UK Beaders

Heart Link Tutorial

2012-02-02T17:30:00.016Z

Ahh, love is in the air, and the month of all things red and romantic is upon us. I've put together a quick but useful tutorial on how to add a bit more heart to your jewellery.

**Caution** A quick word of warning, if you have a pair of goggles around, put them on! Love isn't the only thing in the air - there are bits of flying metal, too ;).

What you'll need:

Wire - any gauge. I used 0.8mm for these.
Round nosed pliers
Wire cutters
Optional: A file or bead reamer to smooth the ends of you wire

Step 1:
Cut as many lengths of wire as you require. The length is up to you, but the ones shown here are about 2cm.

Step 2:
If your wires have rough ends, now is the time to file them.
Take a length of cut wire, and bend it in the middle with your round nosed pliers into a V shape.

Step 3:
Take your V shape and with your pliers curl one end (like you would for a loop). Bend the wire until you've made a half circle (roughly!).

Step 4:
Repeat step three on the other end of your V, and you have a heart! You may need to tinker a bit with the shape to get it just right.

An added effect...
You can leave your links as in Step 4, or for an extra touch, you can hammer your links for texture. Sometimes hammering can be a bit tricky on silver plated wire, so I like to gently "smoosh" the wire with a flat area of my pliers for the hammered look.

Now your links are finished and ready to be made into chains, links, and charms. The possibilities are endless!

Polymer Penny Pinching

2010-08-12T10:20:00.003Z

On a recent poll on our forum, I asked the community about tools of the trade - specifically price and polymer clay. 88% of us said that we're open minded about what tools we use in our clay crafts. Or, as one member said, we can see potential in anything.

As a polymer clayer, I whole heartily agree with her. Tools come in all shapes and sizes - from leaves and rocks to olive jars. Often enough, there's no need to part with money to achieve a beautiful clay piece.

Stamps
Molds and stamps are particularly expensive, and while they are sometimes irreplaceable, there are a number of every day objects and found items that can be used instead. The clay and crystal leaves below were stamped with leaves from the garden.

Using natural objects as molds or presses in your clay work can lend an organic feel to your pieces. The leaves above have subtle and soft details - something I might not have achieved with a manufactured stamp.

Below is another example of how clay artists can use readily available objects for texture and impressions. This pendant, made of black Fimo, was shaped and stamped with a natural stone. The porous surface of the stone created a beautiful and unique texture. The curvy impression was made with wire.

Other Tools
There's more to working with clay than the finishing touches. One of the most time consuming and exhausting parts of polymer clay is conditioning. For years I thought a pasta machine was vital to condition clay, and the price of one was off putting. Now, these and other tools have dropped in price and are not a huge investment for hobbyists.

There are still alternatives to things like pasta machines, like old fashioned elbow grease. Personally, I use a long glass jar, but you can easily use a sturdy roll of cling film. If you're a die-hard DIY fan, then you might consider buying your own acrylic tubing and having rolling pins in a variety of sizes.

Not Always about £
Unconventional tools allow for flexibility, subtlety, and can create beautiful clay art. They also allow you to practice before making larger investments into the hobby. Once you've found your niche in clay, you can always opt to pay for tools that make your work easier or faster. No matter how advanced we might become in the use of polymer clay, I think there will always be a place for the creativity and beauty that using natural and basic tools gives us.

Sterling Silver - just a few little tips for checking it's real

2010-05-19T01:26:00.001Z

I'm sure many of you have probably found yourself in the same situation as me, but for those out there who are yet to experience the exasperation of sterling silver - that turns out not to actually be sterling silver I'd like to share a few little tips. Whether you are given something by a family member or friend, or buy from a seller you are not 100% sure of it's always worth making a few quick and easy checks especially if you are planning on selling your items on.

1. Not all items described or even stamped as Sterling silver 925 are silver, and sometimes items will contain parts that are silver and parts that aren't! Sometimes this is a deliberate ploy to part you from more money, sometimes just a genuine mistake, but always annoying. I once found that only the tag on a necklace which I had always believed was sterling actually was - all the other parts were very magnetic!

2. Check the items as soon as possible - I just checked some items that I've had in my stash for over 5 years only to find out they weren't SS and I had paid around £8 for something that was worth no more than a couple of pounds at best. If back then I had carried out a simple test I would have been able to ask for a refund. Now I'll just have to put them to a different use.

3. Get out a strong magnet - sterling silver is not magnetic - if your items leap to the magnet like mine did they aren't SS. Not all base metals are magnetic, so while the magnet test will tell you items they definitely aren't SS, you may still want to check further if you are still suspicious.

3b. Be careful if you try to use a magnet to check clasps! The springs in lobster and bolt ring clasps can't be made from sterling silver as it is a soft metal, and a strong magnet will often attract sterling silver clasps. When carefully trying it against the loop parts of these claps I have seen that they aren't magnetic, but on such small findings, it's not a good testing method!

4. Still not sure, not got a magnet handy? Take the sniff test! Wash your hands with a mild soap, so they are nice and clean and dry them thoroughly. Hold the silver items between your palms till your hands have thoroughly warmed the metal up, then sniff your palms. If they smell distinctly like copper coins it is very likely that your items are actually silver plated on a copper base.

5. Silver testing kits. If you are buying a larger item, or likely to be buying a lot of SS you may want to consider investing in a silver testing kit, however people have differing success reading the results and you have to be careful not to damage the items you are testing. Some jewellers may also offer this service, but generally for jewellery findings and beads this isn't a very practical solution.

I'm sure there are there are other good tips out there to help in identifying items that aren't actually sterling silver (that don't involve damaging the item to check), so if you have a tip to share, please do post a comment to let us all know.

Happy beading

Spring cleaning your creativity

2010-05-08T23:42:00.005Z

This spring several things have prompted me to consider the fact that I've been feeling somewhat underwhelmed and disenchanted when it comes to beading. That's not to say that I've lost my love of beads and beading, but I realised that there are things that I have been allowing to hold me back and drain my creativity.

I've come to realise that there is a point where in place of the enjoyment of making or collecting things you love you feel bogged down by an over sized collection of items you've hoarded.

It feels hard to let go of the past but there are beads, techniques and styles I'm no longer interested in. Pieces that I can now see no longer live up to the quality I expect to achieve in my work. Looking at my bead collection it sometimes felt like I "couldn't see the wood for the trees" and was drowning in a sea of beads.

Taking the time to completely go through my bead stash and remove the items I know I won't miss at all (and some that I'll only miss a little) has been truly liberating. Reorganizing all those half finished (or only just started) projects into a system where they can be seen, and not forgotten, invites me to work on them.

But I'm now facing the same trial with my jewellery. I fear this is going to be a lot harder. Knowing that I must dismantle, sell cheaply or give away those pieces that are not my best, feels like erasing history. Though I will have photos and memories to keep it is still hard to recognise and accept that my beading has moved on and so must I. Continuing to keep or offer for sale items that don't show me at my best is guaranteed to destroy both my creativity and sense of worth.

The past should be a platform to launch ourselves from not an anchor to keep us in place and stop us from exploring new directions.

I know that I am the only one holding myself back and that to free my own creativity I need to allow myself a fresh start.

So here's to spring cleaning your creativity! I hope that you to will take a moment to ponder on the wonders of springtime, and let your creativity grow like a flower in the sun.

British Bead Awards 2010

2010-05-08T17:14:00.007Z

Are you entering the British Bead Awards this year? Last year's competition was the first of it's kind and a great step forward in recognizing the amazing talent that we have here in the UK! Three members of the UK Beaders forum took home awards; Kerrie Slade came joint 2nd in the Seed Bead category with her beautiful Maid Marian's Quiver, Julie Fountain came 1st in the Other Finished Beadwork category with her Dazzle Silver Core Pendant, while Lynn Davy won an impressive three times including 1st place in the Crystals catergory with Fading Beauty.

There's still time to enter your masterpiece into the British Bead Awards 2010, the deadline is Friday July 2nd and you can download the entry form here as well as view the competition rules and a complete list of last year's winners. And for everyone that's entering, best of luck!

A new beginning and purpose for the UK Beaders Blog!

2010-05-06T21:29:00.001Z

Hello everyone.

As you can see it's been rather a long time since I lasted posted to this blog! Indeed our forum is now celebrating it's 4th anniversary and we are expecting our 2,500th member to join up any day now - will it be you?

With so much going on in the UK Beaders community these days, and so many wonderful blogs that our members (and other great creative people) are writing, I realised it was time that we revived our long abandoned blog and brought it back to life as as the UK Beaders community blog. A place where our community members can post together to bring you a wide range or posts on all sorts of things about and of interest to us beaders and jewellery makers.

So if you are a member of our forum you may have already seen that we are inviting any interested members to join in writing this blog, and share their beady thought with us here too.

It’s been a great week

2006-07-24T21:41:00.003Z

Well some great new, this week our forum registered it’s 100th member!!! Considering the forum has been online for less than 7 weeks this is wonderful news and just backs up what we already knew: beading in the UK is growing in popularity and beaders are looking for recognition, and a place to network and chat with their fellow beaders.

I’ve given a bit of an update to the UK Beaders main site by reorganising the UK supplier’s pages. With well over 200 suppliers in the UK listed it is now easier to browse through smaller pages.

Entries for our first group challenges are trickling in and I have created a page on the main site to showcase the winning members work.

Hope you are enjoying the very un-British weather and remembering to use lots of sun tan lotion.

Busy, busy, busy!

2006-06-30T02:04:00.000Z

Phew, I just finished adding 17 wonderful website to UK Beaders and have updated the shops map with 5 more stores for you to visit!

Earlier today (OK as it's now the small hours it was technically yesterday) I posted details of our first group challenges, with a couple of wonderful UK themes.

The first was inspired by the queens 80th birthday celebration - The children's party in the palace. I watched the whole thing on TV and thought it was great fun. This theme allows lots of scope with many different creative avenues to be explored.

The other challenge is a bit more specific and involves using the colour red. Why red? Because of all the amazing British icons that are red including Routemaster buses, telephone boxes and royal mail post boxes!

Site updated - problem fixed!

2006-06-24T01:13:00.000Z

Just a quick update to let you all know that I recently upgraded the site so now you will notice there are no adverts spoiling the site and getting in the way.

When you click on a link to any of the sites listed the site's address will show up in your address bar so you no longer have any problems in book marking any great sites you come across when using the UK Beaders site.

What Are We Doing? no. 4

2006-06-23T12:28:00.000Z

Hiho, Silver!

I confess: I've strayed from the fold. But only slightly. I have paused in my contemplation of Things With Holes In Them, and started looking at shiny things that really are shiny.

It started because I wanted sterling silver ball-end headpins. I looked around, and finally settled on some that proved to be too thin and floppy for what I wanted them for. But I'd bought the big bag with 100 of them in it, so I had leftovers. I'd never bothered with sterling silver headpins before, so it amazed me how quickly I used them up. It was like they were made of chocolate instead of metal! I hadn't touched a headpin in years, but now I kept thinking of more and more things to do with them, and suddenly they were nearly gone.

When I'd been out shopping for them in the first place, someone showed me how easy it was to make my own. I could get all the supplies for under £50, including a torch! I'd had no idea I could get by so cheaply. But the process of cleaning the pins seemed very tedious, and I opted to wait. Now that I needed more, though, I kept coming back to the idea of making my own.

What finally tipped the scales was finding out that fine silver doesn't require cleaning - you melt the end, dip it in water, and you're done! The easy way to clean the sterling silver ones, of course, is with a tumbler... which I don't yet have. So considering the amount of time I could spend scrubbing my little friends, I thought the tiny extra price of the fine silver was worth it.

I made two batches: one in .7mm, one in .4mm. The .4 ones are so fine that they're very nearly useless, but not quite. 3mm stones and smaller will work on them - although I think I'm going to find pearls scare me least, on those. The larger ones are very nearly just too pretty to hide inside a bead!

But this has raised a dilemma for me - melting metal was fun. I liked the idea that I could control the shape, and then it would be permanent. I can't help hoping this is something I can keep doing and expand on.

What Are We Doing? no. 3

2006-06-19T21:15:00.000Z

What Are We Doing? #3

I'm posting later than I expected. Sorry about that! But I promised to talk about some of my plans for the bead group I started in London, and while life has been overtaking my beading a lot, I think having some concrete goals keeps me from straying too far.

Most beaders would agree that they all have a secret goal of making a living by selling what they make. It's hard to know where to start, though, or how, or if you should, or who to ask, or... see? Once you start looking for questions, it's easy to get lost in them.

I thought that we could start simply. A logical first step seems to me to be to test the water and see what kind of reaction our work gets. I would like us to adopt a charity, and try to raise some funds for them by auctioning some of our work. I had originally thought this would be something we'd do some evening and make an event of it, but one of the group members suggested that having the auction online could give us a broader audience and possibly attract bigger bids. The charity I had in mind is Macmillan Cancer Support. Having relatives who need care, and knowing many people who have had cancer or had loved ones who did, I'm particularly in awe of the work of this group. If it went well, I'd love to make it an annual event, and properly adopt them as Our Charity.

The nice thing about a charity auction is that it would give us a chance to see what sorts of things people liked, what they bid on, what styles got interest, and all that kind of thing while freeing our brains from the mind games we play when selling for ourselves. "Well, those beads cost me £35, so I need that plus the time it took to string, and I had to buy crimping pliers..." "Ooo, if my necklace makes at least £200, I can afford to get away this weekend instead of staying home and watching paint dry..." and all that. Once you donate something to an auction, you're free to cheer it on with less personal pressure, and pay more attention without an attack of stage fright as your creative offspring goes under the hammer. Plus the money goes to a great cause, which never hurts!

The next thing I wanted to try after that was getting together to fill a table at one of the markets. There wouldn't be the pressure of having to generate a table-ful of stock all by ourselves, and display it, and cart it all by ourselves, and we wouldn't all have to be there all day. We could do it in shifts, and some people might not have to come at all. Again, we could learn what items brought people closer to the table to look, which actually sold, what prices people seemed to like, and maybe even see which markets fit our styles best.

After that, try a regular stall for a while, and if that went well, a shop! And of course there's the question of keeping track of the money through all of this. I would love to pool our resources, maybe having a fraction of each sale go into a group fund, and use the money to purchase tools for the group - things we might not buy on our own, like kilns, tumblers, torches, and so forth. And of course communal tools would need a home, so renting a studio somewhere would be logical - somewhere to keep the tools and focus on beading, and at that point of course we could have our meet-ups there!

These may seem madly ambitious, these ideas. But there's no point in having small dreams! If we never try, we certainly won't achieve anything. We might as well aim high, and just see how far we get!

What Are We Doing? no. 2

2006-06-01T15:29:00.000Z

Last time at the bead group, I intended to start the Box of Uglies. It's hardly an original concept: go through my stash, take the beads I don't like, put 'em in a box and bring them to the group for other people to add their own rejects to and pull out any they want to use.

I'd started a collection of rejects a few months back when I had a big clean-up. The night before the group, though, I couldn't find them. I'd promised in quite a few places that I was going to have uglies, so I had to find something. I went through all of my drawers and boxes and bags and hauled out anything I thought I could bear to part with. I added a few more the next day, but it was a pitiful collection. A few ugly lampwork things from India - the kind you look at and know have never heard the word "anneal" in their little lives - a few chips of howlite dyed to look like lapis, some white glass rounds coated with an AB finish that will last three minutes after the pack is opened. That kind of thing.

And the truth is, they're not that ugly. They're just not durable. The dye will come off - it's not meant to be so thick it has an AB finish all its own. The India ones will crack, probably while the bead release is being cleaned from the holes. The white glass rounds will lose their AB finish in chips and flakes, and then look like little plastic balls from some cheap edging or braid. But while they're in the pack, they look, well, not ugly.

I've been racking my brain trying to come up with some excuse for why I bought these things, but there it is, really - they looked good at the time. I was just starting my stash, and was buying nearly anything. Even things like plastic beads that looked like metal, molded into huge southwest-style things that would go with bolo ties. And I really, really hate bolo ties. But I thought at the time that I needed a sizable collection of all one kind of bead to try some designs with. Practice beads, for experimentation purposes. True enough; but they were so ugly I could never bear to open the bag.

Now I've reached the stage where I know that bead release in the hole is not a good sign, dyes rub off, crystal will cut thread or, if not, it isn't very good crystal, and big-eye twisted needles aren't that much use for the things I do. But occasionally I find a blind spot yet. I sent some bracelets to some serious beaders as part of a gift exchange, and at my request one of them suggested areas where I could improve. Mostly this meant upgrading my materials. For example, I have some seed beads that are very irregular. I've always seen this as a good point, because it meant they were easier to fit around odd shapes like chips or other sizes of beads when doing freeform peyote. My complaint about them has always been their colours - they're regular, boring ol' opaque jobs, just a shiny finish. Not satin, not AB, not greasy, or anything else; nothing to hide the not-very-nice shade of green. I also have them in yellow (a particularly nasty, sickly, faintly greenish shade), red, and black. The red and black are all right, if boring and again with the odd shapes. But it turns out the irregular shapes strike other people as a problem, even more than the colour. I also used some clear glass ovals that looked like highly-polished beach glass, in a soft, sea-foamy, minty transparent green. But they had visible seams and were irregular, lumpy shapes, which again made them come off as seconds. Why did I never think that? I can only guess familiarity bred acceptance. I could see flaws in new beads, but any that had lived in my stash so long became invisible, even if I used them regularly.

I was always reading the advice, "Buy the best you can afford," but not quite getting it. When you're trying your first wrapped loops and they look like some form of semi-sentient spaghetti is trying spell something for you in ancient Sumerian runes, you really can't bear the thought of doing that out of silver wire next to a luscious pearl or sleek lampwork. So you buy base metal wire and turn your fingers green and end up with a bunch of earrings featuring plastic beads fit only for aliens, who will take one look at them and retract their ears into their heads in self-defense. (Aliens can do that, you know.)

The problem is you should start with the nice stuff. You really, really should. The worst thing that can happen is you'll end up with a wrapped loop that looks more like three blind men competing in their first-ever speed mummy-wrapping event. So what? The secret is that it's still gold, or silver, and all you have to do is snip it off and put it in a bag, and when you've collected a handful of screw-ups, you take turn them in to a jeweler. or mail them off, and they pay you for your scraps. At the very least, practice with copper. No one may take scrap copper, but if it works, it can still look good. Yes, it may still turn skin green, but it's a step up from using nickel, and if you practice, by the time your skin is green you'll be looking to move on to sterling silver anyway.

And as for the beads, again, they retain their value no matter how often they're reused. It's still lapis, it's still lampwork, it's still Bali silver, it's still a half-ounce of dichroic Delicas or diamonds or whatever it was before you stitched it or stuck it on a wire or thread. They're infinitely reusable. That is, if they were usable in the first place. Which brings me back to my task, which I'll have to go back to when I finish writing this - cleaning out the uglies. I have developed some bizarre fondness for a bag of ugly yellow seed beads. It's not a happy yellow. Yes, I do have hopes of doing a yellow necklace for sister who adores a particular shade of yellow, but this yellow is not it. She would recoil from these in as much horror as I do. But why weren't they the first things in the Box of Uglies, then? Do I feel sorry for them? Nostalgic, because I bought them in the US? Embarrassed that anyone else will see that I bought them? I can just about justify my unwillingness to throw out some of the other beach-glass look-alikes - some of the druks might work, and there are some triangular ones that seem nice, and yes I remember using them in a necklace for my mother, which she loved. Maybe mothers just love anything from their children, but there it is, and I have to live with it. Or rather, I have to live with the beads that I can't bear to get rid of.

My advice is to save yourself the trauma I'm going through - don't buy the uglies in the first place. You never know what you'll get attached to.

We now have a Fantastic Forum!!!

2006-05-29T23:58:00.000Z

I'm so happy to bring you the latest resource to UK Beaders... our brand spanking new forum!

I must say this wouldn't have been possible without the help of my wonderful fiance!

This does mean that over the next few weeks I will be fazing out use of the msn group in favour of the forum as it has so many better features for our members. Rest assured I will email all our members and keep everyone abreast of developments.

So here's to the forum! - See you there.

What Are We Doing? no. 1

2006-05-23T17:35:00.000Z

What Are We Doing?

I'm hoping this will be a regular column from me. Technical difficulties have prevented me from posting sooner, but I'm aiming to make Friday my day for updates.

Some of you may know I'm in the process of getting a new bead group together in London. It's been slow. I started spreading the idea around in January of 2006, and now it's the end of May and we've only met twice! But now we're started, and it's just a matter of building momentum.

Let me start with why I'm doing this. I started beading about five years ago. I'd done a few projects before, but hadn't really thrown myself into it. When I did, I was floating on air for the first six months or so. I thought I'd really and truly found my Thing. But after a while, the first rush of adrenaline died, and I'd done many of the ideas I'd had and realised others were not going to happen for years, until I found the right tools, beads, techniques, or even vocabulary - try looking for bead caps when you don't know the name for them and don't have a local bead shop where you can ask!

I moved to London with only the beginnings of a bead education. I had no idea where more than two of the bead shops in London were, and I didn't know how to find any others. I could have asked in the two shops I did know, but they were always busy, or didn't seem willing to answer that sort of question. I slowly learned where most of the London shops were, and went to a show or two, but it was so hard to find these things that eventually I gave up and put beading on the back burner for a year or two. There were a few more knocks along the path that put me off, but that's about how it happened.

Then in January I took it up again, and as I'd recently found a very friendly bead shop, things seemed to be looking up. And I thought maybe it was time for me to start my own group, to help other beaders out there, and to encourage other people to keep trying.

If you get a group of creative people together, anything could happen. My first concern is always going to be accessibility - I want to make sure that the group can welcome anyone, at any level. I would love it if someone just happened to be walking past the shop some day while we were there, and had no idea what was in the shop, but came in and bought a strand, and sat down and joined us. "So, which end do I put the thread in again?" I'd love that. I'd also love to have someone sit down at the table and say "Oh, well, I can show you how to do that - I won first place at the BeadDreams show two years ago doing that." All abilities, and all levels of commitment will always be welcome. If you can only make it once a year, and you've only made safety-pin things with seed beads, we'd be just as happy to have you there that one time as we would to have the person who runs her own online jewelry business and never misses a meet-up. And anyone who drops by from out of town is welcome to sit down with us, too - whether you're on a daytrip from Cambridge or visiting for two weeks from Hong Kong!

I'd like it to be someplace where people would be comfortable trying new things - the stringer who's never done freeform peyote, the needle-weaver who's never tried PMC, the seedbeader who wants to try wire, the jewelry-maker who wants to try sculpture, the person who does peyote wallhangings and wants to give polymer clay a try. As I've been saying elsewhere lately, you have to ask the question.

So... WHAT are we doing? I'm still sorting that part out. I have a list of challenges and projects for us to consider trying. I hope to tell you about them in future columns, and have suggestions from other people about things they'd like to try. You never know if the next thing you try, whether it's a technique, material, tool, style, or what, will be the thing that you then love bestest in all the world forever and back. You'll never know if you don't try, and you'll never get better if you don't try again!

Do drop by Buffy's on a Thursday evening and see if we're there. 6-8pm, every other Thursday with our next meet-up scheduled for the 25th of May. You never know what we might be up to!

New feature for the UK Beaders Shops map.

2006-05-20T23:31:00.000Z

In response to recent requests I have started adding the details of studios and teachers offering classes/lessons/tuition to the map!

In future I may also be adding beading groups too, but at the moment it is proving difficult to gather the details of any established beading groups around the UK.

If you have any other suggestions for ways to utilise the maps facilities just let me know.

Known problem with site.

2006-05-20T23:27:00.000Z

I recently noticed (as you may have done) that if you access the site from our lovely new domain name, most of the links when clicked on, will still display the UK Beaders site address in the address bar.

Rest assured I am working on this issue and it will be resolved as soon as I have the funding to do so.

If you want to bookmark/add to favourites any of the sites that are affected I would suggest you open a new window, and copy and paste the website address in.

Sorry for any inconvenience caused.

All about beading wire and crimping - article

2006-05-09T01:42:00.000Z

Hello again,

In response to repeated requests for info about what wire to choose for stringing projects and how to crimp it I have produced this article for you all.

Click here to view the article

I hope you find it useful.

UK Beaders site now has it's own URL!

2006-05-09T01:33:00.000Z

Just a quick update.

Just in case you missed my announcement On Friday 5th (sorry I was too busy to post here on Friday) I finally got the site it's own URL you can now visit directly at www.uk-beaders.co.uk

Dont worry if you have the old address stored in your favourites it will still work. You can also now email directly too!

Lampworking lesson with Mike Poole by Caroline Hannon

2006-05-03T21:37:00.000Z

I have always been fascinated by handmade lampwork beads since I found my first set. I was searching for a teacher for a while when I found out that Mike was starting to teach lessons and these were the nearest I could find.

On the day I arrived at the old mill where Mike’s studio is located in the town of Todmodon, Lancashire. I was greeted by Mike, who after a brew when through a run down of what we would be doing as well as giving me a folder with the course outline in it. He told me about the health and safety aspects, and although this might not be fun, it is very essential.

He then moved onto the equipment, Mike uses a minor torch with an oxycon unit. Most newbie’s to lampwork start on a hot head and then move up to a minor torch. He went through everything from dipping the mandrels in bead realise to kilns and cleaning out the bead release once the bead had been annealed.

Then the real fun begins, Mike starts off showing how to melt the glass rods and building a basic beads. He is happy to tailor the course to suit the type of beads you want to make. After he had shown me a few beads and how to add decoration like dots it was my turn. As soon as I built my first bead, no matter how bad it was I was hooked.

At lunch time Mikes wife Su arrived with a yummy lunch, and I got to browse through a few lampworking book to get ideas, or to ask about how certain beads were made. After Lunch Mike showed me how to make lentil beads, something which I requested, then I got to make more.

He then challenged me to make a set of beads; I got to pick colours from his vast selection. Every now or then Mike or Su would get me to try two colours together to see their reactions.

Once I finished my set I sat down with Su, who showed me her collection of lampwork beads, both from British and American Lampwork Artists. Some of the work is amazing and it really inspires you to improve.

I was on a high all the way home, and 3 days later my beads arrived in the post having been annealed. If anyone wants to try lampworking I would defiantly recommend Mike as a teacher. I can’t wait to get my equipment….

Thanks Mike for starting another bead addiction

2006-04-29T15:16:00.000Z

Hello, Hope you are all enjoying the Bank Holiday weekend.

Well I thought I'd give you all a bit of Background about how the UK Beaders site came to be. I started it up in December 2004 but the ball (or should that be bead) really got rolling in April 2005, which is when I also started the MSN group.

When the site started out it had just 1 small page of UK suppliers, 1 of international suppliers and 1 for ebay sellers. It had other resources and a calender (which was sadly short lived as it was very hard to keep up to date).

Over the months the site developed to the point where we need 2 pages to list all the UK suppliers.

I introduced a top 10 tutorials page, but haven't had as many recommendations for this page as I expected.

As there are so many fantastic lampworkers selling their beads I have set up a page for them - which I must work on filling up this weekend!

The UK Shops map has been a fantastic success and has so far only been running for just over a week (wow I thought it was longer)!

The msn group is also growing weekly, we already have over 100 members with lots of great discussions going on.

Anyway that's enough background for now. But I'll keep you up to date with all the great things I have in the pipeline.

2006-04-27T18:53:00.000Z

Phew, well as I said before this really isn't my thing, but I just managed to work out how to add in links to our main site and to the msn group - hooray!

Not a lot's been happening today, I have a custom bracelet I should be working on instead of posting here, but as we beaders know there's never enough hours in the day.

I've been talking to a few of the UK Beaders group recently about this and that, and I have a few ideas in the pipeline for even more developments so keep your ear to the ground.

Welcome to the UK Beaders blog!

2006-04-26T23:23:00.000Z

First off Hi, glad you're reading this, and I apologize as I am so appallingly bad at writing this kind of thing!

I expect you'll have come here via http://groups.msn.com/UKBeaders or www.freewebs.com/ukbeaders if not I'd love to know how you found us!

I'm starting this blog as I hope it will evolve into another great resource of the UK beaders site and group. I'm aiming for it to be an easy to access blog of what's upcoming and worth a look in the UK beading scene. I'm hoping we can have interviews and articles from group members, projects and places worth trying out and much much more.

For those of you who don't already know me I'm Kitsch Kitty of Kitsch Kitty's Unique Boutique, and I'm the founder of the UK Beaders site and group. I love making jewellery and hated the lack of accessible information on the web for us UK beaders and jewellery makers. The few sites I did come across were either totally out of date, impersonal or seemed to have some kind of ulterior motive behind them.

Anyway that's about it for now, hopefully you'll be getting to see some really great content soon!