Travel in style

Treasure box cuff

This year I have a very special trip on the itinerary with the wonderful bead designer and expert on all things Italy, Maggie Meister.
It's the Beadventures 10 day tour of Southern Italy.

We start in Venice and get right into beading with the first design. This is your travellers treat, a box of treasures with everything needed to make a bead embroidered cuff. Each treasure box has a unique selection of vintage fabrics, bead and crystals.  Throughout the trip there will be shopping opportunities to add to the treasures, so you'll have a unique memento of our time together. You might find a gorgeous Venetian glass bead or button when we visit the glass making island of Murano.

Luciana Pendant in three colourways

During the tour we'll visit Ravenna, Ferrara and Bologna. I can't wait! I'll be travelling with sketchbook and crayons at the ready, seeking inspiration, as we take in the world heritage Byzantine and Roman sites. There is also plenty of time to relax over delicious regional food and wine, or simply wander and enjoy the shopping.

All before settling into the beautiful Antica Corte Pallavacina Castle. There we'll relax and bead together.

The Luciana sketcbook page

The design I've created for us to enjoy is called 'Luciana', a subtle mix of crystals, pearls and seed beads with a delicate vintage finish. Made of interlinking elements, Luciana is worked in a combination of beading stitches in easy to follow steps.

WE'd love you to join us, so for full details of the tour, prices and itinerary, please visit the Beadventures website.

The life of beige

In a former career life, I got to interview textile artists and jewellery designers for magazines. I had a personal wish list of people I wanted to meet, and right up there was the King of colour himself, Kaffe Fassett. During one of his highly entertaining lectures, he addressed a room full of ladies of a certain age with a deep sigh and the heartfelt plea of 'Why does everything have to be so beige?' taken out of context like this it does sound like a criticism of his audience, but was actually a commentary on his first impressions of English interiors; but you could take it either way.
Well, that was a good few years ago and ladies of a certain age nowadays have a rainbow of Lagen look linen layers and the liberating Gudrun Sjoden eclectic and vibrantly colourful fashion collections. We can knit ourselves a rainbow of shawls, cowls and cardi's in gorgeous artisan yarns. Not for us the path of fade to grey in soft creams and beige with touches of navy for smart. No, we will likely celebrate the arrival of a full head of grey or white by dyeing it lime green or purple.

What got me thinking about that throw away comment (which stuck with me ever since, as you can tell... with a promise to self never to settle for beige), was the rediscovery of these images of a huge basket of walnuts. They were gently drying in the corner of a studio where I was invited to teach. I loved the bountiful abundance, the subtle mix of warm neutrals and the cool grey greens of the hand made willow basket.
A gorgeous abundance of neutral beige colour palette.



So then I thought about how we use colour in beading, lots of us love a good neutral mix, the newish matt metallics are divinely every shade of beige, from almost ash white, to deep chocolate with all points champagne and gold between.
Then I remembered that I made this necklace not long after I took the pictures of the walnuts.

It started with the glittery Czech glass button, gifted to me by a friend which set the colour theme for all the beads I picked out. CzechMate two hole tile beads with a lustre coating, fierce gunmetal spike beads discovered in the haberdashery department,  inky matt black and several matt metallic seed bead colours; plus some chunky matt gold bugle beads for the necklace strap.

The main pendant is bead embroidered, with a peyote stitch bezel to hold the button in place. Lot's of fringing with the willow grey picked out in the fringes. The strap is a mix of ladder stitch and right angle weave. The necklace sides are linked to the pendant with old brass curtain rings.

Definitely mostly beige, but not, I hope, in a settle for beige kind of way.

Nature's Ruby and Russet

My nephew and I decided to take a walk and found a tree with these gorgeous red leaves; from a distance the tree looked darkest purple, but up close it was a riot of purply reds. I photographed the leaves with the light coming through and they glow like a stained glass window.
On the ground a cast iron drain cover was the perfect shade of dark rusty grey to showcase the leaves.
A gorgeous ready made colourway for a beading project. Unnoticed until later, those lemony Sycamore wings add a perfect accent colour.

On the way home we made a list of all our favourite red and purple autumn things, like rosehip syrup, blackcurrant cordial, bramble jelly and stewed plums; all of them giving us a hoard of nature's goodness to store, ready to cook and eat through the winter.



Once you start looking it's hard to stop, back at home I found some papery, silky red onions too. I love how the dried roots and stalks introduce that same lemony accent.
When the colour muse inspires, it's great to have a simple design as a standby, to try out the new colour mix. Mine is a 'wear all the time' bangle that was a sample for a techniques workshop. It uses pinch beads and crystals with a sprinkling of seed beads and works up into a sturdy bangle that can withstand every day wear.
I can make one in an evening, but only if it's not my turn to cook.

 I used matt and shiny dark plum pinch beads, with dark red and copper ab crystals. Lemony green seed beads are there too, as a reminder of the Sycamore wings.

Between the two bangles sits one made earlier, using a favourite turquoise and sage mixture. I like the way they look all together, like even more that they match a new chunky knit jumper in dark purple that is perfect to snuggle inside.

The best thing about these bangles is that they have enough flex in them to be made slightly smaller than usual; and, they can be rolled onto your wrist.
You can throw all sorts of colours at them and they organise your mix for you, here are some in violet, teal and turquoise.

The pattern for this bangle, and several variations of necklaces is called 'Pinch me I'm Dreaming'. It started as a workshop to show and share different right angle weave variations and was inspired by my friend Andreina who showed me how to make the necklace she wore to a class.
It's available here in my pdf store.

Autumn beady inspiration

Ready or not, here it comes; the time of bounty and colour before the cold greys of winter set in. The time for long walks on bright clear days, for gathering leaves for their colour inspiration. I'd love to create a gorgeously leafy inspired project, but right now I have a to do list so long I hate it for getting in the way of spontaneous creating. Instead, here is a really simple idea.
Gather up some colourful leaves, real or virtual (you can borrow mine), then gather all the odds and ends of seed beads you have, in the colours you find in the leaves.

Next, choose one simple beady motif, small enough to bead easily.
Make as many variations you can come up with, using the colours chosen from your bead stash.

Lots of beading is repetition, and a mass of one thing is gorgeous.
Like crocheting granny squares or preparing patchwork quilt pieces, this process of gradually amassing a simple element is easy to squeeze into a spare half hour here and there.

Here are a couple of examples to get you thinking.


These beaded leaves were made using the same process, I had half used tubes of nine bead colours ranging from very dark red, through rust and coral to light yellow and gold. There are 18 leaves and I joined each one with a jump ring through the stalk end, to a chunky copper chain.










Beaded beads can be quick to make and look great in any colour mix you throw at them.

For this necklace I used yellowy green, olive and bronze mixes over pale beech wooden beads.
Then added some detail when I strung them together with antique copper bead caps more seed beads and green pearls.



There are lots of quick and easy free patterns if you google search for leaves, beaded beads or other simple motifs.
The leaf pattern I used is published in Albion Stitch book 2

New workshops reveal

It's September, I'm sitting in my workshop with the doors and windows wide open; sunshine streaming across the door sill; I can hear birds celebrating the warmth, the farm tractor in the distance, and my neighbours chickens and ducks are rummaging through the long grass, clucking and quacking contentedly. So what has all this got to do with new workshops?
A designer's year falls in to different segments, designing, writing, kit packing, hectic travel and teaching, creative solitude, all punctuated with deadlines from venues and event organisers, groups, magazines and stores. So a day of beautiful sunshine and the lovely feeling of having new work ready to share is definitely something to be relished.
The new projects for 2018 workshops are ready and here they are...

I'll be offering nine workshops for 2018, some need to stay under wraps for a little while longer, some are the most often requested workshops from 2017.
If you'd like to see when and where the workshops will be held, I'll be posting the 2018 schedule on my website in November.
Click the link for the current schedule on my website.

You are welcome to join my newsletter to receive regular updates.

Bento box beading

In my travels I've discovered that, just like me, most beader's are on a never ending quest for great storage. Who hasn't rushed out to shop when storage envy strikes at a bead meet?
Portable storage is a quest, either to haul stash to class, or like me, to have everything for a project in one place when I sit down to bead.

I was using the plastic trays you get with food packaging, they are free, abundant, and there's the feel good factor of recycling, but they are just not, y'know, all that pretty to look at.

Then I converted to these plastic food boxes with lids. This was necessary because, after some lengthy searches and moments of complete befuddlement, I realised that one of my cats likes nothing better than fishing out a baggie of beads to go play with... when I'm not looking.
This kind of  box is also great because they can be stacked, if you are a multi project beader. They are made if almost clear plastic, so you can see what's inside; take a fair amount of stuff. But, it is a fishing expedition through the packets and tubes to find the next thing you need to use.



Now though, I feel so happy, I have graduated to a Bento box. I saw these in our local supermarket, they had me at Lime green, but the pocket money prices was all it took to commit. Even if I didn't have a use for it, it's adorable! Should I brand name? It's made by Sistema, widely available
(I google checked for you and, Oh My! they have a gazillion variations, pink and purple too! So you are bound to find one to suit your beady need and spend allowance).
Me? I may be acquiring a slightly larger version, perfect for the travelling, then maybe one for the art stuff, and...and...

It has little lift out trays, deliciously translucent so you can see through to the next layer; which is a plentiful storage space Inn this variation there is a screw top pot for all the random odds and end it takes to build a bead project (for scale, those are 14mm Rivoli in the pot). Long and short bead tubes fit comfortably, and the lift out trays make a great tool station to sit next to the bead board.
I also really like that the lid is segmented, you can put the lift out trays there, or just use it for sorting the larger than seed beads bits and bobs without them rolling away.

Best of all, it is completely cat and accident proof with a snap close clasp that is good and strong.

Mission Falls 1824 Crochet blankets

Fresh laundry

Last week we had hot sunshine, it's a secret pleasure of mine to go a little domestic with the laundry then hang it out to dry in the sun, because nothing beats the smell of sun dried fabric. It's good to get the heavy and hard to dry things out there too and let nature do the work. I posted these pictures of my stack of freshly laundered crochet blankets, and Chester taking advantage of my hesitation putting them away... with a totally cattitude expression on his face. Lots of people commented on the gorgeous colours of the blankets so...

Chester's new sleep spot

I thought it would be fun to share the story behind the top blanket, because although I'm all about the beads, confess love of a good yarn almost as much. Yup, owning up to being the curator of quite the collection of yet to be used yarns; and so try to find time to knit and crochet too.

These are a matching pair of blankets about a yard square, they sit over the backs of the sofas in winter, it's a favourite cat snooze spot as the radiators are nearby.

The yarn is one I totally love, by Mission Falls, a pure cotton yarn in a richly vintage range of colours, a joy to work and a good double knit weight with lots of strength in it. Sadly it was discontinued in 2011 and is much missed by lovers of colour the world over. The artist's hand behind the colour palette was Mags Kandis and you can find her patterns on Ravelry.

Building the first blanket

One summer I began work, starting with small square blocks for the centres, rows of stitches, followed by more blocks then more rows. I would take the yarn basket out and sit on the lawn and work, making it up as I went along and playing that fun game of choosing which jewel and cool colours to work next, then picking out the edges with inky black.
At that time my constant creative companion was Holly, a dear sweet soul of a cat. We made a game, (Cat owners will know it, cats love to swipe stuff off the table/shelf/windowsill and watch it drop to the floor, regardless of how precious/delicate/mess creating it might be).
I'd put all the finished squares on the bench, then she'd gently hit them off one by one, and that was the sequence in which they got added to the blanket. She enjoyed participating, and enjoyed even more, spending many winter evenings snoozing on her finished blanket on the back of the sofa.

Holly choosing squares.

Holly was a very poorly rescue kitten when she arrived with us, but went on to have a long and happy life. Years later I still miss her calm presence and outrageously loud purr.
But, there are always pets in need of a safe haven and now it's good to see Chester enjoying the Mission Falls blankets too.

A year and a day

This past year I have missed writing this blog, the blog on my website is fun and the place where I share snippets of news, ideas for colour inspiration and information about classes and products; but somehow it's not quite the right place for longer chats with you about my beady life...
So, I'm back!
Let's get right into some beady musing and the latest in my 'Just for me' series.

Vintage green Happy sack dress.

I bought this dress, mostly because I fell in love with the colours of the print, and secondly, because it's a 'Happy sack', which is a sack like dress that you feel happy in because you can hide under it's yardage!

I spread out all the beads I thought might be a good fit with the dress colours, seed beads, dainty crystals, frosted daggers, dark plum coloured pearls and some semi precious stone beads in pink (Phosphosiderite) and dark green (Agate).

Choosing the beads

Next was a vintage glass crystal from a hoard I have been longing to use, in a just right shade of dark purple. This transparent glass has no foil backing, and for those of you curious about the behind the scenes processes of building a design, here's what happened. First I cut a ring of backing fabric to support the edges of the crystal, then I used some silver foil from a chocolate wrapper (hence the need for a happy sack dress, sigh). I used a glue stick just to hold everything in place, glue sticks are a 'neutral' glue, like PVA (a good alternative), that will dry and not do weird things to the fabrics, threads or bead finishes.

Vintage glass Cabochons

silver foil backing, glued and trimmed

My bead embroidery isn't perfect, but it's one of the most relaxing ways to create and play, so beady happiness ensued after the crystal was bezelled into place with traditional peyote stitch.
I got a bit daring and added some different size beads among the rows of seed beads, and then brought dainty strands and ladders of seed beads up from the surface to add depth and detail.

velvet cord with beaded end caps and clasp

To finish off, I added a loop of ladder stitch at the top, and lots of fringing at the bottom, each fringe is tipped with a loop of beads, with dagger beads on little jump rings attached through each loop.
A Peyote stitch ring and another ladder loop give a place for the cord and a way for the pendant to hang the right way. The cord is a velvet one and I stitched some beaded end caps to it.

If you're tempted to have a go, I have decided to share the hoard and have a limited number of these purple vintage glass crystals available in the shop here.

Moving house

Thank you! for following my sporadic musings this far. I'm feeling happy because at long last I have a new web home. A place that includes a blog, my classes calendar, my kits and books shop and a sparkly new way to purchase my digital patterns.

So this will be my last post on this blog for now.
 I'd love you to follow my next chapters, so please feel welcome to hop on over to the new website and follow my adventures from there.

Recycling an idea

This week during a Spring cleaning 'urge to purge' cupboard clearing session, I found a box of old
teaching stuff. In it were samples left over from a class I used to teach called 'Tibetan Wraps'. Each time I would introduce the class, spread out random heaps of papers, threads, fabric scraps and beads (of course), then urge the participants to add glue and a willingness to just play. Each time I'd be given those 'So not what I thought it was going to be' stares, and the resigned, 'Oh well, I'm here so I may as well get on with it' shrugs. But every time, by the end of class it was a hard job to get people to go home as they finished just one more, just one more.
The results are lightweight yet remarkably tough beads, a great way to experiment with colour and the bonus is that the more you make the richer the overall effect. I taught the class many times as word spread and friends admired the finished necklaces and bracelets.

I also found a packet of mini pendants which made me smile at the memory... these were another recycling experiment which were the result of a random conversation in a coffee shop about how to find a creative use for those wooden coffee stirring sticks. Go on a quest and you'll find them in all sorts of sizes, thicknesses and qualities of wood.  If you have some hours to spare and a lot of patience, here's what I did.
First I coloured the sticks with felt tip pens, messy but fun. Then I glued them on to patchwork fabric, a light cotton with a mini print. Then I trimmed the fabric flush to the wood, cut the now pretty sticks into short lengths and filed the ends round. I drilled a hole in one end and hammered in a metal eyelet. It took hours and many split failures! Next (there's more?), I hung them up and painted them with clear varnish, I know! In what life did I have ever time for such insanity?

I confess, they ended up in a bag, in the box, in the cupboard. So to honour that previous self who thought nothing of spending an entire day proving you could make something from throwaway stirrers... I gathered together a length of dark metallic chain (A sale time 'bargain box' find), matching jump rings and eye pins, and some nice silvery antique looking end caps. An hour later I had two necklaces and a sense of having completed a job left too long undone.
 The necklaces are basically a single strand with no clasp, just loop the ends and they'll stay in place. Or add a lobster clasp and jump ring at a strategic point to hold the two sides together.
The coffee stirrer pendants became fringe ends for little chain tassels attached to the end beads. Surprisingly, they tinkle enchantingly as they move.

I'm thinking it might be time for a Tibetan Wrap revival!

Sunrise, Sunset

Last year I was a smidge lavish and treated myself to a cabochon. Well, I know, this is not an uncommon treat for self, but this particular cabochon was an investment, I went to visit it several times before I thought up enough reasons to justify the cost, but in the end it was the swift and unarguable, 'if you don't you will always regret it' thought. Tada! Sonora Sunrise Jasper in all it's vivid glory. Also known as Sonora Sunset Jasper, Chrysocolla Cuprite has been mined in Sonora, Mexico since 2006. Aparently it is a healing stone used for strengthening the body's resistance and bringing a calm feeling where there is upset.
Honestly, it just makes me happy to look at such a natural wonder.

It also stirred up memories of this big book of paintings by Gerard Curtis Delano (1880-1972).

Sundown in the Canyon

Medicine Bird, Denver Art Museum, Colorado. Visit if you can,

I spent many happy hours as a child looking at the amazing landscapes, I would work slowly through the book, lost in the wide open spaces, soaking in the colour, the time of day, the heat of the sun; calmed by the strangeness of a place so unlike our green, hedge and tree filled corner of England. To a seven year old, this was a magical place of retreat

Now back to the beautiful stone and how to do the beading thing and make it into a wearable. There were a few false starts, I tried various bezels, but none really honoured the stone. In the end I added texture in a mix of seed beads in the colours of the stone, with red coral and turquoise beads and antique pewter beads. Fringing grew from the edges, which gave me the idea for a big textured bail. I found some lampwork glass beads to link it together. The rest of them are included in a right angle weave rope which is worked is size 8 seed beads and embellished with 11's. It is huge! and I love wearing it, it does bring a calm feeling just like Mr Delano's paintings did all those years ago.

Sonora necklace.

Sonora Necklace detail.

Finding inspiration in the stars

New Year, fresh start, new beginnings, resolutions anyone? Nope, me either! Instead just a tiny little promise to self to take time to find ideas. 
First this... 
"We all start out knowing magic. We are born with whirlwinds, forest fires, and comets inside us.We are born able to sing to birds, and read the clouds and see out destiny in a grain of sand. But then we get the magic educated right out of our souls. We get it churched out, spanked out, washed out and combed out. We get put on the straight and narrow and told to be responsible. Told to act our age. Told to grow up, for God's sake. And you know why we are told that? Because the people doing the telling were afraid of our wildness and youth, and because the magic we knew made them ashamed and sad of what they's allowed to wither in themselves". (excerpt from Boy's Life by Robert McCammon)

A reminder to go right back to the beginning of you, and just be you.
Part of the little promise to self is to have the nerve to get the phone out and snap those random images. It's so easy, now that phones have uber cool cameras, but I've missed some great ideas by being too shy to just take the shot. 

Next this... on a cold December day.
The work of Stone carver Alec Peever and a beautiful poem by Alyson Hallett. 

The word 'Star' is randomly placed on a street corner. 
Across the way there is more... 

"Arise from the earth like water
give birth to your sacred dreams
this world's an ocean of mirrors
an invitation to create and be seen". 

Which is just the most beautiful thing to happen upon. See more of their works here.

The colours in the snapshot got me thinking about these lovely glass cabochons. They are vintage and the backing is chipped and flaky, but they sing to my love of moonstones.
The ideas of moonstones, stars and monochrome pavement colours began to take root. With this for a thought, 
"If I was really full of magic and whirlwinds and took up the invitation to create and be seen, what might happen?"... 

So out came the beads and the decision to make a piece for the pure fun of seeing where it would end up. Because the glass cabochons were fragile I figured the best way to protect them was to use bead embroidery techniques to hold them in place. It's usually at this point that the original ideas quieten down, and the whole thing becomes a more practical series of 'what if?' questions. Then the piece begins to grow... based on endless decisions and changes of mind, while the bead tray becomes a chaotic mess that is, in all honesty, my happy place!


I found a real moonstone pendant, which led me eventually to a piece which grew into this...

The little brass rings which link each section together have the words Love, Dream, Hope, Trust, stamped in tiny lettering around them.

I used a mix of crystals and seed beads in stone colours with a few milky glass size 8 beads to pick up the colours of the glass cabochons and moonstone pendant.

Now the piece is finished and ready to wear, there is a bonus, all those questions, and decisions, and solutions have given rise to lots more ideas and alternatives. I love making pieces like this for that very reason. 

Finding colour inspiration

grown up fruit

Step 1, So you find a colour combo that makes your heart sing, but how to turn it into something beady?
I spotted this happy composition of fruit,
the bowl is a black and white 'hand made in the 1950's at an art school' lumpy thing, a charity shop find that I just love. Painted in a blue black glaze in swirls.
But less about my fruit bowl and more about the fruit therein.
Russet apples and black grapes still with the bloom on them, delush! (divinely lush or deliciously divine)?
Step one accomplished, colour inspiration.

Step 2, bead conversion!
The way to do it is pick out as many bead colours that you can find in your stash that match up to your source of colour inspiration, don't over think it, just grab and pile them up. You might find that there are subtle secondary influences going on too:
It just so happens that this autumn, all shades of mustard and ginger have hit the high streets and I find myself wearing mustard coloured jumpers with pale blue denim or adding a blue and turquoise scarf. Maybe the fashion world has nudged me to notice those colours more too.


Step 3, find a beading pattern and just go for it.
The pattern will have a list of how many colours are
needed, and which sizes of beads to use, so go through your newly piled up palette and pick out a combination to suit the pattern requirements.
This is the fun bit, and may take a while, but because you have a basic palette you know the bead colours will sit together. It's at this stage that I drift away from my original source of inspiration and let the beads do the talking.
For my Step 3, I thought, hmm, I would love me a bangle or two to slide on, you know, just to spread the bead happy up my arms. An evening of beading later and I have this zingy version of my City Bangle  match my new jumper. I didn't have any really dark blue/black beads, so I used a dark teal and a little bit of bright turqouise because the beads looked good together, then added a bit of 'warmth' with dark copper O beads along the edges.

Once you hit on a good combo, it's hard to stop at one!
I'd picked out quite a few crystals (hard to resist!) so as my bangle design didn't need them, I used a Minerva Spiral, and luscious lime Swarovski bicones became all mixed in with dark blue and dark copper coloured beads. I love this technique because you can throw just about any bead combination at it and it will work up into a gorgeous rope in no time.The more you vary the bead sizes, the more shapely the rope will become, just keep the sequence small to large and back again. The Minerva Spirals book was out of print, but we found a box full so they are now up on the website.