London Bead Fair

Last Sunday (3rd) I decided to pay a visit to the London Bead Fair held at Kempton Park. They don't have a website as such so I won't bother pointing you in their direction. I went for two reasons, the first being that my friend was going to be there and that I would be missing The Big Bead Show as I am going to be at Flame Off.

When I arrived I was surprised at how quiet it was - in fact if it wasn't for all the cars in the carpark and 1 sign, I would have thought it wasn't on.

Anyway in I went (£4 entry) and met up with my friend and had a lovely cup of tea and a chat, another lady joined us that I had met previously. Then toddled off for a look around.

It wasn't a very big show, well I can only compare it to The Big Bead Show as that is the only other show I have been too and most of the stalls seem to be aimed at seed beaders. However Tuffnells glass was there.

I bought another big hole mandrel (so I can make more of my daisy clasps) and I couldn't resist this Reichenbach Opal Raspberrry glass - yummy!

I also bought some enamel sifters, I currently only have one and want to play some more with my enamels having just bought a rainbow bead tutuorial from JC Herrell.

Next up I bought some lovely crystals from Anita's Beads, only £2.00 a string and I do so like a bargain! These are a bit bigger than the ones I usually use.

There's a bit of a fad thing going on at the Craft Pimp forum about Kumihimo at the moment and when I was visiting a friend before Christmas, she showed me how to do it. I thought it was about time I gave it a try so I bought a little mini disc from GJ Beads, it was only £2.99 and I didn't want to spend a lot of money as I am not sure it is something I want to do a lot of. I was a bit dissapointed that there wasn't a good selection of cord to buy so will have to look for something online.

Now this is fantastic stuff. Jewelry tube from Stitch'n'craft (you can find it further down the page) £1.18. It's great if your bead hole is a bit big and you want to use wire. Very simply it makes the hole smaller.

Now these I bought to break up. They were only £1 per bag and look at all the chaing and findings! I plan to break these up to make jewellery with my own beads. Another bargain! Unfortunately I can't tell you where I got them from and their name wasn't on the receipt. I think they were a one off sale item anyway.

Finally and probably the best thing that happened to me at the fair was I got to chat to Laney from Izzybeads. A frequent visitor and a member of the Craft Pimp Team, we have been chatting via the forum for ages and I did meet her at the Stourbridge Festival of Glass last year but didn't have a chance to chat to her so it was really nice to get to know her a bit better.

She makes lovely beads, a lot of which will bring a smile to your face. I bought these lovely beads and because I am her friend she popped one of these cute little bee beads into the bag. These can be ordered from her Etsy store for just £2 along with ladybirds, butterflies, sunshine and bones!

I'm planning to make these leaves into a necklace just for myself.

Well, I hope you've enjoyed my ramblings and sharing the goodies I bought. Please feel free to comment, it's always nice to know when you've liked my posts.

Thanks for looking.

Linda
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