Catch The Love Bug

Featured in the February 2011 edition.
Written by Mirribeads


Feeling all giddy? Is your stomach filled with the fluttering of butterflies? Oh yes, you’ve caught the love bug all right. With valentines just around the corner, it’s high time you pass
it on to this special someone that’s making you float on cloud nine. To help you I’ve created a gorgeous love bug, for you to make.




This is what you need:
0.315 mm thick coloured copper wire in dusky pink or red:
 -3 pieces of 7 cm for the legs
Ÿ -40 cm for the body
1 flat oval red glass bead, 2 cm long, 1 cm wide
2 crystal AB glass hearts, 1 cm
1 red AB glass heart, 8 mm
12 red bugle beads, 7 mm
6 facetted red AB 4 mm fire polished beads
11 size 8 metallic peach seed beads
16 size 11 silver lined clear seed beads
Cutter for the copper wire

Step 1. The body
Take the 40 cm piece of wire and fold it in half. Thread on one size 8 seed bead through one end and let it sit in the fold. Through both ends pushed together thread the oval bead.


Push it up to the seed bead.

Step 2. The wings
Take one end of the wire and thread through one of the 2 larger hearts, pointy end first. Now take another size 8 seed bead and thread it on. Now thread the wire back through the heart, making sure it is pushed tight to the oval bead.


This is your first wing, now repeat with the other wire end. 

Step 3. The head

Put both wire ends back together again. You can twist them round each other for about 5 mm to secure the wings. Now thread on the red smaller heart, pointy side first. Push it tight towards the wings, so they are firmly in place. Split the wire ends again and, on one of them, thread 8 size 11 seedbeads. Finish off with a size 8 bead. Push the beads right up to the heart. Loop the wire round the size8 bead, then push it through again. Snip the wire as close to the bead as you can. Now repeat with  the other wire end.

Step 4. The legs 
Take one of the 7 cm lengths of wire. Thread on one of the facetted beads. Push it towards the end of the wire and then loop the wire through the bead again. Snip off any excess wire at the back end of the bead. Thread on 1 bugle bead, 1 size 8 seed bead and another bugle. Now wrap the wire round 
the base of the head of the love bug, pulling the beads as tight as you can to the bug. Thread on the third bugle, another size 8 bead and then the last bugle bead. Put on a faceted bead and push all the beads as close as you can to the body. Thread the wire in a loop through the facetted bead again and snip of as close as you can to the bead. The love bug now has its front legs. 

To create the other four legs, repeat this process, making sure you wrap the legs closer to the oval body rather than the head.

Step 5. Finish off

Shape the legs and wings in the position you want them to be. To attach this bug to a brooch, you can take another piece of wire and wrap the bug with it to a brooch base. Alternatively you can hang it on a piece of chain by using another piece of wire to loop round the head and shape a loop with it, to thread some chain through.  

I hope you will enjoy your love bug and pass it on to someone special.

Once you’ve made the bug, you can attach it to a brooch, make it into a pendant or even make two for a cute pair of earrings.

Why we love what we do!

Why we love what we do!
Featured in the February 2011 edition.
Written by Tracey Kifford from WowThankYou

"Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do ... but how much love we put in that action."
Mother Teresa

What drives the artist, the crafter, artisan or small producer? Hopefully it’s not always a case of "I must get these orders filled for Valentine’s Day or Easter or else I’m for the high jump!" Surely there must be an element of loving what you do and a sense of satisfaction at producing items that are unique, personal and brilliant? What makes you get out your sewing machine/sketch pad each day - why do you do it?

For some there is an element of breaking free from the mundane day job and entering the freedom of doing what you want to do. For others who have already made the jump and given up the day job there must be a sense of liberation and excitement, of course tempered by the need to pay the bills. How do you feel about what you do? Is it therapeutic ‘chicken soup for the soul’? Does it provide some useful pennies? Does it give you more quality time with your family?

The crafters on WowThankYou have told us their reasons for doing what they do and these range from being able to spend more time with the kids to feeling more at one with the universe.

Ley Holloway from the Vintage Beadery says she works intuitively "If it feels good do it ... I make it up as I go along". Ley adds "Sometimes the best bit about creating is being able to surprise yourself with the result ... and it is not what you set out to accomplish but is just great all the same". Ley recently produced a fabulous piece from the accidental mixture of two sets of beads that occurred simply because she had not cleared away a previous project, "untidy is sometimes good and some of the best work comes from this type of spontaneity ... producing something totally off the wall is sometimes the best way to start a new trend or brand."

Martina Macklin of Sparrow Primitives has a more primeval need to create something new; she says "Creating is something I am driven to do and I have been doing it from when I was old enough to hold a pair of knitting needles ... The best bit for me is seeing something take shape from a piece of fabric and take on a character of its own." She gets a real sense of satisfaction from creating her products and ends by saying "Nothing beats the feeling you get when someone likes your creation enough to buy it."


Pandy Grenville-Evans of Princess Kitten has a more earthy view of crafting and grafting telling us that "the very best bit about crafting is getting all mucky and realising that you have forgotten to cook dinner! You get so involved in what you are doing the whole world disappears." I suppose one could call this the shear organic joy of creating something unique and escaping into your own world just for a little while.


Lisa Galvan-Reyes of Craft on Canvas is an artist and a talented interior designer and uses her skills to do the things she loves. "I have a passion for home interiors and I love to create an individual look." She loves the colours and the challenge of producing a unique design to give an individual look. She sums up her love of crafting, "I love the excitement, the apprehension, the challenge. I also love the variation of painting, cutting and sewing that is involved with my artwork. I love to involve my children, asking them to draw new designs and colour them in. The kids actually give me some great ideas and they know that their opinions are valued in everything I produce."


Charlotte Hupfield from Charllotte Hupfield Ceramics is a talented ceramicist producing wonderful contemporary pieces, which she markets through her own studio and shop. She loves the idea of having her workshop/studio at home and only a few paces away so that when inspiration strikes she can act immediately and produce that ‘killer’ piece. She says "nothing can beat the wonderful feeling when someone buys a piece that I have produced, and knowing that the item will be loved and appreciated as much as I have done."



There are of course added perks to working from home, as Helen Lloyd-Hoare from Moonstone Glass enthuses, "I love crafting, because it means I can be surrounded all day by the people I love. We enjoy working together, and spending fun-filled days at fairs and festivals. My daughters love being part of the family business."





Gaye Milton-Weekes from A&V Designs is of the opinion that most crafters do not do it for the money. She has such enthusiasm that she says "when a new batch of fabrics arrives, I always feel like a child in a sweetie shop!" She loves all her items, and feels this is important, "I know I love what I do and every item I make becomes my new favourite – until I finish the next one! ... Even when I’m not working I find myself drifting into the work room to look at the fabrics which excite me." She concludes, "How do I know I love what I do?" "Well, I’ve not made anything I wouldn’t have loved to keep for myself."

So there you have it - crafters do what they do for a variety of reasons: Immense satisfaction being a great start, an enjoyable hobby that brings in a modest income that can be carried out around being a parent, a ‘release’ from the everyday stresses of modern life ... they do it because they love it and can give over part of themselves in what they do, producing articles from the heart of their creative imagination for the rest of us to admire, appreciate, purchase and cherish.

Happy Valentine’s Day from WowThankYou. I started on a quote, so I’ll end on another one:

"Love is a canvas furnished by Nature and embroidered by imagination."
Voltaire