Sunday, 7 July 2013

Beaded Colorways {Bead, Book & Bounce}

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 make something inspired by the techniques or projects covered within it's pages. Over the next two months, we'll be working from Beaded Colorways by Beverly Ash Gilbert. 

Beaded Colourways covers - the tools and techniques you will need to gain confidence when working with colour and enhance your beadwork; step-by-step instructions for projects that make put the theory into practice; and freeform beading techniques that can be used to create your own unique projects!


"I was really impressed...a book that covers colour theory in exhaustive detail." -  Shala Kerrigan, Book Review: Beaded Colorways.

Projects In Other Places - 

Beaded Colorways includes several 'Wanderlust Projects' - Wander With Color, Wander With Flair, The Wanderlust Bracelet and The Wanderlust Necklace, as well as instructions for creating Rippled Netting and the instructions for each of these projects are available as individual downloads from BeverlyAshGilbert.Com.

And, If You're Interested - 

Beverly's website, BeverlyAshGilbert.Com, is home to a beautiful gallery of stunning beadwork, paintings, digital art and photographs - as well as a dedicated Color Inspiration section - all designed to inspire your work with color. 

When's The Reveal - 

The reveal will be on the 6th September.

Special Guest Star Giveaway Winner!

Drum roll please .................!

The lucky winner of this fabulous giveaway is Totally Tilly! Congratulations! Please let Nancy know which soup/patterns you would like as your prize.

Thank you to everyone for entering!

Sarah x

Saturday, 6 July 2013

Creating Crystal Jewellery: The Reveal {Bead, Book & Bounce}

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. 

Over the last two months, we've been working from Laura McCabe's much loved book, Creating Crystal Jewellery, beading and bezelling with lots of Swarovski Sparkle.


The lovely Vicky Roberts tells me that Creating Crystal Jewellery is one of her favourite beading books. "It's an excellent resource, for advanced beaders as well as absolute beginners, because there's a range of projects to suit all levels. There's also an extremely handy reference section at the beginning of the book that tells you how many seed beads are needed to start a bezel for different sizes and shapes of Swarovski Rivolis, Stones & Shapes."

Using a combination of techniques covered in the patterns for the Crystal Burst Ring and Crystal Burst Bracelet, Vicky has made a beautiful pair of crystal cascade style earrings, which match the simple - but stunning - Spiral Stitch Bracelet that she has made up using the same materials. I'm hoping that she won't notice if I steal them the very next time that I'm at The Bead Shop Liverpool!



Bead, Book & Bounce 'Regular', Ericka Stafford, has also been busy bezelling - making this beautiful My Crown Jewels Pendant. Ericka says "Although probably not suitable for an absolute beginner, I feel that most beaders would be able to follow her instructions and make something to be proud of! This is one of my favourite books and I use it frequently. It's even more special as Laura signed it for me at the first of her workshops I attended! She is such a lovely person and a brilliant teacher too."


A dab hand now at using Laura's methods to bezel stones, Ericka had no difficulties with that part of the pattern. However, creating the tabs became a little bit of a trial and she turned to fellow OTTBS Facebook Group Member, Kim - whose own version of the pendant inspired Ericka's choice for this project!


"I found stitching the tabs straightforward, but when I came to add the top and bottom I realized that I had made a mistake, as I was unable to add three stitches and still have the tabs in the centres. I managed to remedy this by only adding two beads for the tabs instead of three! This worked ok, but obviously my corner gap was then two big for the 3mm beads. I found that using 4mm beads instead solved this problem and fitted the space nicely. Kim kindly explained where I had gone wrong, so next time I am sure I will be able to make it perfect!"

I'm thinking that it looks like perfection, as it is - and especially love Ericka's colour choice!

If you have made any pieces from Creating Crystal Jewellery, please share your own projects with us using the Mr Linky. 
  • Please link directly to your Creating Crystal Jewellery 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!
We'll be issuing a new Bead, Book & Bounce challenge tomorrow, so please do pop back to see what book we'll be working from over the next two months - it's a good one!

Monday, 1 July 2013

The July Challenge

Welcome to the July challenge! It's theme time again and the world is indeed your oyster as we'd like you to create something inspired by your Favourite Country!


This can be your own country, if that's your favourite, or maybe you've been on holiday and fallen in love with the country. It could even be somewhere that you've never visited but yearn to see! You can find inspiration for your piece from countless sources: the country's national flag, emblem, flower, animal, colours etc or whatever makes you think of that particular country.

When you submit your entry, please let us know which country you've chosen and what inspired your creation. We want you to have absolute free rein so this month there is no twist.

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 make it clear that it's for the July Challenge so we 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. We're 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, to make it fair on everyone who takes part please do not submit something that was made before July 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.

When is the deadline for entries?
The deadline is 6pm (GMT) on Wednesday 31st of July.
  
Can I enter more than once?
You can make as many pieces as you like using the chosen theme. All entries will be shown here on the blog but you will only be entered into the draw once.

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 Celia and she's offering a £15 voucher to spend in her online shop Jencel!

The winner will be drawn by Liz after 6pm on Wednesday 31st of July, using the random list generator at www.random.org and announced later on the same evening.

Good luck everyone and happy beading!

Sunday, 30 June 2013

The June Challenge - And the winner is...

Thanks to everyone who joined in with our challenge for June. We hope you enjoyed playing with turquoise and pink. Before we announce the winner, let's have another look at the fun photo featuring our colour scheme...


And here are the fabulous entries!




































Everyone's names were entered into the list randomizer at Random.org and the lucky beader who's name is in the number 1 position is...


Congratulations Tammy, you've won the £25 voucher to spend at Beads and More by Yashma!

We hope you've enjoy seeing all the wonderful entries and taking part in our challenge. Pop by tomorrow when we'll have a brand new challenge for July!

Sunday, 23 June 2013

Special Guest Star June Giveaway!


This month we are lucky enough to have a "Special Guest Star" Giveaway from the lovely Nancy Dale of NedBeads on Etsy! Nancy is a beader and designer from New England and an active member of the OTTBS Facebook group. Nancy is very generously giving away one of her fabulous custom made bead soups (yummy!), which she is happy to custom make in your favourite colours and not one but TWO of her stunning tutorials (winners choice) to one very lucky winner!

Here is an example of Nancy's previous bead soups:

And one of her beautiful patterns:
To be in with a chance of winning, please comment on this post by Midnight BST 6th July and I will draw a winner and announce on the 7th July.

Good luck everyone and thank you so much to Nancy for this wonderful opportunity to win such beady fabulousness!

Sarahx

Saturday, 1 June 2013

The June Challenge

Welcome to the June challenge! This month we have a bright and fun colour scheme for you to play with, we'd like you to create something in Pink and Turquoise.

For this challenge we are accepting the blue end of the turquoise spectrum only, not the green, but any shades of pink are allowed. The picture above is just a fun representation of our colour challenge, and may contain other colours. Due to the fabulous prizes on offer each month we’re pretty strict on the colours allowed, so no colours other than pink and turquoise please! Note: if you are using a focal bead or cabochon in your design, it can have small amounts of other colours in it, provided 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 one or more Cabochons somewhere in your entry. For the purposes of our challenge, a cabochon is a flat-back hole-less bead with a domed surface, either smooth or faceted and can be made of any material of your choice. 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 June Challenge so we 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. We're 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 June 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.

Can I use beads or crystals with an AB coating?
Yes, AB coated beads or crystals are allowed provided that the overall bead colour still fits in with the challenge.

Can I use clear crystals or beads in my entry?
We've had a discussion about this and decided that, although technically it's not a colour, we aren't allowing clear beads or crystals unless we've specified it in the challenge.

When is the deadline for entries?
The deadline is 6pm (GMT) on Sunday the 30th of June.
  
Can I enter more than once?
You can make as many pieces as you like using the chosen colour way. 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 Valentina and she's offering a £25 voucher to spend in her Etsy shop Beads and More by Yashma!

The winner will be drawn by Liz after 6pm on Sunday the 30th of June  using the random list generator at www.random.org and announced later on the same evening.

Good luck everyone and happy beading!