Some of my initial creations..

After my beading class, I was so inspired and motivated to design my own jewellery that I could not wait to get some beads and start off! Unfortunately, Reading doesn't have any bead shops, but I had seen John Lewis stock some crafting and bead supplies. I went there with high hopes of buying something interesting for my project but was very disappointed with the variety and quality of the beads available. Nevertheless I got something that I thought I could work on and got some mixed red beads and seed beads, crimping plier, beadboard, eyepins, headpins, beading wire and all the basic necessary things. The shock came when I billed my items... they were all so expensive! I was holding 3 packs of beads, the findings mentioned above and a bill of  £40 odd!! That's when I decided to search for some online store from where I could order or wait for the next time I go to London to get my supplies. I then ordered online from  a store called http://www.thesilvercorporation.co.uk/home.asp. I will review the stores I have dealt with separately in another post. I ordered quite a bit from them and was quite happy. The only negative about ordering online is that you cant see before buying. So, it might be a little tough initially to decide what to buy. It gets better when you know the bead size, wire gauge and your millimetres better :) Waiting to enter a bead shop soon ..think I am easily going to spend a couple of hours looking at all the yummy beads..with hundreds of design ideas bursting in my lil' brain :P

Below are the pieces I made with the beads I purchased. Red beads are from John Lewis.

The white Howlite donut pendant is my personal favourite. It's made with a double strand wire on each side to hold the pendant, strung black seed beads to cover the wire and finished with black lava beads, black onyx, white beads.

The fourth one is made from Blue Jade and Red Agate semi precious stones. I strung the pendant onto a 0.8mm wire and created a wrapped loop which later was strung onto the beading wire to create the design. 

                               

                               Howlite Donut pendant necklace with lava beads

     

          Red glass beads and various coloured seed beads

       Red Agate pendant with red agate, amber and blue Jade beads