Beads and Beyond

Hurrah! The February issue of Beads and Beyond is here! I've just come from the shed to get a drink to find that our postie has taken advantage of the cleared road and pavements and brought us the first mail for what seems like a month, but is really only four days or so. He is good, but the ice rink that was our road defeated him for a while! Having said that, I've still got my copy so early that they haven't had a chance to update the website yet so I can't pinch borrow a picture of the front cover! The magazine is due out next week, so you've got a bit of notice to go and find a copy.


I've got a four-page article in the magazine this month - and for the first time in months I actually remembered to take photos of the jewellery before I sent it off! The projects use smoky quartz and teach you how to make findings by melting the send of silver wire in the flame of a blow torch. The main project is the necklace above, but I think my favourite is the pair of earrings below that use sparkly faceted briolettes.


There's a really good mix of projects in there this month - a lampwork bead heart, lots of bling for Valentine's Day, and the most exquisite wire crocheted pearl bracelet.

My campaign to have the most projects on the Beads and Beyond website is making good progress, by the way - click here to find another earrings tutorial!