Beads Galore!

Beadtime

Today a friend introduced me to Beadtime - a marvellous store in Kingston upon Thames, which stocks everything you could possibly need to make jewellery and much, much more. I took a few pics (not sure if I was allowed) just to give you a little idea of what the shop stocked ...

Oh my goodness where to start? The place was absolutely heaving with beads, buttons, ribbons and trim of every description. I decided to try and make myself something very simple to begin with ... and settled on a bracelet.

As I have said before I am not too artistic but luckily I had a very artistic companion and she helped me choose appropriate colours and styles - we had such fun choosing beads and changed our minds very frequently but eventually settled on these ...

Now sadly no pics of the beads as at this point my camera ran out of battery ... so putting it on charge I set to to design and make my bracelet ...


Even though I had chosen the simplest design and materials - being so ham fisted it took me ages to get them all in order and onto a chain - and then I found it almost impossible to actually fasten the bracelet on my wrist - after struggling for ages I managed to secure the fiddly fastening and now I am never going to take it off  (I cannot anyway!)

I have seen these bracelets many times before in expensive shops  (Pandora)  and made this one for a fraction of the cost so I am rather pleased with myself. What do you think?

Much Later.

Some photos - I still cannot get the bracelet off so will have to wear it until someone comes home and rescues me from it!  So some poor photos taken with great difficulty while wearing it ...

I shall post a better pic when I have had the manacle removed!  (Not a problem with the clasp merely with my ham fisted hands!)

A little note about the shop.

 There are many jewellery workshops in how to make charms, bookmarks, earrings, bracelets, hair pins, pendants, brooches, and necklaces and watchstraps. The prices of these courses range from only £10 to make a small item, to £40 for a day course and up to £160 for an intensive jewellery school which runs for four weeks. See the web-site for more information.

Taa Daa!