Month: February 2021

Sunstar – Liberty Print

I was checking through my materials pack stock the other day and I remembered I had a spare Sunstar in yellow put aside for myself. The grey weather made me yearn for something cheerful and as it’s a lovely evening’s worth of beading (OK I do bead quite quickly and I’ve made a lot of these previously), I thought I’d curl up and make it.

Here it is – definitely cheerful!

Sunstar in Yellow Liberty Print

I still have some of these packs left, and some in different Liberty Print colourways in my Etsy Shop, and if you’d like to make your own with or without a pack the tutorial is here. If you’re not ready for florals yet this year, then I also have versions using my own hand painted cabochons and etched daggers here.

As with my packs I’ve used a combined brooch and pendant bail so I’ll be able to wear this as a brooch on more structured garments, or add a silk string to wear as a pendant and take my own bit of sunshine along with me. The bails are from the lovely Stitch N Craft beads – they’re included in my packs or you can of course buy direct from them. I use them on most big or heavy pendant pieces now as they actually give the firmest mount for a bail as well as the versatility of the brooch option.

I enjoyed making this so much I might steal another pack – I try to do as many colourways as I can mainly because I love putting the combinations together, but that does mean I’ve not always actually beaded every colourway (just spent ages trying different combinations of beads, backings and cabs). Which shall I pick…..?

Goldwork wire restock

Sorry it’s been a bit quiet here, but what with Christmas and the current lockdown we’ve been a bit busy. We’ve been in lockdown pretty much since October (with a couple of small gaps) and as schools have been closed in the UK since Christmas both of the boys are at home. Whilst they’re supplied with ‘remote learning’ by their lovely school, they both need extensive support with this (particularly the 7 year old) and as we’re both working, Mr Indecisive Beader and I are rather pushed for time, so blogging has had to take a back seat!

I have been able to do some beading though – since we can’t go out I can at least bead on the evenings I’m not having to work to make up for the time I’ve spent home schooling in the day. As I’ve mainly be working on my Beadworker’s Guild Challenge piece I don’t have anything I can show though……

I’ve also been able to keep my shop fully open this time round, which means lots of goldwork wires going out to locked down beaders and embroiderers around the UK and further afield, so I’ve had to restock and have snuck in some new colours of smooth purl. I’ve also introduced some more colour packs – just nice combos chosen by me as I think they work together, and these represent a discounted price on buying each colour separately.

Individual 1mm smooth purl packs in 2g increments are available here.

And the packs, which contain 2g each of 4 colours (8g total) are available here:

The new colours are Burnt Orange, Copper Peach, Matte Pink, Mid Turquoise, Golden Brown and Black, and I introduced Fuchsia, Matte Red, Pale Bronze, a greater selection of Golds, Parrot Green, Jade, Navy and Matte Silver to my original selection late last year. That makes 26 colours (I have my eye on a few more but I might stop at 30…..).

The new packs are Pretty in Pink, Fire, Heavy Metal and Ocean. Etsy only gives me room for 10, so the Ocean is not currently listed, so just give a yell if you are interested in that one and I can set up a custom listing. I’m also happy to do custom packs to suit your individual taste or projects, and can price for larger quantities if I have them available – just contact me here or through Etsy ‘contact seller’.

I also have some check purl ready to photograph so I’ll try and do something with that soon as it will be lovely for Squidy’s fins.