Before I show you a few bits and pieces I’ve made over the past week, I’d just like to wish everyone a very happy Yule/Christmas!

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Here’s what I’ve been up to bead-wise. This is another of my Fairground Attraction pendants, inspired by the phrase ‘Eye of the Storm’. I love watching those ‘freaky weather’ programs on TV and I remember someone once saying that they looked up once the first wave of the storm had passed and saw a circle of blue sky. Now I don’t know if this is true or not but I thought it would make a great pendant!

These type of earrings are very fashionable at the moment so I thought I’d make my own version using beaded beads. I love this first pair a lot, they’re made using Toho metallic silver seed beads and silver plated findings. These are for sale in my Etsy shop along with a tutorial to make your own beaded beads just like these.

And for these I’ve used my favourite shade of seed beads, metallic abalone iris. These are gorgeous and have a multi-coloured effect without being too gaudy. I used mostly matt beads and then did a couple of rows in the middle with shiny beads in the same colour. You can just about make out the little bit of shiny in the photo!  And I think the antique-gold plated chain goes nicely with these beads : ) These should be in my Etsy shop very soon.

Quite a few people have asked me how can you tell the difference between the types of seed beads – Japanese, Czech and Indian – so I’ve decided to make up a sampler and post it here for reference. Sorry the photo’s not too great, the light’s very poor here at the moment!

Although I make my own jewellery and very rarely buy any, it doesn’t mean that I don’t drool over massed produced jewellery! In fact I very often get inspiration from what I see in the shops and online. While I never copy anything directly, I can be inspired by shapes and colours. For instance, I fell in love with this gorgeous ring from New Look…

…it instantly reminded me of my Fairground Attraction pendants and I thought the gunmetal and pink would be a great colour combination to try! So here’s Pink Revolver, available on my website and in my Etsy shop : )

It’s my birthday today and to celebrate I’m giving away not one but two blog candy prizes! For my fellow beaders I have a set of five 14mm beaded beads in gorgeous shades of blues and white, which I lovingly handmade myself…

And for non-beaders there’s a fab mini book thong in shades of zesty orange and turquoise…

All you have to do to win one of these prizes is to leave me a comment (link’s at the top of the post) and let me know if you would prefer ‘Beads’ or ‘Book Thong’ if you are one of the lucky winners. I’ll draw the winner next Saturday evening (12th) and the candy’s open to everyone, wherever you are in the world : )

Here’s a little something I made for myself. Although I don’t think ‘little’ is the right word to describe it, this is quite a chunky piece! The original project was designed by Cindy Cohn and can be found in Jewelry Designs with Art Glass Beads, a one-off magazine from the makers of Bead & Button.

For my version I’ve replaced the art glass bead with a lava bead lentil and used my favourite black & grey colour scheme for the Cellini spiral. I finished it off with lengths of faux suede thonging and black chain. I tried to inject lots of different textures and bead finishes into this piece and I’m really happy with how it turned out. I’m going to enjoy wearing this : )

…on this grey wet weekend. These book thongs were for a commission and I had so much fun making them, it was great to just lay out loads of bright funky colours and go wild! Don’t forget, you can make your own beads just like these using my tutorial ; )

Last week I posted some photos of my Vintage Lace choker and I’m pleased to say that I’ve just finished the tutorial! You can find it on my website’s Beads & Tutorials page.

Here’s a little something that I made yesterday. I wanted to make a choker that had a kind of lacy ribbon feel so I used a combination of size 11 and size 8 cream seed beads in what I guess is a kind of right angle weave (I made the stitch up as I went but it’s so simple and I’m sure it’s been done 1000 times before!).

I designed the rosette using peyote stitch for the centre and then added petals in a beautiful turquoise, then anchored it to the choker by a glass pearl. Finally I made a fringe using the same seed beads and pearls. The fringe hangs straight and not wavy as in the photo!

I’m very happy with how this turned out, and it’ll be available in my Etsy shop very soon. I’m thinking of making a free tutorial for this design so watch this space : )

I made these earrings for one of the reader’s challenges in Bead magazine, where the theme is Outrageous Earrings. The name of the theme made me think of the collection of unusual earrings I had in the early 80’s, including minature globes, tiny Rubiks cubes and even plastic toilets! I remember wearing a pair of big white plastic triangles to school one day but the teacher quickly confiscated them : (

So as a tribute to my rebellious old earrings I decided to make something similar with seed beads. This is my first time peyote-ing triangle shapes and after several attempts I found that the trangle was still too small so I stitched together the three sizes I had made. Not quite the same as the original earrings but I love ‘em all the same. I hope you do too!

I’ve finally got the tutorial for my Black Eyed Susan pendant finished! I’ve been working on it for a while now but in the end I wasn’t happy with the step-by-step photos I’d taken, so I decided to redo them all. This project is a mixture of bead embroidery and beadweaving, using seed beads and a cabochon or button. All simple techniques and suitable for beginners and advanced beaders alike. As you can see from the photo, you’re not limited to making Black Eyed Susan’s either, with a change of colour you can make any of the flowers in the daisy-like family. You can find the tutorial in my Etsy shop and in the Beads & Tutorials section on my website : )