My Vacaciones

I will be away for about a month. I will be visiting my son and his family, in Sompting near Worthing, for a fortnight then moving on to Swindon to visit my cousin and her family. I am taking all the makings with me I could not live that long without my beading. I took more care packing my bead stuff than I did for my personal packing. LOL
There is lots of bits and bobs in my beading box. Everyone will get to dig through and select what they fancy.
If I get the chance I will post while I am away who knows.

Rod Stewart is coming to Tenerife

What wonderful news I have to tell you ! Rod Stewart is coming to Tenerife.. His Concert is on 16th May. I have been an avid fan forever.. There is NOTHING like him on this earth or even this side of heaven.. Should you be interested at all there is a link with all the information about his concert.

Wild child sleeps over again

As his sister was going on a sleep-over with her wee pal nothing would do but 'The Wild Child' stay over at my house. He is actually a smashing little boy. 'He is just going through a faze'. This is what I keep saying when he comes home with a sad face painted on the back of his hand. I am just like any fond grandmother. Frankly I cant see this bad boy at all.

Here he is on his fifth birthday in January.

Well last night was really funny he blethered all night. He talks all day when awake and talks all night while he is asleep. LOL

Simple Spiral Necklace

This is one of the simple spiral stitch necklaces . Now this is a case in point about the beads . If you look closely you will see the necklace morphs from deep turquoise to pale greeny turquoise. I ran out of beads so had to buy another box of seed beads in the same colours.However I love the colours in this one and all the trouble has been worth it..

Trying to improve my Beading

I have not been on the blog for a while, well at least a week, I have been getting on with three necklaces and could not think just how I wanted the finish of them to be.

One of the necklaces was one I had already finished and I did not like the result. It was in red and gold seed beads. I stitched it in Spiral Netting. It was very nice but the finishing off of it just was not the look I wanted. Anyway I took the ends away and just added a bit more length to each end and now I have a lovely plain lariat. ( How do I define a Lariat? )

Buying beads here in Tenerife

I think I have told you of how I get my beads. Here in Tenerife , especially in the south where I am, there is not a lot of variaty. But I have found some Chinese warehouse kind of places and I can buy seed beads in some lovely colours. I have to be careful that I buy enough of the colour I require. I find myself buying two or three boxes for as you can see the amounts are quite small. The boxes are inexpencive so good value. I dont need the crystal or any expensive beads. I make only for my own enjoyment and I can see the effect with my little chinese beads just as well as I would making in crystal beads.

Beading and the WEAVER'S KNOT

On the 27th Feb. I posted about the Weaver's knot I have now found the magazine in question.
The magazine is The Beadworkers Guild Journal number 21 dated June 2004.
The article titled Weaver's Knot by Jean Power.

Jean says ..

"This knot works best if you use the end of the thread coming off the spool. So I always attach the thread before cutting it off the spool to stop me forgetting which end is which.

Tie a slipknot in the end of the new thread and pull it until there is a small 'noose' to put your old thread end through.

Insert the end of the old thread and place the noose where you want knot to be. Pull the
ends of the new thread till they tighten around the old thread and make an audible 'click'. Sometimes you may get a smaller 'click' but check it's secure by pulling the old and new threads apart. If they slip at all re-tighten the new thread around the old thread until a louder click is produced.

When the knot is tightened properly it wont slip at all and you can start weaving the ends in.

Once you have used this knot a few times you will come to know its capabilities and limitations. You may find that when beading stitches such as spiral rope you have to plan where to put your knot so it does not block any bead holes. But the more you use the knot the better you'll become at using it."

I must tell you I have had nothing but success using this knot.
So sorry it has taken me so long to find and post this very useful article.

Beading is such FUN

Here is more earrings for you to look at. These also are from my favourite web site ( there are sooo many Tutorials) I love these earrings the only thing is they are a bit too sophisticated. However I have a friend who loves them.
These are blue crackle beads and I added some seed beads.

Spanish earrings

These wee beauties are from the Spanish site. So simple yet so effective. I used some acrylic bicones I had in my stash. Ok I know that they are not exactly the same but must agree you can see where I got the idea from..

Beaded Earrings

Well I am trying my hand at earrings now I suppose this is an extension of the wire-work. I made these out of an idea I got after seeing some chandelier earrings. I used some seed beads and some glass pearls.

Beading the Russian way

I made this bracelet for a friend. It is made with bugles and seed beadsThe inspiration for it came from one of the Spanish sites. the stitch is called The Russian Spiral. Click through and see it in the tutorial. A lot of you will have tried this stitch but until I tried with this tutorial it seemed beyond me..

From Beading to Wire-work

Here is my first serious attempt at wire-work. I feel quite good about it. The wire is just galvanised wire from the hardware store. Here in Tenerife it is very difficult to get the proper tools.

Now look at the two photos and see the difference a flash makes ..
My enthusiasm for wire-work comes from finding a special web site This lady is a born teacher.

Beading from Spain

This bracelet was from a spanish site I came across a while back when I first started on my beading journey. I was quite intimidated with all that Spanish. However as I got more confident I felt I could look at the site again. Since then I have made quite a lot of pieces from this site. Their whole site is one tutorial after another. I hope you get as much pleasure out of this site as I do.

Beading with a difference

I made this bracelet from a tutorial that I found in Bead and button web site. This is a very elegant bracelet. The colours for this I found in a book I have called 'The Beader's Colour Mixing Directory'. This book is fantastic for giving examples of colour combination I for one would not have thought of. I hope you agree it all works well.

Beading the Ring

Here as promised is the easy rings.
I love making them. I started making them quite a while ago for the kids but soon adults were asking for them. They are so popular.
When reading my friend Valen's blog the other day I got a memory nudge and I told her about the rings . She has embedded into her site a video from 'You Tube' go there and have a go.

How and where do you keep your handmade jewelry

My friend Valen said on her blog

'How and where do you keep your handmade jewelry?'

Well Valen I have to confess to shoving it in a drawer.. Sorry. Now you have brought it to my attention I will do better.. I promise..
My principle is not to sell my pieces but to give them away as gifts.. I am making more than I can give away. he he
I need to find a way to keep it all tidy.. My earings are not too bad as they are all on a plastic stand and hang there quite happily ( at least I have not heard any complaints yet..) BUT the bracelets and necklaces are a disgrace I have to admit. Well confession time over need to get back to my beading to make more .. and more.. and more

Another Spanish beading website

Here is another website for you to look at. Oh ! I know it is in Spanish but any beader worth her or his salt should be able to make head or tail of their tutorials

A Spanish beading site

In my wanderings through the internet I found this smashing Spanish website. I just know you will agree with me. They are so generous with their tutorials. The ideas just flow.