Caution, Excited Beader!

I am soooo excited! In a few days I'm heading off to Edinburgh to take a class at the Scottish Bead Shop in Haddington. Jo and I are flying up and spending time enjoying the hospitality of fellow beaders! Best of all there will be a group of 6 (maybe more) of us internet buddies taking the class. I must just be sure to bead at least as much as I chat. This is the Class project, and the teacher is the Great Huib Petersen, on his European tour! Can't wait, and probably won't sleep much from excitement

Another nice thing that happened this week, is that I was asked to test a tutorial for the lovely and extremely talented Nancy Dale of NEDBeads. It is a Right Angle Weave variation bracelet, and is embellished as you go. It uses the new Preciosa Twin beads (or as my friend Mary likes to call them 'otter snouts') as well as 4mm bicones, and is lovely to work. If you can't wait until this pattern is released, maybe you could try the 'Labyrinth' tutorial, which Nancy already sells on Etsy (click here!) which is a good warm up for the new design, using some similar ways of joining RAW units. Here is a pic of my (not quite complete) version of Labyrinth:

I wanted to tone it with the Cubic RAW necklace I made with some lovely picasso finish rondelles from Beads and Babble. I love the selection of beads in this shop, and just received an order of the new Czech spike beads to try Helena Tang's Points Boheme earrings. You can tell I am an Etsy Addict!

Beadalong

You may recall, I joined a 'beadalong' on the Operation: Tackle That Bead Stash blog, to complete the Laura McCabe class project. The bracelet from the first class ('Stargazer') was completed from Laura's kit in Blue/Purple/Silver colour scheme. I also chose my own colours and this version is now also complete. I had to bite the bullet and buy a gold-filled clasp since silver didn't really go with the warmer palette, but I think the end result was worth it. You can find the blog here with a completed 'Treasure Locket' necklace by another beadalong participant, Gloria. This is still on my to-do list.

Here are the finished bracelets, mine has been simplified slightly and has already been worn to the Work Christmas Lunch.

For anyone interested, the bead colours are Miyuki 15s in gilt lined peach alabaster 579 and dyed SL wine 1428, Delicas in green patina iris 24, metallic plum 12 and matte metallic copper 1051, and Swarovski crystals in cyclamen opal (3mm bicone) and Colorado topaz (2mm round). Czech and Japanese Charlottes in gold were also used (these were bought from Laura)