Spotty glass bead bracelet

These beads are from Yum Yums too - I did quite well out of that one visit. It's a bit hard to tell in the photo, but the spots have a sort of metallic, petrolly effect which looks very cool on the clear glass. It's just strung on silver tigertail with small blue cuboids in between. I tried it with blue tigertail, but it stood out too much.

Works in progress

I need inspiration. These beads look better on the ends than the sides, which means they won't look good just strung, so I need some creative kind of stringing that shows them off.
And this is a bracelet that I made and don't like. The balance is wrong. So I need to remake it, either as a bracelet or something else, but I'm not sure how exactly.

Big bead bracelets

I've gone bracelet mad! I've been making millions of them, I can't get enough. These are all made with Elasticity. The beads for the ones in the top two photos are from the wonderful Yum Yum beads in Leeds, where I went a bit mad buying loads of stuff when I went the other day. They know how to run a bead shop - they have all their beads in little trays, and little tubs for you to gather them up in yourself. Le Beado could learn a lot from them. Which is where the beads in the bottom photo came from, actually - much more expensive than Yum Yum's, at 55p each (the ones in the top picture were 40p each on a multibuy deal).

And I made two more of the bumpy bead bracelets with the rest of the beads, so I got three bracelets out of that £4.50 pack, and a few left over. Not bad.

Paper beads

I learnt how to make beads from rolling up strips of paper - I bought some recently which were made by some African women, and they're so pretty. You cut a magazine page into triangles, as wide at the bottom as you want your beads to be wide, and then just wrap them around a cocktail stick, gluing as you go. Then you really need to varnish them, to make them colourfast and to make them look really good. These are what they look like before varnishing:
And this is a necklace made with some pink ones (for another birthday present, as it happens).

Cherries

I totally stole this design, but the one I saw was really expensive so I was never going to buy it anyway. How cute is it? The cherries are just red beads (they're AB but on the side that's facing away from the camera, dammit), they're on headpins, and the leaf is another bead attached to the same jump ring with some tigertail. It's strung between green AB beads and crimps on green tigertail.

Bumpy bead bracelet

How cute is this? The beads are about half of a pack I bought from John Lewis (I haven't linked to it because you can't buy them online) and they're strung on Elasticity (a special beading elastic which is not too stretchy and very smooth). I didn't have the same problems I had last time with tying it either, so that's good.

Those charity shop beads

I know I said I'd give the reworked piece back to the shop but I love this so much I'm not going to after all. The blue beads are the ones off that necklace I bought from a charity shop and they're threaded on a long bright pink cord, spaced in alternating singles and triples with knots. The pink bead is one I've had for years, just for some added interest. It was going to be a red star, but the damn thing had a blockage in its hole so couldn't be used. Bah. There's no clasp as it's a waist-length necklace.

Watermelon beads

Don't these look like watermelons? I'll have to make a watermelony necklace or something.

Plagiarising my childhood

When I was about 6 or so, we were on holiday in Brittany and we went to the festival of the blue nets (fete des filets bleus) at Concarneau. I bought a ring that was very simple, made of wire with a few blue rocailles as the decoration. I loved that ring, I really did, and of course it doesn't fit me now, having been bought for a 6-year-old's tiny little fingers.
But all is not lost - I have made myself a replica! OK, it isn't very neat, but it was my first attempt - I'll get better. I'm pretty pleased with the result, actually, so I think I will have another go. My original was silver with dark blue beads, not gold with turquoisey ones, as this one is. It probably would be worth getting some actual silver wire too, as this stuff is OK but it discolours quickly and smells metallic.

Modestly-priced expensive jewellery

You might have seen these glass beads with a silver core, which are sort of like charms - you pick a few that you like and string 'em on a chain. They're blimmin' expensive, generally up to a tenner a go. Well, while in Bainbridge's (yes, John Lewis) looking for a clasp for my grandma's necklace (which I got in Fenwick's in the end) I found the very same beads for £3 for a pack of two. They may not be sterling silver, but they look just as nice. So after much dithering, and a trip to Fenwick's to see what they had (I bought the chain there actually, as it was a pound cheaper at £2.95) I bought the bits to make this:

I strang it when I went back to uni, it was so easy - you don't need any tools, a moron could put this together. And I love it so much I think I'll be buying more and will make others. You can change it, of course, whenever you want, or if you want to make it more permanent you could put a jump ring through the hole and make it so the beads can't come off. I think I'll leave it and then I can mix and match to my outfits. Though I love this with its bright colours. I think a black and silver one would look nice, or perhaps with a bit of light pink in too. I'll be making my mother one as she'll love these nice coloured beads.

And I did check the price of ready-made ones after - one similar was £30 in a cut-price jeweller's. Mine cost £11 and about two minutes' work, and it's just the way I wanted it. Fab.