The Beaded Garden {Bead, Book & Bounce}

Continuing our feature - Bead, Book & Bounce - I'm delighted to announce the next book on our virtual beading shelf, The Beaded Garden by Diane Fitzgerald. First published in 2005, The Beaded Garden contains a whopping forty-two patterns for beautiful flowers, flower parts and garden creatures, alongside a gallery full of ideas for combining elements into beaded bouquets and stunning jewellery pieces. 

We'll be encouraging you to share your own review of the book and, of course, anything you make inspired by Diane's amazing projects during our reveal feature in September. (You can read a little bit more about how this works in our Introducing Bead, Book & Bounce article, but we'll always be here to guide you along.) 

Heart Of Illinois Bead Society Book Review: The Beaded Garden

Beadwrangler Book Review: The Beaded Garden

Projects In Other Places - 

The instructions for the Brick Stitch Butterfly Necklace are available from Diane Fitzgerald Presents but, unfortunately, the majority of the projects within the book are not available elsewhere. 

And, If You're Interested - 

You can watch an Interview With Diane Fitzgerald or check out the How To Make A Floral Fusion Necklace video from Beads Direct, which features designs from The Beaded Garden.

Don't forget that you are still able to work on projects from our first book choice - Bead Romantique by Lisa Kan and that we'll be featuring designs inspired by the book in our first Bead, Book & Bounce Reveal during August. 

Stashbusting Beadalong Progress Week 4

Week 4 of our stashbusting beadalong has a mixed bag of progress!

First up is Gloria, who says, "Not much to report but making slow progress. I have to make a total of nine round connectors (done); nine rivoli lids and nine delica boxes – so as you can see from the photo I am on the way!"


Cathy is doing really well with her bracelet, "Lots of progress this week! The third Ndebele strand is stitched and added to the others, and one end cap is done. The end cap uses 2 elements found in the April Showers necklace Sarah is making, a pagoda and a bellflower. All that's left to do now is the other end cap and the toggle clasp. And, hmmm....maybe matching earrings?"


No pictures from Catherine this week but lots of progress, "no pictures this week but I can report that I have now got the two 3 unit sections made, so just the central pair and the more complicated join to do. I did find making the two flowers simultaneously saved time, so can recommend that, especially if you leave the needle threaded on each unit (if you have enough needles of course). Will send a photo when I find the recharger for the camera battery!"

Jo has no progress this week, "Really sorry but it's a big fat fail for me this week. Haven't even touched it! Please do not put me in the naughty corner and I promise to try and catch up next week."

And I thought I had progress on my April Showers necklace but tonight realised that I had done 3 inches of the necklace strap in twisted herringbone instead of normal and have had to rip back, so no photo's from me either!

Happy beading!

Sarahx

Stashbusting Beadalong Progress 3

Well, I am hanging my head in shame, as I have no progress on my April Showers necklace to this week, I seem to have been a bit hectic! Luckily, the other ladies do have some progress to report.

Despite an accident, Jo's Orb pendant is finished, she says "Not much progress this week due to unforeseen leg injuries but the orb pendant is finished after weaving off 11 of the 2 tails! Just the bail to go now and then on to the neck strap."


Poor Gloria is still sick, "Very little progress from my sick bed! Glad we have another 7 weeks til Christmas."


Cathy's bracelet is coming along nicely, "The second Ndebele strand completed and attached to the first."


Catherine has new approach to her kit "Week 3 progress: I decided that putting all the beads from the kit away each time was putting me off, so decided to make a special case for the work in progress. I cut a beadmat to fit an A4 hard folder,
and now I can close it with the beads inside, and still see it. I also decided that having to put away one color, and changing colour every round meant I slowed down too, so decided to bead the next two units simultaneously, so I have done the first steps using cylinder and 15s for both we shall see if this helps by the amount of progress"


Aren't they all looking lovely?

Happy beading!

Sarahx

Stashbusting Beadalong Progress 2

Welcome to update 2 of the stashbusting beadalong and I am happy to have some great progress to share with you! Poor Gloria has been sick this week so has no progress but will be back with us soon and we have a new participant joining us!

Cathy says "The "3 Strand Ndebele Bracelet" is another fascinating design by Laura McCabe. The herringbone variations caught my eye, and it looked like a project I could do successfully. I've had the kit for awhile, but it's been languishing in my stash - maybe it's all the 15°s!"





Catherine - "Not so much, but made another flower, and did the join with 2 of the
first flowers. Starting to look like a bracelet now!"



Jo says "This week I have mostly been distracted by CRAW but I did manage to get some of my project done. I bezelled the two points and have joined the rivoli's and added one point to the top. It looks a bit like a Portuguese Man O War at the moment as you have to keep all the threads attached until the end as they are used to join and embellish the components. It's been a bit tricky making sure that all the joining tabs are in the right place but overall this kit has been pretty straight forward so far!"



I have been having fun making the pagoda embellisments, they are addictive! I have 7 on mine and left off the drops. I am now ready to start on the strap, I think I will using mainly 11's though, I have pretty much had enough of 15's already!



Happy beading!

Sarahx

Stash Busting Beadalong!

This week I have been flicking through my copy of Laura McCabe's fabulous book Embellished Beadweaving and deciding that it really is time for me to actually make something from it. I decided and I would try the April Showers Necklace using stash beads and that I would set myself a goal of finishing it by Christmas. I mentioned this on our Facebook group and luckily a couple of our members have decided to join me and have set goals too, we will post our progress on a weekly basis, hopefully this will keep us motivated!

Here is a photo of the April Showers Necklace and the beads that I have chosen, I don't have a huge selection of size 15's, as I really don't like using them so I am using 4 colours of those instead of 5 and I am using drops instead of magatema's. The colour combo isn't one I would generally choose but I do think it will be very rich and a great Christmas necklace.



Jo is making this lovely Orb Kit and says "I actually have 2 of these gorgeous orb kits as I requested a different colourway from the usual goldstone and the lovely Laura McCabe kindly gave me several to choose from. The custom cut points in the kit are Norweigan Moonstone and they have iridescent flashes in them similar to labradorite. They have been matched perfectly with the monotone palate of beads that Laura has chosen to compliment them. I've only had this kit for around a month but it was already languishing in my bead box which is hidden away in the understairs cupboard. Hopefully by agreeing to keep Sarah company on this Christmas project my lovely necklace may even get worn this year!"



Catherine says "Here's a picture of the Laura McCabe bracelet kit I want to complete
for my Mum by Christmas, it's the class I did in September called Star Gazer. I haven't even opened the packets yet, as in the class I was working on a different version for myself. I know I CAN complete this, but need a little encouragement to keep me going to completion. The colours in this are Mum's favourites so I hope she will like it although she rarely wears jewellery that isn't rings or earrings. It should be really sparkly. I am going to be sneaky when I see her next to get a wrist measurement"



This beadalong has turned into a bit of a Laura McCabe-along! I can't wait to see the progress that we make. Thank you so much to Catherine & Jo for joining in!

Happy beading!

Sarahx

Stashbusting Project Idea - Bead Soup Rings.

We have all got them lurking about at the bottom of drawers or bead boxes, those almost finished tubes of beads with just a gram or so of seed beads in, just a little bit too much to throw out, but not quite enough to make anything with. This week I have been on a mission to clear out these tubes by making bead soups and stitching them up into wide peyote rings with a button focal bead.

The pink, cream and gold ring was the 1st I made and has just the 3 colours, but still works out quite nicely. The proportions can be tricky, don't use the same amounts for all colours, I found this looked a little odd and not random enough. The purple ring has 6 different shades and finishes. The brown button ring has brown as the main colour in the mix with beige and 2 different shades of gold.

I found that having one shade as the main colour (at least 50% of the finished mix) worked well and then add different amounts of related colours in different shades and finishes. One of my most successful mixes was a blue one with 6 closely related shades of teal and blue, each one a different finish, it stitched up really nicely too.

Once I had my mix I then stitched up the rings using 2 drop peyote stitch, these are 12 beads wide. I then zipped them up and added a focal.

Great little stashbusters and I think if you made them wider and longer, they would make great napkin rings!

Happy beading,

Sarahx

Great Book For Stashbusting Ideas.

Seed Bead Stitching by Beth Stone has some great projects that I think would work really well for using up leftover beads and those small amounts off accent beads that we buy even though we know they aren't quite enough for a project. Or is that just me?