Bead Soirees

Well we have our first Bead Soirees of 2011 happening this weekend.  We'll be at Sheepy Magna Village Hall on Friday 28th January from 7pm to 9pm and then off to the Heritage Centre (opposite Coton Craft Centre) in Nuneaton from 10:00 till 14:00 on Saturday 29th January.

We have been busy and have a few different project sheets for you to try your hand at this month.  The offical project idea was the Dragonfly Bookmarks but we got carried away over Christmas and have a couple more bracelets and a cluster necklace for you too.

Please come along to one of our Bead Soirees this weekend to have a go at these new projects - our Soirees are all very informal and aimed as drop ins so you can pop in for half an hour and a cuppa or stay for the whole duration - it's entirely up to you, we'd love to see you there.



Cheeky Chucks

Our Beadelicious mascots Bluebell and Tallulah enjoyed a good run out over the weekend as it's been too dark in the evenings for us to let them out after we get home from work.  Bluebell is up to her old tricks though, throughout last summer she decided to start laying her eggs under our Magnolia bush.  This must have been going on for weeks before we found out judging by the stash of eggs we found when we had to cut the bush down to make way for the Mr Crooks new bike shed.  We'd been concerned she'd been off colour and had stopped laying, but no - she'd just wanted a change of scenery!

Now it seems with the Magnolia bush gone she's found herself a new spot.  We thought we'd lost her and after a frantic search of the garden found her tucked away behind the composter, refusing to budge off an egg.  I was a little concerned she was going broody as she refused to budge for most of the day but luckily a couple of Hobnob biscuits did the trick and she was down filling her beak faster than a whippet after the hare.

Not budging!!!

The power of a Hobnob!!!

The poor abandoned egg!!!



Wire Wrapped Ring Workshop

Had a lovely morning today as Mandy, Faye and Kirsty joined me in the studio for our wire wrapped ring workshop, and how well they did!  I've posted a picture of each of their lovely designs below.

Mandy's Rings

Faye's Rings

Kirsty's Rings



Amazin' Agate

Just sorting through our current stock ready for a re-order and thought I'd share these with you as they have been so popular since we started stocking them.  They are our lovely dyed agate beads - each one is a slightly different shape but they are all around 10mm in size and look great on slightly chunkier pieces



Fimo Fun

Well I've been a bit lax on this blogging malarkey this week but it's just been all go.  Firstly we ran a lovely jewellery making party for a 13th birthday on Saturday followed by a fab day out at the Sincerely Yours Fair in Hinckley on Sunday.  Thank you to all that came to visit our stand and stopped by for a natter and to top up your bead stash.  Our new beginners kits went down a storm so we'll be doing a lot more of those for our upcoming fairs in Leigh, Lincoln and Cheshire.

I'm also really excited as I've been speaking to the lovely Claire at Lady Luck Jewellery this week about setting up a polymer clay demo and workshop.  This will be taking place on Saturday 7 May from 14:00 till 17:00 at Bulkington Village Centre.  We're limited to 8 places so if you're interested please get in touch.  I've attached a quick pic below of Claire's gorgeous animal print beads - can't wait!!!

We're also hoping to start doing some fun interviews with other local artists and beady people here in the coming months.   Both Claire and Sally at RedHotSal have agreed to be guinea pigs so watch this space.

Finally Mr Crook and I are off to sunny Devon for a weekend in March as we've been invited to attend a 'how to be good marrieds' course by the church we're getting married at in Braunton this June.  Not sure if that's the official title of the course but it sounds as though it'll be along those lines.  I'm just excited to be getting down there again.  Quick pic of the beach we'll be heading straight for as soon as lessons finish - soo excited!!!



Funky Friday Fun

Hi all, as promised please find a mini project on making your own wire beads using either our coloured jewellery wire below or our 0.4mm silver or gold plated wires.  There is minimal difference between the two wire gauges, the 0.4mm (which we've used in the pictures below) makes a slightly larger bead and is a little harder on your hands but still gives great results.  The 0.315mm is softer to work with and give you more flexibility on the size of your beads - hence why we have started stocking this in the colours. 


All wire, beads and finding used in the mini project are available on our websire http://www.beadelicious-beads.co.uk/

To make these fabuloulsy simple beads cut a piece of jewellery wire approx 75cm to 1m in length - this will give you a bead roughly 10mm - 12mm in size.

Fold the wire in half in your hands and scrunch the wire into a large ball-ish shaped mess.

Put the mess ball into the palm of your hands and using both hands roll together in a rotating motion - feel the wire in your hands becoming a smaller, tighter formed ball.

Keep checking your wire bead as you roll it smaller and tighter together.  If you see a large gap in the wire ball anywhere use your pliers to move a piece of wire into place and carry on rolling until you achieve the desired size bead.  Make sure all wire ends are tucked inside the bead.

Make a few beads up and work into your designs.  Here we've used them with our 10mm Light Silver and Dark Grey pearls and spacer beads on a bracelet.

Hello Friday!!!

Thank heavens for the weekend - I'm getting really excited for the weekend now as we've got our first jewellery party and fair of the year taking place this weekend.  I've got 5 girls for a childrens party tomorrow followed by a local fair in Hinckley on Sunday.  Although things have started to pick up this week after the New Year I can't wait to get out and about and meet more beady people - Mr Crook is good company (when the footy, golf, cricket etc isn't on) but I can see his eyes glaze over at the mere mention of beads!!!

I would also like to show off some new jewellery wires we started stocking just before Christmas.  They are 0.315mm and so are ideal for wire wrapping, knitting, crocheting and also making your own wire beads with.  They're on the website now http://www.beadelicious-beads.co.uk/ and we can't wait to get started putting some project ideas together using these fab new colours.



Our other exciting news is that we're hoping to put together a demo and potential workshop on making fimo beads later in the Spring.  This will be at a venue near us in the Nuneaton / Coventry area.  We're just gauging interest at the moment but please get in touch if you'd be interested.

Ideas, Ideas, Ideas

Well since starting this blog I seemed to have had not just a brainwave but more a tidal wave of ideas for Beadelicious - which is all good and I've taken to keeping a little pad with me to help keep track of all my hair brained schemes (some better than others) but the only problem is when to fit them all in?  There doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day as it is and what with wedding planning and such in full flow it's all go go go.

Anyway one other thing to mention whilst I'm wittering on is that we only have 2 spaces left on our wire wrapped ring workshop on the 22nd January.  Booking is essential so if you're interested please get in touch.  There's more info on the workshop and a couple of pictures of the rings we will be making on our the website http://www.beadelicious-beads.co.uk/ under the workshops page.

Busy busy Beadelicious bee

Can't believe our first show of 2011 is next Sunday - it seems to have snuck up on me in a flash.  We'll have all our bead stash at the Sincerely Yours Show at Hinckley Leisure Centre on the 16th January so it's all go in the workshop trying to put everything together and making sure we're fully stocked and raring to go. 

I've been trying to introduce some kits to offer too and this is a quick peek of our new beginner level Rose & Pearl kit that we'll have with us next week.



On a rather duller note I'm still battling with the accounts for my tax return due at the end of the month.  Aarrrggghhh every year I promise I'll not leave it to the last minute but every month the call of beads in the workshop just tempts me away from doing sensible sums, luckily the lovely Jacki, my very clever accountant friend has offered to bail me out for yet another year on the trot and help me with the actual return.  Thank you Jacster!!!

And finally on a personal note, Bluebell and Tallulah, our Beadelicious mascots are back in action after the cold, snowy spell and have laid me two lovely eggs this week for my breakfast.  Not sure if it's the warmer weather or my daily pampering with warm porridge, run outs in the warmer greenhouse away from the snow and hot water bottles in the coup that did it but thanks girls, brekkie was yummy!!!  Note to mum - fed them some of the left over veggie soup you gave me and they both left the lumps of swede too!!!!!

Quick pic of Bluebell and Tallulah, our Beadelicious lucky mascots:

Well Hello!!!

After weeks of ummmming and arrrhhhing about setting up a blog I have just had a spurt of action and gone and done it.  Not sure yet how on earth I make it look as professional and interesting as all the others I've looked at but here it is, a start at least!!!  Much research may well be needed but watch this space!!!