Good things come in 3's - Silver Beads

As you've no doubt gathered by now I've not broken my self-imposed bead embargo - this series of beads are all pre-embargo and I'm just catching up with the blog!  I'd been buying a lot of glass beads and it was definitely time to pick up some more silver ones for contrast.

L-R: Lotus, Van Gogh, Chinese Snake

My first bead was preloved and one from my wish lists, I particularly like Lotus when it's on the end of a bracelet facing outwards, it gives a really cute effect.  On the smaller end it almost swallows up the link where it attaches itself to the lock and on the larger end it beautifully tapers the bracelet.

Next was another favourite from my wish lists, Netherlands World Tour Van Gogh silver bead, also preloved and just as gorgeous in real life as it is from the stock photos.  This is quite a chunk of a bead considering it was in price band II, it has some tiny gaps between some of the sunflowers (the flowers themselves are solid silver) and I think this would look great on one of the brightly coloured leather bracelets.

I still have quite a lot of beads left on my wish list from the World Tour Series, but then again I had a lot to start with when they were released briefly in the UK market, ah back then when I had some restraint, I only bought 4 out of the 14 I wanted from that collection! As I have also picked up Runes as part of my Amber bracelet collection I figure I still have another 8 to collect.

Finally I took advantage of a lovely sale from SWAG to pick up Chinese Snake - a bead I saw a non-stock photo of back when it was released last August but I missed out on the chance of it new at a bargain price then, not so this time and I bagged my bead new with a staggering 60% discount!

As you'd expect from a Price IV silver bead, this is quite a large one.  My only criticism of this bead is that as it's heavier on the front facing side I suspect it will have a tendency to slide upside down on a bracelet if it's loose on the chain, I will however keep you posted once I've road tested this one!

Such beautiful detailing all over this bead

I'm really pleased with this set of 3 silver beads, they are all very detailed and quite striking - and they are all longtime wish list beads.  I'm delighted to have finally picked these up, especially at some of the sale prices I was lucky enough to bag, it really can be financially worth waiting for beads that are a bit pricier in a new release.

So what next?  Well there is one more in my mini-series of Good Things come in 3's to publish tomorrow, then my long awaited Troll date with friends on Friday!

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.

Simply Beads and Bracelets

After all the excitement of the last month and the pitter patter of tiny packages on the doormat I thought it was about time to just make some bracelets.

The first one I wanted to make up was one using Skyline, my competition bead.  It's another "purply/blue" bead with gold glitter, so I chose to put this with other glitters, browns and blues.  I did a glass/silver pattern to show off each individual bead.

Whilst keeping this one to wear I used my agate beads and zodiac stars to make another.  This is now one of  the advantages of having 3 silver bracelets and 3 locks as I can assemble bracelets and not have to dismantle them simply to make a new combination using different beads.

I added Blue Goldstone (which is a glass bead) and my Jasper as focal beads at the sided of the bracelet and quite a small one at the front.  I love the way the camera has picked up the variations within the agate.

I've been good to my word in saving my last planned purchase of September for a special bead, as I've seen some lovely turquoise beads that would go beautifully with these two agate kits.

Finally I played around to see what I could make with what was left in my bead box...

I had fun picking out the rest of my purple beads and, thinking about it I really think I need some more (nooooooo I'm being so good right now... no more beads!)  I put them with blues and greens and made the bracelet combo below.  It went well with the flower lock but I need some more stoppers if I'm going to make a "short" bracelet as I like my beads to stay put... or I need more purple beads to make a full bracelet!

The more I've been looking at this combination of beads the more I love it.  I think that another Baby's breath to mirror the Flowers on Indigo central bead would work really well (if I can find another).  2 of the bigger silvers either side of the other 2 flower beads would set this bracelet off beautifully, and then perhaps to finish it with 2 stoppers either end to keep the beads together?

I may approach this differently and leave this made up for a while to see if I can "finish" it as a complete bracelet - as I tend to mostly collect beads which then get made into bracelets. (As opposed to having a firm bracelet/concept idea and buying beads with that in mind).

Triple Celebration

In Blindfold Bracelet Challenge I'd joked about my stars being too closely aligned (they got stuck to each other on my trial bracelet), and in Written in the Stars my first sentence was that I'd had an amazing week, and as good as winning Taurus in an Ebay auction was... it wasn't the only astounding thing that happened that week.

I sometimes enter the Facebook Friday competition run by Fable Trading (interesting timeline here of when Trollbeads came to the UK through Fable Trading).

On one such Monday I scanned the internet on my phone at lunchtime, as you do when you're munching on your sandwich... it was a very late lunch as it had been quite a busy day...  Cue much jumping up and down, and I fear some "sqeeing" (sic) when I discovered that I'd won!!!

That evening I poured over the glass beads in Price Group I trying to decide which bead to choose, it was much harder than I thought it would be given that I still have so many of these on my wish lists.  After much deliberation I chose Skyline from the Hong Kong World Tour, I already had one from this collection when I bought the Dragon and Phoenix bead.

Skyline swiftly arrived just as I was leaving for a work trip 2 days later, what a service!!  I admired it but had to put it safely in my bead box until I returned, it really is a beautiful bead.  You may well have to take my word for this as I had a great deal of trouble trying to photograph it to be able to show this; very tricky bead to capture on a phone camera!

The next thing to happen was a twitter exchange between myself and my fellow blogger Michael Nand who had just celebrated 1,000 page views on his new blog.  He suggested that I should buy myself a new bead when this blog hit it's first milestone, although technically I guess it's the second milestone... as for me the first milestone was that anyone other than myself read it!  

You would be very welcome to follow me on twitter @TrollbeadBlog if you like to tweet, I mostly talk about trollbeads or this blog, but I do sometimes tweet photos that don't make it into the blog.

www.curlingstonesforlegopeople.blogspot.co.uk recorded 1,000 page views exactly the following day, so, hardly needing any encouragement to buy even more beads, I treated myself to a preloved OOAK from another collector.  I haven't bought an OOAK for a while and I do enjoy them!  Again I had trouble photographing this one as well, not sure if I'm just having an "off" day with the camera!

 

So feeling mighty happy about things I continued on my week.

The third achievement of the triple celebration that the title refers to is a personal one, about a year ago I decided that I was carrying around a bit too much weight, nothing serious but something that had bothered me in a "my clothes don't fit me properly anymore" type of way.  As a result of doing something about this - I've been eating healthily for the last year and trying to mould my eating habits into healthy all the time, rather than most of the time, along with ensuring I get in some exercise - I hit my personal goal of a great BMI score on the Wednesday.  Rather pleased I celebrated ironically with a beer and a curry!

So I want to choose a bead to mark my achievement... but what to choose?

Silver Hare and Tortoise? This bead certainly sums up my approach to whole losing weight thing and I like Aesop's fables, it's one of the collection of stories that I like to dip into on my kindle.

Whirling Adventure? One from my wish list and that's certainly what the year has felt like, and much like it's description I certainly seized the moment when I started out.

Or to simply treat myself to something nice to mark the occasion?  I'm going to give this some more thought, (and let my bank balance recover a bit), before making a final decision.  Like the weight loss journey; there's no rush!

Guest Spot: Pauline

I discovered Pauline and her treasure trove of beads on the My Trollbead's facebook page.

I was immediately drawn to both her lovely beads and the stunning way that she displays them; it was the photo below of some of her amber beads that made me pluck up the courage to ask her if she'd consider writing and photographing the second Guest Spot of the blog.  Much to my delight she agreed, and here she is!

"My name is Pauline and I first started collecting trollbeads around September 2009.  My husband was looking to buy me some jewellery for my birthday and my local Beaverbrooks had just started stocking them.  Well from the moment I saw them I was hooked.  That day I came away with a bracelet, dichroic flower lock, the now retired brown kit, chocolate parrot, silver Buddha, Indian elephant and koala!  Quite a haul, but my lovely husband decided that I was not allowed to have them all, he was going to put some away for Christmas.

I then begain to search on the web for anything I could find out about troll and stumbled on upon the website www.trollbeads.com which allowed me to follow them on facebook.  At this point I was buying a couple of beads per month, and my collection was growing quite nicely.  From finding that site, it led me to the facebook page "My Trollbeads" and indeed facebook pages all over the world, i.e. trollbeads the official page and trollbeads Australia.  Just seeing other peoples collection inspired me so much.  I didn't really contribute much to these pages at first; it was just enough for me to browse and wonder at so many great beads.

In December of 2011, I noticed that another trollbeads site, www.trollbeadsuniverse.com had a project going to get people all over the world to send Christmas cards to each other; I was just too late to enter as you had to subscribe by the end of October.  Basically you emailed your address, got up to 10 other peoples addresses and sent them a Christmas card, when you received a card you emailed the site and yours and the senders name was placed in a draw and everyday from the 1st to the 31st December a name was picked out to win a bead.  Some won just production beads, some won gold beads!  Wow, it was then I realised what a community troll collectors really are, the warmth displayed in those Christmas cards was amazing.

 I also entered the peoples bead competition, but sadly did not make it through to the top 100, but I will have a go again next year!  I started to submit more photos on the facebook pages and began to receive lovely comments on my designs!  When Troll released the world tour beads, I was desperate to get my hands on some of the beads that were not available in the UK, so because of the people I met on the facebook pages, I just posted a status on the US and Australia sites asking for a "troll fairy" to purchase these beads and I would get them a UK bead in return.  It paid off, and I have 2 fabulous facebook friends, one in Hawaii and one in Australia.  We have continued to be friends since the swap.  At the time it didn't occur to me to think they would be untrustworthy and not send a bead to me after I had bought and paid for one for them.  That is the nature of Troll addicts... we really are a little community.

In February 2012 I found the most amazing site, www.trollbeadsgalleryforum.ning.com and this is where I found some amazing people, with some outstanding collections, AND they could take some truly amazing photos.  My little point and shoot camera really wouldn't cut the mustard, so after much pleading, and a little blackmail, haha, I finally persuaded my husband that he really needed a decent camera.  Hence my new hobby... photography, BUT only of trollbeads.  Now I feel I can capture the beauty of my beads perfectly.  After all, they are all individual works of art.

Since joining the forum I have met so many fabulous and warmhearted people, people who will bend over backwards to help you get the bead you really need but can't find.  Be it a specific unique, or a retired bead, or simply beads that are generally harder to find in the UK.  My latest beads have come from a special lady from the USA who knowing I was looking for specific ambers, was going to a "trunk show" as they call them in the States, and spent time and effort looking for specific coloured ones and ones that had some beautiful inclusions, and didn't want paying until she had secured the exact beads she thought I would like.

As my collection grows I find I have bracelets that reflect moods or seasons, I have family bracelets representing my family, in particular my two new lovely grandsons, bracelets I wear in summer, or Christmas and even a Halloween themed bracelet.  One of my favourites is the all white and silver bracelet pictured above; perfect for winter or even a wedding.

Well this is MY story... hope I have inspired you to start yours!!

Pauline"

Autumn Collection 2012 & Wish Lists

Today Trollbeads released their Autumn Collection; I confess I'd already had a sneaky peak via www.endangeredtrolls.com so I knew what to expect, but it was still exciting to see the collection go live!

Unfortunately for me my recent cash splurges mean I need to abstain from any purchases this month despite getting paid today, (yeah right we'll see how long this lasts), as I'd already given in to temptation when the People's Bead Spiritual Collection came out earlier this month (to be blogged), and again whilst we were on holiday (tomorrow's blog post).

This self imposed delay has however prompted me to organise a Wish List especially for this collection.

My Autumn Collection 2012 Wish List

I've marked those I'd like most, and surprisingly it comes to a nice round 10 beads, just 1 silver this time and 9 of the glass beads.  I don't think I've wanted so many beads from just one collection before... oh wait yes I have, after purchasing 4 beads from the World Tour Collection I still have 10 I wish to collect, mostly silvers this time.

My World Tour Wish List

I think I need a pay rise.

Guest Spot: Emz Cariad

I asked the lovely Emz if she would tell us the story of her bracelet, in her own words and her own photos.

As the friend who got me started (Where it all began!) it seemed appropriate to grant her the first, of what I hope will be many more Guest Spots!

"Well, my Trollbead journey began when my friend Karin mentioned them to me. I had told her that an ex pupil at the school where I used to work, had arranged a collection for me when she found out I had cancer, and asked me what they should buy.

Karin immediately suggested a Trollbead bracelet! I mentioned it to Molly and her mum, my friend Sascha, and the kids bought the bracelet and a basic clasp, and Sascha and Molly bought me a bead to go on it too! The thing about Trollbead bracelets is that the bracelet itself is gorgeous, even without any beads!

As I have told Molly, she started something special when she organised that collection for me. Actually, just DOING that collection was so very special!

The bracelet and the trollbead mean such a lot to me. I have told everyone the story of how the fact that a bunch of teenagers, who always get a bad press, donated money to save up for a gift for me, and I KNEW they were all brilliant, in spite of the grumps and the glares, and because more than that, I remember the smiles and the laughs and the whispers and the fun we had in the classroom, and that bead reminds me of a bunch of bloody lovely kids each time I look at it.

So, what was the bead? A Turquoise Ribbon, of which £3 goes to Cancer Research. Gorgeous swirls, and little did I know that nearly a year later, we'd be raising money for the same charity in the Race for Life!

And so more of my friends started buying me beads, and my family too, and each one is therefore is special, because each one has a connection, and a story of its own, and they all gave me strength to keep fighting, because it made me realise that I was loved, and people wanted me to stay around!

And I think it helped people, because they couldn't always help me, physically or mentally, because some live miles away, some live abroad, or some maybe couldn't communicate or express what they wanted to say, but they had a way of showing me they were around, and were thinking of me.

Of course, friends who live closer to me helped out in many ways, babysitting or cooking or just hugging, and my bonkers but gorgeous family did so much for me too. But the Trollbeads appeal to so many it seems, and because people knew I loved them, it gave them a way of showing support and having some fun too!  I also started a journal of my cancer journey, which really helped, getting it all out of my system, and having something to look back on, because we don't always remember everything... and I have mentioned them in there sometimes too!

As a result of my journal/blog, I soon had a 2nd bead - Fantasy Elf, from Tiina in Luxembourg.  Wow!  Officially, he's supposed to sit on a Trollbead necklace, but until I've saved for one of those, he's helping look after my bracelet ;) 3rd - Cells (also mean "infinite possibilities") as a surprise gift from Karin when all we were supposed to be doing was having a coffee and window shopping for shiny things! Appropriate, as I had 'bad cells' as I had described it to my youngest (7 yrs), AND, I focused on my options being infinite, and positive!

4th bead, an Xmas pressie to myself - Rainbow - another positive good omen I felt.  For Xmas (5th and 6th), my mother and stepfather gave me the gorgeous Silver Trace, Green - Turquoise, very pretty, and later that day I had the Belly Chakra from my father and stepmum.  I felt very spoilt!  Then a Lucky Knot (7) from Louisa! I am hoping to collect all the silver knots, so this was a great start!! By then, I had to replace the clasp: basic ones cannot hold the weight of many beads, and I was intending to eventually fill up the bracelet so I just *had* to treat myself to a new clasp... I chose the Troll Tree :) 

    

Next was #8 ... Purple Flower from Michelle, who wanted to give me a gift to say sorry for living too far away basically! Bless! Number 9 & 10 arrived again from Luxembourg!!  Capricorn goat (something about being stubborn eh? haha!) and a beautiful amber, Maple Syrup.

Then Jo held a 'pre-transplant' knees-up for me, and the mums from Cwmdu school gave me a Throat Chakra, (11) which was lovely, and Jo gave me Three Siblings (12), another I had on my 'wish list', and obviously appropriate as I have 3 daughters, about whom I was really worried before I went in for the stem cell procedure... as an early Mother's Day pressie, prior to admission (I would be in for Mother's Day), my eldest gave me my 13th (lucky for some!!) Hugging Heart ... so very touching and a special bead for me.

Then I had my birthday party/festival (another story for another time!) and it seems my friends, prompted by Mars, had conspired to buy me 3 beads!!  The very cute Crab (I am Cancerian), Three in One (another knot!) and Organic Hearts - Mars says they chose that because I am surrounded  by love *gulp*.  And on the same birthday, Mike and Trish bought me Iron Wolf, another stunner! 17 beads in a much faster time than I had expected.  Feeling very spoiled indeed, and then Mars sends me links for a stockist with a huge sale on, and 2 more of my wish list are in it!  Thankfully I had just been paid haha!  So I *had* to get them both... Pumpkin because it's a stunning colour... reminds me of sunsets and Autumn which I love, and Green Eye which is the Eye of Protection... I think this is relevant in this stage of remission! 

Here's to continuing the Trollbead adventure, and keeping cancer's arse well and truly kicked!"

Buying beads for other people

After several months of indulging myself in a most sumptuous manner it was time to turn my attention to an important friend in my life.

Emz had a birthday coming up and I *really* wanted to buy her a Trollbead (or two) for her birthday, I had lots of ideas and probably not enough budget to provide the glass and silver shower I'd give her if money was no object!

Emz is the friend who introduced me to the world of Trollbeads and if you've read The Beginning and My First Purchase you'll have an inkling of why it meant so much for me to do this; I really wanted to spoil her for her birthday as she'd just had the most fabulous news in her battle with cancer.

Therein a plan formed, we started a Trollbead kitty and although I had to ask her for her Wish List, the rest would remain a surprise.

Trollbeads UK have organised their site very well and if you register you can start to create your own Wish List which you can send to people who'd like to buy you a Trollbead, or to keep a list of beads that you wish for.  You can email people a link and it updates with "live" info every time you make a change.

Info on this can be found here How to start your wish list - armed with this your present buying days are just limited to your budget and what you want to say.  When I started collecting beads, I think some of my family breathed a sigh of relief that they will always have something they can buy me now! (If I don't buy them all myself first!)

Example of a Wish List 1               Example of a Wish List 2      

So the plan worked really well, the hardest and most pleasurable part was choosing the beads, I also liaised with those who were buying "off list" to make sure we didn't double up and probably surprised a friend by getting so uber excited that she'd managed to buy a World Troll Bead by chance... on the first day they were available!

So what did we get?  Well I won't spoil the surprise as Emz is preparing the very first Guest Spot on my blog to not only tell you all about it but to also tell you the story of her first bracelet.

COMING SOON: Guest Spot ~ Emz Cariad

World Tour Global Launch (and prisms and armadillos)

1 short day, (unfortunately not one long month filled with another pay packet) after ordering my June treat, Trollbeads launched their World Tour Global Launch...

Previously World Tour beads (a set of 4 beads that are a collection representing a particular country) were only available in the country of origin.  For a limited period from 15th June 2012 Trollbeads were allowing you to buy these beads in the UK.

I *had* to have my top favourites at all costs (apparently at all costs in our house means using some of your saved up for holiday funds) before the beads disappeared.

I chose my top 4, 3 came from the Lithuania collection and 1 from the Hong Kong collection.  There are others that I want but I still wanted to go on holiday later in the year!

I put these together in a finished bracelet that has been one of my favourite combinations to date, and shows off some of my lovely ooaks along with my July treat which was my foray into purples, prisms and armadillos with purple prism and purple armadillo.

World Tour beads are highlighted.  Anti-clockwise from lock: silver stopper, turquoise striped agate, ooak,
turquoise striped agate, lucky knot, whitecap, cells, lake eye, Lithuania's Bead (a lovely glass bead
representingthe national flag), Baltic Gold (my very first Amber from the Lithuania World Tour Collection),
Dragon and Phoenix (my Hong Kong bead, which is a silver carved phoenix and dragon,
bought because I grew up in Phoenix Cottage in Wales), purple armadillo, purple prism, ooak,
 Mushrooms Family (from the Lithuania World Tour Collection),
milky way, endless, turquoise agate, ooak, turquoise agate, silver stopper, lace lock.

Better detailing on the silver mushroom bead in this photo.
Purple armadillo and purple prism are nestled inbetween, along with 1 of 3 ooaks in this bracelet.