Let's play tag!

It seems there's a tagging epidemic in Blogsville at the moment - everywhere I hop someone is sharing seven interesting but often bizarre 'facts' about themselves! Well I've been tagged twice too, so I thought I'd join in with the fun. I'd like to thank the wonderful Triz of Triz Designs for my first 'tagging' and Leah of the beautiful Michon Jewelry Blog for my second.

So my seven facts to share are:

1) Family legend has it that on my mother's side, our family tree can be traced back to the Pilgrim Fathers, but that we also have a Spanish pirate thrown into the mix. Whether it is true or not, I like this idea as it seems to pretty much sum up the person you see before you today!

2) I am a member of Mensa.

3) I am the only child of an only child and I don't have any children - so this particular Slade line stops right here.

4) I have a penchant for real ale and/or home brew. In fact, Dad has a barrel of homemade nettle ale fermenting right now for our next visit!

5) I don't have any tattoos in any out of the way places, but I do have a rather splendid secret mole ;0)

6) Mum tells me that when I first learnt to read I would start from the bottom right hand corner of a page and read up to the top left. Mum also says that the first time I wrote my name I wrote E, I, R, R, E, K - now this really explains a lot!

7) I am a free spirited Sagittarius born in the year of the snake sssssssssssssssssssss!

Once again I won't be passing this on as everybody I would have tagged has already played the game. As usual, I would encourage you to explore some of the blogs and sites listed on my side bar, or the links to the Etsy Bead Weavers or Entrecard.

Other news is that the two winners of the Awareness Ribbon Pins have been announced on Beading Daily. It was a difficult decision as there were so many moving stories. If you have time, follow this link and read the two winning entries - there is also space to leave a comment at the end if you wish.

Ingredients ...

Just a short blog today as I've spent far too much time on the computer recently and I really must get on with some beading today. I have loads of new project ideas in my head and various notes scribbled everywhere, but none of that is any good if I don't actually put the time in and try to create them! So, here is a quick picture of the ingredients for the project I plan to start today ...

... I went on a bead buying spree earlier this week and came back with lots and lots of Delicas in a gorgeous shiny dark green (shade number 175) some very expensive 24k lined cream opal Delicas (shade number 230) a bag of beautiful semi-matte blue Delicas (shade number 630) a string of Lapis Lazuli beads, a Swarovski crystal Cosmic Ring and some thread. I'll keep you posted with some 'work in progress' shots, but in the meantime I'd love to hear your ideas of what you think it's going to be!

Not that again???

I know I have blogged about my Ribbon Awareness Pins countless times now, and some of you will be bored of seeing the same old photos instead of lovely shiny new beadwork, but I am still getting quite a lot of people asking me where they can find the pattern. The fundraising aspect has now finished but the pattern is available as normal in the Beading Daily shop and if you click here and then click on the title 'Ribbon Awareness Pins' you will be taken to the relevant page where you can purchase and download the pattern. Of course October is breast cancer awareness month and I have noticed that lots of bloggers have added a pink ribbon logo to their blog, so I have followed suit and changed my banner for this month only. I am currently in the process of reading through all the entries for the Power of Beading Contest - the winners will be announced on Beading Daily by October 20th. A big thank you to everyone who entered the contest and shared their stories about how beading helped them through a challenging time.

Other news is that the talented and lovely Victoria of Three Fates Design passed on an 'I love your blog award' to me - thank you Victoria! As I have mentioned previously, although I am very grateful for having received a blog award, I don't pass them on as I don't want anyone to feel left out. I have a very long list of blogs and websites on my side bar, a link to all the Etsy BeadWeavers blogs, a link to Bead Artists who blog and of course Entrecard. All of these bloggers are deserving of an award in my view, and I would encourage you to explore some of these links.

Finally, I was also excited to see that another lovely fellow Etsy BeadWeaver, Kim of Regal Beads, has created a treasury entitled 'Little Black Dress' and included my Supernova Choker - thank you Kim!

Talking of the Etsy Beadweavers, all the fabulous entries for this months challenge 'Animal Instinct' have been added to our team blog - take a look, voting begins on October 9th.

See you next week!

A new trend!

I've been busy busy making floral cufflinks over the last week or so. I came up with the design for these some months ago and sent them to a beading magazine to see if they would be interested in them as a project - they wanted the flowers ... but not as cufflinks! So the flowers will appear in a future publication as a charm bracelet, which I am quite happy about, but I still think that floral cufflinks are a nice idea - maybe I'm just ahead of my time ;)

So I was quite surprised on a shopping trip last weekend, to see that this season all the major stores are now carrying not only gents, but ladies shirts with cufflinks! They are lovely as they are, but to me they look a bit plain as most of the cufflinks that come with the shirts are just little cream or white enamel discs. So I thought I would become a trendsetter - I bought myself one of these shirts and made some floral cufflinks to wear with it that also match a beautiful amethyst and teal angora top I have - perfect as the weather has become decidedly cool here in the UK!

When I first started making floral cufflinks, I tried to make relatively life-like flowers, such as poppies, apple blossom and wild rose and I have sold a few pairs of these, but now I have decided to add to this range with some 'fantasy flowers' that are just beautiful rich autumnal colours with either glass pearl or freshwater pearl centres. There are currently five pairs of floral cufflinks for sale in my Etsy shop or via my website and I will be adding to these in the near future - I am also happy to take commissions for any colour.

I used to call these 'ladies cufflinks' as I also make much plainer 'gents cufflinks' (see above) but I have sold a couple of pairs of poppy cufflinks to gentlemen, so I now consider them to be unisex, although of course you have to be a pretty cool guy to wear them! Both types have a sterling silver chain and bar attached. Why not treat yourself to a pair of beaded cufflinks and be a trendsetter with me!

A reminder and some news ....

Tomorrow (September 30th) is the last day of my charity fundraiser in conjunction with Beading Daily. So if you are interested but haven't had chance to download the pattern for my Ribbon Awareness Pins yet, there's not long left! Remember it's only $3 (approximately £1.50) and ALL funds raised go to charity. All the details can still be seen here.

Some of you know that my work is displayed at Studio 61, a gallery in the picturesque heart of the Derbyshire Peak District. This coming weekend they are holding a jewellery festival and I will be there along with other artists demonstrating our arts and crafts. This will be an informal event where you can meet and chat to the designers and watch them at work. There will also be an opportunity to buy work via the gallery and craft shop. There is an ice-cream parlour, an art cafe and FREE parking so it should be a great day out!

Publications, profiles and patterns to purchase!

It's been less than a week since my last blog post, but I have more news to share!

Issue 12 of the UK magazine Bead is out! Can you believe that this magazine is now two years old? In this issue I have two projects - "Daisy Chain Necklace" and "Magic Carpet Pendant" and also a three page profile. I have been quite candid in this interview and so if you would like to learn about some of the fact behind the fiction (my life hasn't always been filled with flowers!) with lots of beady eye-candy thrown in, it's available now. This magazine is also available online - see here for details.

I also wanted to tell you that a selection of my patterns are now available to purchase via the Beading Daily online store. I have set up a new page on my website and added the relevant links - please feel free to browse. If you wish to find out more about any of the projects, such as materials, tools and techniques, simply click on the title of the project and you will be taken to the relevant page of the Beading Daily online store. If you then wish to purchase any of the projects, follow the links and the pattern will be delivered to you by electronic download - modern, simple and quick! Below are pictures of the projects currently available, but please bear in mind that these are my photos of my own work and that the colours may vary from those shown in the actual pattern. If you have any queries, please contact me via my website.

See you next week!

Beading Hearts!

The Power of Beading Contest ends today (although you can still buy the pattern for my Awareness Pins here with all monies raised until September 30th going to charity) so it's time for a fresh start and a new project, although this one is also for charity.

Some of my fellow Etsy BeadWeavers team members have volunteered to take part in Jeanette Shanigan's 2009 Breast Cancer Donation Project - "Bead artists have the heart to take on breast cancer". Each year a theme is set, this time it's hearts, in 2007 it was butterflies and the 2008 theme was roses. Jeanette collects all donated beaded squares and stitches them into quilts which are then auctioned off at the Bead & Button show to raise money for charity.

I have spent the last week making four squares to donate to this wonderful project and it has been a lot of fun as well as a personal challenge. I started out by mulling over various heart related proverbs and sayings to see what images they would conjure up in my mind. When I began to think about it, I was amazed by just how many heart clichés there are, but I settled on three and set about experimenting with stitches to see which ones would be most suitable - I wanted each square to be different and have it's own little theme. I was only going to make three squares, but then I had another idea and made a fourth square "United Hearts" with a red and white heart on a blue background symbolizing 'the pond'!

I have never had to restrict the size of my beadwork before and as the rules state that each square must only be 1½ inches by 1½ inches, it took me quite a while to get the bead count of each square exactly right. The finished squares also have to be stitched to interfacing, ready to be sewn up into a quilt and this was the part I found most challenging as 'normal' sewing is beyond me - let's just say, you don't want to see the back of my squares!

So here they are shown from the top in the order that I made them; Ace of Hearts using Square stitch, Look into your Heart using Herringbone and a small acrylic mirror, Hearts and Flowers using two-drop Brick stitch, size 15 seed beads and a freshwater pearl and United Hearts using three-drop Brick stitch with a Square stitch heart attached.

Although it will be some time yet, I look forward to seeing the finished quilts and I hope they raise a substantial amount of money for the designated charities. In the meantime, I would love to hear what you think about my squares.