March Moodboard

Welcome to the March Moodboard! A huge thanks to everyone who joined in with us last month, we had an amazing response :) This month we have a pretty spring colour combination for you - pink, cream and green. As always there are lots of different textures and patterns in the mosaic for you to take your inspiration from as well as the colours themselves...

You can email your photographs to me at thecrimsonmoon7@gmail.com or alternatively you can add them to our Flickr group pool. The deadline for entries is March 31st and as usual a prize will be awarded at random to one of our lucky entrants!

Up for grabs this month is a kit to make one of my Fairground Attraction pendants, including beads, thonging, findings and full colour instructions, in the winner's choice of colours...


We're looking forward to seeing what you create - enjoy the challenge, happy beading and don't forget...tackle that bead stash!

February Moodboard Round Up and Prize Winner!

Wow, we had another amazing response to our Moodboard challenge! Just before I announce the winner of the February Moodboard, here's the Mosaic I posted at the beginning of the month...

Clockwise from top-left: Time Spiral, Bright Turquoise Flowers in Brown Rings, Back to the Days of innoncence, The keyhole...

And here's a round up of the amazing jewellery you guys have made...

Nicola






Helen




Lesley


Colleen




Debs...






Sam

Sarah




Donna




Lisa






Liz




Lissa

Sarah has generously donated this gorgeous Optica Necklace kit from The Spellbound Bead Company as this months prize...

Everyone's name (except for Sarah and myself) was entered into the draw and the name that was picked out by my lovely Mum was...



Congratulations Donna! We'll be in touch with you shortly :)

Thanks to everyone who joined in with us. Tomorrow there'll be a brand new challenge for March so don't forget to drop by!

February Moodboard

Here are a few more beautiful submissions to our February Moodboard!

Sarah created this striking bracelet using peyote, circular peyote & picot edging...


Donna made this gorgeous bead embroidered pendant with a spiral necklace, inspired by the flower pattern in the mosaic...


Lisa made this amazing reversible cuff using seed beads, crystals and wire...



I made a set of tiny beaded beads using both opaque and matt beads...


And Lissa also made some lovely beaded beads and assures me that the purple looking beads are actually brown!



Thank you so much to everyone who joined in! There are still a couple of days left to join in with our February Moodboard, please see the original post for details.

Free Pattern - Triple Diamond Brick Stitch Earrings

You have probably already noticed that I quite like very long earrings. It's an inherited taste from my grandma who always wore what she called Gypsy Rose Lee style earrings. This weeks pattern is inspired by the colours in our February moodboard challenge but feel free to use whatever combinations you like. I'd love to see them if you make a pair! Happy beading!

Sarahx

Book Review - Embellished Beadweaving by Laura McCabe

I am sure I am not the only one with a huge collection of beading books! I loved Laura McCabes first book and could not wait to get this one.

There are 6 chapters in the book which includes a brief history of beadwork, a guide to a basic beading kit and a chapter on basic stitches such as peyote & herringbone. Chapter 6 is where all the main action is with 18 original projects including earrings, rings, necklaces and bracelets. All the projects are stunning, my personal favourites are the rosebud ring and the april showers necklace, both of which I plan to make in the future. The only downside to the projects for me is that size 15 beads are used extensively and believe it or not I have very few colours in 15's, so I will need to buy some. Oh what a shame ;-)


For the purpose of this review, I concentrated on the instructions in Chapter 4: A Comprehensive Guide To Embellishments. I made the pointed peyote petal and the basic peyote leaf (no pics of these sorry, I have mislaid them!), I did find the instructions a little confusing at one point in each of them, but a quick glance at the excellent diagrams soon put me right, I guess I learn better visually! I then made a bracelet base in right angle weave and used the basic beaded leaf technique as a fringe to finish it off. I like the way it turned out!

I'm not sure whether this book is suitable for complete beginners to seed beading, but it would certainly make a lovely addition to your beading library! Not only is there a great choice of beautiful projects, I found the section on embellishments inspiring and think it will add an extra dimension to simple beadwork like the bracelet above. There are also lots of gorgeous creations in the gallery by artists such as Cynthia Rutledge and Carol Wilcox Wells.

Happy Beading!

Sarahx

February Moodboard

Here's another beautiful submission to our February Moodboard from Sam, who took inspiration from the spiral image as well as the yummy colours to make this lovely spiral necklace using Swarovski crystals and sterling silver...

Thanks for joining in with us again this month Sam! If you'd like to join in with our February Moodboard please see this post for details.

Free Pattern - Blue Waves Peyote Bracelet

This Valentines day the husbeast treated to me to a trip to Cardiff, which is always dangerous for my stash busting plans as the lovely bead shop Crystals and Ice is there. True to form I bought quite a lot of seed beads though I did restrain myself and stay away from the delica's! I bought some blue's, forgetting that I already had a plastic carton full of them)and wanted a simple pattern to use some of them up. I came up with this and thought that I would share it with our lovely OTTBS readers as I bet I'm not the only one with masses of seed beads in blue! I think it would look good in lots of other combinations too, I may try a black and red version at some point.

The dimensions using size 11 miyuki seed beads are width 1.31 inches, length 6.47 inches, just add or detract rows to resize. The bracelet uses the odd count peyote technique, if you aren't familiar with this or need a refresher, here is a link to a tutorial on about.com http://beadwork.about.com/od/beadingstitchtutorials/ss/Flat_odd_Count_Peyote.htm

Happy beading!

Sarahx