I’m a teeny bit early, but International Beading Week 2024 is almost upon us and I’m too excited to wait. IBW is run by the UK Beadworkers Guild, and you can find out more about the events and activities they and beaders all over the world have planned by visiting the website here, or join in on Facebook via the IBW Group here . As it’s the school holidays here in the UK my ability to join in events is pretty limited, so Social Media and that IBW Facebook in particular is probably where you’ll see me doing my IBW thing……. I’m an IBW Permanent Ambassador, and in common with many other Ambassado ..read more

Never one to be decisive or minimal, when I was restocking a few Flower Chatons recently I also grabbed some packs from a couple of new ranges to try out (both for myself and for my Etsy Shop). The first are already almost sold out, I think probably because they are very unusual – they’re a matted, unfoiled glass, in soft blue and green colours and they literally look like sea glass. I have them in a 14mm rivoli and 27mm chaton (like a crown stone) which are two really useful, standard beading sizes, so they’ll be great for lots of projects. I’m thinking something soft, subtle and summery – so ..read more

Earlier this year I started making a set of beaded beads. I love beaded beads, they’re something I come back to time and time again when I need a beaded piece for an outfit, when I’m stuck creatively, or when I want to really dig into some new 3D techniques and ideas. I went back to geometric solids and started playing with some methods and ideas I’ve been back and forth with over many years. I was trying to put together ’99 Red Balloons’ for a competition (Bead a Song) – that didn’t work out (I’ll tell you what did another day) but returning to such a versatile method made me realise I needed ..read more

I may not do Black Friday or Cyber Monday but I do like to try to offer a discount on my Tutorials in December as a seasonal gift to my lovely customers around the world. Please note that this only applies to Tutorials, but hopefully that will still keep most of you happy. So, 10% off all Tutorials in my Etsy & PayHip shops throughout December, links below, discount automatically applied at checkout. Etsy sale PayHip Sale Thank you ..read more

OK, I did another one – I skipped a day or so earlier in the week so catching up now! This is nearly the last (I’ve finished one more this afternoon and then I have plans for a completely bonkers one as a final hurrah), and I’ve kept it quite simple whilst trying to include some new touches to keep the experimental spirit going. If you’re at the Bead Embroidery Zoom tomorrow (Saturday) morning you might get to see how that’s progressing when I walk you through some of my work. As you may have noticed I bought some sheets of metallic pleather recently so I’ve gone back to those for the base and ..read more

I hope everyone is having a wonderful IBW – I’m certainly enjoying making time to focus on beading. As you know I’m working using my donated ‘exploration’ PDF – a template and set of stitch instructions and ideas for a bead embroidered ‘I Heart Beads’ brooch, and every day or so I’m sharing the results. It’s kind of a week of making samples. Today I’ve stuck with the heavily beaded style I shared yesterday, but if I’m honest I don’t think this one is as successful. I think it’s probably missing the flat 3 & 4mm sequins I love to use so much – I didn’t have them in the right shade and I wan ..read more

Yesterday’s Barbie version of my ‘I Heart Beads’ brooch may have been a big pink failure, but hopefully today you can see I took what I learnt, made some slightly different decisions and came up with something which is very me and actually works! Whilst the pre-Barbie versions were light on beads, this one brings me back to the heavily encrusted style I usually work with and I was relieved to be able to use it. So, here’s what I did: 1) Back to ultrasuede for the ribbon, and stem stitched letters with 2 strands of black DMC cotton. 2) Red hard felt heart on another piece of black hard felt. No ..read more

Hello again, here’s my second version of my ‘I Heart Beads’ brooch. I’ve gifted the template and stitch instructions to IBW, but rather than just one final version I’m going to try lots of different combinations of stitches and materials over IBW to show you all how versatile bead embroidery can be and encourage you to experiment (and if that experiment looks like mine that’s fine). Anyway, this one is quite similar to the first one, with a few tweaks of course. Here are the key steps/ingredients: 1 – Black foundation again (hard felt) with a single layer of felt padding (heart shape 3mm small ..read more

One of the great things about International Beading Week are the gifted patterns from a huge range of designers, beaders and of course the IBW Ambassadors. My gift this year is a little unusual in that it is more of a guide than a set of instructions – I’ve given a template and some detailed bead embroidery stitch guides, but not a ‘put this bead here’ step by step process. Instead I want beaders to embrace the freedom that bead embroidery can give you and strike out on your own – and I’m going to be doing the same, beading as many of the design as I can bear over the week, then posting right ..read more

It’s been a busy week here – the last week of the school year for the bigger boy (cue endless house competitions and much taxi-ing around the sporting venues of South West London) and the looming deadlines of full on school summer holidays and International Beading Week have rather energised me. As well as listing a whole new batch of beautiful crystals and some beads, I’ve finished writing up a new tutorial. It’s a while since I shared a beadweaving tutorial – I’ve been distracted by bead embroidery so much of the time, but my trip to the Czech Republic earlier this year to visit the bead man ..read more