Turquoise Delight

 This bracelet and necklace came from my stash yet again. I found the turquoise beads in a chinese warehouse here in Tenerife. The little black beads are small glass beads but the little black beads in the bracelet are black crystals again bought from the chinese warehouse.

I would like to bring this lovely book to your notice by  
Kumiko Mizuno I had the chance to thumb through it and am hoping I get it for my birthday . If I dont it will not be for the want of dropping hints.

Another Beading Disaster

This my big boy so far. I am finding the belly part a bit finneky. If you get what I mean.

I have had another disaster. The Wild Child and the Princess came to see us the other day. The Princess was picking through my very small work table. Then it happened ALL the beads for Teddy Koi landed on the floor. I could have cried, so could the Princess needles to say. She was on her knees picking them all up in an instant. The Wild Child was helping her, they picked every one of them up.
I need to get stuck in and finish him before the third disaster strikes.
I am still so in love with him. My better half said he would like to hang him in the window of the car. Dont worry that will not happen ..

The beading of Teddy Koi

I mentioned a beautiful embroidery called Fish Face . Well this is a distant cousin from Tenerife called Teddy Koi the golden carp. As you can see I have not got very far but I'm so excited about him..
I will keep you updated with my progress.

More Necklaces for Paris

These two were the ones I had to make from scratch.The one on the left is a herring bone lariat. With two spinner beaded beads.
The other one is in a simple lace stitch with a black cord running through it it give it support.

Beading Milk beads in Spiral

This necklace is another spiral, but because it is chips you can hardly see that it is spiral. I call this milk stone but I know some people call it moon stone. I really dont care I think it is quite eye catching. What I should have done is saved enough beads and chips to make matching earings.
Never mind I will know the next time.

Beaded flowers!!

I started getting a hankering to try to make beaded flowers. Now I thought you could only make these lovely little things with wire. These are the kind of flowers I showed off in my last beading post. However doing my usual browsing through the internet I found this example of flowers in bead and thread http://www.blisstree.com/jewelryandbeading/making-beaded-flowers/ I was immediately tempted and here is the first of the finished article. Cyndi's tutorial is very well shown and if I can make this on my first attempt anyone can do it.
I enjoyed doing this and I have found a flower called the passion flower, I wondered to myself if I could try and make it up in this 'bead and thread' method. I will keep you posted how I get on.

I have recently purchased a book called 'The beaded Garden' by Diane Fitzgerald and I am working my way through it. The book is wonderful, full of detailed descriptions and pictures. I have tried the small tulip so far I am in wonderment at the lovely things she makes but it is mostly in the perky peyote.. enough said.

Holiday in Tenerife Thro' Jim's Lens

On the Friday CC and I had a lovely trip to the supermercado ( supermarket) CC was suitably impressed. We also took a little trip aside to a Chinese shop that sells beads. We had a quick look round Iceland , yes I mean the same shop as in Britain. CC was gobsmacked.. Actually the prices are awful but if you want British goods you have to pay the price..

When we got back to Tagoro Park CC and CJ made their way down to the coast road in Costa del Silencio . CJ wanted to take more pictures .

Beading : St. Petersburgh chain

This my attempt at the St. Petersburgh Chain. I found a good clear tutorial in the http://www.beadingdaily.com/ ..
I have tried this stitch before but not with the success that I have had today. It is has very clear instructions It would be very hard to go wrong with them..
This was actually one of the first stitches I ever tried. That one was from this website http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Lofts/8782/beads/beadpatt/pattern07_e.htm
The usual thing happened I ran out of beads before I had the item finished.. It was quite a success, but the instructions were not as clear as the Beading Daily one.
I have also tried a bracelet in S.P. that was hard going too but I got there in the end. This was instructions from the bead and button web site. You had to do 6 rows of SP. and it took me a long time to do it.

Beading to keep the stash down

Here is some of the stuff I have been making from my stash.

Top , started out as a double spiral but I could not get the hang of it. I found it was turning out as an ordinary spiral however it is turning out ok..

Left, is from a pattern I found on the Bead n Button web site. I have done this stitch before and I loved doing it and wanted to try it again. This one was made with the base beads just seed beads. The other on was made in delicas for the base row and the delicas made it more even and stable.

Right, is me trying to do peyote stitch I cant seem to get it quite right I keep showing the threads. I would like to try fancy beaded beads with lots of embellishments.. With this bracelet I am going to make three strands then softly pleat them together. I will keep you updated how it turns out. Hopefully the practice will help me with this stitch.

Beading in Tenerife.

As I have explained to you before sometimes it is hard to find new beads in Tenerife. However a new Chinese warehouse has opened up and I have found a glorious treasure of beads sold by the strand.
Here is the selection I bought the other day.
I was so stunned with the variety and colors I just stood and looked and gasped. It was like christmas had come in July. However I am not satisfied because what I really need is seed beads size 11 or 8 mind you I could use some size 15 too.
So you see what I mean I am never satisfied.

Holidays over back to my beading.

Well here I am back again after a hectic month away on my travels. The holiday was smashing and seeing my friends and relatives was at times quite emotional.

This picture is the first of a set of three bracelets I attempted to do while sitting in the evening with my cousin. I am sure you will understand when I tell you the concentration was just not there we had so much to talk about.

I love the herringbone stitch and I really thought I could do it without thinking too much..WRONG I made so many mistakes that I have just brought them all home with me to finish off and i will post them off when they are ready.

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.

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..

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 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.

Some different beading.

I was caught in a dull patch where I had no inspiration. I looked through my stash and found some lovely shiny beads and co-coordinating seed beads. Thought it through and I was away. Here is what I came up with.

Morning out in Los Cristianos to find more beads

Had a lovely morning out.. Now can you possibly guess just what caught my eye? Yes you got it in one BEADS, BEADS, BEADS.
We invaded four chinese todo shops ( these are like 99 pence shops back in U.K.) and I found some beads and a great little box to store part of my stash.. The little box has 16 drawers I think it would be used for screws and things like that.
After spending the morning walking all over LC we made a detour to a garden center on the way home where V got three orchid plants. I never knew there was such a perfume off them.