Beaded Bottle Collars

I have two weddings to get ready for. I decided to try wine bottle collars..... not as hard as I thought....but not easy.

This is the pattern I found. Unfortunately, it gave bead measurements in the 1/4 inch-type measurements and if you've bought beads in the US in the last few years, they use mms. So finding the beads was a challenge in itself. This was my first attempt.

Not bad I must say. Here's a closer look.

I took it to work to show it off, and instantly got orders for 6 MORE! My co-workers are always saying, "You should get a booth at the Saturday Market", "You should consign in the gift shop", "You should sell on eBay". The truth is, they keep me busy enough and I never really build up a stock of anything.!
So, this is my second attempt. I only slightly changed the design.

I know, not a great pic. Sorry. I really wanted to do one in a sapphire blue and black diamond-type crystal, maybe with a little bit of opalite or moonstone, but I can't find the beads in the right dimensions. Pisses me OFF!!
Anyway, this is a fun and interesting change from bracelets and earrings, and it gives me some new ideas for those too!

Bits 'n Baubles n' Bling!!

Beaded Flowers

Recently I discovered beaded flowers. I'd been wanting to make fascinators and hair bands for a while but found feathers insanely intimidating - not to mention expensive.

One night when I was trying to fall asleep I remembered something I saw once on beaded flowers. An hour or so later I was making my first pieces.

I discovered VERY quickly that threading tiny seed beads onto a piece of wire was monotonous, slow and extremely cumbersome. With a few minutes of research, I realized that I needed a bead stringing tool. The primary variety out there is the Bead Spinner.


At around $36, they're a bit outside my budget. Nice to have but not practical at the moment. So I asked my husband if he could make me one. This is what we came up with.


It was made from the base of a spinning display of some sort with a shallow, wide metal bowl hot glued to the top. It is VERY simple but VERY effective. As I got the bowl for free, I'd wager it cost us approximately $2 to make. Much better than $36. Of course, you don't get the needle that comes with a proper bead spinner but...with the wire I'm using, it's not that big a deal and the needles themselves aren't really expensive. I found them at $1 each online. That's a price I'm willing to pay if ever I wish to use any sort of softer line to bead.

Using the above device, I managed to string hundreds of beads in a very short period of time. I worked out that I could make up a 4 metre long string of beads in about 20 minutes. From that (and others), I made these:



The headbands were a simple joy to make. I'd picked up some headbands on one of my favourite sites AliExpress. You can pick up wholesale items for low prices - most with free shipping. I got 50 plastic headbands for $22 or so delivered and it took about a week to get to me. I'm a little in love with the website.

I'll be posting tutorials at some point in the near future on making the bead spinner as well as the french beading technique for the flowerrs and making them into headbands and combs.

Until then...

Welcome To Crazy Crafty Cool

I fell into craft fairly late in the game. I had always been interested in art but had never been the crafty sort. A few years ago I learned how to knit, crochet, embroider and cross stitch and last year I started making jewellery - leading to the formation of my business, Bead Bug.

Once I got started, I couldn't stop. Baking, metalworking, sewing - I've been trying it all.

I wanted to make a blog to express my love of craft and to show and teach about the creations I've made but I imagined that I would never be able to produce a viable stream of posts. I couldn't post fast enough.

So came the idea - why not a joining of the minds? Crafters from all over the world come together to talk about their creations - to show, teach and learn. And Crazy Crafty Cool came to be!