Buying beads in the oddest places.

 At the War & Peace Revival Show earlier this year tucked away in a corner was a stall selling jewellery, baskets, beads and bags of mixed old beads (from broken necklaces) & broken oddments of jewellery. 


This was a long way away from the vintage village and the other stalls of clothing, accessories, and jewellery.
  http://www.thewarandpeacerevival.co.uk/

I brought several bags of the beads and a bag of the jewellery oddments.  Some of it was a bit nasty (but not very much), some of it not quite my taste and there were lots of real treasures.

It took quite a while to sort the beads into usable categories but it was great fun.  There were quite a few vintage beads in the mix.

 Lots of different sizes, shapes and styles - perfect for creating unique bags and purses.  
https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/194691445/handcrafted-one-of-a-kind-floral-purse?

This is the first time I have seen glass beads as small as grains of fine sand, I hope I can get a needle through them.

There were lot of unusual larger  were in one of the bags, there were several crystals and pretty old glass beads in various sizes, shells, wood and pearls - beads of all shapes.  

The oddments of jewellery included a lot of earrings, clip-ons as well as ones for pierced ears, rings and brooches. 

I am really looking forward to designing and creating my new projects.  Adding oodles of beads amongst the ribbons and lace. 


https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/183566328/tattoo-skull-purseooak-gothpsychobilly?ref=listing-shop-header-3 

I love this little brooch

CRAFTING AT THE WEEKEND

Had a lovely crafting weekend      
.......on our way home from shopping Saturday
 got a invite out for a friends birthday.
 So needed to make a card and present

The card I made using items from the DOCRAFTS goody bag I had just brought.

 And as a present I made her a telephone message pad using the set of vintage URBAN STAMPS.  I love this set although I am slightly confused by the inclusion of a VW split screen camper van in a range of British iconic images.  http://www.docrafts.com/product/5X7-URBAN-STAMPS--VINTAGE/p86361 
The telephone box is perfect for a message pad.  I found out by accident while making the message pad that if the ink from SUKURA pens is still wet when micro/accent beads are put onto it then the beads stick to the ink.  It looked really good I will use this again on future projects.

Had a lovely evening celebrating her birthday with friends.

 

 

Part of Sunday was spent making headbands to list on ETSY.  They were great fun to make - I did six all different.  http://www.etsy.com/listing/94485340/blossom-time-a-floral-headband  I like all of them, it would be hard to pick a favourite.  I really want to make some more.


What I really wanted to do was do some more of the book I am altering but "work" if I can get away as decribing the headbands as that came first.  I will try and find time to carry on with the book in the week.

Merrily crafting again.

Back to creating.  I have spent several relaxing days reading other peoples blogs, pouring over stuff on Etsy, roaming over the wonders of Pinterest and reading magazines.  Now it is time to stop looking and see what I can do.  I have dug out the tiny tiny bottles than I brought from Ebay years ago and started to fill them, next step is to make something to hang the pendants on - I thought braided ribbon with little beads would work well.  I really want to create that SHOW STOPPING something that will kick start my Etsy shop.  It is not that I dont believe the items already on Etsy aren't good because I do it is just there is so much fantastic stuff there that I need to rethink.  It may be how I am tagging my items.  I was so pleased just before Christmas when one of my items got placed on a treasury list - a step in the right direction.

Lots of ideas floating around inside my head just waiting to become solid and touchable.............watch this space for more over the next few days.


I also want to start making my own clothes again. The only way I can dress as I want instead of how others think I should.  Big boxes of fabric upstairs so lots of opportunity.  This desire to dressmake again in partly triggered by a book I got for Christmas 18th century Embroidery Techniques by Gail Marsh                             ISBN 978-1-86108-476-7  http://www.amazon.co.uk/18th-Century-Embroidery-Techniques-Marsh    Lots of useful information a book I would recommend. 

Other things to learn/try this year goldwork and needlefelting.