Absolute Beginners – Start Here!

This week we have launched a fabulous Starting Simple Stringing new kit for beginners, and a new web page all about learning new techniques by making beautiful jewellery too.

Starting Simple Stringing is a kit that makes seven pieces of jewellery – two bracelets and five necklaces, and takes you step-by-step through several different techniques so you can start to build up your beading skills in simple steps while making beautiful jewellery.

Available in a choice of Pastel, Peacock or Midnight colour ways.

Our other big launch for the week is

There are lots of free patterns to download and a jargon buster glossary too.  With patterns including seed beads, Tiles, Diamond Tiles, Nib-Bits and Twins there is plenty here for everyone. Whether you are starting out and need a helping hand, fancy trying a design with a bead you’ve not used before, or would just like to make a new design check out our Absolute Beginners Page.

10% off Delica Palette Collections and a bit more news for National Beading Week

National Beading Week has arrived! 

Running from July 29th to August 6th, National Beading Week is the brainchild of the Beadworkers Guild, and is aimed at bringing beadworkers together. Whatever your skill level, from complete novice to longtime beader there is something for you. For more information about events running nationally (and for the first time this year, internationally) check out the National Beading Week website here: http://www.nationalbeadingweek.co.uk/

What is happening at Spellbound?

One to One workshops – We are running special taster workshops for National Beading Week and they have been booking up very fast.  We have just a few spaces left now on Thursday and Friday.

What are they?  If you would love to have a go at beading but just don’t know where to start they are perfect.   Just book a time slot with one of our expert tutors and they will take you through making either a pair of earrings, a floating necklace, a bracelet with a choice of fasteners or a small bag charm.

Sessions need to be booked in advance, cost £5 and you get a £5 gift voucher to spend in the shop when you come for your taster workshop.
For more info see the Workshop Page

 
Also for National Beading Week – if you book one of our regular workshops being held this week (Revelling in Rivolis is on Saturday August 5th and there are still a couple of places left) you will also receive a £5 gift voucher to spend in the shop when you come for your workshop.  Pre-booking is essential for all workshops – see our workshop page for full details

Coming Soon – a new Beginners Page on the website

Kit Giveaways – one beginners kit for each day of National Beading Week, (nine kits in total) to be given away via our Facebook page or our email newsletter- sign up via our website.  Three kits are currently up for grabs over on Facebook and they will be given away on Friday.

Delica Bead Giveaway – One lucky customer will win a pack of Rainbow Glazed Delicas (worth over £50), just visit the shop or place an order any time from July 29 to August 6 to be in with a chance to win.

On the TV – two programmes on Create & Craft –
This Monday, July 31st, Julie was on at midday with a brand new programme all about needle and thread beading – if you didn’t catch her live it is available on the Create & Craft website to watch until Sunday night.

Still to come – Julie will be back on TV on Saturday August 5th 9am with a programme all about wirework

Discounts – for the whole of NBW, July 29 to August 6, there will be 10% off
Seed and Bugle Beads
Miyuki Cube Beads
Twin Beads
Size 15 Seed Beads (Miyuki and Matsuno)
Delica Palette Collections
15s palette Collections

Discounts will apply in your basket online, at the till in the shop.

Stunning New Free Downloads – join us on the Silk Route for some truly sumptuous jewellery

This beautiful collection of jewellery was inspired by stories of the silk route – market stands piled high with spices, multi coloured silks, rich fabrics, gorgeous textures, and sparkling jewels.

Patterns for all of these designs are now free to download – just head over to our new Silk Route page to find out more and download your patterns.

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In other news

Giveaways there are more still to come in our Birthday month including four kits that will be up for grabs later today – two on Facebook and two via our latest email newsletter.

Sample Sale – if you are heading to the shop we have had a bit of a clear out of our made samples and there are lots of pieces of jewellery for sale at bargain prices.

National Beading Week is just around the corner and as the aim of the week is to get more people into beading we have lots going on with that in mind.  More news on that will be coming along in a day or two including one on one workshop taster sessions.

Back on TV – Julie will be on Create & Craft on Monday July 31st at midday with a programme all about getting into beading, or trying new stitches – absolutely perfect if you would like to try something new with needle, thread and beads …

and if needle and thread beadwork is not your thing, Julie will also be on a 9am on Saturday August 5th with a wirework programme

Birthday Sale Now On

Our Beautiful Bumper Birthday Sale is on now until midnight Wednesday July 19th

Online there is 10% off

Spellbound Kits*
Spellbound Simples Kits
Miyuki Kits
GL code Glass Beads
Ceramic Beads
RG code Glass beads
Wooden Beads
Spellbound Books
Metal Beads
Tools

*and the small print – Excludes the amulet and wall hanging kits, special orders and the Poppy pin kits.
SEL /project packs are not in the sale.  Discounts apply to instock items only and will not be applied retrospectively to items that go out of stock during the sale.

Sale In our Shop in Lichfield – there will be 10% off retail packs of pretty much everything – findings are not in the sale but pots of seed beads, twin beads, bugles, single packs of Delicas, reels of wire, thread, glass beads, facets, kits and crystals are.

Sample Sale in the shop – we have had a big tidy up and found that we have lots of made jewellery samples – tiaras, necklaces, bracelets, earrings and brooches are all in there and prices start at just £1.

Giveaways – keep an eye on our facebook page or sign up to our email newsletter to be in with a chance to win one of the goodies we are giving away this month

Free Download number two – last week our first free download of the month was the Fabulous Florals, a rather lovely collection of jewellery and for this week, moving into seaside mode there is the lush Crest of a Wave necklace.

This necklace is the new addition to the Marina Collection – lots of patterns for holiday jewellery and all free to download

Birthday Shenanigans at Spellbound this July

This month we are celebrating our 33rd birthday at Spellbound with a few freebies and some new stuff – and first up I hear you asking, what are we giving away?

For Everyone:- There are sweeties for all this month – call into the shop, or place an order online, and sweeties will find their way into your package.

For the lucky one (or two) a day:- Also, for one shop customer and one mail order customer each day there will be another little surprise making its way into your package – we have a bumper package of Preciosa goodies that we will be giving away over the course of the month including beady pens, sparkly pencils, stylus’ and an assortment of jewellery made using Preciosa specialist beads.

For Everyone:- New Free Download – Fabulous Florals.  Julie has once again been playing with beads, this time taking a pack each of floral mix and leaf mix and making an abundance of floral jewellery.  There are plenty of ideas on the download including

these beautiful necklaces.  You can buy a pack that contains all the beads and findings you need to make up to 25 necklaces and bracelets and 10 pairs of earrings; buy a pack each of the leaf mix and the flower mix and add seed beads and findings from your stash, or use the designs to inspire you to dig into your beading stash and make a whole new summery jewellery wardrobe.

Two lucky winners:- buy in the shop, or mail order this month and you will go into a prize draw to win one of two £35 Spellbound gift vouchers.  We will pick the winners at the beginning of August – one shop customer, and one mail order customer.

Visiting the Shop?:- The free beads bucket has returned, there are all sorts of beads and findings in the mix, and for every £15 you spend you can choose a bag from the mix.  *Shop customers only, while stocks last.

Completely Random:- There will be giveaways popping up here and there during the month, the first was announced on our email newsletter that went out yesterday, others will appear on email and Facebook later this month, so keep your eyes open and you may just be a winner.

Good luck everyone!

Louisa’s climbing Mount Snowdon!

On Saturday July 1st, Louisa and a bunch of intrepid friends will be climbing Mount Snowdon. She is doing this to raise money for Simons Heroes, a local Midlands charity that raises money for children with life limiting illnesses. She will be climbing up the Rydd Ddu path and coming back down the Snowdon Ranger path.

If you would like to sponsor Louisa, we have a pot in the shop that you can drop some money into, or you can sponsor her directly via her Just Giving page here. Many thanks to anyone who can spare a few pennies for this worthwhile cause!

Delicas, Millefiore, New Stuff and More!

38 new colours of Delicas arrived two weeks ago and have proved so popular we are re-ordering more already.  The range is called ‘Glazed’ and had produced some super soft finishes that lend themselves perfectly to our favourite themes – gardens and nature!

Also new in, and only just launched today, we have oodles of new beads.  Some perfectly delicious fondant finish fire polished facets (think perfectly pastel seaside colours), super sparkly fire polished crow beads, Tee beads, new pips, flower beads, diamond shaped beads, some rather lovely frosted glass hearts, new mixes and new Twin beads, phew – that was quite a list!

If you are looking for a little inspiration for the summer there is also a new FREE project download on the website.  Millefiore Madness is a simple pattern that makes loads of pieces with a real holiday feel, so whether you are making to sell at a festival, or to give to all your festival going friends, or if you are looking for an easy make to keep a group of teenagers occupied for a few hours in the summer holidays, download the instructions and either use up those odd bits you have in your stash or buy this bumper bead pack – just £11.97 to make up a fabulous collection of necklaces and bracelets.

In Other News:

Lots of new workshop dates are now booking

Create & Craft – Julie will be back on the popular crafting channel at 10am on Saturday June 17th with all things Christmas

Ravishing Rivolis – All new beads, kits and gorgeous FREE downloads, let’s get beading!

Well, we told you there was a big launch coming soon and here it is.  A few weeks ago we had delivery of some simply gorgeous Rivolis from the Czech Republic and Julie  and Vicky have been hard at work creating kits and free downloads so that you can make the most of these stunning little beauties.

To see the new beads click here

To see the new kits click here

and for the free downloads page click here

On the projects page you will find two technique sheets that show you two different ways of creating a setting for a rivoli, four stunning pendant designs and also how to create a beautiful necklace to thread your new pendant on to.  There are bead packs for several of the projects too, just to make life even easier – click here to see the bead packs that are available.

and on that note, must dash, it’s the first day of the Hobbycrafts and Sewing for Pleasure show at the NEC today, hope to see some of you there!

Show Time – Birmingham NEC and Harrogate this week and an exciting launch!

It is not unusual for us to say that we have been having a busy time but this last couple of weeks we do seem to have been absolutely run off our feet!

 

In a nutshell – we have just launched several new kits, a new book – Spellbound Festive Beading Three, we have been getting ready for two lovely shows this week and we have a rather sparkly new product launch coming up tomorrow too!

Spellbound Festive Beading Three: For more info on the new book click here.  It is now available at the shop and online and we will have it at the shows this weekend too.  It is packed full of fabulous Christmassy designs and we have bead packs available for most of them too.

Show Time:  The enormous and rather wonderful Hobbycrafts, Sewing for Pleasure, Fashion & Embroidery Show comes to the Birmingham NEC this week and we have a nice big stand there that Julie and Kevin will be setting up today, ready for the show to open tomorrow.  The show runs from Thursday to Sunday, and if you are coming Friday, Saturday or Sunday the ticket includes entry to the Cake show too.  What we love about this show, apart from the obvious opportunity to shop and refresh our already overflowing crafting stash, is the textile exhibition area, usually packed full of designers, clubs and societies exhibiting samples of their work.

Also this weekend is the Harrogate Bead Show, a show that is always packed with a huge variety of beads and bead related goodies, and for us a chance to catch up with old friends too.  This is also the perfect place to pick up your copy of Festive Three too as both Julie and Pat will be on the stand ready to sign your copy, Pat having contributed three of the designs to the book.

New Kits:  There are a few new kits available so far for this spring with more designed and almost ready to go.  Keep an eye on New Kits 2017 where they will appear when they are ready.

Coming Up:  A few weeks ago we had some very sparkly beads delivered and Vicky and Julie have been looking at possibilities for them.  It is all just about done and tested now, so check the web site from tomorrow for new sparklies, new kits using them and also some free technique and project downloads including a couple of ideas that are absolutely perfect for Mother’s Day.

New Book – Pre Order Now … and other news!

Spellbound Festive Three is at the printers and will be with us in the next two weeks. If you would like to be the first to get your hands on a copy you can pre-order now, and if you order before Friday March 10th you can order a signed copy.

There is lots more info on the book on our Books by Spellbound page.

In other news :-

Julie and Kevin are at the SECC Hobbycrafts Show in Glasgow from now until Sunday.  There are lots of Spellbound goodies there and Julie will be demonstrating throughout the show too.

We have just had a huge delivery of Delicas – so huge it has taken us a few days to get them all into stock and stock levels adjusted online.

More lines have been added to our Clearance Category

and we have had a bit of a revamp at the shop – Spring has sprung at the front with lots of lovely flowers and bright colours, and the old semi-precious display has gone to be

  

replaced by a very festive and sparkly corner of all things Christmassy – now all it needs is that new book to arrive to complete the display!