The Big Bead Show

Sandown Racecourse was the setting once again for The Big Bead Show on Saturday...and being a lover of all things beady, naturally I had to pop along to see what was on offer. I couldn't make the previous one in April, but I was pleased to see that there were as many, if not more, stands than there had been at the October 2009 show, all jam packed with beads, findings, tools, book, kits and anything else you could think of related to jewellery making.

There were also the British Bead Awards finalists to go and coo over - I was particularly impressed by the geometric necklace in the seed bead category which had made fantastic use of bugle beads (which I am always ultra scared to use incase they manage to slice through my fireline!).

So, I hear you ask, what did I buy?

Some faux suede thongs in shades of dark forest green, purple and silvery grey....

An earring display stand which will come in very handy for the craft fair I am having a stall at in November...

I treated myself to a couple of strands of semi-precious beads - these ones are a kind of agate with a gorgeous frosted/matt appearance...

And some more faceted agate rounds...the camera doesn't do these justice as in real life they are a gorgeous deep purple, but this photo makes them look black.

I'm all about embellishment and fringing at the moment so I had to buy these gorgeous crystal rounds and bicones...and some more tiny glass hearts too.

 

I also bought a bumper pack of silver-lined size 8s and 3mm fire-polished crystals for a potential exciting project I may have coming up...will post more details when I know that things are definitely going to happen as I don't want to jinx it!

With the craft fair in mind, I also bought a few jewellery boxes to display some of my pieces in on my stall.

And finally, these flower findings caught my eye - I think they could work well with my daisy motifs - and whilst I was browsing the same stall I also spotted these tiny glass flowers to add to my flower bead collection.

So that's my purchases accounted for...all I have to do now is find time to bead so I can fill that earring stand come the end of this month!

Thanks for reading

N :)