads are among one of the older established shapes of beads, much overlooked until recently, they've had something of a renaissance along side many of the new shapes of beads.

The whole mix was a soupy mess on my bead board for several weeks as I tried various combinations of components. This beadwork is quite chunky and as a result weighs some, so the final piece is a shortish necklace with an off set focal of bezelled spikes linked together with a bezelled gardeners ball. I don't know about you, but I find heavy jewellery irksome to wear, love how it looks, but not so much the headaches if I wear a heavy piece for too long. I've worn my new necklace a few times now and can report back that it behaves well on the neckline and definitely raises the odd eyebrow, which is a good thing, right?

But best of all it tells a story of my journeys and discoveries with beads and reminds me where I started. It speaks of how life and people move in circles that inevitably intersect. It's a design combination that shows how a little treasure from here and from there, will one day come together and become part of something else, and how sharing ideas is at the heart of beading, always.

Design anatomy

Sometimes it's just nice to sit and bead something just for me, sometimes it starts a chain of thought that I can use in class, other times not so much. The thing I wanted to bead most was a necklace using this beautiful stripy stone, a Zebra Stripe Agate, that I found way too tempting not to purchase at a bead show last year. It is in my favourite 'Sage smudge' green with striations of creamy white that glitter in the light when the stone is moved about. It had quite a big hole drilled in one end, which I thought I could cover up.
Although it was fun to do, quite a few evenings of beading and un-beading went into the final make up of the design, which I thought I'd share, just in case you feel like experimenting too.

First, I worked a bezel for the stone combining Peyote and Albion stitch, using colours picked out from the stone. I worked one side in matt beads and the other in a more translucent shiny bead. It became pretty clear that the hole wasn't going to be hidden by the beading, and I wanted to keep as much of the stone on display as I could. The other thing that I noticed, was that the hole was pretty sharp edged which (I can feel you nodding), is death to beading thread.

The stone was also quite brittle, and likely to be damaged with any metal findings. After a bit of pondering, I sanded out the hole a bit and glued a double delica in as a lining. Now I had a smaller hole with nicely rounded glass edges. Enter the metal finding I have no name for; and which I only
seem to be able to buy in Europe... a metal rod with round beads at each end, one of which unscrews.

I used right angle weave to make a stirrup shape, which took up the space left either side of the bezelled stone quite neatly. Then I got carried away and added a ring of beads. This proved too small to fit anything through it, but I kind of liked the textures and shapes,

Now I had a lovely kinetic pendant, the stone swivels smoothly on the metal rod, but with no means of attaching it to anything, other than to bead directly off the little ring with more right angle weave, which is just what I did, colouring the rope to mimic the patterning of the stone a little.

I made a second stirrup and ring arrangement to attach to the other end of the beaded rope. Then I realised that, oops, I'd need a break in the rope to be able to thread an end through the second stirrup.
So, finally, the bones of the design came together into an asymmetric lariat, which I can adjust, depending on which top I am wearing. I'm also really happy that one more stone is released from the 'one day when' box so I can enjoy wearing it.

Design update:
A slight problem, the gorgeous stone is actually quite weighty, on wearing the necklace I found myself in a gradual choke situation as the sliding stirrup slid a little until I was in danger of turning purple... back to the bead board and a couple of additions.
I worked units of raw on each face of the necklace part, and threaded on some little green jasper beads to link them, now I have two toggles that keep everything in place and the stirrup can't move beyond them.
Two? well one looked just plain odd, but a second one gave the design a little balance.

National Beading Week July 25th-August 2nd

 Thanks to a brilliant initiative by The Beadworkers Guild, we are getting ready to celebrate our first ever National Beading week here in the UK. It's a simple and wonderful new way to share the bead love and encourage the curious to come and find out more.

Bead groups up and down the country are planning bead events, parties and open days. Our LBS (Local Bead Shops), are hosting some inspiring drop in sessions and events with visiting artists. Groups are busy beading flags for bunting and there is even a plan to do some bead bombing with beaded chains.
To find out what's happening, download the free patterns and find your nearest LBS check out the National Beading Week website.

Meanwhile the Ambassadors for the event are busy spreading the word.  Jean Power has an ingenious mystery project you can join in and bead.  Patty McCourt launched a competition to bezel a NBW cabochon, and Kerrie Slade has spread the word in her Bead & Button blog . As a result our National is going International!

I'll be dropping in to the Stitch'n'craft picnic on August 1st to spend the day talking (and probably, definitely buying) beads, and being amazed by the entries to their annual beading competition too.

This cute ring pattern is my contribution to the fun, it only takes a few seed beads and a 6mm accent bead, so it's perfect if you have new beaders curious to have a go.

You can download the free pdf here. You are welcome to use the design for groups and NBW events too. Happy National Beading Week everyone!

Classroom colours

For students coming to class this spring and summer, here are the colour choices available as kits for the designs I will be teaching. All class kits contain everything needed except needles and thread.
Please allow for the limitations of screens as to the accuracy of colour. Please scroll down to find your chosen class colourways.

Left: Toast. Centre: Ocean. Right: Charcoal.

Makoda, the spinning pendant of tranquility.

Left: Leaves. Centre: Violets. Right Sunshine.

Harlequin,  the colourful and fun lariat.

Left: Silver. Centre: Copper. Right Gunmetal.

 MoonGazer Masterclass

Left: Silver white. Centre  Iridescent green. Right: Ginger gold

(Hilzingen only)














Bethany, an Elizabethan inspired necklace

Far left: Silver violet. Centre left: Gunmetal turquoise.
Centre right: Gold ocean, Far Right: Copper plum

Merry Go Round bracelet

Left: Erinite Gold. Centre Tanzanite gunmetal.
Right Topaz copper.

MoonStar crystal pendant

Left: Muscat and copper.
Centre: black and pewter.
Right Eggplant and purple

Spinning Wave

VatWhat?

A lot of artists, designers, musicians and enterprising kitchen table creatives are just waking up to the breathtaking legislation set to sweep through the internet on January 1st. Our finance ministers, HMRC and as Mr Andrus Ansip so testily put it, have had full knowledge since devising the 'single digital market' strategy for the EU for six years. Yet for thousands this news is only just seeping out.

In case you're not yet aware, the EU is making on line retailers of anything digital (music, e-books, knitting patterns, craft templates, beadwork patterns, downloadable pdf's) responsible for collecting VAT from the customer, at the rate of VAT in the customer's country if they live in the EU. It's a complicated mess, succinctly described by Clare Josa,  here.
It is currently not viable for genuinely small businesses to comply. HMRC's big hope is that we will all register for VAT under an umbrella scheme called VATmoss, but only for anything digital, saving us the hassle of having to register in 27 different countries with, collectively, 75 different rates of VAT. They hope to apply this law to all products sold on line as soon as they can.

Just in case you thought this was too easy, the scheme applies to anyone, anywhere, selling into the EU. HMRC have also threatened anyone not complying with state of the art technology in the form of a new tech savvy team (22 jobs currently advertised) and 'web bots' to track the errant down.

It appears, however, that they think that what applied to the internet in 2008 is still current today, and assume that anyone with something to sell on line is selling it through Amazon type third party platforms. Unfortunately, to date most of these were late to the party too, and have taken a swift step back, landed the problem right back with us.

What caused this scheme to be thought up back in the day? .. a means to stop said corporate giants settling in tax havens like Luxembourg. Another stock comment is that it is designed to 'create a level playing field'.

You can read more about it, sign the petition, storm up twitter and support a growing international band of tiny people taking on a leviathan.

Here's why I think you should.
The internet has grown exponentially and is the most magnificent form of education, exchange of expertise and communication this planet has ever experienced.
In my small world of beading there has been an explosion of creativity, new techniques, new beads, new designers. Artists are no longer distant beings who's work we admire in books, they are blogging and sharing, facebooking and friending. At the click of a button I can browse museum collections, research history, find the inspiration for my next design or class.
I may be a micro business but I help fuel an international trade of big manufacturers products, I sell a pattern to you, next you go buy what you need, they sell and go make more beads, thread. tools, bead mats, craft lamps reading glasses. I'm only one tiny part, and that's the point, micro businesses may not make a lot of moola individually, but together we create an industry, we really do.

In my little bead studio in the heart of the English countryside, I can connect to everyone who loves beads as much as I do. I love this craft so much, relish each new innovation, congratulate excellence and put my share of discoveries out there too. I can ask for advice, talk to my students, and share news about my patterns and kits.

All I needed was a simple website and a paypal account. I am grateful for every purchase from my website, each one validates my creativity, I'm happy to talk with my customers many of whom are now firm friends. Having an online presence has given me amazing opportunities, to travel and teach, to meet my peers and mentors. this is how crafts stay alive, renew and grow.

For every form of creativity you can imagine, from model airplane builders to geeks coding awesome games and apps, making interactivity so readily available to anyone with a phone. Trending crochet? bloggers made it cool to love a Granny Square.
It all starts with just one person having a brilliant idea and the guts to put it out there. We mostly make a modest living, not everything in life is about money and that's how we work.

 This terrifies legislators. In my beading world I have friends in every country, politics is not an issue, we just love beads and each other. But this is why they will chip away, taking a freedom here, levying a tax there, because they can't see a community, only a community chest to be plundered. Far from levelling the playing field, what they are about to achieve is the most  invasive restriction of intellectual and creative freedom ever, EVER.

If you still and think, 'this doesn't apply to me', yes it does, it really does, whether you are a kitchen table entrepreneur, an educator with useful knowledge to share or a customer out browsing for a treat.  Your online world is about to gat a whole lot smaller and meaner. Already there is much talk of boycotting the EU. So easy to think 'OK I'll just take my beading pocket money to artists and designers outside the EU'. It's already happening.

I can't compete with that, but it isn't a level playing field any more is it?

I hope the legislators can be made to see common sense, if this was just about tax, I think they could be persuaded, all it needs is a simple agreement to exempt businesses beneath a certain size. Common sense because the costs of trying to recoup half a euro here, a couple of francs there between 28 countries will be way more than they will earn from the micro businesses. Targeting us might feel big and it might feel clever, but we are the shoulders on which those bigger businesses stand.

So on January 1st, I'll still have a website, you can still buy my kits and patterns, you just won't be able to download them, I'll have to post them to you... for now...
because in a back bedroom somewhere, someone is working out the next generation of technology which will make it possible for us to keep our amazing creativity flowing around the world, and yes, pay the tax too, but in a simple, click here and it's sorted kind of way.