Snowstorm Slave Bracelet Project

I can't believe it has been so long since I last posted. Sorry about that!

My latest news is that one of my jewellery designs is featured in the current edition of Bead (UK) Magazine (Issue 8). It is a slave bracelet, which is a bracelet that connects to your finger as a ring. It is based on my Snowstorm Necklace kit. To go with the magazine article I have produced a kit containing all of the beads, etc. on my website http://www.beadgarden.co.uk/ .

It is surprisingly comfy, but not something I would wear for a day of chasing the kids and changing nappies (which rules out most days for me). It would look great for a special occasion, maybe even for a bride.

Bead magazine are also running a feature about me in June, together with another of my projects and featuring some more of my jewellery. I am quite looking forward to it but I desperately hope they don't ask for a photo of me, although they probably will do.

I am not one for new years resolutions but I am trying to get a bit better at organising my beads and jewellery. At the moment I am taking pictures of beads and jewellery for my great new inventory. I honestly did not know that I had quite that many beads, even though I run a beads business.

It would probably take me ages if I had to price everything up myself and do all of the maths. But, with the help of some fantastic software I can create a file for each bead and component, add a photo if I like and then just add the price and quantity. Then, if I make a piece of jewellery I can create a file for it, add a picture and then select the beads, etc. that I used to make it from a list. Tap in how many I used and how long it took, etc. then the software just calculates the cost of the jewellery and now must I should charge for it. BRILLIANT!!!

But that's not all! It also removes the beads that I have used from the "stash" files, so I know how many beads I have left. This will make my life a lot easier as I am terribly disorganised usually. Even when I try to organise myself, I just end up with note books everywhere and no idea of what I have put where. So I am very impressed with this software.

I have added a link to this software on the right hand side of this page, if you are interested. If, like me, you are UK based you can take advantage of the weak dollar (sorry America).