A New Venture

I must admit to having a bit of a thing for seed beads.

I kind of like them ... a lot.

And I buy them, lots of them, in all different colours and shapes and sizes and finishes. On the face of it there isn't any good reason for me to have so many, I make precious little in the way of jewellery, nothing at all really beyond the very rare custom order, maybe a wrap bracelet or two and I keep my mum in earrings because as much as she loves them she's forever losing them.

And yet I've drawers full of tiny little glass beads. It was time to use them.

They're like the little work horses of jewellery, almost always there, playing supporting roles to bigger more impressive beads, tying everything together and they're mostly overlooked.


Maybe that's why I like them so much, hard at work and getting very little credit. They're a bit like the wadding in the quilt, all the glory goes to the gorgeous fabric, but it just wouldn't be a quilt without the wadding.

They're fairly time consuming little things to make, usually with anywhere between 200 and 400 individual beads to sew, but I enjoy making them.

They're a bit too different from what I usually make to sit comfortably in my shop, so I've opened another. So far I've been wrapped up in brooches but have plans for pendants and maybe some earrings too.


You can find them all now at 100s and 1000s on Folksy, well all apart from the leaf which is eagerly awaiting the arrival of a little ladybird.

Challenge Murphy

One day Murphy will become wise to my little tricks and when that day comes I'm officially screwed, but until then I might as well make his trickery work for me.

I've decided to take part in the July listing club on Folksy. The idea is to list an item every day in July and to help encourage and promote everybody else taking part.

This is my first offering in July



It sounds easy enough, right? 31 items, listing one a day, can't be that hard. Especially if you're like me and have two full boxes of stock sitting in the corner. I could actually list two or three items a day and not run out before the end of July.

The only thing is that the stock in the corner is currently earmarked for a craft fair at Belmont Tower this Saturday. Now there could be two possible outcomes here:

1. Nothing sells at the craft fair on Saturday, I'm a little disappointed but at least I now have a whole load of stock to be listed on Folksy which will allow me to at least keep up with the challenge, or
   
   
2. I sell out on Saturday and arrive home with nothing but empty boxes, which will leave me with nothing to list on Folksy and no way to keep up with the challenge and I'll have to start working like a woman possessed and making as much as possible, keeping in mind that this is the first day of the school holidays so I also have a smallish one to occupy.
   

So, if you were of the 'slightly twisted, loves to take pleasure in other's misfortunes' persuasion which outcome would make you giggle?

Murphy's nothing if not a joker.

And I'm counting on it!

Swapsies

Yes I've taken part in another swap.

Who doesn't love a good swap, especially for materials. I'm sure we all have bundles of things we've bought and then weren't entirely sure what to do with, plus it's always lovely to get a wee surprise in the post isn't it?

The ribbon and bead swap was organised by the very lovely Card Making Princess and my swap partner was Hannah of Lonely Hearts.

As usual I forgot to take a photo of the beads I sent....sorry, but they were nice beads, I promise they were.

Or I thought so until I received my parcel and then the voice in my head screamed "OMG, you've sent a pile of crap"!

Luckily though Hannah thought something similar when she opened her parcel, so we're good and both love what we received:)

I received a lovely parcel, wrapped in red tissue and I was so eager that I started to take photos straight away, but lets just leave it that I can't photograph anything on red to save myself.


Hannah sent me a gorgeous little box stuffed with Pandora beads and very clever thing that she is, she even included a Pandora bracelet (assuming that I wouldn't have one, which I didn't, see I told you she was clever) to wear them on. And I will wear them, contrary to my mum's opinion not all jewellery in this house is up for grabs. Do you hear that mum!!! It's mine!!!


This is were you'll notice the subtle change signifying that a small child had entered the room and the remainder of the photos were taken the next morning:

I also received a lovely pack of little purple glass beads, pale pink beads and these gorgeous little flower beads. There's a name for them I think, but it escapes me at the minute.



Wee bit later the next morning:

I also received a pack of cute little blue and pink wire wrapped beads. I'm ham fisted and can't wrap wire for a pension so these will be saved for something lovely.

And finally a pack of big wooden and, you'll have to excuse my ignorance here, I think glass beads, they're amber in colour and beautiful but I genuinely don't know enough about beads to hazard a guess at what they're made of.

But they're perfect and on their own have saved me yet another headache.


I currently have this bag in my shop. Do you see the beads at the end of ties for closing the bag? Yep. They're reclaimed, as are a lot of the little finishing bits I use in my bags, but it does mean that I had a grand total of two beads. I like the slightly worn older look of the beads, but it can be difficult to find wooden beads which are older but undamaged. I've been planning on refinishing some newer beads, but the first few attempts were a bit pants and I haven't found the time to really try again.


The problem is that I bought the fabric in two colourways, the one above, and this...



in cooler, more springlike colours and a friend wants a bag the same as the one above for a birthday present, only in this fabric instead. Which is fine and great even, I just didn't have the beads to finish it and Saturday was to be a day trawling shops and anywhere else I could think off to find two large older but otherwise undamaged wooden beads.

Instead Saturday became a day about drinking coffee, a little baking and much relaxing:)

Thank you Hannah!