Bead supplier

just a plug for Empire Beads .. online but based in Abingdon and I believe that if you make an appointment you can real-life shop!

Fab shop for czech glass and seed beads - the more you buy the bigger the discount .. and at the moment seed beads are on offer!

check them out:

http://www.empirebeads.co.uk/home.php

I'll never fall in love again!

Did you ever make something to sell that you are so utterly smitten with?

My Olive fell into this category - The muse sat on my shoulder as I looked at the tubes of beads in the bead shop .. I loved these beads before I even started her, they seeded the idea (so to speak) and as she developed I was just so chuffed with her .. she was just so right.

The embellishment beads were perfect too, and I even gave her a couple of tiny red glass hearts , so enamoured was I.

As Olive was destined for Etsy, I took loads of photographs, trying to get the best out of her, trying to coax her to reveal her hidden depths and was rewarded with a few smiles, flashes of jewel like sparkle.

She was a natural beauty and very photogenic; I cropped and scaled the images to show her at her best, and I listed her on Etsy with flowing rhetoric - reassuring myself every day that she was indeed so gorgeous and so deserving of my adoration.

If ever I doubted it, I only had to take her out of the box in which she safely nestled and run her through my fingers or indeed shake her a little in order to wake up all the floral amazements about her person.

Many people viewed her, some even loved her .. but not as much as I did.

Yesterday I betrayed her .. she is sold .. to a lovely lady in USA (a lady of some taste I might add since she bought 6 of my bracelets)

And now I am bereft! I am wretched! Olive is no more .. she is but a memory and I vow that I'll never fall in love with one of my creations again ... until the next time!

** Sighs **

** Thinks **

I'm sure that I didn't use ALL the beads .... now, where did I put the rest? ...

Custom or customer?

I have had a pretty amazing week as far as beads and etsy is concerned.

I have sold 4 pieces this week - one of which was a custom piece for a lovely lady to wear to a wedding.

What do you think about commissions? I like them because it gives me a chance to work with colours and beads that I would not necessarily put together - and the more specific the customer is, the better really - after all .. the customer is always right!

On the other hand, you do worry that you have got things wrong! Last Saturday I made 3 necklaces and matching earrings for someone and I worried all week about them - until I got a note through the post thanking me for getting them just right!

I played around with my olive and green treasury this week, and one of the featured artists was Sand Fibers aka Carol Dean Sharpe. She writes an interesting blog and is a truly skilled, gifted and generous person .. she referred to her Treasury mention and featured me on her blog this week - and picked out my Miss Heliotrope oglala bracelet cuff. Thank you Carol Dean.

If you want to learn more about Sand Fibers, you can do so here:
http://sandfibers.blogspot.com

In the UK not many people have heard of Etsy, and I am sure that having the prices in US$ scares some visitors away. Having said that, there are quite a considerable number of UK artists with Etsy shops, judging by the forums I have read. this week I think there are a dozen or so in Buckinghamshire alone!

I have struggled all week trying to create a new banner for my etsy shop

http://etsy.com/ shop/PrettyThingsFromWing

and am still not sure I got it right, but I found a really helpful site www.everythingetsy.com and am more pleased than I was before.

Olive and Grape

Nature's perfect colour combination, don't you think?

If ever I wonder whether certain colours will sit happily together - I just look to nature for confirmation .. you can't go wrong really.

Am going to bead tonight - I have a commission to complete and send to the States for a wedding on 29 July - and have had to order some of the beads! Am starting the nail biting later ..

When I can't do any more to Belladonna until the new jet drops arrive, I have in mind something autumnal. Just fancy some vibrant reds, oranges, yellows and green. Not fed up with summer though, oh no! And despite the rain today - summer isn't over - I can hear swallows - loads of them.

Also need to list 4 new items on Etsy - how do you go about cloning yourself? By the time I have taken the photographs, resized & manipulated the photos to enhance, written the words, completed the listing, uploaded, spread the word - well that's an hour gone. I've got 4 to do .. mmm .. beading or etsying, beading or etsying? Such a dilemma!

Treasury

My hands smell of fresh mint .. I have been loading the jug full of the botanicals before I pour in the Pimms .. mmm!

We have had rotten summers in England since 2006, so this warm, still weather is such a treat. Hang on though, Sara, this is England we are talking about! There will be horrible humidity followed by a thunderstorm before too long, you mark my words! Bah humbug! Until then .. I for one will enjoy!

Sitting in the garden, under the gazebo .. bliss! I have snuck out my laptop and done the Treasury Tracks thing ... Mindful Beader, thank you again! I love looking at Treasuries, don't you? And, this might be silly, but the fact that someone would pick something of mine makes me feel very special - there are so many fabulous items to choose from.

The barbecue is lit - we brought a traditional Cypriot one back with us and it's so good. especially for souvlaki and souvla (which the butchers over her have a problem with "You want me to do what to this leg of lamb?")!

One of my brothers had a significant birthday recently and is having a big party next week - tonight another brother, Guy, is coming over to us and we are going to go through all the old family photos to decide what to include in a special album for Greg. I know that after a few glasses of Pimms we will probably find some really inappropriate ones .. that's the plan, anyway!

We strung tiny lights onto the roof struts of the gazebo and have hung lanterns at suitable intervals ... looking forward to it going dark .. ambience they call it! The citronella in those tea lights had better work or I will be moaning about mozzie bites in my next blog!

They never bite Rich - but ALWAYS bite me. Lucy and J are sitting out here with us, maybe they'll get to them first. Thinking about it, if I am bitten, I'll be moaning tonight. Don't you hate it when you go bed, turn off the lights and then hear the zzzz, zzz, ZZZZZZZZZZZZz as they look for fresh meat? Your arms are flailing in the vain hope of hitting one of them - I say vain hope because I usually find the huge red lump in the morning when I wake up .. (not referring to my long suffering significant other here!)

just before I go to bed ..

I was recently asked by 2 special people to make a couple of pieces for them.

The first 2 are for are for Lou - to be birthday "surprises" from her children!

The next 2 for my sister in law who loves turquoise and pink (I'm sure she is a "spring" person.

Some day presumably I'll get the hang of putting photos into my blog but, for now, this will have to do!

Night night

Sara x

In the beginning

I've always wanted to .. always thought I might .. and now I have! I'm officially a Blogger. (blogger! what a label .. makes me sound like a sheep drover!)

My name is Sara, I live in England, in a small village in Buckinghamshire, in a very small house.

I share my house with Richard, my long suffering husband and best friend, our younger daughter, Lucy and our son, Jordan .. both of whom are looking forward to moving out .. sometime!

I am a beader .. or rather I aspire to being a beader! I design and make beaded jewellery from my space at home .. it's all designed by me and hand made by me. I love it! I wish there were more hours in the day to satisfy my need to bead, but I have a day job too.

I have always been creative .. I started by sewing - making my own clothes when I was 12, at 19 made my wedding dress and the bridesmaids dresses (2 of them, anyway) and so it continued (sew it continued!) until I was making clothes for my daughters when they were little as well as all the soft furnishings for our (then much bigger) home. The cross stitch bug bit when Jordan was a baby .. I needed something to do that I could pick up and put down as and when I managed to sneak 5 minutes peace .. and soon I was stitching samplers and more. I ran out of people to make for, began to take commissions and decided that maybe a craft stall was the answer. I went into it with a friend with a similar family pattern to my own and we hawked our wares over Kent and Buckinghamshire until, sadly, we couldn't find the time anymore.

THEN .. Sophie's aunt (Sophie is my eldest daughter) gave her a Janet Coles book, a few beads and findings and a couple of tools for her birthday. I have always loved jewellery (what woman doesn't?) and accessorizing and I think I must have had a go one day when she was at school. The next day, I was ordering beads and bits from the catalogue, bought my own tools and went into earrings in a BIG way. I would give them away to friends and family but still had enough to have a stall at the school fete .. and I still get a thrill when I see people wearing something I made!

A few years of living in Cyprus and I didn't do much beading (although there was, and probably still is, the most wonderful bead shop in old Limassol) because I was too busy sewing!

We came back to England in 2005 and I have been beading ever since. Dangly beady charm bracelets were my thing .. in any colour combination you liked. As I was amassing my stash (as we beaders call the huge amount of beads we secrete in special places) I began to learn something about the different types of beads, the shapes, who made the best beads, who sold the best beads etc.

I joined facebook initially to chat to my children - and then realised that Groups existed to support beaders and crafters! I joined some, friended and was befriended by members of the groups, and had my eyes opened to the endless possibilities and the truly wonderful creations by the incredibly talented and self-effacing bead artists out there, who are happy and generous to share their skills and knowledge, and kind enough to nurture and encourage those, like me, who (as I said) aspire!

Although I still love my chunky quirky pieces, I find myself drawn to tiny beads. But .. I do like to make bold pieces so I am into stitching fringe bracelets and then embellishing with dangles, loops and sticks

And I have moved into the world of Etsy - please check out my shop .. http://www.etsy.com/shop/PrettyThingsFromWing

and add me as a favourite!