Total Cuteness!

I recently did a swap with Katie from Mad Brilliant Ideas on Folksy for this gorgeous munster. It's for my son's birthday and I can't wait to give it to him! The toy is gorgeous and the certificate is completely adorable! Go visit her here http://www.folksy.com/shops/MadBrilliantIdeas

My First Pattern for Sale!

I am very excited to announce that after many years of wanting to design patterns for sale, I have just listed my 1st one on Etsy!
http://www.etsy.com/listing/70723662/pdf-beading-tutorial-spring-blossom I am sure it won't be my last! It was a lot of fun to design and write the pattern, although the technical issues drove me nuts!

Happy beading!

Sarahx

Speed beading in circles.

I have a craft fair on Saturday and I always like to have new stock to take, I left it a bit late for anything too elaborate so I decided to make some triple circles and use them as pendants instead of earrings. I am really loving these peyote circles at the moment. They allow me to play with colour and there seems to be an endless way to use them.

I made these 3 pendants this morning, my neck is still sore!

Happy Beading!

Sarahx

Sweet Spring.

This months moodboard challenge on Operation Tackle that Bead Stash is lovely soft pink, cream and green, perfect for spring. With the weather gloriously sunny & crisp here in South Wales, it wasn't to hard to be inspired!

I always seem to have a lime green fetish at this time of year, so I dug out these matte ab 11's and used a cream opaque to soften the look. I love netted bracelet bases, they are so versatile and supple. With this one I added a picot fringe which ruffles the edges of the bracelet very prettily and made a little pink flower with some swarovski crystals.

In keeping with the start of a new season, I have started a new craft! I have become obsessed with embroidery after finding the Feeling Stitchy blog on Friday. I will blog about my progress later this week.

Happy beading!

Sarahx

New Free Ring Tutorial On OTTBS

Today I spent some time writing up a tutorial for this simple ladder stitch ring that uses up those little bits and bobs left over from larger projects and posted it up on the Operation Tackle That Bead Stash blog.

http://tacklethatbeadstash.blogspot.com/2011/03/pearl-ladder-ring-tutorial.html

Working on my photo's.

One of the things I have struggled with most since starting to sell my work is product photography, particularly lighting issues and staging. Last weekend was quite sunny so I thought I was on to a winner, however the photo's came out very harsh looking with a lot of shadows. After sulking a bit, I had a think about how I could improve them and I remembered
this excellent article by Blue Forest Jewellery http://blueforestjewellery.blogspot.com/2010/03/photography-tips-from-non-professional.html

My dining room has a big bay window which gets a lot of sun, I placed a piece of white card on the dining table and propped up another piece of card (I didn't have anything more transparent)vertically behind it to try and eliminate shadows. I set up a tall white coffee mug and hung a pair of earrings of it. The camera was set to macro and I turned the flash off and I snapped and snapped and snapped, lol.

The photo's came out quite dark but that was soon sorted out by adjusting the exposure in my photo editing software. I am quite happy with this pic and am actually hopeful that I may soon have consistently decent photo's!

Happy beading!

Sarahx