Good things come in 3's - OOAKs (Uniques)

Before anyone worries too much that I've just broken my self-imposed bead embargo with my usual panache after blogging about it yesterday - the next series of beads are all pre-embargo beads, I'm just catching up with my blogging from April!

Front view of all 3 OOAKs: Green Glitter Swirl, Red/Pink Fern & Scroll, Blue & Teal Glitter Budded Python

My first OOAK arrived as part of a preloved bundle, it's a translucent swirl design - bright green translucent base, milky white with pale green and a hint of pink along the swirls and with really full plump gold glitter buds.  I've quite a few swirl and spinner beads now, some translucent like this one and a couple of opaque ones that you can see on my Valentine's Day Bracelet either side of my RAF Benevolent Fund Bead in the centre.  They come in a variety of designs so there's something to suit most folk if you like this style of bead.

Side view of Green Glitter Swirl

The next bead was a raffle style knockout that I liked the look of and was lucky enough to have my name picked.  I'd been going through a red/pink phase so a bead that spanned both colours has definite appeal, I particularly like the 2 different patterns on each side of the bead, it has a fern pattern on the left hand side and a scroll pattern along the right hand side curve.  The core is red and is covered by a clear glass with the pattern sitting along the "top" of the bead.

Left hand side showing fern details

Right hand side showing scroll details

My final and third OOAK is my favourite of this bunch, I have a fondness for budded pythons and this one is a particularly fine example from a most generous and lovely seller from the US.  It has the most vibrant blue translucent base, with teal scales and lightly glittered gold buds.  This one took a long time to reach me as it got held up for a particularly long time in customs but it was most definitely worth the wait when they finally released  it... maybe someone should have explained that not all pythons need a transport licence.

Side view of glitter budded python - my mobile phone camera has not done justice to these colours!

I have yet to use any of these in a bracelet as I am rather full on made up bracelets, it's getting towards the time for a big make and break marathon as I've no spare bracelets currently and I'm starting to get that twitch I get when I haven't made anything new for a while...

The Tsunami of Beads continues...

The next wave of beads in my January Tsunami of Beads was a preloved silver snow bead and an unusual Harequin.

I've been after snow for a while and missed out in a recent sale to snag a new one so I positively pounced when I saw this one, relieved to finally get my mitts on one.  The Harelequin is 'almost' a glitter bead but it is so fine that under normal line of sight it takes on an olive hue with great bumpies!

It must have been the month for Harlequins as the wave that followed contained a particularly luscious example of one along with a beautiful glitter dot bead, both green of course!  The glitter dot bead was another raffle bead that I won the opportunity to buy (it was a lucky month, or unlucky if you're my poor old boiler that struggles on!)

Green Harlequin and Green Glitter Dottie beads

With 2 new Harlequins arriving it seemed like an appropriate moment to take a photo of them together with my old ones; I could have sworn I had more than 4 altogether but I think that was just wishful thinking on my part?!

Then I had the idea of taking a photo of all my white/cream based beads together, I don't have many of these compared to other styles but I did wonder how close I was to being able to do a whole bracelet of them?

All my white based beads, although technically my turtle is cream.

I'd like to say I stopped buying at this point, but I'm sure you can guess that that didn't actually happen...

Another fab parcel from Goldmine (Red and Green Bracelet)

I had been trying to make a red and green bracelet in the run up to Christmas but I wasn't having a lot of luck, I don't have many red beads and of those, some are not that red, the combinations I was trying just weren't working out for me.

So when Goldmine Boutique held a bead party on facebook in early December I saw my chance to rectify my lack of red beads.  I was lucky enough to get the chance to buy 2 gorgeous red beads and a lovely purple one, and when enquiring about payment methods (I'd bought from their website before but not chosen beads via their photos on facebook) the lovely people at Goldmine were keen to point out that I could choose a 4th bead free, in their buy 3 uniques get the 4th free promotion.  So I chose another red bead, with glitter dots!  (Glitter is getting to be quite a habit recently in my bead buying.)

I love getting parcels from Goldmine, they are always lovely.  This one had a padded cushion in a box and even better had a FIFTH FREE BEAD, even more special was the fact it was a teal coloured bubble bead which is EXACTLY what I'd been looking at the week before but I had decided to be good(ish) and leave it for another day.  It came as a surprise because even though they said they were putting in "presents" over the holiday period I had completely forgotten about this and I wasn't expecting another bead!

Lovely ooaks (uniques) all lined up... and I finally got to make a red and green bracelet I was happy with.

I've used lighthouse as the focal point as we used to live by Roath Park Lake in Cardiff, Wales (UK)
which has a lighthouse on the boating lake.

My Penguin bead has found a new home too, next to red stripe!

I love this bracelet and have been thinking of it as my "Christmas Bracelet" as that was the original intention, however driving home from work tonight it also struck me that the Welsh Flag has red and green in it's colours so until next December this may well get known as my "Welsh Bracelet"... 

Should you wish to visit Goldmine here is a link to their shop www.trollbeadboutique.com

don't forget to check out their promotions for some good bargains!

Another OOAK? Don't mind if I do...

I really like my OOAKs (Uniques) and so it was no surprise when another caught my eye.

This one came from Blue Ridge Mining Co and was a leftover from a facebook bead party that hadn't been claimed by anyone.  It has beautiful glitter bumpy dots and is a lovely deep blue on white with a hint of purple.

It arrived just before Christmas and whilst I've not had chance to use it yet I keep picking it out of my bead box to have a another look!

New OOAKs (uniques)

Well the pitter patter of tiny packages have continued to drop through the letterbox at a steady pace.

I've been collecting a lot of OOAKs across November ~ one of a kind beads or uniques as they are more commonly known.  (I just like really like the term OOAK so I keep on using it from personal preference rather than accuracy).  Much like my first post on OOAKs I decided to save* them up to blog about them all together.

For a great guide to OOAK/Unique patterns then Trollbeads Gallery has the most extensive one here, Charms Addict has started one here as an ongoing project and adds to it as time goes by (it's always a nice surprise to see a new "chapter" on her blog) and Trollbeads UK have this to say on the subject of OOAKs.  So now you know more about OOAKs... what did I get?

The first one in the picture (red dots, purple pattern on a white bead) came all the way from the US, although I had a little tussle in customs, followed by a bigger tussle at the Royal Mail over this one bead.  I live in the UK, so packages over a certain value attract VAT (the threshold at which you pay VAT has been lowered in the UK from April 2012 so you are more likely to pay VAT) so although I didn't have any issue with paying the VAT, I was rather cross to be charged a flat rate fee from the Royal Mail for "handling" the package; such was the fee that it was almost 3 times the cost of the VAT and made this little bead a much more expensive one than I had expected.  It's still a lovely bead, although it makes me scowl a little when I think of the Royal Mail charge!

The next four OOAKs in the picture came from the lovely Trollbeads Studio, also in the US, they were doing a promotion on buy 3 get 1 free, combined with a "bead party" on facebook - which is where you get an opportunity to "ask" for certain beads that are featured.  I only got 2 of my 4 choices on the night (beads 4 & 5 in the photo), but picked another 2 up from the shop inventory which were just as fabulous.  Bead 5 is my first glitter OOAK as the tiny gold dots are made of glitter!  These were all delivered in a lovely box, on a pillow with ribbons and tied with netting and a handwritten note.  This was such a delightful package to receive!

Finally my last, but not least, OOAK came from another collector, I thought I was being very good for once, as of the 4 she had for sale, I really wanted 2, but stuck to just the 1, my favourite!  This bead has such an amazing deep blue colour with the green that it stood out as being a bit different to a lot of OOAKs I have previously seen.

So that is my OOAK spectacular for November, I'm developing a particular passion for translucent OOAKS that have swirls, stripes and bubbles!


*... I need a little manoeuvring room for some artistic licence here; I got so excited about my swap OOAK that I blogged about that all by itself, before receiving the last of my OOAKs featured in this post, but you can read about why I couldn't wait here).