Use All Your Odd Beads for a Charm Bracelet!

January 6, 2013 at 4:38 pm | Beads, Charms, Charms Bracelets

Time to have a new year tidy up of your bead boxes and use up all your odds and ends, stray beads and findings. One way to get rid of a big variety of beads in one hit is to make a  charm bracelet with a medley of different types of beads combined to make dangling charms. This works particularly well if you adopt a style such as vintage for which antique gold style findings work well combined with decorative beads such as cloissonne, dark coloured glass beads and millifiore pieces. Try blending all your  citrus colour beads no matter what shape they are to create a harmonious and bright piece, using a chunky shiny chain for a great statement piece.

How small is that Bead – Size Matters

December 11, 2012 at 2:21 pm | Beads, bluestreak beads, General & Admin

Here at Bluestreak Beads we sell over 4000 different beads and findings to our lovely customers. Most of the people who buy our crystal sparkly things are experienced jewellery makers and know exactly what they are looking for.  But everyone has to start somewhere and understanding size is one of the areas with which aspiring beaders have the most problems. It is not unusual to have items returned to us because they are smaller than the purchaser realised.  Added to that many of our more senior “silver surfer”  buyers do not work in millimetres and are unable to imagine for example the size of a little bead described as “round sterling silver spacer bead 2mm“.

The problems for us are that we can’t list the imperial measurement for everything and most beads are shown larger than life size on a website, the medium through which we sell.  So for bead newbies we suggest that you get hold of a collection of odd beads, measure them and glue or wire them on to a piece of card with the sizes written underneath until you have grasped the subtle differences between the sizes. Or just draw some circles of different sizes on a piece of paper and keep it handy when popping new beads in your online shopping basket.

In the old days when we sold our beads through a catalogue they were always depicted life size, but that just doesn’t work on a computer screen, and so we created a new and common complaint “The beads I have bought are not the right size”.

Of course we will always take back any product that you bought from us and try to find  exactly the bead you need for the job in hand.

You can buy a bead gauge to help with measuring or simply use a ruler.

April 25, 2012 at 6:40 am | Beads, Charms Bracelets

Kashmiri beads are traditional, handmade Indian beads embellished with coloured glass chips, diamante, mirror chips, seed beads, spiral wire rings and gimp,  Each little bead is an individual work of art! The bead is made from a clay usually a mixture of marble powder and a resin. The decorative elements are added before the clay has hardened and dried. They have a large threading hole which is lined with a metal core. Designers can use them instead of rhinestone balls in shamballa style bracelets. A particularly glittery kashmiri bead makes a  neat pendant threaded on a fine chain.

Kashmiri Beads

New Swarovski Crystal Disc beads

April 24, 2012 at 6:51 pm | Beads, Swarovski Crystal Beads

Lovely New Swarovski Crystal disc beads are now online at Bluestreak Beads in our vast Swarovski section. As official stockists of the famous Swarovski crystal beads we like to provide a good selection. Look out for new styles online on a regular basis.

These little discs make pretty earrings with the addition of just a headpin and ear wire! Choose from Amethyst, Aquamarine, Crystal and the new Swarovski colour, Silver night.

Swarovski Twist Disc Beads

New Website for Bluestreak Beads

April 22, 2012 at 8:40 am | bluestreak beads, General & Admin

Thanks to everyone who is trying out our shiny new website! It has a few new features for you, carries all of our 4,000 beady items and is just a week old. We haven’t launched it with a massive fanfare as glitches are inevitable and we want them ironed out before we shout about it too loudly. You can now create an account, this will enable you to look back at all your bead orders from now on.

In your account you can make a wishlist where you can save beads and findings that you might like to buy to in the future. Remember to subscribe to teh Newsletter to get all the news of fresh beads on the site, offers and competitions.

I will be adding lots of new beads over the next couple of weeks, there is a bit of a beady log jam as a result of the new site coming on stream.

New Beads due in tomorrow!

October 31, 2011 at 4:01 pm | Beads, glass beads

We are getting excited here waiting for the delivery of our next shipment of lovely glass beads!

The beads are due in tomorrow, and we cannot wait to get the boxes off the pallet and have a good old rummage around  inside at all the new jewellery making goodies we ordered around 5 months ago! I ordered them but I cannot remember every design of  bead that  we went for. I know that there are a load of lovely lampwork beads with unusual designs and some cute little glass pip beads. We’ve got the traditional baroque type wedding cake beads too with their applied garland of golden glass strands and dots of colour. There should be some dichroic glass pendant beads in the delivery too.

Anyway some of the girls who work here are ready to pick out their favourites and take them home to their bead boards and craft studios. I’ll get them on the site as soon as I can. The great news is that they will be really good value!

Many of them should be available in wholesale beads packs in the next few weeks!

Happy Halloween fellow beaders!

Jewellery Making -Vintage Bracelets

October 22, 2011 at 12:11 pm | Beads, Swarovski Crystal Beads

I’m starting to think about Stocking fillers and tree presents. . . . . I know Christmas is still a couple of months away but I might as well use my jewellery making time to add to my stash of gifts. If I make jewellery that I like I can always keep it for myself

I’m starting with bracelets this year, mostly because I like making them but also they are really popular and they can use up lots of odd beads in different shapes, sizes and colours especially if you go for the vintage look which is so fashionable still.

For a pretty handmade vintage beaded bracelet you will need some jewellery making chain, black or copper plated works well and a handful of headpins and spacer-beads. Next you need to choose all your beads and pendants. I like a real good mix of colours and materials to include filligree beads, glass beads, stampings, pendants and pearls. You may prefer to stick to a colourway such as goden browns and autumnal shades in an assortment of bead types, include some swarovski for a bit of sparkle and maybe a special clasp to finish the piece in style.

Bracelets such as these also sell well at  fairs and markets. Make a nice collection of them,  pop them in  pretty boxes with a little “handmade by me” label and you should have a successful day at the craft fair.

Pearl Bead Jewellery making

October 20, 2011 at 1:43 pm | Beads, glass beads, pearls

Jewellery fashions  come and go with seasonal speed, but buying pricey ready-made jewellery from shops, stores and markets can cost you  a small fortune. By making your own jewellery you could save your cash, always be bang on trend and have plenty of bead presents for friends and family!

If you’re looking to cut down on costs even further make your own beaded jewellery which is guaranteed to remain fashionable forever or at least let’s say timeless, you just can’t go wrong with glass or freshwater pearl beaded jewellery.

Pearl beads are the epitome of classic style, and the surefire thing about creating jewellery using these beads is  that they look stunning with nearly  every outfit.

Cream, white and silver glass pearl beads come in a variety of sizes- so you could opt for small beads to make delicately pretty pieces, or larger beads to make a bolder style statement. Swarovski crystal pearls cost slightly more but the quality is faultless. We sell them in a large range of sizes and colours.

So stock up on a few pearls, either glass or freshwater, some beads to put with them, a few basic tools and stringing  materials, and you will be well on the way to conjuring up some stylish pieces of handmade jewellery . You will of course need some findings and clasps to finish your pieces with.

Using a Jig in your jewellery making

October 3, 2011 at 1:46 am | Beads

Little bits of curly coloured or silver wire make pretty connectors between beads in your jewellery designs.  You can make them using a thing-ma-jig! It’s a solid Aluminium Jig with  pegs which you position in the base and then use them to form shapes with the artistic wire!  You need to create a template to wrap wire around to make curvy link Our jigs come with sample  patterns, comprehensive instructions and a blank template.
Choose from our selection of Artistic Wires to use with the jig.

We sell a beginners jig kit and a deluxe version. Take your poick and enhance your beady designs.

October Beads! Try a change of Jewellery Making Style.

October 1, 2011 at 1:45 am | Beads, bluestreak beads

It’s a new month so how about trying out some new beads. It’s easy to get stuck in a groove with your jewellery making, as you reach for the same beads and spacers. So how about trying something new and bringing a bit of variety to your jewellery making. If you love to use a certain colour pallette, maybe brown glass beads  and cream pearls  go for a brighter bead collection. Try some of our vibrant acrylic beads maybe. If you design with small beads  try out one or two larger pendant bead pieces. Make a necklace long if you normally stick to chokers or how about a bunch of bright beady bracelets if you love to wield your pliers only for earrings! You don’t have to wear them yourself, give them as gifts or even sell them on your jewellery stall. Trying something new will improve your design skills and turn you into a more versatile jewellery maker. So go on have a bash, you can always cut it up and start again! Happy jewellery making beady friends.