Inside the Studio with Rebecca of Songbead

Each week one of our contributors gives you a sneak peek into their studio, creative process or inspirations. We ask a related question of our readers and hope you'll leave comments! As an incentive, we offer a prize each week to encourage you to use that keyboard and tell us what you think. The following week a winner is chosen at random from all eligible entries. And here are the results from last week!

This week's winner is Lynda of Fresh Baked Designs. Congratulations! You have won a $25 gift certificate to Humblebeads! Please contact Heather to claim your prize!

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This week, it's my turn here on Inside the Studio - and I'm posting this super late, so sorry about that! 2016 hasn't got off to a very healthy start here in chilly Edinburgh - I'm getting over the flu, and today my partner finally succumbed to it too and has been off sick, so I've been nurse maid for both of us! However, I thought I'd share 2 weeks of 2016 in pictures with you this week. 

One thing I have managed to do is make quite a bit of jewellery. Things are usually quieter in The Curious Bead Shop at this time of year, so I have been using my time to make my own jewellery and try and stock up my shop, which inevitably gets a bit empty whilst I'm doing craft fairs in the run up to Christmas. Here are a few of my new pieces: 

Looking Out

 - Handmade beads from Helen Chalmers, Green Girl Studios, myself and Soul Silver

Wild

- Handmade beads from Swoondimples and myself

First off, a couple of necklaces. I love making necklaces, but I always have to steel myself to do so - somehow, they don't come as easy to me as bracelets or earrings. I can't tell you how many times I took Wild apart and put it back together again! And yet it's so deceptively simple now it's finished. 

- Handmade beads from Soul Silver, Helen Chalmers, Humblebeads, Kylie Parry, Joanne Tinley Jewellery, Jubilee, Jo Lucksted, Green Girl Studios, Bo Hulley Beads and myself.

I made a whole bundle of bracelets earlier this week, a couple of which have flown away to their new homes already I'm very happy to say. 

Foxy Business

- Handmade beads from Jubilee, Jo Lucksted, Green Girl Studios and unknown lampwork artist

Really sweet story about this particular bracelet - last weekend, I was whisked away for a late christmas present (and a bit of convalescing as I was just turning a positive corner in my nasty flu virus!) for a night at the gorgeous Mhor 84. UK folks, or folks visiting the UK, if you want somewhere magical to stay in the wilds of Scotland that's only an hour or so's drive from central belt, and doesn't break the bank, then LOOK NO FURTHER. Twinkling fairy lights, handmade Scottish berry meringues as big as my head and veggie haggis burgers for tea - I was in heaven. (There were other food options for tea of course - but if you've tried MacSween's Veggie Haggis before, you will know why I absolutely plumped for this option and no other!) It's dog-friendly too, and although we are a house bunny family rather than a dog family, I love a well-behaved pup as much as anyone, so that was an added bonus to the weekend. 

Anyway, so mellowing and relaxing was our wee trip that I managed to kickstart 2016's jewellery-making after dinner. I cannot help but take beads away with me when I go away (honestly, it's like some kind of sickness. An addiction. Anyone want to sign up to bead addicts anonymous with me?!) and so after dinner, we retreated to our room and I got to work on a few pieces, beginning with this little foxy number in my favourite red and turquoise. When I got back home, photographed and shared it on Facebook, I tagged Mhor 84 in the picture - and who should get in touch, asking to buy the piece? Why, Mhor 84 of course! I was so excited and touched to think of this little bracelet going back to where it started, a real highpoint of the year so far for me. Thank you, Mhor 84!

Star Stuff

- Handmade beads and findings from myself

I also got round to editing a bunch of photos which I took just before Christmas - I always make a whole heap of earrings for my craft fairs, because it does seem that they are always my biggest sellers, and of course in determinedly always keeping my stand FULL, it means I end up with lots left at the end! Perfect as gifts, to fill the shop up and also, to satisfy my own earring thirst, which is strong! I truly believe that you cannot own enough earrings. At my last craft fair, I overheard one potential customer talk herself out of buying a pair of mine because, in her own words, she 'already had a pair of turquoise earrings'. Lady, you and I see the world in VERY different ways!

Crocus

Another thing I was up to before Christmas was creating custom colour mixes for my handwoven beads, something I absolutely loved doing. It's lovely to be able to complement larger art beads with these wonderfully textural little handmade beads in just the right colours. This custom mix, Crocus, was made to match Heather's pendant:

 for a necklace of mine which was bought before I had the chance to photograph it properly (must try to do better with that!). I picked out the magenta and spring green and threw in a little turquoise to go with some of the other beads I used within the necklace and pull everything together. Of course, I had to turn them into stud earrings too! I've also done a couple of custom listings of these as loose beads for people on request - if you need some Crocus beads in your life, or another of my custom mixes which you may have seen in my jewellery, then just give me a shout!

Between the Sea and the Sky

- Handmade beads from myself and Green Girl Studios

One last new design I've been working on is this new handwoven rondelle. I made the switch to working a lot more with 1mm (size 15) seed beads from 2mm (size 11) in the run up to Christmas, and although it EATS into the work time, I simply adore the results. I don't think I could afford to sell these loose unfortunately- they are rather time-consuming! - but I'm just loving including them in my own designs. Such a satisfying shape to create and work with! 

Last but not least, I got a bunch of new faceted beads arrive for The Curious Bead Shop. I'm SO excited about the gorgeous saturated hues which these velvety matte beads come in! They only arrived a few days ago, but I can't wait to whip up a few designs in them - yum. You can find them here if you'd like to join in with the fun! 

This week, I'm offering a Curious Bead Shop goody bag worth at least $25 to a lucky winner. All you have to do to be in with a chance to win is leave a comment below answering my question - what's been the highlight of 2016 for you so far? 

Good luck!

Rebecca is a Scottish jewellery designer; currently living in the capital city of Edinburgh. You can read more about her and her work at her blog, songbeads.blogspot.com and see more of her jewellery at songbead.etsy.com. She also has a supplies shop at thecuriousbeadshop.etsy.com.

Inside the Studio with Rebecca of Songbead

Each week one of our contributors gives you a sneak peek into their studio, creative process or inspirations. We ask a related question of our readers and hope you'll leave comments! As an incentive, we offer a prize each week to encourage you to use that keyboard and tell us what you think. The following week a winner is chosen at random from all eligible entries. And here are the results from last week!

Congratulations Heidi Post!
You have won a Mystery Bundle of Beads from Claire.
Contact Claire to claim your prize!

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Hello there! It's my turn at Inside the Studio this week, and I have so much that I could share with you ask a massive list of things to do in the studio, that I've left this post to absolutely the last minute! Right down to the wire - eek! And why? Because I have a craft fair tomorrow, and then another one on Sunday - plus a couple of stockists to get jewellery off to on Monday. And not really enough stock to cover all of these things - because of course, I am going to sell ALL of the jewellery on my stand tomorrow, right?! 

So today's post is going to be picture heavy :-) I hope you'll enjoy that - a visual journey of what's going on with me in preparation, particularly the last couple of days. 

A couple of Instagrams from yesterday. I am fond of a WIP (work in progress!) shot, especially if it's a bundle of art beads like the first one above. All that potential. It's nice to whet your followers' appetites too, and it certainly worked in this case - when I shared the finished necklace, it was snagged almost immediately! A real Winter Wonderland - with handmade beads from me, Humblebeads and Kylie Parry. 

These are from today, on the glamorous backdrop of my bead mat...ahem! Something I find myself doing more and more these days is recreating the same design. Letting myself really take my time over the 'master copy' - the Winter Wonderland necklace from yesterday took me some time - not just finding exactly the right ingredients but playing around with the composition, taking the time to restring if necessary, without worrying too much about the time spent on it - always something to consider when you then price things up at the end. ALWAYS. (I know I'm not the only one sometimes guilty of ignoring this factor!) Then, I can work the same piece up in different colour ways, and that time spent on the design is absorbed amongst the set. Here, I made 2 Winter Wonderland necklaces - and the beauty of working with art beads is of course, that no two pieces are the same, even if you are working from a blueprint. 

Another shot of the original Winter Wonderland necklace - one of those pieces I felt really chuffed with upon completion. 

As you may have spotted in the above necklaces, I've been making a new style of handwoven bead in these pieces - ones from custom seed bead soups that I've been creating in response to the art beads I'm working with. I've really loved this process - it means that rather than have long sessions of weaving followed by long sessions of stringing, I can intersperse the two together, which makes the whole process of making jewellery feel so much more organic and blended, somehow. Some custom handwoven beads  (with gorgeous lampwork birds from Samantha Capelling) above which were made in response to....

...a really, truly stunning set of lampwork lentils from Helen Chalmers, one of my all-time favourite lampwork artists (who I've been lucky enough to have a couple of lessons with recently too!). Just look at that stringer work! This necklace also contains art beads from Green Girl Studios and Beads by Earthtones. 

I had my first craft fair of the season last weekend, and the thing that I sold the most of was - unsurprisingly I think - my new Blossom Studs. Simple pressed glass table-cut flowers (which you can find over here in Curious) which I affix to sterling silver posts with industrial-strength glue. Ok, it's not the most exciting job, and I particularly dislike the sanding process (I sand both the metal posts and the beads, allowing the glue a better surface to make a good bond), but it's relatively quick once I have the sanding done, they are great stocking-fillers and most importantly, they are super-pretty! A big batch of these made up tonight. 

Remember Winter Wonderland that I started this post with? Can you recognise it here? When you spend time making a design just right, it stands a few more outings! Art beads from Humblebeads,  Blueberri Beads and Bo Hulley Beads. 

You'll be pleased to know that I haven't just got jewellery from the last 36 hours for my fairs this weekend(!) Here are some bracelets from earlier this week, which I actually managed to take semi-decent photos of. Although the light at the moment is an absolute nightmare to photograph in - how I do struggle at this time of year! Basically, until the clocks go forward again, I know my photos will all be a little lacklustre. Sad face. Handmade beads here from primarily myself and Helen Chalmers, but also Moogin, Swoondimples, Lorelei Eurto and Indian Creek Art Glass.

If you are in central Scotland this weekend, then please do come along and say hello at one of my craft fairs! Tomorrow's is at the Scottish Arts Club, Rutland Square, from 12 til 4, and Sunday's is The Handmade Show at Perth Concert Hall. Start your Christmas shopping by supporting handmade - I know I'm going to! 

So my question to you this week is, do you stick to absolute one of a kinds when creating jewellery? Or do you rework and rework, and create variations, like I am doing right now? What's your favourite way to work and why? 

Leave an answer in the comments, and you can win a £10 voucher for either Songbead or The Curious Bead Shop. The winner will be announced in next week's Inside the Studio post. 

Rebecca is a Scottish jewellery designer; currently living in the capital city of Edinburgh. You can read more about her and her work at her blog, songbeads.blogspot.com and see more of her jewellery at songbead.etsy.com. She also has a supplies shop at thecuriousbeadshop.etsy.com.

Inside the Studio with Rebecca of Songbead

Each week one of our contributors gives you a sneak peek into their studio, creative process or inspirations. We ask a related question of our readers and hope you'll leave comments! As an incentive, we offer a prize each week to bribe you to use that keyboard and tell us what you think. The following week a winner is chosen at random from all eligible entries.

Congratulations to Terri del Signore!

You have won a 'Seek Beautiful Moments' bracelet kit from Erin:

in your choice of SPICY (reds/pinks) or BREEZY (blues/greens) color palette. WooP! Email Erin to claim your lovely prize.

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Today it's over to me at Songbead. Well, as usual for this year (and every year - let's be honest, but particularly 2015) this past month has been super-busy. I sometimes feel like I'm pedalling to stand still right now. You know that feeling - a constant whirling dervish but all you seem to manage to achieve is the bare minimum requirements, perhaps because there are so many of them?! Which is all very well, but I have soooo much to prepare for for the end of this month and all of August - I could really do with one of Hermione Granger's time whatsits - you know, that thing that allows you to go back in time and gain extra hours. Yes please, one of them for me over here, thank you kindly. 

Last time I wrote for Inside the Studio, I was about to head off to Holmfirth for their biannual Art Market. 

My stand at this summer's Art Market, Holmfirth.

Well, that's been and gone - blink and you miss it! - and I'm forging ahead with preparations for the rest of the summer, along with, you know, keeping things going with The Curious Bead Shop, Songbead, the flat, family and three cute bunny rabbits. Phew! 

The big things I have ahead are for one, the 3.5 week Craft and Design Fair in Edinburgh, an annual event, which this year is from the 8th - 30th  August. If you're in or around Edinburgh during August, I thoroughly recommend popping along - it's open every day, come rain or shine(!), from 11am to 6pm, and it's free entry for absolutely oodles and oodles of wonderful handmade loveliness. 

A view of my wee hut from last year's West End Fair.

You'll also not only see me, but art bead artist Helen Chalmers too - one of my favourite lampworkers. 

Helen putting her wee own hut together last year!

As you can imagine, everyone preparing for this event, whether they are doing one, two and three and a half weeks like I am, is starting to feel that August really is only just around the corner....eek! And as I discovered at Holmfirth 2 weekends ago, after working until after midnight every night for a week, I *just* had enough stock for a one-day fair. So, quite a lot to do for a 3.5 week event then.....

To make things extra challenging for myself, I'm diving back into the 'Song' part of Songbead and off to London on the 21st July to work on a newly commissioned opera with Re:Sound, which we'll be performing in London, Suffolk and Manchester during August - with the final performance on the 11th August. What's that, I hear you say? But my fair starts on the 8th? Yes - you are quite right - I'm overlapping these two projects. Gah! When I applied for both, I had no certainty of getting either, and so after much discussion with Helen, decided that if the best case scenario happened, she would take time off work and cover the beginning of the fair for me. She is a SUPER-supportive wife, and almost always helps me out at craft fairs, and so she knows the ropes almost as well as I do with these things, so I have no concerns there (and lots of gratitude!). However, it does mean that I have to be extra prepared for the fair, because I will be working flat out throughout England from the 21st July - 11th August at something completely different! And as it's a brand new opera, score only arriving with the cast yesterday, with all of us not just singing and acting, but playing instruments too (eek!), it is going to be A LOT of work. Rewarding, exciting and brilliant - but a LOT of work. Cue hilarious picture of me playing the cello as Cinderella's Mother in Into the Woods 4 years ago. 

FYI, that's my wee sister Catriona on the far right, playing Rapunzel in the same production. The younger and cuter version of me. Or perhaps I am the older, decidedly more worn-out version of her...!

So, as you can imagine, I'm feeling not a little anxious and full of nervous anticipation about the season ahead. In some ways, I'm wishing I had another two months before I head off to London - but in another way, I am itching to get going. However, it's probably best that I do have the ten (TEN!!!) days left before leaving, as I still have oodles of music learning AND jewellery making to achieve before then. Eek! Wish me luck! Here are some of the pieces I've whipped up over the past week or so - a good start but still lots and lots of making to do:

Art Beads - Green Girl Studios

Art Beads - Something to do beads, Humblebeads, Green Girl Studios

Art Beads - Swoondimples, Helen Chalmers

Art Beads - Round Rabbit, Green Girl Studios

Art Beads - Round Rabbit, Joanne Tinley

Art Beads - Soul Silver

Art Beads - Soul Silver 

You can find most of these pieces over in my etsy shop now by the way - I am trying my best to keep on top of photographing and listing as I create, so that my only recently restocked shop doesn't empty again over the summer! 

You'll see I've an abundance of necklaces in this latest crop, which some of you will know is unlike me. And it's for this very reason that I'm trying to focus on producing more necklaces! For some reason, my brain really resists necklaces - it's desperate to create bracelet after bracelet after earrings after bracelet....but I'm trying to be strict and say NO! Necklaces are needed too! And I'm rather pleased with the ones here, I must say. 

So this leads me onto my question for you, dear readers, and of course the offer of a little bribe prize for answering :-) 

Tell me, what's your go-to piece of jewellery to create? What flows from you naturally and easily - and what challenges you, seemingly every time? 

Leave your answer in the comments below to be in with the chance of winning a £14 (just over $20) voucher for your choice of my shops - Songbead or The Curious Bead Shop, the choice is yours. The winner will be announced in next week's Inside the Studio post. 

Rebecca is a Scottish jewellery designer; currently living in the capital city of Edinburgh. You can read more about her and her work at her blog, songbeads.blogspot.com and see more of her jewellery at songbead.etsy.com. She also has a supplies shop at thecuriousbeadshop.etsy.com.

Inside the Studio with Rebecca of Songbead

Each week one of our contributors gives you a sneak peek into their studio, creative process or inspirations. We ask a related question of our readers and hope you'll leave comments! As an incentive, we offer a prize each week to bribe you to use that keyboard and tell us what you think. The following week a winner is chosen at random from all eligible entries.

Congratulations to Bairozan!

You have won a set of Claire's porcelain rose beads!

Send Claire a message to claim your prize. 

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It feels a bit strange to me to be doing an 'Inside the Studio' post today. I feel like perhaps I don't have quite enough to show you - cut back to late January, and I was working on designs pretty much every day, but what with one thing and another, these habits have dwindled away. Not through deliberate choice, mind you - but simply because life has got in the way. 

However, jewellery is once more going to get in the way of life(!) as I have my first craft fair of 2015  in the pretty town of Holmfirth in West Yorkshire in a short couple of weeks, on the 28th June. 

TWO WEEKS. 

Can I tell you that the idea of doing a fair in only two weeks absolutely terrifies me?

There, I've said it. I don't think I've ever felt quite this way about an approaching craft fair before - never had quite SO little stock. Never felt as if I am sitting atop quite so stagnant a time in my creative life. Seriously, I couldn't even fill a coffee table right now, never mind this:

Eek. 

So, what am I going to do in this situation? 

Well, I can tell you what I am NOT going to do. I am not going to try and do something new, something ground-breaking, sometime startling. There's just not the time. Maybe that sounds defeatist - I certainly felt a little like that at the beginning of the month - but I don't feel like that anymore. I was talking to a friend about it the other day, and saying how each year, I want to bring something really new to the table - to move my jewellery on in a visible (to me at least) and almost deliberate way. But, my friend said, maybe this isn't the year for that, Rebecca. And maybe that's ok. 

So, ok it will have to be. I can't reinvent the wheel in 2 weeks, that's for sure! But I am pretty sure that, with my nose to the grindstone, I can fill my jewellery stand in time for the 28th June. I think I can, I think I can....hopefully by the 28th I'll be saying I thought I could, I thought I could...!

Here are a few pieces I *have* managed to create over the past week. A start, at least!

Art beads: Earthshine, Humblebeads, Beads by Earthtones.

As you can see, I am including my own handwoven beads more and more often in my pieces...

Art Beads: Swoondimples, Green Girl Studios.

...so just perhaps...

Art Beads: Earthshine

...I am achieving that elusive 'something new' anyway.

Art Beads: Beads by Earthtones, Elukka, Swoondimples. One side...

...and the reverse. I love these little touches that Heather Millican gives her beautiful beads.

 I recently celebrated my one year anniversary since I began making these tiny little handwoven beads. Well, I didn't exactly celebrate it, but you know what I mean! I would love to try other mediums to work in to create my own beads, but like it or not, I have a long, LONG history with a needle and thread and these tiny wee beads just found me again, even though I thought I had long since done with bead-weaving. I am glad they did. Stitching is one of those things that soothes my soul - rhythmic, repetitive, meditative. I enjoy playing with colour, simple folk-inspired designs - like those seafoam and rust daisies above - and how even in one colour, they add such a tactile and visually textural element to a piece of jewellery. 

I would love to be a master silversmith rather than a very, very basic one, a ceramics guru or someone who could carve intricate and detailed miniature pieces of art. But these skills are not within my arsenal - not now, at any rate. 

But stitching? Stitching most certainly is. It feels like home, somehow. I can sink into it, both physically and mentally.

And now for the prize I'm offering this week...Much like art beads, in the world of seed beads, even the plain old rocailles that I work with, there is always something new - a new colour, a new finish, a new way of dying them. I received a package of some brand new (to me, at least, and I certainly haven't seen them from my preferred brand in the UK before now) seed beads; various colours but with a gorgeous Picasso finish. Seriously, I am *ExCiTeD* to create with these lovelies! I have tiny wee bags of such deliciously-titled beads as Transparent Ruby Picasso, Opaque Chartreuse Picasso, Transparent Seafoam Picasso, Opaque Dark Teal Picasso sitting in front of me, to name but a few. They arrived only this morning, and so I don't have any finished examples to show you, but TRUST ME, these little handwoven Picasso {song}beads are going to pretty special - colourful, rustic, characterful. *Me.* And perhaps you, too.

A mix of the type of beads I have to work with....yummy! Picture found on Pinterest.

So I am offering you a small clutch of these lovelies. They will be hot off the press, and right now, I have a very, very limited quantity of these seed beads so there aren't going to be many of the finished article! 

To enter, answer me this - what activity or technique (jewellery-based of otherwise) feels like home to you? What do you return to, over and over again, whether your head want to or otherwise - what does your heart lead you home to? Leave your answer in the comments below to be in with the chance to win some of these very limited edition handwoven {song}beads!

Rebecca is a Scottish jewellery designer; currently living in Edinburgh, capital of her native land. You can read more about her and her work at her blog, songbeads.blogspot.com and see more of her jewellery at songbead.etsy.com. She also has a supplies shop at thecuriousbeadshop.etsy.com.