Beaded Bags, Pendants Beads, Diamonds & Crystal for April                                    
                            

Scroll down, or click a link below on the html version.  If you're in the UK, please visit us for a MrBead bag & a free gift at one of our bead fairs during April, May & June - starting Sunday 27th April 2013 at Beads Up North, Haydock Race Course - for details click here.  All our 2014 fairs here.

For free shipping off anything from our MrBead bead store, just key in BEADBAGS at the checkout and click "Redeem Coupon". Offer valid until Saturday 5th April 2014 only - so act now! Only for use in our store at the checkout and not valid with any other offers.

To go to the bead store click MrBead.com or MrBead.co.uk.   

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Beaded Bags
Pendants Make Designer Necklaces Easy!
Diamonds - April's Gemstone
Man-made Diamonds
Cubic Zirconia
Quartz Crystal - April's Alternate Gemstone
See Us in the UK for a Free Gift!
Free Shipping!

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Beaded Handbags Are In!

Beaded handbags are stylish - especially for a night out. Beads and sequins add bling to change a pretty fabric into an eye-catching fashion accessory.

Use seed beads for purses and smaller bags, or larger beads for a fun holiday holdall. Google design ideas, or use your imagination to sketch more-individual signature pieces with matching purses. Design to match your personality or a set theme, like summer or horse racing.

Beaded wristbands and other jewellery can also be made to match. You can purchase a bead loom with a bag pattern cheaply on eBay, or DIY.

How to Make a Beaded Handbag

1. Cut a satin cloth to two 9-inche squares - one for the main bag and the other one for the lining.
2. Fold the cloth and allow a half-inch border for stitching. Use pins to temporarily fasten the sides.
3. Start by sewing the beads into the cloth to match your design.
4. Then finished, sew the edges of the cloths together ensuring the stitches are aligned.
5. Turn the bag inside out.
6. Attach two small metal rings for the straps by sewing them into the opposing sides of the bag. The strap should have a comfortable length and be decorated with matching beads.  Sew on two lobster locks at each end.

Pendants Make Designer Necklaces Easy!

If you make jewellery to sell, then necklaces are usually your bread and butter. They sell well and customers expect them to be expensive, maximizing your profit. Necklaces are easy to make too, especially if you base them around a pendant or focal bead. With a pendant, the stones are set on a bezel using a pinch bail. This looks very clean and professional and you won't have to worry about wires breaking or coming loose. You can also string a pendant onto a chain or a piece of wire just like a bead. What could be easier? However, these very-simple necklaces' usually sell cheap.

Colour
If the pendant you chose has multiple colours, try to incorporate most of these into the rest of the necklace. Use beads of these colors, along with similar coloured thread. This allows appreciation of the whole necklace design, rather than focusing on one colour.

Harmony
Use beads that are similar in quality to the stones in the pendant. If the stones in the pendant are gemstones with beautiful facets, use quality faceted beads. If the pendant has tumbled stones with lots of inclusions, you should use baroque beads that won't take the limelight away from the focal pendant.

Spacer Beads
Add different sizes and shapes of metal beads and findings for professionalism and to enhance the focal bead, but without drawing too much attention to themselves. Spacers are also useful to add-design and to economize on the beads used - saving you money.

Focal bead
Large beads, like frame beads, can also be used as the focal point of your necklace instead of a pendant. Use different sizes and colour beads in your necklace for effect, variation ads style. Finally, choose the catch to match, attached with jump rings. A dainty necklace uses a tiny clasp, whereas a heavy necklace needs a larger, stronger catch.                           to top

Our focal beads: MrBead.co.uk or MrBead.com
Our pendant beads: MrBead.co.uk or MrBead.com
Our spacer beads: MrBead.co.uk or MrBead.com

Diamond- April's Gemstone 
April's birthstone is the diamond. Diamonds are a wonder of nature. Their cold sparkling fire has held us spell-bound for centuries with myths of romance, power, greed, and magic. Ancient Hindus, finding diamonds washed out of the ground after thunderstorms, believed they were created by lightning bolts. Today, the diamond is a symbol of enduring love.

Diamonds are the rich cousins of graphite, both crystalline forms of pure carbon. The enormous difference in their properties is a result of the way that carbon atoms are bonded together. In graphite, carbon atoms are arranged in sheets that easily slide past each other, making them ideal as lubricants. Diamond crystals, are a tight-fisted network of carbon atoms securely held in four directions, making it the hardest naturally-occurring substance.                       

Man-made Diamonds       

To say these cultured stones are not real diamond is false. Chemically they are identical to mined diamonds, but they do have different growth patterns and a lack of inclusions that would draw suspicions to a qualified a jeweller. However, those bits of minerals that are enclosed in a natural diamond as its forms are regarded as flaws; a lack of inclusions is actually a good thing. For a jeweller to tell for sure, De Beers has designed a machine for around $10,000.     

  Cubic Zirconia                      
A much cheaper way of making a stone that looks like diamond was created by Russian scientists. Cubic Zirconia is a dense clear material through which laser light can be reflected. When melted at high-temperature and an incredibly-high electrical current sent through it, the compound crystallizes, forming chunks similar to rough diamonds, which are then be cut and polished to exact specifications.

Using the naked eye, even a trained jeweller cant detect the difference between good cubic zirconia, genuine or cultured diamonds. And even diamond experts have been fooled between cubic zirconia and a five-million-dollar diamond - concluding that both were fakes! All are fully faceted, cut and polished the same.                                                         to top

To see our cubic zirconia rings click MrBead.com or MrBead.co.uk

Quartz Crystal - April's Alternate Gemstone

The Mayans, Druid priests, and Tibetan monks all knew the spiritual power of crystal. The ancients used it to strengthen the sun’s rays to bring heat, and the Chinese science of feng-shui teaches that arranging crystals around the home retains positive energy.

Crystals became important to these people because of the belief in their capacity to store and amplify any power source fed into them - physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual. Today’s crystal therapists say that the stones' ability to work as a conductor allows energy to be focused via a person's thoughts to stimulate healing. And many people use crystal to focus attention on what they want. With a little imagination, you too can use crystal's energy to access a higher level of consciousness and turn a desire into reality.

All types of crystal have this magical power, but individual colour crystal is believed to have other uses too. Rose quartz, the stone of unconditional love, is great for emotional healing. Red, yellow, and orange stones are said to produce special energy; clear and aquamarine stones are healers; and lavender and blue-violet are both calming stones. It's amazing how versatile this gemstone can be.

Pure rock crystal is clear, but usually quart comes in a variety of opacity. Milky quartz is cloudy because of microscopic inclusions of fluid embodied in the crystal at the start of its life - creating an attractive effect of a crystal within a crystal, giving the interior a ghostly appearance. Smoky Quartz is caused by natural radiation from nearby granite rocks which have a small amount of radioactivity.

See our crystal beads at MrBead.com or MrBead.co.uk
Our quartz beads at MrBead.com or MrBead.co.uk

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See us in the UK for a Free Gift!

After being shut away in a little office reading and sending e-mails, we love to see customers! 

Visit us in the UK and say you're a MrBead Newsletter reader, and we'll give you a MrBead bag & a free gift!

Sunday 27th April 2013 - Beads up North!  Haydock Race Course, Newton-le-Willows WA12 0HQ
Sunday 4th May 2014 - The Doncaster Bead Fair - Holiday Inn [A1(M) J36], High Road, Warmsworth, Doncaster DN4 9UX
Sunday 11th May 2014 - Norwich MrBead Bead Show with The Bead Queen - George Hotel, Arlington Lane, Norwich NR2 2DA
Saturday 17th May 2014 - The Luton MrBead Bead Show - Stockwood Hotel, Stockwood Crescent, Luton LU1 3SS
Sunday 18th May 2013 - The North East Bead Show - Holiday Inn, Great North Road, Seaton Burn, Newcastle Upon Tyne NE13 3BP
Sunday 1st June 2013 - Cheshire Bead Fair - Nantwich Civic Hall CW5 5DG
Sat & Sun 7th-8th June 2014 - Gem 'n' Bead Fair, Kempton Park Racecourse, Sunbury, London TW16 5AQ

We will also be calling at some beading groups. If you would like us to call on your group, please e-mail or tweet Nigel, or phone after 24th April 07576134264.

For details of all our 2014 bead fairs click here
See a video of some of our past bead fairs