The World of Tattered Rose...

As I'm sure many of our regular customers will now know, Rachel Bland has worked at The Bead Shop for quite a while now. As well as being a regular and popular workshop tutor, she also creates beautiful jewellery. Over the years many of her designs have been featured in popular jewellery magazines for The Bead Shop, and plenty of her creations have been sold in the shop.

Here at The Bead Shop, we have always done our bit to promote local artists who produce quality handmade items, and so after she had branched out in to designing with Stampbord, we decided to stock the range that Rachel produced under her business name of Tattered Rose. Have a look at the gorgeous one-of-a-kind pendants we currently have available to buy right here! As you will see, Rachel also produces lovely handmade felt beads too.

Now it seems that Rachel's designs are catching more than just our local customers eyes. Recently we were very proud to learn that Tattered Rose had bagged a two page spread in her local Derbyshire magazine!

After receiving such a good response to her beautiful designs, the company that actually makes Stampbord in Austin, Texas, asked Rachel to create a step-by-step guide to using it! It is now featured on their blog, and can be viewed here. This is the necklace she created -

Below you will see the stunning necklace that won Rachel the accolade of Beads & Beyond Jewellery Maker of The Year 2010- as voted for by the public! We were all massively proud of Rachel - the competition was fierce but Rachel's Meadow Dreams necklace topped them all.

Other magazine appearances include a more recent Beads & Beyond article in the March issue, available here. Rachel was interviewed for the Meet & Greet section, and it is definitely worth a read!

With the growing popularity of Tattered Rose, we are sure that Rachel will be appearing in many more magazines and at plenty of craft fairs. Her blog shows how she is now delving in to the beautiful world of bridal adornments, as well as keeping up with her Stampbord and cardmaking. Keep an eye on her work - and also our handmade pages for any further one-of-a-kind creations too!

We wish Rachel and Tattered Rose every success with designing beautiful creations for the future - we will proudly keep you updated!

Rae x

Love is in the shops!

As Valentines day approaches we've been inspired by all manner of love themed treats!

First of all is this delightful wonderland inspired necklace by Magic Alice;

Then we found these unique earrings by TataniaRosa! These are perfect for those who like their accessories to stand out from the crowd,

If you would like to find out more, then you can keep upto date with her blog!

Poppy Sparkles is a name we often see on our twitter, and we were amazed by her selection of lovely jewellery! This necklace is our favourite though!

Check out her blog for more valentine related ideas!

Of course, no Valentines day would be complete without a card! This hand cut beauty is amazing! Not too soppy and pretty to look at! Although the mind boggles at Storeyshop's steady hand!

Her sweet blog is full of inspiration and nice photos!

Well, hopefully these have got you in the mood (for shopping!) Hope you all have a lovely Valentines day!

Much Love!

Punch Fun..!

It’s always exciting when new products arrive at The Bead Shop. There are lots of ooo’s and ah’s before the fight for who gets to try out said product commences! I was lucky enough to be the chosen one for testing out the new Letter and Number Punch Set and I couldn’t wait to get stuck in!

I have some knowledge of metal work from my time at college but this was a while ago (ahem!). I had a look through a great book Stamped Metal Jewelry by Lisa Niven Kelly for any hints or tips. This is a fabulous book and has step by step picture to guide you through the process so it’s great for beginners but also has more advanced projects that you can progress onto.

When I’m making my own jewellery, I love to use text in my creations so I already had a million ideas buzzing through my head.

I set up my stall; stamps, steel block, chasing hammer and any flat metal objects that I could get my hands on! I started by just getting a feel for the stamps and the pressure needed (as the book suggests). It requires a steady hand and an even strike with the hammer. Too little pressure and the impression is faint, too much and you get the edge of the stamp on your work as well. I would highly recommend practicing before you go on to use any special shapes or charms.

To make sure that your chosen word or phrase will fit onto the space you have available, it’s a good idea to draw around your chosen base on to some thick paper and press the stamps into the paper; this will give you a rough idea of how much room you have. If you want to stamp a sentence, write it out on some scrap paper, work out which is the middle letter and stamp each letter out from there.

There are some great ideas for enhancing the letters once you have stamped them. Using Liver of Sulphur, the boiled egg method, permanent pen or my personal favourite; acrylic paint. By applying the paint directly to the piece and wiping off the excess, the paint will stay inside the stamped impression. Appli Glue is great for this (dark colours work best on metal) and we currently have some amazing colours in the sale!

If hammering isn’t your thing there are other uses for the stamps. By pressing the stamps into polymer clay you can get a great effect. It also means there are many colours to choose from, once baked the acrylic paint method will add depth to the stamped letters.

Seal with Sculpey Glaze to finish. A little messy but a great effect!

Below are the finished pieces I put together. They are themed necklaces. I chose words and charms that work together to create a wearable 'story'. I had great fun testing this set and I still have lots of ideas I want to try! It’s great for making personalised jewellery and charms which seem to be very popular at the moment.

Rachel

x

Beads and Beyond; Jewellery maker of the Year 2011

The January issue of Beads and Beyond showcases the winners of their Jewellery Maker of the year 2011 competition. Excitingly, our very own Rachel Bland is the winner of the Mixed Media category! Her Meadow Dreams necklace is fabulous and incorporates her own stampbord design pendants alongside Trinity Brass components, creating a beautiful mellow piece.

Congratulations Rachel, we're all so proud of you!

The Nottingham Bead and Craft Show 2010!

On Saturday 20th November we organised the very first Nottingham Bead and Craft Show, and it was a resounding success! It was lovely to both see our regular supporters and meet so many new lovely customers, including people from Swansea, Dublin and Finland!



We had local artists including HanMade Beads, Nettynot, Tattered Rose and Stitches and Stars!



We also had a fantastic selection of traders, artists and shops providing a wide range of tempting items!

Knit Nottingham had a great selection of yarn and also taught the Basic Crochet workshop!




Guzzi Sue spinning with knit nottingham.




Nostalgia Beads who have the best range of Bead-weaving kits and are so friendly to talk to.




The Knitting Academyhad beautiful, exclusive yarns, including a delightful sparkly purple that Hana brought!




Buffy's Beads brought a beautiful selection of Semi-precious beads and clearly enjoyed themselves!



There was also a Swarvoski showcase including designs from our very own Helen and Rachel!



We also had delicious cupcakes from Alison's Bakery, but alas, these sold so quickly that we couldn't get a photo of the stall! However, we did catch Ana and Phoebe enjoying their cupcakes! (Hana treated all members of The Bead Shop staff to a cupcake!)



The day was so successful that we have already started planning the show for next year! Saturday 19th November 2011 is the date to put in your diary, and as we plan to make it bigger and better than last year, it might be wise to start saving now!
xx

We love Shrink Plastic!

Here at the Bead Shop we love to dabble with new mediums and techniques. Recently we have started stocking shrink plastic which is so versatile! And if you see Lisa's previous post, you can see we've fallen in love with this product!

To celebrate expanding our range to include black and clear shrink plastic, here are a few artists who have really inspired us!

Cuppa Tea And Cake has a fantastic range of tea cup badges, perfect for our tea loving selves!



Oh Badgers features lovely badges of animals including this fox, I love the detail!



orange bird studio has made this sweet birdy badge! I love how happy the bird looks!



She also makes cute handmade buttons and her blog is here if you want to see more!

Hmm, I'm feeling inspired now!
xx

Lisa's Shrink Plastic Addiction!

The Bead Shop is somewhere that I have wanted to work at for a long time, and so when a vacancy came up I applied straight away. I was very happy to be offered the job, and so I left my bar job and entered the beading world.

Before getting my previous job, I graduated from Nottingham Trent University, where I specialised in mould making and casting with resin. Whilst this was always a technique that I loved, I soon spotted a new favourite once I began working here at The Bead Shop – shrink plastic!

I immediately saw the potential of working with this new medium, and rushed out straight away to buy a pack of permanent markers to get designing!

I love this Cityscape necklace...

I have found that shrink plastic has really unleashed my inner child – I remember shrinking crisp packets when I was younger – but whilst reminiscent of that, this technique clearly offers far more scope! I was surprised by the amount of detail you can achieve with shrink plastic, whether through using printed designs or hand drawn ones.

So far I have created many pieces, and find it brilliant that I can bring my love of drawing in to my jewellery making. It is amazing to be able to wear my doodles, and it’s also a cheap way to satisfy my creative cravings.

As I have found myself so encouraged recently, I have been on a mission to do one creative thing every day, and with Halloween fast approaching I decided to draw inspiration from the fantastic Bead Shop window display and design some spooky pieces like the bat. (Shown below).

Although the Ghostbusters necklace isn’t very scary, I do love it. As I wanted it to look authentic, I found it useful to trace the image on to the plastic. I wasn’t convinced that I would be able to freehand draw the circle otherwise!

Out of the shrink plastic pieces I have created so far, I think my favourite has to be the Meg & Mog necklace. I took the image from the front cover of one of the books I used to read at primary school. I almost ended up choosing the cover of The Funny Bones book, but I think that will be one I attempt for next Halloween.

I really love working with shrink plastic, and have really been inspired by its many possibilities. I think I’ve managed some pretty fun necklaces so far, I hope you like them too!

Lisa x