I'm finally back home after several weeks working away - and so to celebrate, I'm having a wee sale! Head over to The Curious Bead Shop and snag a lovely 15% off today. Yippee!
Showing posts with label the curious bead shop. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the curious bead shop. Show all posts
Friday, 14 August 2015
Wednesday, 1 July 2015
FLASH SALE at Curious!!
Pinch, punch - it's the first of the month! Time for a sale :-)
Take 15% off everything in The Curious Bead Shop with coupon code PINCH15, today only (Wednesday 1st July).
Thursday, 7 May 2015
Saturday, 3 January 2015
Wednesday, 19 November 2014
FLASH sale at Curious today!
FLASH sale today (Wednesday 19th November) at
Take 15% off all purchases (excluding CC subscriptions as these already represent a nice discount) with coupon code:
HUMPDAY
Enjoy!
Sunday, 25 May 2014
Beaded Bead Release Tonight
I wasn't sure if I was going to do it, I ummm-ed and aaaah-ed.....but then I decided that I would dip my toe into the water and give it a shot.
What am I talking about? Selling my handwoven beaded beads!
I am unlikely to offer these up terribly often, but I am really enjoying making them right now, and as there was such enthusiasm for them on Facebook, I decided to offer some up to you lovely people. They will be available in various sets, pairs and some even singly over at The Curious Bead Shop tonight, and there are small, medium and large rounds, decorated rounds, and even a sneaky experimental rondelle that snuck into the listings.
Here's a preview of some of what you can expect.....
Saturday, 24 May 2014
Irish Waxed Linen Cord Blog Hop
I admit it. I absolutely love Irish waxed linen cord (IWL). I know I am not alone! But I believe I am the only person taking part in this blog hop who lives in the country in which the waxed linen that most of us work with is produced, so the designs I create with these threads/cords are particularly Irish! (Despite Northern Ireland being tiny, I have yet to track down the elusive Crawford Threads HQ - I only have two more months living on this side of the UK so I need to get cracking! ;-) )
I have worked with IWL for a number of years now. It's a beautiful fibre - strong, supple and available in a range of colours and thicknesses, with a protective waxy coating that helps to slightly stiffen the cord and aids with placement of knots. At first, I spent a whole heap of money buying it in from America. Yes, ironic when you live over in the UK that you have to get Northern Irish products shipped in from the US, but it is often the case that things are wholesaled over to the US and then we have to buy them back.
My problem was that I wanted ALL THE COLOURS. These waxed cords come in a myriad of absolutely beautiful shades and I am a self-confessed colour-aholic. I also got fed up with buying in relatively small quantities and paying customs and handling charges every time. Surely I wasn't the only one in this predicament? I thought to myself. And so, The Curious Bead Shop was born. Yes, it really was the desire to work with all the beautiful colours of IWL that led me to set my little shop up!
As I have such a range of gorgeous colours and plys available at my fingertips, I really am spoiled for choice. So that I have a good selection on hand at my own work/design area, when a spool gets near the end, I take it out of the Curious Cabinet, and stash them on my desk.
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| Really, just look at these beautiful, saturated hues! Yum. |
When Suburban Girl Diana P organised this blog hop, I knew I wanted to play along. But because I work with IWL often, I wanted to try and do something a little different. So, I gathered all my little end spools together to see what they looked like. I decided not to include the Denim, Lemon or Olive cords from the picture above, but the rest I gathered together in one gloriously, chaotically joyous colour scheme. I also grabbed a lampwork ring from Earthshine that I'd been hoarding, in a juicy orange....
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| How delicious do these colours look together? If I do say so myself. |
I grabbed some lovely dark wooden rounds from Smitten Beads to really show off the colours of the cord, some ceramic beads from Grubbi and a few tubes of seed beads (something else I always want in *All*The*Colours*)....
...and here's the finished piece.
I am pretty pleased with this! It's a riot of happy colour and has a pleasing bohemian, rustic feel. I added a central strand of coral reef 7ply to the main mix of 4ply, drawing these over each wooden/ceramic bead in a swath of stripy colour. 'Ply' refers to the number of twisted strands that the cord is made up of, so 7ply is almost twice as thick as 4ply. It's my thickness of choice when I'm knotting bracelets, as they have to stand up to a little more wear and tear than necklaces or earrings.
I finished the cord tails by simply knotting on a few seed beads. Pretty, textural and easy to do. It's often my favourite way to finish cord tails - no chance of trimmed knots coming undone and it looks good too.
...I even managed to inject some colour into the toggle bar, by choosing this creative component from Vintaj. They are hard to photograph, but you can hopefully see here the coloured seed beads (same palette as the cord tails) that I've slotted inside. {And it's now available over on etsy!}
To give you an idea of just how versatile IWL is, here are a few more of my designs featuring it:
I love knotting with coin/disc beads, so that the cord is exposed. Pretty and tactile, and this gives you lots of colour opportunities.
(Art beads - Swoondimples and Helen Chalmers)
I've used a similar technique here as in the bracelet I made especially for the blog hop, but kept it simple, using only two lengths of cord - one to go inside the beads and one to go around. I then did a little macrame to create the loop for the button closure.
(Art beads - Mamacita and Helen Chalmers)
You can even use IWL in earrings - and these were great, as they just used up a few tails I had left over.
(Art beads - Pips)
Here, I've just used it as a simple stringing material - a subtle charcoal grey in this particular necklace. But if you wanted vibrant pops of colour, you could achieve that too!
(Art beads - Elukka, Golem and Thea Elements)
And here, sweet and simple multi-layer stackable bracelets. Easy to wear and fun to make!
(Art buttons - Bo Hulley)
Thanks to Diana P for organising this hop! I hope you will be inspired to try working with this beautiful material (and if you like, you can check out the range I have available over at Curious).
Rebecca Anderson <---------- are="" here="" you="">
Tuesday, 25 March 2014
Song-ing followed by Bead-ing
Dear oh dear - here I am again, feeling like it's been far too long since I last blogged. It is an all-too-familiar feeling it seems! I always have plans for blog posts, but time runs away and I lose track of everything.....sounds like the rest of my life too! This time, I have a slight excuse - I have been preparing for and performing in a concert over in Glasgow, in the beautiful University Chapel, which was this past weekend.
Now, it wasn't a huge concert and my part in it was fairly minor. But, it was the first time I had sung in a long time - and I don't just mean in a concert, I mean not along with the radio, not in the shower; practically not a single note has passed my lips since I moved to Belfast. I seemed to lose my voice along with the move back in September. I have felt somehow silenced for the past 7 months - as if I had my throat stopped up. But a friend asked a couple of weeks ago if I was free for a concert he was fixing, he was in a pinch for my voice-type, and so I decided that a fairly low-key event would be something I could do.
Of course, my stamina was at a literal all-time low, and the prospect of singing in public after so long was daunting enough in itself - coupled with my usual nerves! But I practiced, and I went and I sang, and god-damn it if I didn't do ok after only a minor psychological melt-down the morning of the performance. It felt like a real achievement for me at this time, and (dare I say it) I was proud of myself for taking even a small step out of my void of silence.
So that has taken my mind slightly away from blogging and suchlike. The Curious Bead Shop has to continue, as do custom jewellery orders, so the things that fall by the wayside, albeit it temporarily, are often social media-based. I know, I should really figure out an automated system....but I haven't yet. One day....
Anyway, I arrived back in Belfast yesterday and spent the day packing up the weekend's orders. I then gave myself the evening off (that's allowed, right?) and did what my brain likes to zone out to - made some bracelets. Here are the spoils of my mental unwind ~
I'm pretty pleased with them. I can't tell you just how happy I am to have more of these gorgeous flower beads back in my life. Just in time for summer fair preparation. I have a few new colours on the way too and I am very excited to get my hands on them. I'm writing this up on my phone, on the bus (why am I incapable of organising my time?!) so I will add full links later, but for now, the art beads come from ~
www.swoondimples.etsy.com
www.elukka.etsy.com
www.secondsurf.com
www.magdalenaruiz.etsy.com
and the flower beads are of course available at www.thecuriousbeadshop.etsy.com.
Sunday, 28 April 2013
Pin It!
Well, how very exciting. I have just managed to add a Pinterest 'Pin It' hover button to the photos on my blog! Just hover your mouse over these lovely clasps (currently available in The Curious Bead Shop) and you'll see a wee tab button appear in the corner. I am always slightly astounded when I manage anything on the technical side here on the blog! I'm on Pinterest but haven't yet really got into it......I know loads of others are, so hopefully this will make it easier for you to Pin my pictures, should you so desire :-)
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