Bead Barmy

Blissfully beady! The winning entry from Lynda Pearce.

When Lynda Pearce sent us her gorgeous design, we thought she’d really hit the spot. What better way to celebrate a Jubilee than to roll the flags out? Lynda did just this with her mini beaded bunting surrounding a stunning, beaded 25 as the centrepiece of the design. Lynda was awarded our top prize, a £250 gift voucher, for this fabulous piece. Our winning entrant is so pleased to be chosen, she is coming to The Brighton Bead Shop to view her design when it is displayed in the window, along with the runners up’s entries, later in the year. If you would like to see more of Lynda’s work, she has not one, but two websites to peruse. First stop is Maple Design Studios where you can see more of Lynda’s lovely work including a rather cute beaded sheep. Lynda also has some Gothic leanings and you can see some of her gorgeously decadent pieces at Death’s Little Angel

Bling it on!

Brighton beady design from, runner up, Honda Rees

Honda Rees obviously really took it on board when, in our brief, we said we were looking for something fabulous! This outrageously over the top necklace has a real Brighton feel about it – bold and fun! Honda made all the beads herself, including the ice creams, flowers and cup cake boxes out of polymer clay.

Honda told us

It was just something fun, inspired by the celebs wearing bling name tags but without the bling.

Honda’s has her own website where, as well as more delicious polymer clay designs, she also has some rather lovely Swarovski crystal pieces. Please visit Beaddifferent to take a look. We awarded Honda a £25 gift voucher. We also sent her some packets of Fimo clay as a little extra something to replenish her supplies!

All mod cons

Cool Britannia! From, runner up, Marie New

Marie New’s so very British design brought a smile to our faces when we first saw it. We think this necklace has a relentlessly jolly feel to it which, being fairly jolly ourselves, we really like! It comes as no surprise that Marie is in the business of happy occasions. A visit to her website, Maztex Designs, is a dip into a treasure trove of beautiful tiaras, jewellery and wedding favors. Marie told us a little more about her entry and where she found her ideas.

My inspiration was from the Queen’s jubilee in the ’70s when we had a street party and everyone celebrated with Union Jack flags. It holds special memories for me as it brought communities together. I also visited Brighton a few years ago and know there are connections to the mod scene and the cult classic film Quadrophenia – hence the red, white and blue. In addition to this my maiden name is Brittain – so I took full advantage of my patriotic roots for this piece! My second inspiration was the Bead Barmy webpage, hence the ‘go beadin barmy’ message up and down the length of the necklace. I finished the centrepiece off with ‘est. eighty six’ to celebrate the 25 years of the Brighton Bead Shop. The stitches I used were spirals, beaded beads and square stitch for the union jacks. I am very pleased with the outcome.. It’s fun, a little bit mad and completely beadin’ barmy – just like me!

We awarded Marie a £25 gift voucher and sent her some more rocailles as a little extra thank you.

Tea light treasure

Tea light treasure from, runner up, Jean Willis

We were delighted to receive Jean Willis’ entry through the post. It was a joy to see a beaded item ‘in the flesh’. We thought it was a lovely idea and it was nice to see a beaded ‘item’ along with all the jewellery. In the photo, this is actually the same tealight photographed from all sides so that you can see the words ‘Beads Unlimited 2011 spelt out around it. Jean was awarded a £25 gift voucher and we also sent her some more rocailles should the bug strike to make more tea lights!

Decisions, decisions…

Like I said earlier, we really had a tough time choosing the winner and runners up. Such was the high standard of work, we felt compelled to give a little extra reward to one or two competition entries.

A Brighton story from Helen Bowen

Oh I do like to bead beside the seaside

Helen Bowen sent us this fabulous necklace entitled ‘Oh I do like to bead beside the seaside’ as a tribute to Brighton and The Brighton Bead Shop. She also included a whole write up about what each piece of the necklace signifies. We also loved the fact that the necklace can be worn as one piece, or each section can be removed and worn individually. We couldn’t resist sending Helen a £10 online gift voucher for this stunning design. Helen gave us such a fascinating story behind this necklace that we will be featuring it in a post of it’s own later in the year on Bead Barmy. You can take a look at more of Helen’s designs on her blog – A Pocketful of Posies.

Treasured memories

Keepsake ring and bag from Lindsay Davies

We thought that this sweet ring with it’s own keepsake bag from Lindsay Davies was a lovely momento for our 25 years of beading bliss. Both the ring and the bag are beautifully made and are something to treasure. We also sent Lindsay a £10 online gift voucher for some more lovely beads. Lyndsay told us she doesn’t have website, it’s just something she does for fun. With work of this standard, we think she should go professional!

Thanks to all

We would like to thank everyone who entered our 25 Years of Beading Bliss competition. We hope you had as much fun making your beaded items as we did looking through them. We will let you know when the finalists are displayed in The Brighton Bead Shop window just incase any of you are in the area and feel like popping down to take a look. We still have many more events going on this year for our Silver Jubilee, including tons of fundraising activities for the RNLI. To see what we’re doing to raise money and how you can join in, please visit http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/BeadsUnlimited25. Please keep checking back here on Bead Barmy for all other Silver Jubilee news.