X by Trollbeads - A Bit of Spit & Polish!

I honestly didn't think my X were that dirty until I started giving them a polish this evening; that was a completely new pristine jeweller's cloth before I started!

Of course once they were all nice and shiny I couldn't resist a few new combinations!

X by Trollbeads bracelet play - new (to me) bronze and silver decorative X links!

I've recently picked up some more bronze single links preloved as well as some silver ones.  I mentioned in the comments of my first X blog post that I thought the Forget-me-knot link is one of the single links that would really stand out and not get lost on a bracelet.

My new (to me) Forget-me-knot X link

It's taken me many months to test this theory; but I think I was definitely right!

I was not overly keen on the direction X went in during the Valentine's and Spring releases earlier this year, whilst I thought the links were beautifully executed and would be great when I decided to branch down a more floral/nature route with X, it wasn't what I wanted to see for the brand at that stage.

The one link I did like from that period straight away was Love Bugs!

My new (to me) Love Bugs X link

We had a wonderful year living in the Welsh countryside a few years back and amongst many favourite memories of that time was the abundance of lady bugs (or ladybirds as we call them in the UK).  We did accidentally bring back a breeding colony of them to Yorkshire... but that's a whole other story!!

These 3 X bracelets are using all bar 1 metal link in my collection, although I predict they may be broken down sooner than is usual because I'm expecting yet another preloved X link, which is currently winging it's way across the pond as I type!

So much for saving it all up for the two new X by Trollbeads Releases!

Flower Cloud didn't make the cut this evening in case you were having problems with spotting the missing link!  

Pretty in Pink II - Armadillo & Silver Trace, Pink (or is it?)

There was a bit of a pink theme running through this month... the next 2 beads were both preloved; a silver pink trace, or an OOAK that looks like one, (I'm still not sure which one it is but either way I love it) and a very small 'dillo that had come in a pair with a turtle but needed a new home all of it's own, well how could I resist?

I've been tinkering with the idea of having a raspberry pink 'dillo for a while.  When Trollbeads Studio had a facebook page for bead selling I always used to try and bag one of these lovelies but I always missed out, and believe me I "commented" on a lot!  This one came via a lovely troll friend.

This was one of those packages that came with a little bit extra... goodies I wasn't expecting but really enjoyed!

I have already used these two beads on a bracelet but I've yet to blog the star of that particular bracelet... so once again my dear friends, I'm afraid I'll have to save that for another day!

Pretty in Pink I - Retired Red Pink Prism

Another retired bead I've always kept an eye out for has been the retired red pink prism, it has been on my very first wishlist since I started collecting but I hadn't seen any until very recently.  I particularly like dual toned prisms so it was always going to appeal to me.

I've discovered that prisms are a bit like buses, you wait ages for 1 and then 3 come along at once... although I declined No.3 and plumped for No. 2 which had great definition and also went the opposite way to No.1 just for a bit of variety... does this mean it's not a multiple??

Well it seemed like it was a good time to put together a new bracelet!

L-R from lock: stopper, Lucky Knot, Rose Ribbon, Golden Cave, Snow, retired Red Pink Prism, retired Pink Prism,
Aries and Scorpio Zodiac Birthstone Star, LE Pink Jasper, Labradorite, LE Green Jasper,
Aries and Scorpio Zodiac Birthstone Star, retired pink prism, retired red pink prism, Brew of the Moor,
Purple Mosaic, Pink Desert, Lucky Knot, stopper, Freya Knot Lock

The colour combination on this bracelet was inspired by seeing one of Anne's red/pink bracelets, this one has already had a lot of wear and is one of the ones that has been kept together... although it has been updated with a little something... but more on that another day!

More stars???

From the photos of the magnificent packaging I think you might be able to work out which stylish retailer was having a sale!

So what was in the box?

Gemini Zodiac Birthstone Star

My search for more retired Zodiac Birthstone Stars, or my New Year's Bead Resolution No.2 as I like to call it,  had struck lucky with my Australian Trollangel (what happens when a Trollfairy gets a promotion; she actually goes by the Earth name of Jenny, but she has long since ascended this title in my eyes).  I hadn't quite completed my mission as I simply didn't have the required Bead Funds to stretch to the final 2 stars; to be fair I didn't have quite the Bead Funds to stretch to 7 but knew these opportunities are rare.  I figured it would save a lot of money in the long run (given I was going to buy a 2nd set anyway) by buying more during the half price sale price, and it would also save a lot of searching to try and find some of the more hard to source stars... indeed a recent search on behalf of a friend to source some stars, whilst eventually successful, took a lot of different trollfairy hours and hard work and the price was full retail (which was lucky as it could have been retail plus given there just aren't as many about of some).  I am still on the lookout for 2 more stars for another friend but at sale or preloved prices and I just haven't found any of these - not even at retail prices.  

So my lovely readers, what I am saying is if you do want any of these beauties, and you see one, and it's a good price that you like, then grab it!  For reference, I'm finding that the harder to sources ones now are Cancer and Pisces (Pearl), Capricorn (Onyx), Libra and Sagittarius (Dark Blue) and Aquarius (Light Blue).  A bit harder but were available for longer and still to be found are Taurus (Light Green), Leo (Orange) and Scorpio and Aries (Red).  Still seen for sale regularly are Gemini (Brown) and Virgo (Dark Green).  Even when you have one set I've still found some lovely variations between the stones on the same stars, when I've completed my second set I will do a full blog post with photos of all my Zodiac Stars, and probably cut and paste some of the info across all the blog posts so you have it all in one place!

My second star of this blog post was preloved and one of those beads that are pesky to photograph.  Again this is another bead I've had on a wish list for while but I wanted to buy preloved or during a sale so I've been waiting for this to come along at the right price.  I've had to show you a sneak preview of a new bracelet yet to be blogged to find the only half decent photo I've managed to take of this lovely Sparkling Star!

L-R: Lake Eye, Sparkling Star, small and beautiful Koi Pond, Green Ridged and Stepping Stones.

I can't show you the whole bracelet yet, just this hint as I've not yet told you about another special bead on here... but I love the way you can see the close up details on the ridged small and beautiful bead and the green and orange in the Koi Pond.

Just so you don't think I'm being too mean teasing you with sneak previews... I thought I'd leave you with one of the first bracelets I've made with a small and beautiful bead and some Harlequins.

Hello bead world, what have I missed?

When one has not blogged for a fortnight because one has had lovely long weekends away and crazy weeks at work one can be faced with a blank screen and one's brain might just crash... or maybe that's just me?

I have lots to tell you (and for comedic effect the postman has just knocked and delivered another signed for package) but where to start?

After I'd completed my Amber Bracelet I'd made a decision to try and spend less on beads as January was amazingly crazy even by my standards, looking back at February I can say that yes I did spend less on beads compared to January but I still spent quite a lot (damn those "small and beautiful" beads) so my collection continued to grow and my new boiler fund didn't grow at quite the rate it should have.

So what have I been up to?

Well there was the world's tiniest silver bead in the shape of a group of hearts that came along... then even though I was contemplating climbing on the Bead Wagon there was a purple and white ooak (unique) with metallic buds/bumpies on.  The lovely person at the shop who posted this out to me even wrote a message saying sorry we tempted you off the Bead Wagon.

3 days after contemplating the Bead Wagon 3 beads arrived, 3 is such a good number don't you think?

There was a LE Pink Jasper, silver snowball (shown here to the left of snow which is the bead on the right) and Whirling Adventure from a lovely collector who had hand picked it to use on a bracelet but decided it wasn't working for her, all of these were very much bargain beads at great prices as I picked them up in sales or preloved.

The final bead in this post was another ooak, a bumpy python bead from the US, described as having peacock colours, love this bead and have finally used it in a combination that I'm very happy with, but you'll have to make do with just the bead for now!

Buy new, buy preloved... 1 day later

Hot on the heels of my fabulous new bead sales bargains I was tempted by another sale on some preloved beads, buy 1 at an incredibly reasonable price, buy 2nd at half that!

Say hello to Milan and a particularly fine Turquoise Stripe as they arrived just 1 short day later... you can see how this started to snowball right? Hindsight is such a wonderful thing!

Grey Wolf Bracelet

Having blogged about some impulse buys recently, I thought it was time to showcase the bracelet combination I put together for Boxing Day using another another impulse buy from a few months ago, Grey Wolf.  I was also able to use some of my new silver beads and some older beads that were among the first beads I chose.

L-R: LE Christmas Kit 2011, Waves, Brown Desert, Lucky Knot, Grey Wolf, Lucky Knot,
Golden Cave, Big Planet, OOAK Brown & White Harlequin

I like the use of the double silver lucky knots here, one of my first multiples of a bead to be acquired when I bought the luck and joy starter bracelet, since then I've acquired 2 retired pink prisms and another multiple of a different prism on the way!

L-R: Grey Wolf, Lucky Knot, Golden Cave, Big Planet, OOAK Brown & White Harlequin, Yin and Yang,
LE Jasper, Zodiac Birthstone Star, OOAK Brown, grey and white.

I love this bracelet, it's one of my less vivid combinations, worn on the day with an amber pendant and a tigers eye and other "stone bits" bracelet.

L-R: Ebay stopper, Baltic Gold Amber, Transformation, Grey Squirrel, Endless,
LE Christmas Kit, Waves, Brown Desert, Grey Wolf

Lock with Buds

The new Lock with Buds also had an outing, I'm still having a bit of trouble with the smaller end as I don't always remember to check it will go on that particular bracelet until after I've assembled the full bracelet - d'oh!

Sometimes you just have to hope and wait...

...that the bead you can't afford, that is the perfect match to one you bought last month, will still be available to buy next month when you get paid!

See sometimes I can be good and wait!

In my ooak post from last month I showed you the first bead (below left) and I've waited all month until I could replenish my bead fund (boosted by my birthday money) in the hope the second one would still be available.  I went back to check, it was still available (just) and now it's reunited with it's bead partner!

My second bead is another ooak, or unique, in similar colours but a very different style to the first bead I bought, I'm so glad I got the chance to go back for it!

November's treasures from Steffans Online Convention

Writing a blog often means you have lots of lists on the go, beads you've yet to blog about, ideas for posts, blogs you've written but not yet finished, blogs you've finished but not yet published... all to ensure the posts make sense so that someone can read one article on it's own, or for those who read each article so it makes sense chronologically; for example I don't normally show a bracelet combination unless I've finished any blog articles I'm intending to write about any new beads that might be on the bracelet.

So when I sat down to do my leather bracelet combination from the weekend (random, colourful and not well matched but looked fab with what I was wearing - dark blue jeans & black, as it really showed off the bracelet), I realised that I've still got quite a few beads to write about from November.

Steffans had a Trollbead Event on Sunday 4th November in their store, sadly I was not able to make it as it's quite a trek from where I live in the UK.  Later on in the month they held an "online convention" which meant that myself and other fans were able to participate in some of the bargains available.

L-R: Viking and Waves

Firstly I picked up 2 new silvers in mid-November including the lovely retired Viking bead, half price, from the online Steffans convention.  Waves is a wonderful bead that I was lucky to get at a great preloved price from another collector around the same time.

L-R: Rainbow, Green Rainbow, Purple Fusion, Green Shadow and Red Stripe

Myself and some fellow collectors used our collective buying power to take advantage of some great deals on the glass bead kits from Steffans Online Convention which were also half price!  We each chose the beads we wanted and negotiated where they were clashes or unloved beads and bought 4 kits between 7 of us originally (although there was more buying and selling once the kits arrived)!  My haul was 5 beads which was probably rather greedy but at less than £11 per bead I was able to tick off a lot of beads from my old wish lists.

From the Transparency Kit I was finally able to get Rainbow and Green Rainbow, from the Contemporary Kit I snagged Purple Fusion and Green Shadow and from the New Red Kit I added to my red beads with red stripe.  Quite a haul, and lots of fun with us posting our beads to each other (yet another dash to the Post Office before it shut due to my work travels).

November was a pretty awesome month for sale beads!  There are still a few left at Steffans online sale, go here for details, but be quick!

Turquoise!

Three new beads have arrived...

I'd been resisting these 3 beads for many weeks after first seeing them offered by another collector; I already have 2 agate kits, so I couldn't really justify another agate but it's such a beautiful specimen.

Turquoise ribbon has been on my very first wish list for a while and they both went so well with the armadillo, that I couldn't bear to break the set up ;)

New additions to the Troll Collection

No I haven't secretly been given access to the new Christmas Collection a week early before anyone gets too excited by the title... but just to get into the festive spirit here are my new additions to my troll collection on a bit of tinsel, no expense spared here! (Well no expense at all actually spent or spared... as another collector sent me some beads on the tinsel so just recycling as usual)

I was driving home the other day and I randomly decided to drive past a trollbead shop with my often exercised "trust to fate" approach; if there's a car parking space nearby I'll stop and have a look.  I normally avoid doing this as I can easily predict what is likely to happen in this scenario.

There was, I did, I bought, I came home.

This was just a browsing mission just to see the new Halloween beads in person* (or so I kept telling myself, as the compulsion came upon me).  I have about 5 working wish lists at any given time, plus ideas that have been nurtured whilst I write my blog, inspiration from reading about or looking at other people's collections and/or their bracelet ideas and not forgetting the good old fashioned "ooh shiny/pretty/bumpy/wow/sparkly**" method of picking up beads.

The latter method introduced me to Grey Wolf, whilst I've toyed with some of the animal inspired glass beads I've only actually bought Black Squirrel before and readers to the blog will already know the trouble I've sometimes had in using this bead on my bracelets (having narrated previously that I mostly buy beads I like without a bracelet/theme plan in my head, this can often leave me with beads that are that bit harder to incorporate into any given combination... we shall see what happens with this one!).  Nevertheless this big fascinating fella was yelling up at me from the display case, there was another regular one or two in the shop, but this noisy one was clearly the alpha male by comparison.

My 2nd purchase on this browsing trip was Turquoise Prism; I'd been mulling over buying some more as they are such useful additions to bracelets and I agreed with this post in Tartooful when C commented that they are very good for finishing off bracelets nicely as it gives a tapered line to the lock, or words to that effect.  What I love about turquoise prism, which I think has to be my favourite prism so far, is that it's dual toned and with two of my favourite jewel shades! I was sporting this bracelet below at the time and the colours compliment beautifully the purple and green beads shown below.

The bead I bought from the ideas that have been nurtured whilst I've been writing the blog came with buying a bead I already have, World Tour Lithuania's Bead which is a firm favourite of mine and is now the first of my multiple beads bought from another collector who was having the same issues with this one as I have had with Black Squirrel.  (Even broke into my Holiday Fund for the first one, which is far more sacred than my new boiler fund which gets broken into quite regularly; I have a very healthy interest in trying to nurse my old boiler along for a few more years yet).  Ironically the two versions are so different I'm not sure I'll be using them as a mirrored bead in a combo, but I will be able to use them "twice" on different bracelets.

Finally another prism, Pink Prism this time, came into my field of view from another collector, and bingo the postie knocked twice (well she was new and didn't realise, unlike my regular postie, that I camp beside the letterbox when expecting a bead delivery), so that's 4 very useful prisms now in my collection and an expansion to the Pinks!


Artisan Beads

Finally I bought some artisan beads, i.e. non-Troll, and although I don't know who made these as I didn't buy them direct, I'm already in love with them.  They have slightly larger cores but that's not so obvious when they are on a chain and I adore the colours.  I also have my eye on several bead makers that do sell direct and when the time is right I think I'm going on a spending spree, but I'll save that for another blog post.

3 Artisan beads - top view

3 Artisan beads - side view

One more package expected for the moment but I couldn't wait for that one to tell you about my new beads, the postman didn't even knock today, just pushed through a pension newsletter which DOES NOT make me go "Ooh shiny" in any way shape or form.


* the observant amongst you will note I also still haven't bought any Halloween beads yet... in case you were wondering they did have stock in the shop; I just got sidetracked by the other beads but I can confirm that Inner Glow does indeed glow in the dark!
**delete according to taste.

Another Girl, Another Planet

Ever since I bought small planet from another collector, I've had an earworm.

Always happy to share my thoughts, and just for you dear readers, my earworm - Another Girl, Another Planet.

Funnily enough, whilst working out how to embed (the right) video on Blogger I think I've exercised my earworm quite well, it appears to have left me.  They saying writing can be quite cathartic; apparently it works for earworms too!

So it was time to break my current bracelets up to make a new combination using planet.  I wanted a different variation of colours for this bracelet, as I find I've been favouring the same colour mixtures for a while now.

Clockwise from Swan lock: purple prism, Scorpio & Aries zodiac birthstone star, purple stripe,
small silver planet, pumpkin, Lithuania's bead, Taurus zodiac birthstone star, silver mountain,
dragon and phoenix, brown desert, Cancer & Pisces zodiac birthstone star, lake eye, Baltic gold,
angle triangles, LE jasper, Virgo zodiac birthstone star, striped pink agate, the hare and the tortoise.

I wanted to include silver mountain and the pearl zodiac birthstone star as I've not used these for a while, it's quite hard to pick up the detail of silver mountain on a camera phone but if you'll "excuse fingers" I did try to get a closer shot of the details!

L-R: Baltic Gold, lake eye, Cancer & Pisces star, brown desert, dragon and phoenix,
silver mountain, Taurus star, Lithuania's bead, pumpkin, planet.

No pinks - PINKS!

I hope you all had a lovely week or two whilst I was away sunning myself on a tiny Greek Island!

I particularly hope you had fun with the Halloween release during this time.  I confess I did pop into the Trafford Centre Beaverbrooks on the way back from the airport... but sadly they didn't have their Halloween stock in yet, so no glowing beads for me right now - although I feel honour bound to say we'd actually stopped for some food to avoid rush hour traffic... not especially to hunt for halloween beads.

For now though I want to tell you about my recent PINKS!

My first foray into pink beads started with a retired pink bud, an impulse purchase based on a good price that was just too good to resist.

So it was no surprise when my next SIX pink beads arrived in much the same fashion...

I love the agate beads and when 5 striped pink agate beads were suddenly offered at such a low price for all 5, I couldn't resist, then to make the deal even sweeter the lovely seller offered to throw in a 6th for free.  She hadn't put it up for sale because it had a tiny chip near the core, which is quite hard to see even when you're looking for it.  That's just one of the things I love about all the people I've bought from so far; the care and attention to detail they take over their beads and making sure you're happy with buying them.

So I now have 7 pink beads in total... I didn't fancy going pink all the way on my next combo, besides I was still too excited about my stars.  I combined my love of the agates and the zodiac stars and topped it all off with a nice plump 'dillo!

(This bracelet reminds me of children's sweets as it has a sugary candy like appearance)

September's Swan Song

The finale to Written in the Stars.

I've hinted that I was saving my last spend of September for a very special bead, and I'm pleased to announce that the deed has been done.  Since I wrote Written in the Stars I've been researching how likely it was that I'd be able to complete my collection.  Below are the four stars I've managed to collect so far...

That left 5 of the 9 zodiac stars left to collect and only 1 was technically still available from suppliers (but no sign of any stock of this star in any shops online or otherwise that I've seen).

I asked a group of collectors that I buy from if anyone knew the whereabouts of any of the remaining stars as I realised I'd now be picking these up piecemeal as and when I could get them.

I got an offer of the star that was still technically available and quickly snapped that offer up... then the most amazing thing happened... another collector had the full set and was willing to sell!!!

Ouch for my bead fund but yay for my bead box!

The keys on my keyboard were still smoking from the heat of typing so quickly that I would buy my (now) missing 4 stars from her.  A collector that was a delight to buy from as, given this was the most I've spent in one transaction of preloved beads, she provided me with photos, back up photos, details of posting, packaging and tracking info all the way through, until they arrived with my postman who has been rather bemused by all the packages I've had to sign for this month.

So now I had 8 of the 9... and I was just waiting for 1 little star.

As a side note I do advise extreme caution when photographing delicate beads, although they survived me dropping my mobile phone on them when it slipped out of my hand... I did then spend the next half an hour on my hands and knees searching for Cancer and Pisces (the pearl one) which had shot off my desk and was hidden somewhere in amongst my work folders that I'd spread out on the floor earlier.  Sagittarius and Libra (the dark blue one) was a bit easier to find having been fired onto a neighbouring table; thankfully a soft landing into some tissues! 

The final star (Scorpio and Aries) started to make to make it's journey to me on Tuesday 25th September and arrived at it's new home 2 days later... I practically camped by the letterbox.

So that's it, I have the set.  I *love* this collection; I never believed that I'd be able to get all of them and I most certainly didn't think I'd do it so quickly.

I really have to thank the trollbead community for being such stars (excuse the pun) in helping me do this, and a special mention to the "Drunk Trolls" for helping me reach such an epic milestone in My Trollbead Journey.

Speaking of journeys I'm off on my own... to the relative tranquility of a tiny Greek Island.  I've already checked and there are no trollbead dealers there so my bead fund should also get a well deserved rest.

See you in October!