Bead blog recap weeks 19-22

I've forgotten to do my usual biweekly summaries of my other blog, Manekis Pärlblogg, for weeks so this time it'll be a long, long post. Contests, bead cruises, silk ribbon earrings, colours and margaritomancy are just a few of the themes from the last four weeks.





Bezelled loomwork
Mount your small bead loom creations in a bezel for a pretty pendant.

FMG's Swarovski Elements Contest
Fire Mountain Gems now accept entries for their Swarovski contest.

New design contest from Eurodike
Swedish bead shop has announced their latest jewellery contest.

Heishies from perler beads
Plastic cylinder beads (known as hama, nabbi, perler beads etc) can be heated so they melt into flat heishie beads.

Margaritomancy
Margaritomancy is the name for divination by the means of pearls, said to have been used in Ancient times. (Oh, the things you learn when watching QI!)

Bead cruises
There are many venues for meeting other beaders and take workshops. One luxurious way is to hop onboard a cruise ship.

Shamballa bracelet meets flat spiral
Check out this lovely shamballa-inspired flat spiral bead bracelet tutorial!

British Bead Award
British Bead Award is an international design contest for beaders and jewellery makers, with finalists being displayed at the Big Bead Show.

Rock candy jewellery
Make cute edible necklaces and braclets (for adults) using flavoured sugar.

Gems & Gemology free on iPad
Gems & Gemology magazine has launched a free iPad edition to complement the printed mag.

Swarovski interactive colour wheel
If you love to work with swarovski crystals and pearls, this online colour wheel might be of interest to you.

Neon jewellery inspiration
FusionBeads offer some free inspiration projects using the new colour intense neon crystal pearls.

Pavé beads
Learn what pavé beads (and shamballa-style beads) are, named after the pavé settings.

Fabric tape bracelets
How to make bracelets wrapped with printed fabric tapes. Also washi tape bracelet projects.

Silk ribbon earrings
Bead Balance have many creative ideas for using silk ribbon in earring designs.

Smyckestillbehor.se seed bead contest
The swedish bead shop has announced their latest contest. The theme this time is seed beads.

Art Jewelry Elements Inspired by challenge
Read about the new challenges from the AJE blog.

Vote for a winner
Many design contests and challenges have the winners or people's choice awards chosen by public vote. Why not have your say in everything from small monthly challenges to the big international bead contests? And you can get some fab eye candy and inspiration in the process.

Charcoal blocks
Learn more about this natural soldering block that have many benefits for metal smiths.

Alice in Wonderland challenge and blog hop
Might be a tad too late to join in this fantasty themed challenge/hop.

City guides for beaders
Want to write a beader's guide to a city you know well? Contact me!

Glow in the dark lights
Instuctions for the beaded light garlands I've mentioned on this blog before.

Felt
Felt is a versatile textile to use in embroidered and floral jewellery. There are several types of felt available.

Hemp
Hemp is a sustainable jewellery material that can be used for much more than hippie-style jewellery.

FusionBeads weekly challenges
Encouraged by the success of the national craft month challenges, FusionBeads have launched a set of weekly challenges.

Knitted felt beads
Felted beads are usual made from wool rovings, but here's a tutorial for making beads using yarn that's first knitted into balls and then felted.

Needle case and bead pad combo
Helen Gibb offers kits for vintage-inspired combined needle cases and bead pads.

Magic finishes
If you hear the word magic used for seed beads it can be one of two different kinds of colour intense finsihes: Miyuki's sparkling colour linings or the metallic czech surface effects.