Lime Surprise

As a beader, I've always shied away from fringing.  Don't know why - it's just one of those things that I've been fearful of.   In the last few months, I've got over my fear of it.
Another thing I've never done, is make individual bead embroidery elements and link them together... until now!  
Before Christmas, I bought some gorgeous vintage cabochons from a shop called Rosebudlia; she sells a beautiful selection of cabs and other goodies.  I decided to put these cabs to use for another beading first - joining embroidery elements.

I decided that five elements would look best, and surprisingly, I had the right colours in my stash, so this was quite a stash-buster too!

This is what the finished necklace looked like, and here is me wearing it - so you can see how it sits.

It's just my opinion, but when making a piece like this, involving no metal components in the design, the best way to finish it off is to make a beaded clasp.  I love beaded toggle clasps - and the circular motifs in this lend themselves to a toggle clasp.  

 This shows a close-up of the beautiful cabs I used - they reminded me of ammonites, and the little bits of glitter in them give them a bit of sparkle.

One other slightly odd thing about this piece is that I actually used bugles in it.  Usually I don't use them as they are often sharp at the ends and can cause threads to fray and break, but these matte ones are very nice, and they work well in fringing.

I'd love to hear what you think about this latest piece of beading... I'm very excited about it, and I'm looking forward to using this technique more.

Beading Beaded Beads

I love beaded beads.  The idea of making a bead from beads fascinates me.  There is a lady called Sharri Moroshok who makes beaded beads - in fact, she designs and sells beautiful beaded beads.  You can check out her shop here: The Beaded Bead
A while back, I bought a tutorial of hers to make her signature beaded bead, it's beautiful, and I'd wanted it for a long time.  I bought the tutorial, and then discovered I didn't have any size 13 charlottes... so it sat, waiting for a long time to be made.

Yesterday, I gathered up my beads and started to make... 

They were really nice to make, the tutorial was really well written and easy to follow.

I'm going to enjoy wearing these over Christmas.  They're light, pretty, and remind me of baubles.

O-bead beading

O-beads - gorgeous little beads which are new on the market - they're flat, O shaped discs measuring 4mm across, 1.5mm high and they have a 1.5mm hole in them.

As soon as I saw these, I knew they would be great when used in bead embroidery, but thought they could lead to interesting bead weaving designs too.

I had today off work, so I thought I'd spend some time playing with these little beads, and I came up with a design which I think is rather nice.  It's a skinny bangle, with a base of right-angle-weave, embellished with O-beads.  In a fit of efficiency, this bangle has been designed, and the tutorial written up in the same day!  The tutorial is available in my tutorial shop and the finished bangles can be found in my jewellery shop.

I have to say a little bit about colour here - the picture above was not my initial colour choice when I was playing with this design - the colours in the picture below are more like my 'go to' colours.  I do love the purples and the coppery golds though.  

Also a little note about the O-beads themselves... the crystal capri gold O-beads used in the purple bracelet are different on each side - one side is clear, or crystal, the other side is the coated gold side.  In my bangle, I used them clear-side up, giving them a greater look of depth, but they look equally good with the metallic side facing up.  

Peacocks & Presents

A friend of mine has been very good to me over the last 8 months - she's been there for support and a shoulder to cry on when I've needed one.

She has often commented how much she likes the jewellery I make - but not the colours I usually work with.  I must admit that I do have a comfort zone with the colours I work with - earthy tones, lots of pinks and golds.  My friend likes brights, jewel colours and the like.

I wanted to make her something special, to say thanks for the support she has given me, and as a gift for Christmas, so I decided to take the plunge into some peacock tones - just for her.

The cab I used was a 'swap', but I really can't remember who made it, so I can't credit them, unfortunately, but it is beautiful.  My friend also has a nickel allergy, so this needed to have a non-metallic clasp - I finished it with a beaded toggle clasp.

So here it is - my Peacock necklace.

Welcome to Mrs Picklefish!

Hello, and thank you for coming to visit my new blog.

My name is Becs Dean-Skinner, and previously, I have blogged as Beads By Becs, you can visit my old blog here: Beads by Becs It has all sorts of bits and pieces about beading on it, including some free beading patterns.

My plan for this blog is to share all sorts of jewellery with the world - particularly things designed and made by me, and to share gorgeous things designed by my friends.

Here is Mrs Picklefish - the cab in the middle is made by Donna Sanders (Delicate Sparkles Shop), but the fish is made by me using bead embroidery.  She's actually made from a mix of five different colour beads, 3 metallics and two gold lustres.

The story behind the name:

One month ago, I married my wonderful husband - for about 2 years now, he has been nicknamed Picklefish - it al came about from a time when he sat and had a 10 minute conversation with my goldfish... since marrying, some of my friends have referred to me as Mrs Picklefish, and it seemed like a nice, memorable name to start a new blog with, and to name my jewellery designs after.

So here I am - I'd love it if you could pop in and see what I've been getting up to!