Budgets and Decisions... and a pre-order discount!

Bank Holiday Weekend in the UK and I have a rather sedate time planned.  

The weather is somewhat grey today, and as I had unexpected expensive expenses this month (as both my car and my fridge/freezer needed repairs and replacement respectively) - you can imagine some online shopping for beads with my budget next month seems super exciting by comparison!

I've actually been really good over the last few months and have been underspending my budget which is practically unheard of, plus it means I have a bit extra to spend for September.

So what to choose? 

As a fan of Ohm's Bead of the Month I've been given a break as I was less keen on August and September's offerings, lovely charms just not for me!  The new Trollbeads release is ready for pre-orders for September delivery and X Jewellery have just released details of their new collection, oh, and I did rather like the new Thomas Sabo Karma release and it's not long before details will emerge on Redbalifrog's next release, Enchanted Glade.  Plus at the end of next month it's Endangered Trolls first release partnered with the fabulous Alex of ACA Kreations. 

I was going to wait to see what Redbalifrog had to offer, and I definitely wanted a Troll from Endangered Trolls and Alex's collaboration, so I thought my spending would be at the end of September... but I have been tempted down a different path a bit earlier than planned.

New twisted bangles in silver and copper from Trollbeads - release date 9th September 2016

Trollbeads 15% off Bank Holiday Weekend deal via Acotis, who are offering the 15% on new pre-orders as well as existing collection, spend over £100 and you can throw in a free travel case too!  

I had to stop at just Trollbeads as they are offering the deal across all brands!!

My choice?  One of each of the new twisted bangles and lots of stoppers are on order... I still can't get them until September but it will be something to look forward to next month!

What's tempting you at the moment?

S is for Silver

When you mention silver and beads, most people will automatically think of beads made out of silver.

I love using Silver in my glass beads.  I mostly work with silver wire or foil, but I do have an experiment on the go with silver shavings.

The first bead on the left on my bangle is one I made for myself early on with silver wire in, and the bead on the right uses silver foil to give that beautiful stone/organic effect to the background, it's one of my favourite beads to make!

You can also use the silver in the foreground of a pattern, above left I used silver foil to help make those galaxy type swirls... the bead on the right is silver simply encased in glass which is an effect I love in transparent glass.

For my regular readers, silver was the main "ingredient" in the glass bead set I made to go with my Elements Set by Alex Cramariuc.

Silver is definitely one of my favourite decorations to use as it's so versatile!

What silver effect do you prefer out of the ones I've shown here?