May Flowers

The weather here in the East of England has been fairly grey and wet for the last week, not very good for the flowers but great for the greenery. The maple outside my window is now in full leaf so I'm screened from the street, but have less direct light so I'm glad of my Ott-light.

Last Sunday we braved the rain and headed to the Norwich Bead and Textiles Fair at a local High School. It was a good venue and the catering outlet supplied us with delicious cakes in between shopping for beads. I came home with a good haul, although I was trying to budget for our bead retreat later in the month

I really needed a thread zapper, since I started taking photos of my work I see many more thread ends in the photo. The dichroic pieces were made by a local artist and are destined for embroidery projects as is the blue goldstone cab. The little card is a useful 'Bead Oracle' from Spangles which lets you check sizes when you spot a bead/rivoli for example. As it is credit card size it's easy to carry in the wallet, everywhere you go. I keep giving mine away to other beaders so this time I bought some spares!

On Tuesday I received my copy of Bead Fantasies by Sabine Lippert. Amazon UK don't have it yet, but Book Depository had copies and I preordered from them By Thursday I had completed my first project (but not the last I'm sure) The Granada brooch:

I liked the way the surround is worked first then the central rivoli is inserted. This gave me the opportunity to try different stones. Initially I was going to use Fuchsia, but then I tried this 'Ultra Pink' one and it really glows.
While the projects are quite technically demanding, the instructions are quite clear. Unusually for me I used the written instructions more than the diagrams, perhaps because the diagrams combined several steps in one. I highly recomment this book to anyone who enjoys Right Angle Weave beaded bead forms. I know I'll be wearing out my copy! There is also an interesting piece by Sabine describing her creative process, and development of designs.

So although there aren't many garden flowers to look at, I hope you like this beaded flower substitute!