February 20th and we are just clearing up the last few bargain bags that are left and looking forward to spending a good few hours tomorrow putting the shop back together.  As part of the shop sale we reduced the prices on a lot of books, to make way for new titles coming through, and there are more of those available so there will still be a few bargains to be had in the next week or so for visitors to the shop.  The new home page is ready to launch and we are working on putting the finishing touches to new this month for March.  The Palette Boxes are looking really good and the design grids are ready to go in them; the new facet glass mixes are really yummy, the Starter Booklet has been revamped and expanded and is at the printers so we are looking forward to launching that properly during March, along with the new Square Stitch Starter box and four new Simples designs that will be ready later in the month as well. 

Deliveries wise we have just had the new facet mixes delivered and are busy getting them weighed and ready for sale; we have a massive Delica order on its way, and are also unpacking crates of Crystal so will be back in stock of some of our favourite colours in the next day or so. 

Looking forward we have lots in the pipeline for the coming months.  The Techniques and Project Pages will be undergoing a major overhaul during April, and before that we will be uploading a new Technique sheet for Brick Stitch in the next few days.  There are also some super new beads and kits coming this year so keep an eye on New this Month for fresh ideas every month

February 5th - We are just in the last stages of getting ready for this years sale, bagging and pricing end of lines and getting all of the web offers set up on the system.  This means that in the very small hours of tomorrow morning some of us will be in the shop with heaps of bowls and baskets to fill with all of the bargain bags, and folders full of signage so that visitors to the shop can see where the offers are, and hopefully be ready to go when we open at 9.30!

Because many of the bargain bags are one offs it is not practical to upload them onto the website so we are offering our web customers 10% off lots of products plus free postage for all UK orders over £30 for the duration of the sale.  Included in the web offers are all Delica beads and Delica 15s, all books, hand tools and wire bending jigs, all of our threading materials, Craft Kit Co boxes, Spellbound Kits and GL code glass beads.

** Custom kits, Miyuki kits and bead project packs, for web projects and Spellbinding Bead Jewellery projects are not included in the sale, and offers will not be applied retrospectively for items that go out of stock during the sale

January 22nd 2010.  Important changes coming in for our on-line service this week.  We are moving our on-line payment service to Sage Pay, one of the industry leaders in secure on-line payment services, to optimise payment security for our customers.   To you, our customer, there will be very little change to the way the website functions.  The difference is in the way that the payment is authorised.  Instead of authorisation being obtained at the point of invoicing, as has previously happened, your payment information will be checked straight away so that any, eg, miss-keyed numbers will be picked up straight away, and not, as happens now, at the time of invoicing.  This should mean that all payment queries are dealt with at the time you are placing your order and will prevent any unnecessary hold ups later.  In the same way as happens now though, payment will not be taken from your account until your order is invoiced.

Post and Packing

UK Customers - as part of the change over to the new payment system we have also held a major review of our postal charges and are bringing in a new, reduced rate service for UK customers.  The vast majority of our UK post will now be sent via first class mail and we have introduced an option to upgrade to Special Delivery should you wish to do so.  This upgrade affects only the method by which your goods are sent and does not mean that orders choosing this method of postage will be jumped higher up the processing list.  We deal with all orders that come in in strict rotation as we feel this is fair to all of our customers and we will continue to do this.  For full details of the new postal rates please see our Terms and Conditions

Non UK customers - We now have a standard scale of postage charges for all non UK customers for parcels up to a maximum weight of 3kg.  Please see our Terms and Conditions for full details.  The rates that are displayed are for ordinary, non-insured postage.  You can choose to upgrade to an insured service for a flat fee of £6, and this will cover you for loss or damage of items in transit and we would recommend this for any items of value.

Forgotten Something?  We will still be able to add extra items to your web order, as we can do now, for those 'oops I forgot' moments, but we will only be able to add on items to a value of no more than 15% of the total value of the order you have placed.  Items above this value will be treated as a new order. 

January 10th 2010.  I cannot believe it is so long since we posted on this page!  The Autumn of 2009 just flew away in a blur of new product launches, the new catalogue and shows and here we are planning this year's activities already.  So what do we have in store this year? 

Firstly there is the workshop timetable - I have just finished uploading all of the course info onto the website and we have emailed all those who left enquiries with us over the last few months, posted out all of the envelopes and will launch the course schedule on-line at the end of this week.    Full details on the Workshops page.

Extra projects?  We have contributed designs to several magazines in the last few months.  The current issue of Bead features Spellbound as part of its series looking at bead retailers across the country, and Beads and Beyond has several new Spellbound designs in its '20 to Make' feature.  The Beadworkers Guild have also spotlighted our new double spiral rope starter kit in the latest journal.   We have lots of projects out in the ether that will appear in various magazines this year and Julie will be making a return trip to Japan for another teaching tour there.

Show wise we have the busiest schedule we have had in many years.  The organisers that we have exhibited with for several years are trying to reach otherwise untouched parts of the country so we will be heading to Poole, Lincoln, Plymouth and central London among other places and hope to get to meet even more of our customers this year.  Our full show timetable for this year is on the Events page

New Lines?  Lots of them coming in all the time.  In the last few months of last year we brought in some gorgeous new glass and metal beads and more of these have been added this month; Delicas - we now have the full ranges of both Delica 11s and Delica 15s plus a couple of new Miyuki Kits and the lovely Miyuki thread.  Lots of new kits were launched in the Autumn and we are already working on more designs for this year as well as revamping our complete tiara range and the projects and techniques pages on the website.  Once we have revamped the existing pages we will be bringing you basic techniques and projects in more small bead stitches plus blank design sheets for you to create your own projects and we are also working on some wirework pages.  We have also almost completed a new booklet for those just starting out with jewellery making that we should have ready to launch by the time of the first Spring shows.  Also on their way we have the new C-Lon Tex - a 0.9mm thread from the makers of C-Lon (which is 0.5mm diameter), so excellent for larger scale macrame projects, and a fantastic range of high quality plated plastics from the USA.

Other developments - well, despite the snow we have managed to get enough staff into the shop each day to keep both shop and mail order ticking over very nicely, not that we have seen many customers in the flesh (sensibly staying at home in some cases, completely snowed in in others) but we have at least maintained contact with many of you via phone, email and internet.  The website will be seeing some changes in the coming weeks as we change over from our current payment system to a new, pre-authorised service.  For our customers this will mean that when entering card details the information will be checked straight away so that any, eg, miss-keyed numbers will be picked up straight away, and not, as happens now, at the time of invoicing.  This should mean that all payment queries are dealt with at the time you are placing your order and will prevent any unnecessary hold ups later.  We will still be able to add extra items to your web order, as we can do now, for those 'oops I forgot' moments, but we will only be able to add on items to a value of no more than 15% of the total value of the order you have placed.  Items above this value will be treated as a new order.  At the same time we will also be introducing a new system of packing charges for international orders and all of this will be announced on the home page of the web site once we are ready to go live.

Congratulations - to our lucky 25 winners of our 25 giveaway.  We have all had great fun diving into the big sack of names to pick out the winners and they are: Ms Covey in Lichfield; Miss Craig in Helensburgh; Miss Cornish in North London; Mrs Condry in Retford; Mrs Black in Glasgow; Ms Hellon in Kings Lynn; Ms Nicholl in Lichfield; Mrs Goodman in Castleford; Mrs Johnson in Bishop Auckland; Miss Williams in Enfield; Mrs Siddle in Leighton Buzzard; Mrs Gullick in Cannock; Mrs Chambers in Armitage; Mrs Gidlow in Burton on Trent; Mrs Graves in Lichfield; Mrs Dickson in Glasgow; Mrs Steel in Chelmsford; Mrs Parker in Bournemouth; Mrs Nicholls in Lichfield; Mrs Edge in Warrington; Ms McGee in Stafford; Kris in Derby; Ms Hyde in Lichfield; Mrs Joesbury in Tamworth and Ms Carey in Cheshire.  The gift vouchers are being sorted out as I type and will be in the post to the winners on Monday.

August 1st - No time to update in July, we have been absolutely run off our feet, so a big thank you to all of the customers who joined in our birthday celebrations, and good luck to all who entered the draw for gift vouchers.  Winners will be picked from the sack later today and 25 lucky people will receive their vouchers in the post next week.  So, one very busy month.  Not just the birthday offers but also lots of shipments in from all over the world.  A huge delivery of C-Lon - it seems that everyone has started to find out just how versatile it is, and the lovely colour range is definitely a bonus as well.  More delicas, both old lines back in stock and a whole host of new ones too.  Lots of lovely findings, now coming in in ever larger quantities and we are reviewing our storage as well so that we can offer more choice in bulk packs in the shop.  A new range of size 11 seed beads and smaller bugles in wonderful colours, a big shipment in from the Craft Kit Company yesterday ready to be unpacked today so more of those will be available on-line later today.  We are also expecting rather a lot of books in any day now so be prepared for a sudden jump in the number of titles on offer.

June 27 - we have just had a lovely week in the shop.  All of the usual running around but with the addition of a bit of sunshine and a fantastic afternoons training on Wednesday.  Julie came across for the day and, as soon as the shop closed, settled down for a very intense afternoon of wirework teaching.  I have never known the building so quiet!  It has also been a very busy week for deliveries - lots of findings, crates of Nymo, a small emergency shipment of Delicas (we are mystified - where is all the DB0010 going?), a lorry load from India, mostly replenishing existing lines (you may have noticed that the Sunshine and Marine mixes are now available again among other things), but some new lines too and we should have those priced up and photographed ready for our new this month for July.  This of course if we can tear ourselves away from the tennis ... which we must as, although most of the preparation for our birthday month is now done we still need to do all of those essential final checks - see the Birthday Offers page for full info, plus a bit of background on us and some very rare photos of the staff (possibly the most photo phobic group of people you could meet, getting hold of the photos has been quite a challenge).

June 1st and the last two months have flown by in a flurry of shows and workshops, the most recent this weekend being the creative bead embroidery day with Jenny and Lynne.  They not only brought a fabulous selection of their own pieces to inspire us (all of the shop staff were treated to a private viewing as well), but they really challenged their students to put their own creative stamp on the projects they were making.  A great day was had by all.  We are coming to the end of our current workshop program at the moment with only a few places left on the remaining classes.  If you were unable to get onto one of the workshops but would like to be on the waiting list for the next time it is on, let us know and we will let you know when we can arrange a date.  Yesterday was the Dorking Bead show - and for once no roadworks on the M25, we couldn't believe our luck!  Lovely to meet new people and catch up with lots of old friends as well and we are looking forward to the return trip next year.  In the meantime we have several shows all over the country in the next few months - take a look at the Events page for full details and links to the organisers sites for more info on the shows and venues.

And coming up.  This July we celebrate our 25th anniversary with a number of offers on the web site and in the shop so keep an eye on the web site for more details closer to the time.  We haven't been able to get all of our planned new techniques up onto the site because of technical difficulties uploading pdfs, but we are still working on them so once we get the technical bit sorted there could be a real flurry of activity.  Spellbound Simples are ready now, the first seven were launched today and the dozen will be completed by the end of June 2nd.  A new range of kits, the designs in the Simples range are each based on a single technique and each pack will make either a necklace and bracelet or a necklace and matching earrings, and most people will find that they can make a complete set in an afternoon.  Some of them are very quick, some use a few more beads and will take a bit longer, but all are great for beginners needing a starting point or more experienced beaders looking for a quick project.

April 4th already and the sun is shining!  The first of our guest tutor days went wonderfully last weekend with both Julie's Beginners Plus group and Liz Thornton's floral group buzzing with ideas at the end of the day and with bags full of their achievements to show for their hard work as well.  This week we have finally taken delivery of our new pliers, with fine tooling and indigo glitter handles some of the staff have already reserved their sets, and we will have them available on-line in the next couple of days.  We also have a host of new delica colours on their way this week but a lot of the core Delica colours remain unavailable.  Our next delivery is due at the end of April and we should see the return of such essentials as DB0010 at this time. 

Spring is definitely helping the creative juices to flow with projects in the pipeline for Bead and Beads & Beyond; Lynn has produced some more wonderful macrame pieces to inspire her class in a couple of weeks (pictures on the workshop page); Julie has completed our next technique sheet, on Peyote stitch, and has designed some new projects using the technique that are out for testing, hopefully ready to launch at the end of this month, and the ladybird bracelet kit should be ready for next weekend so that we can launch it at the Malvern Bead Show.

March 14th - Two days into the NEC now.  Our first big show of the year and it is lovely to catch up with old friends - stallholders, customers, old staff, and most of the current staff, who will be here on their day off for a bit of retail therapy as well.  The first couple of days have not been without their trial though.  We arrived yesterday morning to find that one of the rocailles displays had detached itself from the wall.  It was reclining on the floor surrounded by hundred of pots when we arrived - there really is nothing like a small panic to wake you up in the morning! 

The charm set is tested and available at the show and it is now online as well and will be in the shop from Tuesday.  The new Daffodil brooch was completed earlier than expected too so we have that with us at the NEC and it will be appearing on the web-site next week.   The knotting project and technique sheets are in their final stages of proofreading so they will be up on the site next week.  We are also planning our technique launches for the rest of the year - we have lots of ideas and are hoping to launch at least one new technique sheet a month this year to include small bead stitches and more wirework techniques to build on the loops and linking sheet that is already there.  Of course we like to team each technique launch with some projects so they need to be planned in as well.

On their way - some new pearl mixes; large rondelle shaped beads in rich colours; new fine nosed own brand tools with sparkly handles; and a few new kits for April ...

February 11th - a very busy couple of weeks for the mail order office as it seems that everyone has taken advantage of the special offers for the sale.  The web offers of 10% off delicas, kits and tools plus free UK postage for orders over £20 finishes at midnight on Saturday the 14th so you still have a few days left to take advantage of the offers.  For almost the whole of last week Lichfield was very badly affected by the snow so we will be maintaining some sale offers for one more week (up to and including February 21st) for visitors to the shop only. 

Coming Up - we are working on a new starter box on a charm theme, using chain and linking, which will be ready for launch at the NEC show in mid March; we have just received a delivery of pewter castings from the USA, so new stock of some old favourites plus some lovely new pieces including a knight in shining armour - these will be launched on-line very soon.  We are also working on lots of new ideas for the projects page, more practical tips for the techniques page, remastering the last few of our kits into the colour format, and writing a book on tiara making .... plus a bit of re-arranging at the shop to make room for more lines.

Jan 30th - time for both new this month and our annual sale.  We have just a few new items for you for February but they include a lovely small box lace end in antique copper, plain metal beads in 4, 5 and 6mm with generous threading holes, and some beautiful new glass beads, small in size but in fabulous electric colours, and two fantastic dotty beads as well.  

This evening is all go at the shop as we re-arrange everything to make room for all of the bargain bags that we have been sorting since Christmas.  All of those end of lines that we have collected over the last twelve months have been sorted into many, many bags and tomorrow morning you can bet that the staff will be as eager as anyone to see what goodies we have unearthed at the warehouse.  We will also be bringing a selection of the bargain bags to Kempton on Sunday and will be offering 10% off some of our kits, delicas and tools through the web-site for the next two weeks as well, plus free postage on UK orders over £20.

Jan 11th 2009 - December flew by in an absolute blur and all hopes of getting the workshop program released before Christmas disappeared as we were so rushed off our feet keeping up with the shop and mail order.  We have now had time to catch up with our tutors and sort the hall bookings so today I will be finalising all of the details and getting them up onto the website.  We really hope there is something there to appeal to you.  A lot of the old favourites are back by popular demand and we also have some fantastic new workshops both taught by our in-house tutors and, a special treat this year, we have Jill Devon, Liz Thornton, Jean Hall and Jenny Pratt and Lynne Horne visiting us to bring new ideas to tempt you with.

December 6th - Where has the year gone?  It seems like no time at all since we were taking down the Christmas decorations and they are back up again!  Today we are both attending our last show for the year and holding our last workshops, so from tomorrow we swing into re-stocking, stock checking and ordering for the new year in earnest.  We will also be getting those November delivery items onto the web-site at last plus a further selection of project packs for the designs from Spellbinding Bead Jewellery.  Just In - More colours in delicas and delica fifteens; more semi-precious and new shades in C-Lon macrame thread

November 11th - Looking forward to the NEC - our local show and a book signing event has been arranged by the show organisers so we hope to see lots of new and familiar faces over the next few days, we will also have a selection of the bead packs for the book projects with us.  Set up day is tomorrow so the kit packers are working overtime trying to get the stock back up to a full complement, and we have just had half a ton of new glass bead mixes delivered so we are also tearing our way through the cartons to get a selection of these ready for the shop and show by tomorrow - we think they are gorgeous and we hope you will like them too!

New Stock Arriving - We have had several large deliveries in the last week and are working to get them unpacked and out for sale as quickly as possible.  They include some beautiful new, slightly smaller, fish hooks, an expansion of our coloured finding ranges with the copper findings finish now also available in large box lace ends and 2mm metal beads; filigree cups in 5mm and 8mm are all now available in silver, gold, burnished gold, copper and black finishes and some gorgeous new glass beads and bead mixes have arrived too.  All of these will be up on the web site and out in the shop just as soon as we can. 

October 25th - One very busy week for us, this weekend we have teams in Glasgow and Harrogate, after which they have a whole two days to unload the vans, re-stock and load up again before they head off to Cardiff and Sandown for next weekend, so if you hear the sounds of matchsticks snapping in any of these venues it could just be one of us losing the battle to keep our eyes open!  Back at the shop it is of course half term, always a busy week for us at this time of year, but is does also mean that we have the added bonus of our fantastic Saturday girls coming in to help out during the week, just as well as we also have a big shipment due this week that we need to turnaround ready for next weekend's shows.  

October 14th - Competition Winners - we have now heard from all of our lucky book project winnes now and here they are along with the projects they have chosen:  Mrs Moody chose the Aurora necklace; Mrs Nutman chose the Calypso necklace; Mrs Brown and Mrs Kearns both chose the Galadriel necklace; Ms Turner and Mrs Senior both chose the cover necklace from Galadriel inspirations; Mrs Morris, Mrs Rodwell and Mrs Thomas all chose the Morgan le Fay necklace and Mrs Chambers chose the Guinevere necklace.  We hope they all enjoy making them all up and wearing them.

October 14th - Lovely review!  while we have been away the Beadworkers Guild magazine has arrived and their book reviewer has named Spellbinding Bead Jewellery as her favourite book for this issue - we are chuffed to bits! 

October 6th - Finally the book and catalogue have arrived and these all went in one massive mail out last Monday - fortunately our local sorting office were able to arrange a special collection for us in the morning as we couldn't move in here because of all of the bags!  Many thanks to all of you for the kind comments on the book, catalogue and new kits - and congratulations to all of the competition winners.  Letters went out to all ten last wednesday and we will post names and choices here once we have heard back from the last three.  And now we dive into our Autumn show schedule, our next show is Alexandra Palace - the official book launch plus a couple of workshops and set up day is on Wednesday so we have less than 48 hours to finish packing all of the kits.  We will also have some project packs for the book at the show but the full range will not be available until the end of the month.

July 30th ... Design Book from the Spellbound Team out Autumn 2008

Spellbinding Bead Jewellery

The last two years have flown by at an amazing rate as, alongside all of our usual shop, show, kit design, teaching, web-site and mail order commitments we have been burning the midnight oil to put together a collection of all new designs for our book, Spellbinding Bead Jewellery, that we hope will bring you as much pleasure as we have had putting them all together.  

The theme of the book - jewellery inspired by goddesses  and strong female characters from myth and fiction - was the brainchild of Jane from David & Charles.  having seen our  range of kits she thought that we would enjoy the challenge of creating a book of strong pieces of jewellery that would appeal to confident beaders.  With clear step by step instructions, an enthusiastic beginner will also be well equipped to have a go.

Each of the ten chapters in the book has a distinct theme, both in technique and design inspiration.  From the light and delicate wire links of the Aurora chapter to the densely beaded jewels of Morgan le Fay.  We have embraced a wide range of techniques and materials from size 15 seed beads to pre-knitted wire, from wirework to herringbone rope.  Every project is graded for difficulty level and there are also hints and tips throughout to help the less experienced beader along the way.

With photographs and illustrations throughout, the book is beautifully presented thanks to the tender care of the very talented designer, Mia, at David & Charles.  Every chapter features three major projects with full step by step instructions, plus up to 5 extra design ideas that take the major project technique principles in different directions - whether changing the mood by colour or use of materials, or simplifying the idea or taking an aspect of the design to create a completely different piece.

We launched the book at the Alexandra Palace Knitting and Stitching Show in October 2008, and at this, and its sister show in Harrogate in November we were demonstrating on our stand throughout the show and also teaching workshops to make a bracelet design based on one of the projects in the book.

This necklace and pendant project was inspired by the Morgan le Fay chapter in the book and has been created exclusively for the Bead Society for their Autumn newsletter. For more details on the Bead Society go to their website at www.beadsociety.freeserve.co.uk

The book may have only two names on the cover but we have been supported throughout by a great team at the publishers, by all at Spellbound, particularly by Jean, Lynn and Pat who helped with the testing and proof reading and a special thank you to Lynne at Stitch and Craft who came to the rescue with a vital piece of knitted wire when we were away from home and had left some of our essential design kit behind!

Book info:  Paperback, 128 pages, full colour throughout

Page layout, design and photography all copyright David & Charles

Project designs and illustrations all copyright The Spellbound Bead Co