Beady Delights

On Saturday I attended a Beadworkers' Guild Cascade Day at Stanpit Village Hall near Christchurch. The idea is that someone from the Beadworkers' Guild brings along examples of beadwork from the Guild's extensive collection. Everyone is encouraged to use the pieces as a starting point to experiment and produce their own work. The theme of the day was 'Tassels, Fringes and Trims'. There were some beautiful examples of Victorian beadwork on display and a selection of more contemporary work. We were each given a workbook containing lots of hints and tips to get us started.

It was great fun. There was lots of laughter and a steady supply of tea and cakes - who could ask for more? I experimented with different types of braids and will put up some pictures of what I have made in the near future. Plus it was a great opportunity for me to catch up with some of my beady friends.

I am still beading like a maniac to get my work done for the exhibition in two week's time. I have finished the Art Deco brooch and watch strap and I am currently working on the necklace.

Here are a few pictures taken by my OH at our allotment yesterday. It was too hot for me to go with him plus I am having a few mobility problems at the moment. The good news is that I have an appointment with a Rheumatologist next week so hopefully I can get to the bottom of some of the weird symptoms that I have been experiencing over the last 12 months.

You always want what you can't have...

Today has not been a good day. It started early this morning with a doctor's appointment and has gone steadily down hill ever since. I can't wait to get home to my OH and to lose myself in my beading. I am on the home stretch now with the Textile Kaleidoscope exhibition in my sights. I have two projects on the go at the moment, a set of Art Deco style jewellery and a beaded collar. I am sad in a way that my course is coming to an end in a couple of weeks time. After 5 years of studying there will be no more courses to take. I have learnt so much not only about beading but also about myself in the process. I have definitely developed my own style and I think it is quite distinctive.

It is strange however that I always want to be able to bead like someone else. Last Thursday at my beading class I took the opportunity to walk around the class and see what other people have been making. My excuse was that my back was hurting me as usual and I needed to stretch my legs. In reality I am just plain nosey! Plus it is always a delight to take time to fully appreciate how talented my fellow beaders really are. I was particularly taken with a beautiful lariat, covered with flowers leaves and buds and I remember thinking 'I wish I could make something like that!'. Imagine my surprise a bit later in the day when I overheard the maker of that exquisite piece of beadwork telling our tutor how much she wished she could produce precise beaded pieces like mine. It seems that we are never satisfied. I admit it I am a total 'neat freak'. I hate living and working in mess, everything has to be in its place. Luckily my OH has accepted this personality trait with his usual tolerance and good humour.

Centrepiece of an Art Deco necklace

Although I will be sad when the exhibition is over I am looking forward to spending time on my other interests such as quilting and knitting. I already have a queue of potential knitting projects building up. After this morning's appointment it looks as though I will be spending more time waiting around in hospital clinics so they will come in very handy for passing the time.

Beads, beads and more beads...

After many hours of work my Art Deco bag is almost finished. It hasn't turned out exactly as I would like but it is really good to finally have it done so that I can move onto other things. The only thing left to be done is to embellish the handle with a strip of beadwork and its complete.

Also on the subject of beads my beading class took part in the Christchurch Community Festival during the Bank Holiday weekend at the end of May. It was a bit disappointing I have to say as of course it poured with rain and as a result we did not have many visitors. We did manage to sell one pair of earrings but otherwise it was very quiet. We had all made jewellery on the theme of spirals and there were some really lovely pieces on display. I had two items for sale - my 'Spring Bracelet' and my 'Purple Passion' necklace.

This weekend I will be doing more beading as I need to get everything finished for our Textile Kaleidoscope exhibition at the end of July.

Lets twist again...

Beading is dominating my life at the moment. My evenings and weekends have been spent trying to complete some projects. If I stop and think how much I have got to do between now and the end of July I start to panic. So, I have been keeping my head down and trying to take it one step at a time.


My experimentation with spirals continues. This time I am playing with peyote or Cellini Spirals. These are great fun. By varying the size and shape of the beads you can exaggerate the shape of the spiral. There is a really good tutorial on creating this spiral here. My aim is to make some beaded beads out of spirals and put them together in a necklace to sell on our stall at the Community Festival at Christchurch.

Then I have to concentrate on my course work so that I am ready to exhibit at the Textile Kaleidoscope exhibition at the end of July. This is a showcase for local City & Guilds students. Sadly it might be the last ever exhibition as Dorset Adult Education is scaling down the range of art and craft courses it offers. Apparently government funding has been cut for 'leisure' courses choosing instead to fund adult literacy, numeracy and computer courses.

Even though I am up to my eyes in beading at the moment I still need to have a project on my knitting needles. It is really nice to have a project in my bag to work on in my lunch breaks or when watching the television in the evenings. I have just started a pair of socks for my OH as he really loves my hand knitted ones. I found this pattern on knitty. It is a great source for beautifully designed hand knitting patterns and I would highly recommend it.

Diamond Waffle Socks designed by Danny Ouelette

Gardens, elections and other things..

The weeks are flying past and another Summer Term is whizzing past. Last week I took an extra day off to try to get to grips with some of the beading projects that I have on the go at the moment. I have several items partially made for my NCFE Beading course. In addition to that a group of beaders, myself included, will be taking part in the Community Celebration of Christchurch at the end of May. We are going to have a stall displaying and selling our beaded jewellery. I am really excited about it and have been making two necklaces for it and will be trying to sell them along with my Spring Flowers bracelet. Most of my waking hours seem to be consumed with either thinking about beading or actually beading! Most other things, including my knitting, are having to take a back seat at the moment.



Last weekend I took some time out to visit a local garden with my OH. It was open as part of the National Gardens Scheme. This encourages ordinary people to open their back gardens to the public. Visitors pay a small admission charge which goes to charity. This Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday my OH and I visited a beautiful garden just a few minutes walk from where we live. It is a favourite of ours and it did not disappoint. It was full of colour from rhododendrons and azaleas as well as a host of spring bulbs. They also always serve a mouthwatering selection of homemade cakes too.

Yesterday I took some time out in the evening to go an vote in the General Election. Our route to the Polling Station took us through Alum Chine, a deep, wooded ravine which leads down to the sea. As we were walking back I was struck yet again by how lucky I am to live in such a beautiful place. I was really happy to note that there were a lot of people coming to vote. I can never remember see a queue at a Polling Station before. It makes me really angry when people are only too happy to complain about the state of the economy, the NHS etc... but can't be bothered to vote and try to change things. I don't feel that this blog is the right place to discuss party politics but let me simply say that I was disappointed to discover the result for my constituency when I woke up this morning, although to honest the outcome was fairly predictable.

My route to the Polling Station

I am currently considering whether to carry on with this blog as, according to StatCounter it is only ever read by 2 or 3 people. Although I suppose I was being a bit arrogant in assuming that anyone would be interested in what I have to say.

A Host of Golden Daffodils

I simply had to post these pictures, taken on my journey to work yesterday morning. After the coldest Winter in the UK for over 40 years Spring is finally here. Everything is flowering about 5 weeks later than normal and the Gardens in the centre of Bournemouth are looking spectacular.

I have been temporarily distracted from my beading by my OH's request for some red socks. This is the first pattern that I have made up as I go along. It is knitted from the toe up and is based on the Lifestyle Toe-up Sock recipe by Charissa Martin Cairn on Ravelry. I have also incorporated Evelyn A. Clark's gusset heel and her instructions for the stretchy Russian bind-off. I just cast on and improvised. It did mean that I had to rip the first sock back three times to get it right but I am very pleased with the result.

I have also completed a Haruni shawl by Emily Ross. I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it on Ravelry and had to make one. It was my first complex lace pattern and I learnt so much from it. I now feel that I could tackle most lace knitting with full confidence. I have worn it to work several times and absolutely love it. Perfect for this time of year when you need something cosy around your shoulders but don't want to wear a sweater.

New beginnings

After some time away I now feel ready to post again. The last few months have been difficult. I won't go into details but both my OH and I each had a family bereavement over the Christmas period. The last few weeks has been taken up with funerals and dealing with wills etc. so I have not really felt like posting. The unusually bitterly cold winter weather did not help, making visiting family and friends extra difficult.

However all that is now behind me and Spring has at last started to appear. One of the latest assignments for my NCFE Beading class was to experiment with spiral rope. Spurred on by the promise of warmer weather I have been trying to incorporate flowers and leaves in the ropes. It has been great fun. Spiral rope is one of my favourite stitches.

I am particularly pleased with the spring flowers bracelet. Some time ago, at a bead fair I bought several tubes of pressed glass flowers and leaves without really having an idea of what to use them for. I dug them out of my stash and started playing. This is the result.

Last Wednesday my OH and I went up to London for the day. Recent events have made us both realise that life is short and you never know what is around the corner. We have made a promise to each other that we will try to enjoy life to the full and we have made a list of things we want to do over the next 12 months. First on the list was to go to the Victoria and Albert Museum and I wanted to go to the 'Qulits 1700 - 2010' exhibition.

We started the morning by walking the short distance from Victoria to 'Baker & Spice'. They make the most amazing bread and cakes, their chocolate brownies are a particular favourite. The cafe is in a quiet street in Belgravia and the walk from there to the V&A took us past lots of exclusive shops and boutiques which I found fascinating. My Father grew up in the East End so we would often go to London when I was a child. We very rarely visited the normal tourist haunts such as Buckingham Palace or the Tower of London, although I do remember him taking me up the Monument in Pudding Lane and telling me about the Great Fire. He was a skilled storyteller and I used to love hearing him talk about growing up in London during the Second World War and working in the East India Docks during the 1950s. Visiting London always makes me think of him, particularly as I seem to have inherited his inability to walk past a bookshop.

The exhibition at the V&A was well worth visiting. It was really great to see some of the quilts displayed as they would have been used, on beds. One of my particular favourites was the oldest quilt in the exhibition. It was made around 1700 for the Bishop's Palace in Exeter. It is made of silk and velvet and positively glowed in the subdued lighting. It is very beautiful. We also visited the new Jewellery Gallery which was absolutely stunning and made a pilgramage to look at Pink Floyd's Azimuth Co-ordinator in the Performing Arts gallery. My OH was in total awe and took exception to my comment that it looked like a box with two sticks jutting out of it! Apparently to Pink Floyd fans it is a sacred object.

After grabbing some lunch at the museum we set off again. The original plan had been to visit the Chelsea Physick Garden. but it had started to rain and we decided to go elsewhere. We ended up in one of my favourite haunts, Kingly Court, just off Carnaby Street. While we were there I bought some yarn to make some socks for my OH in 'All The Fun of The Fair' and had a browse in 'Buffy's Beads'. We ended the day by having some tea and cake in the Camelia Tea Rooms before heading back to Victoria and home.