Lonelies

I cleaned all my Lonelies and I've sorted them into mostly little strands.

Almost all of them are grouped by colour except for four similar strands of seven that each contain a Ditsybead, two yellow Anemones and a couple of encased blue beads. Super summery!

As I type the Lonelies pictured are all available in my shop and there are a bunch of others too.

There's a pair of light turquoise Ditsybeads for sale as well.

I'm hoping to make more of these as soon as I catch up with all my strawberry orders.

Whatalottalonelies

My Lonelies jar was doing that overflowing thing again so I sorted out its contents into groups, cleaned and strung them all and now they're in my shop ready for rehoming. All of the beads are first quality - they're just leftovers from sets that weren't quite the right size or whatever, or they're experiments or one-offs.

I've also got some new normal, not-lonely beads to show you.

There's this 'Festive Glow' strand of Luminobeads which are a remake of a set that I made in 2008.

These have cores of CiM Foam encased with Effetre sage green 019, Effetre dark topaz 016 and Effetre medium amethyst 042, decorated with spots in Effetre white 204, and then tumble-etched to a matt finish.

And there's also another floaty quintet, this time in green.

These are CiM Weeping Willow encased with Effetre super clear 006 with decoration in good old Effetre white 204.

All of the beads pictured can be purchased in my shop.

I'm off to continue knitting a sock now. Yes, a sock! It's been a while, hasn't it? I'll show you it over the weekend when I have daylight for taking photos. 

Lots of Lonelies

I've cleaned and sorted my Lonelies this morning. I'm always surprised at how they mount up. A lot of them are duplicates from other sets where I'll have made three of one style because initially I wasn't happy with a dot placement or it ended up a millimetre smaller or larger than it should be. Then next morning when I take them out of the kiln I can't see the dot placement issue and the size difference is barely visible so I end up with more beads than I need for a strand so into the Lonelies pot the extras go.

I've divided this batch of Lonelies into two strands and each one contains five pairs.

These are for sale in my shop at the time of typing.

In crochet news...

I've put a couple more shawls in my Etsy shop and webshop.

This purple and yellow one reminds me of irises.

The pattern is Sunset Boulevard by LisasAttik and the yarn is YarnArt Flowers in colour 307.

The second one is bright orange and very summery. This tangerine colour is super zesty. 

The pattern for this one is V For Vintage by Mijo Crochet and the yarn is Hobbii Twister Solid in colour 151.

Both of these shawls are on the larger side. I seem to be averaging about 1200 metres of yarn per shawl. Gradient cakes are normally 1000 metres but I find the extra couple of hundred metres makes quite a difference in the coverage and swoosh departments.

Jewellery. Beads. Hair.

I can see my blog post views slowly going up so that's pleasing to me. Hello to anyone out there reading (I'm actually waving at you) and thank you for popping by.

I spent most of Sunday making bracelets. I'd made a heap of simple spacer beads and a few spotty ones, all in whites and clear, and I had no particluar bracelet designs in mind for them so it was nice to sit and faff about. I ended up with what I've always referred to as a 'shimmy' bracelet.

These take quite a while to make due to all those wrapped loops but the end result is always worth the effort.

Shimmy bracelets feel so lovely when you're wearing them and they make an amazing glassy rattle as you move.

And I also made a very simple, quite dainty bracelet by stringing a few of my beads with some seed beads and Preciosa crystals. 

Both of these bracelets are in my shop.

I had a sort out of one of my lonelies jars and I've added a strand of those to the shop as well.

I do like a strand of lonelies because they make me put beads and colours together that I never normally would and this can often spark new bead and jewellery ideas.

In non-bead news, I had my hair cut last week. I last had it cut a year ago and it was far too long and was taking me an age to wash.

I'm going greyer and greyer and I love it. I've had greys since my early twenties and I dyed my hair for years to cover them but I stopped dyeing it about six years ago because I just couldn't be arsed. Two days after the mess and time of a dye job a grey hair would be sat there laughing at me, so I gave up. My hair is how it's supposed to be at this moment in time and that's fine by me.

In crochet news, I finished the doily I was making and I just need to block it. Chris is currently using the available floor space to take photos of Blake's 7 spaceships that he's made so I'll have to wait for when his photo set-up is away until I can deploy my blocking mats. Our house is very small, you see. Both of us are in making mode all the time so we take it in turns to clutter the lounge up with stuff.

Right, I'm off to make some mandrels and then beads. Have a good Monday!

Beads, beads, beads

I've not got a lot to say, really. My groin is still injured, and I'm increasingly pissed off about not being able to go for a run, so I thought I'd post photos of the beads I've made over the past few days. There are the 'Magma' beads up there and then there are these 'Mango & Blueberry' ones...

...and then 'Minimalist Mango'...

...and these 'Cornflower' ones...

... and I had a big Lonelies jar sort out today and I ended up with three strands of assorted beads.

Some of these beads are in the shop as I type, so if any of them tickle your bead fancy, do take a look.

There are beads to be won

Hello! I hope you enjoyed the long weekend?

We had quite a quiet one. We popped to town on Saturday and amongst other things I bought some hideously pink sock yarn.

The wool shop in town seems to be discontinuing Regia and it was reduced to £2.90 a ball. What sock knitter could resist that?

Dad visited us on Sunday and yesterday afternoon I headed shedwards.

See? Quiet.

And not a single chocolate egg was consumed.

I'm currently running two bead giveaways. The strand of Lonelies at the top of this post is up for grabs on my Facebook page and the one above can be won over on Instagram. To be in with a chance of winning I'll need your entry by tomorrow night. I'm drawing the winners on Thursday morning.

I would do a giveaway here but as I've only recently restarted blogging, and not many people seem to be blogging or commenting, I don't know if there's much point. We'll see how it goes.

Have a lovely Tuesday,

Strawberry, Lonelies & Bargains

I'm trying not to do the headless chicken thing this year but it's brewing! I can feel the panic starting to rise within me.

All my bead orders are complete. As such this gives me time to play with glass. Woohoo!

I've just added a sweet sterling silver strawberry necklace to the shop so if you're in need of a last minute Christmas present, that can be found here.

I've also emptied my Lonelies jar for the last time this year and this strand can be found here.

And finally, I've reduced the prices of a few in stock bead sets so grab yourself a bargain!

Must rush; I have bead orders to pack and a dozen TO DO lists to write.

Have a good day!

Lonelies

I decided to sort out my Lonelies jar. With the contents I've made three strands of eighteen beads.

Each strand contains an owl, a cupcake and a matching pair. I'm selling them at £19.50 per strand and they're available here.

I've also reduced (and I mean reduced) the price of my Purple Blush beads and my Eton Mess and Triple Chocolate bracelets so there are three bargains to be had there.

I've also had to change the owl bead ordering page. Why? Because of the increasingly on-tits-getting way that glass companies keep discontinuing and changing glass colours, that's why. The colour I was using for the 'tawny' owls no longer exists so I've replaced it with an auburn shade.

If you've ordered tawny owls, fear not, they will indeed be tawny but from now on the tawny colour option no longer exists.

Back to packing up bead orders now and then I'll be off to the Post Office.

Have a good rest-of-the-afternoon!

'Bleu', Lonelies & Tuition

I've just put these etched blue beads on the Freshly Baked Beads page along with some Lonelies.

I've also reduced the price of my pendants and charms in my Chrimbleshop to £12.00 and £10.00 respectively.

In other bead-related news, I will be teaching from 18th February through to 25th October, 2013. These are the months when my shed isn't freezing. I am in Cambridge.

If you’re an absolute beginner I am offering a four hour session. During this time we will cover the basics of beadmaking and we’ll pull stringer, make round beads and then use stringer and frit to decorate them. All materials, tea, coffee and biscuits (essential beadmaking equipment) are included in the tuition fee and obviously you will get to keep all the beads we make. The price for this four hour session is £100.00. Just email me to discuss suitable dates and times.

If you’ve done a spot of beadmaking before and you’d like to brush up on skills like stringer application, shaping and encasing then I am offering tuition at a rate of £25.00 per hour. It is entirely up to you how many hours you’d like but I’d suggest no more than five as there’s only so much beadmaking your brain can do before it gets tired. Just send me an email outlining what you’re interested in learning and for how long and we’ll arrange something.

If you’d like to book some tuition with me please send me an email.I will require a fifty percent deposit (non-refundable) at the time of booking with the remainder payable on the day of your tuition. For deposits I will accept PayPal or bank transfer.

If you'd like to give the gift of glass meltery I can provide a voucher in a card. Just email me to purchase one.

I think that's about all for now. I'm off to make some soup.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!

Spacers, Spacers, Spacers

I've sorted through my Lonelies jar and I was amazed at how many spacers I've gathered over the past few months. I've strung some into sets and they're for sale now on the Freshly Baked Beads page. There's also a strand of assorted Lonelies waiting for a new home too.

Lonelies

I emptied my Lonelies jar this morning. There are sixty-six beads altogether and there is plenty of jewellery making fun waiting to be had with this lot.

Please click here for details of how to buy them.

Lonelies

My Lonelies jar was totally overflowing with beadiness so I've just strung them all together and put the lot up for sale on the Freshly Baked Beads page of my site.

Happy Wednesday to you!

Thanks & Lonelies

Many thanks to everybody who left comments for me and sent emails to me about Grandma.  Your kind words and supportive messages were so lovely.  You lot really are the best!

I've just added some strands of Lonelies to my Etsy shop so please do pop over there if you fancy a look.

I will write a proper blog post in the morning.

Enjoy what's left of your Tuesday!

Bead Giveaway

Time for a prize draw, methinks!

Up for grabs this time is a bunch of my Lonelies.  There are twenty seven beads here - thirteen decorated ones and fourteen spacers.  The beads range from 9mm to 13mm diameter.

My 'Lonelies' are experiments, one-offs and leftovers from sets. All of the beads are first quality and I know a lot of you like to use them for pendants, charms, bookmarks, phone dangles and the like.

If you'd like to be in with a chance of winning these beads all you need to do is enter my prize draw. The rules of the giveaway are are as follows :

♦ The draw is open to anyone anywhere in the world.

♦ It's one entry per person BUT if you have a blog and/or Twitter account and you blog/tweet about and link to this prize draw post I will enter your name twice. Bonus! If you'd like to mention me in any tweets my Twitter ID is beadsbylaura.

♦ To enter the draw you need to leave a comment on this blog post or email me at prizedraw@beadsbylaura.co.uk

♦ If you've blogged/tweeted about this draw please say that you've done so in your comment or email and I will do the two name thing.

♦ If you're entering with a blog comment please leave a name of some kind, be it your actual one, a nickname or your blog user name - just something rather than an anonymous comment.  If you have a popular name please leave some kind of initials.  Last time I had lots of Lynnes and Sues enter and that got a bit confusing!  Something like 'Laura S' would be great.

♦ Entries need to be in by 7.00pm (UK time) on Saturday 18th September.

Phew!  I hope that all makes sense.

If you're new to my blog, hello and welcome!  I do bead giveaways both large and small on an almost monthly basis so please add yourself as a follower or subscribe to my blog using the links over on the right hand side - that way you won't miss out on any future free bead opportunities!

Good luck everybody!

Bead Cocktail & Lonelies Poll

I've just been cleaning beads and after their bath they were all sat together in a heap in the sun and they looked so pretty I just had to take a photograph. These all need stringing and photographing in their respective sets but for now the photo will act as a sneak preview of what I'll have for sale tomorrow night. These will be available to buy at 8.00pm (UK time) over on my website on Sunday night.

I know I keep asking you questions lately but I really appreciate your feedback on my bead ideas so I have another poll for you. This time it is in relation to my Lonelies beads. My 'Lonelies' are experiments, one-offs and leftovers from sets. All of the beads are first quality and I know a lot of you like to use them for pendants, charms, bookmarks, phone dangles and the like. Thing is, I never know the best way to sell them so if you have a second would you kindly vote in my little Lonelies Poll over on the right hand side of my blog. Thank you!

Lonelies Prize Draw

I haven't done a prize draw for yonks! While I was washing up yesterday my eyes fell upon my Lonelies Jar and I thought that it was about time all the beads inside it got a new home.

My 'Lonelies' beads are all first quality. They are experiments, one-offs and leftovers from sets. This particular strand is 300mm long (12") and contains 41 beads - 20 patterned and decorated ones and 21 spacers. That's a lot of jewellery-making potential right there!

If you'd like to be in with a chance of winning this strand all you need to do is enter my prize draw. Regular prize draw entrants do read on as I've changed the prize draw rules ever-so-slightly. They are are as follows :

~ The draw is open to anyone anywhere in the world.

~ It's one entry per person BUT if you have a blog and you blog about and link to this prize draw post I will enter your name twice. Bonus!

~ To enter you need to leave a comment on this blog post. If you've blogged about this draw please say that you've done so in your comment and I will do the two name thing.

~ Please leave a name of some kind, be it your actual one, a nickname or your blog username - just something rather than an anonymous comment.

~ Entries need to be in by 7.00pm (UK time) on Friday 4th June.

~ All entries need to be made by commenting as opposed to emailing me. Commenting is really simple and you don't need a Blogger account to do so. Just leave your name in your comment and check back on 4th June to see if you've won!

I hope that all makes sense. Good luck everybody!