May Giveaway
Here is what is up for grabs this month. One lucky beader will win this fantastic Beady Travel Inspiration Tin, full of goodies!
The contents of the Travel Inspiration Tins are:- 2 Beading Needles Nymo B thread in brown Bag of accent beads Tube of 4mm Bronze Faceted Rounds Tube of 6mm BronzeFaceted Rounds Tube of 4mm BronzeCubes Tube of !1'0 Seed Bead Soup in complimentary colours Tin with lined lid for beading on.
To be in with a chance of winning this fabulous prize all you have to do is pop your comment in the box below and a way for me to contact you, and a winner will be picked at random on Friday 31st May 2013.
Hello! Hello! Are you all ready to find out what the next book in our Bead, Book & Bounce feature will be? I just love cracking the spine on a new book (or blowing the dust off an old one!) So, without further ado, let me tell you that the next book in the series will be Creating Crystal Jewelry by Laura McCabe.
First published in 2008, Creating Crystal Jewelry was one of the first books to concentrate solely on working with Swarovski Crystal. Laura's book includes sixty-six amazing designs incorporating Rivolis, Crystals, Dentelles. There's a lot of sparkle!
"Her instructions are very clear and easy to follow, with an excellent section on open-backed bezeling techniques - including a particularly useful chart on how many beads to use to begin a bezel for different sizes of rivolis." Silverhill Designs - Beader's Bookshelf Review.
The Lark Crafts Interview With Laura McCabe includes information about Laura's sources of inspiration and influence and her website, Just Let Me Bead is a vertiable feast of eye candy.
Each month, as part of our regular feature - Bead, Book & Bounce - we choose one of the most popular beading and jewellery making books and challenge our readers to dust off the books on their shelves and create projects from their neglected library.
Inspired by the beautifully, romantic projects included in Kelly Wiese's Beaded Allure, our members have been busy beading. And now it's time for us all to reveal the results of our efforts over the last two months.
Kristen has been a busy beader, creating three (rather fantastic) pieces from Beaded Allure. I'm guessing that she liked the book!
Wavy Rosette Necklace, P115
Scalloped Lace Necklace, P71
Crytal Bracelet, P42
Kristen has emulated the colour choices in Kelly's original pieces, aiming to keep her projects beautifully romantic. Personally, I thinked she's cracked it, aren't they wonderful?
If you have made any pieces from Beaded Allure, please share your own projects with us using the Mr Linky.
Please link directly to your Beaded Allure blog post, so that we can find it easily.
Please leave a comment here when you link up your project.
Please try to visit the blogs of other participants when you can. We all love a bit of love!
And don't forget that we're still working on projects from Classical Elegance by Maggie Meister, with a new reveal on the 6th June.
You must include both silver and gold in your piece for your entry to be accepted. You can use metallic beads, metal beads and/or silver/gold lined crystal. Please note that yellow or orange will not count as gold in this challenge. As always, beads with AB/rainbow finishes are allowed but due to the fabulous prizes on offer each month we’re pretty strict on the colours allowed, so no colours other than those specified please! *If you are using a cabochon or other focal bead in your design it can have small amounts of other colours in it, provided that the main colours of it fit our challenge. But the beads you use with it must be in our challenge colours only.
Now here's the twist...we'd like you to include TRIANGLES somewhere in your entry. These can be either beadwoven, embroidered, made from polymer/metal clay or actual triangle shaped beads or charms (or any other way you can find to incorporate a triangle!). The twist is entirely optional but if you choose to use the twist as well as the colour scheme then you will receive two entries into the draw!
How do I enter? There are two ways... 1. Email your photograph to Liz at ottbs@live.com 2. Or add them to our Flickr group pool.
Choose whichever way is easiest for you, you don't have to do both. In either case, please mention that it's for the May Challenge so I know that it's your entry. We're happy for you to post your photos on our Facebook group as well but please make sure that you've also submitted as above. Entries that have not been emailed or added to the Flickr pool will not be accepted.
What can I make? Anything as long as it involves beads! Any technique is accepted, from beadweaving and stringing to wire work and bead embroidery. Lampworkers and polymer clay artists are also welcome to submit beads they've made. I'm sorry but any entries that do not include beads in some form or another will not be accepted. Your entry must be made especially for the challenge, please do not submit something that was made before May 1st 2013.
Does it have to be my own design? No. We're happy for you to make something using a pattern from a book, magazine or tutorial but if you do please let us know the designer's name so that we can give them credit.
What about findings? Findings (clasps, earwires, metal spacer beads etc) are exempt from the colour challenge so you can use silver, gold or any other colour findings that fit in with your project.
When is the deadline for entries? The deadline is 6pm (GMT) on Friday the 31st of May. Can I enter more than once? You can make as many pieces as you like using the chosen colourway. All entries will be shown here on the blog but you will only be entered into the draw once (or twice if you've used the twist).
I'm not in the UK, can I still join in? Yes of course! We welcome submissions from around the world so don't worry if you're not in the UK. Our sponsors have agreed to post prizes overseas so you can still enter and be eligible for the prize!
Any other questions? If you have any questions about the challenge please feel free to email Liz at ottbs@live.com
The Prize This month our sponsor is Rachel of RB Beads and she's offering £20 worth of size 11 Miyuki seed beads of the lucky winner's choice!
The winner will be drawn by Liz after 6pm on Friday the 31st of May, using the random list generator at www.random.org and announced later on the same evening.
Thanks to everyone who joined in with our April challenge. We hope you all enjoyed dreaming of warmer days while you worked on your entries! Before we announce the winner, here's a recap of the Surf and Sand challenge photo we posted for your inspiration.
And here are all the wonderful entries that we received!
Everyone's names were entered into the list randomizer at Random.org and the lucky beader who's name is at the top of the list is...
UPDATE!
As she has won a few challenges and giveaways, Michelle has very kindly asked us to redraw the winner to give someone else a chance. What a lovely thing to do! So everyone's name were entered into the draw once again and the winner is...
Congratulations Rachael, you've won the £15 voucher to spend at Jencel!
We hope you've all enjoyed taking part in the challenge and seeing all the beautiful entries. Don't forget to check back tomorrow when we'll have a brand new challenge for May!
I'm a little excited to let you all know that the latest book in our Bead, Book & Bounce feature will be Maggie Meister's Classical Elegance. Swoon! Classical Elegance includes a balanced selection of earrings, bracelets and necklaces, all isnpired by classical art, architecture and jewellery.
If Classical Elegance hasn't yet made it onto your bookshelf, then you'll be pleased to know that there are several projects, available as free downloads. The Laksmi Pendant and The Artemisia Earrings both feature in the printed version of Classical Elegance, whilst The Fiore Earrings and The Liternum Brooch were both shortlisted for inclusion, but didn't quite make it!
For the last two months our members have been busy creating pieces inspired by the beautiful projects in Sabine Lippert's Beaded Fantasies.And, when I announced the book over in the OTTBS Facebook Group, there was a massive flurry of activity as members of the group that already had the book added photographs to the Beaded Fantasies Album. It was so inspiring!
Since then our members have 'oohed and ahhed' and, eventually, beaded - and now it's time to reveal the results of our efforts, as we show off our projects inspired by techniques and tutorials from Beaded Fantasies. Let's have a look at some of the projects that our members have made over the last two months shall we?
Carol has been busy beading these beautiful Sweet Eighteen Earrings. Don't you just love the splash of spring colours? Carol says "I found the instructions clear and easy to understand. The earrings were quick to make up and, provided I kept a tight tension, especially on the back, the beads went into their positions as on the picture. As I was pulling the beads tight at the back, I kept my fingers over the front ones, so that they continued to lay flat. Most enjoyable and I am looking forward to making more projects from this book!"
Gail has made this rather spectacular version of the Les Fleur Necklace. "Having made a La Fleur Bracelet as a Christmas present I decided I wanted one for myself, but then decided I wear necklaces more than bracelets these days so changed my mind and bought some larger rivolis and pearls. I really like the idea of how the rivolis link, but had to frog the links several times when I realised I’d got it slightly misaligned."
Since buying the book, Gail has also tried the RAW Ribs Bracelet, Spikey Tops Bracelet, Granada Brooch and Volcanoes Necklace and has really enjoyed making each of the projects though she admits that making so many identical components for the Volcanoes Necklace "drove me a little nuts!"
"I love bezelling and it’s great to find such different methods which show off the rivolis. My only criticism of the book is the lack of clasps which are more in keeping with the beauty of the designs. But it’s only a small niggle."
And lastly, these fine projects from Jane, who has been busy making up a La Fleur Bracelet, a Spikey Tops Bracelet - and who loves the RAW Ribs Bracelet so much that she's made two!
Phew! What amazing pieces - and all inspired by just one book! Please do share your own projects with us using the Mr Linky.
Please link directly to your Beaded Fantasies blog post, so that we can find it easily.
Please leave a comment here when you link up your project.
Please try to visit the blogs of other participants when you can. We all love a bit of love!
And don't forget that we're still working on projects from Kelly Wiese's Beaded Allure with a new reveal on the 6th May.
