Join the sparkly celebrations!

When a new friend asks me what Beadingschool is about, my answer is not about the Bead Shop, even if that’s what you might see first. Our mission at Beadingschool is to make you beaders happy and proud of what you have accomplished and help your beading wishes come true.

I can talk a lot about what we are doing at Beadingschool and how we try to make beading wishes come true, but I think our beaders are the best when it comes to describing it. I’d like to read you Kata’s words, summarising the essence of Beadingschool so well:

“We all learn and teach, even if we may think we don’t. It’s an extremely welcoming and inspirational community where you can also share your personal struggles as well as your happy moments – you will ALWAYS get support. I keep on finding new friends here – regardless of living 10 or 10000 km away from each other.”

One of the reasons of the change two years ago, when the Storytelling Jeweller became Beadingschool was to show that this is not about one person, but a like-minded, compassionate group where every member is bringing inspiration and getting inspired, and as Kata said, learning and teaching at the same time. It’s true for our beaders, and also for the Beadingschool Team: our designers, Zuzi and Veronka, the Treasury Team with the leadership of Andrea, and every helper who is making sure that your day becomes a bit sparklier when you get in touch with us: no matter if a package lands on your bead mat, or a simple message arrives.

The past weeks, even months were spent with preparations. While I was designing and looking for new inspiration, the Treasury Team was getting ready for the Celebrations, too:
they were preparing two boxes.
The first is a sparkly GIFT that they will slip into every beader’s package who decides to place an order of at least 15 euros / 17 USD / 14 pounds during the Birthday Week – between 5pm CET #CoffeeTimeWithErika on 25. April ’23 and 5pm CET #CoffeeTimeWithErika on 2. May ’23. They selected for you some sparkly ingredients that they liked the most:

Please remember, that if you’d like to receive this gift, you need to place and order requiring shipping (not only tutorials), and it needs to be one order above 15 euros / 17 USD / 14 pounds, not several with the sum being above this.

The second, biggest box is representing the Beadingschool Community: with components and beads in our colours : turquoise, fuchsia, and yellow. New special favourites that I found recently, that I felt inspired by and I believe that you’ll love to play with. One of the jewels that I created for the Birthday Week is coming from this ‘Signature Box‘ and the tutorial is my GIFT to everyone who would like to play with this collection.

This is the third time that I created a curated collection of beads and components for our special day, and it seems that it is becoming a tradition. After reading their reviews, I am happy to say that our beaders LOVED the previous year’s collections, and I hope that you’ll enjoy this year’s selection just as much or even more! Besides the GIFT tutorial that I mentioned it also holds two extra surprises that I’ll tell you about in a little while – after looking into what’s inside the Box. 

The jewel that you can bead from the Signature Box right away is called HEIRLOOM. Traditions and memories are important, and can be as simple as drinking a cup of coffee together every Tuesday, keeping safe a precious jewel (no matter if real gold or not) passed down from generation to generation – or beading the same motif together, wearing and showing it off proudly.

With the Heirloom motif, I show you how to use a cabochon in a claw setting and start with your favourite square stitch bezel variation, tightening it safely around the claw nest, and a seamless way of turning it into a ring. We will use sparkly 2xAB crystal beads from the Box and attach tiny rhinestones into every corner. It can, of course, also become a pendant, or a brooch if you like, too! 

Besides the historic filigree revived specifically for this occasion, the most special component in the Signature Box is a result of another collaboration. While the filigree is made together with a family manufactory from the heart of Europe, the fuchsia bag is hiding a treasure coming from a little bit more from the East: from an atelier that usually doesn’t need an introduction when the name is mentioned in the beading world.

This year, we asked Vlad of Golem Design Studio to create a cabochon for you. In my favourite turquoise colour, handmade by one of the best from all around the world when it comes to clay cabochons for beaders.

While I love the mandala on the top, I have to admit that I am fainting a little bit every single time when I turn it around, as the back side that Vlad created is just as beautiful as the front. The cabochon can be easily bezeled with Peyote stitch (download my GIFT tutorial if you haven’t done it yet, it’s super easy and useful!), I’d also like to share a bit of inspiration for your future projects: a bezel that I created entirely from the Signature Box.

And this is still not everything!

Many of our beaders were waiting for this opportunity for years… Finally, we have Beadingschool Mandala T-shirts waiting for you – the exact same that Adam, me, and the Treasury team are wearing often. They are available in two different versions, and can be yours together with the Signature Box. And if you go for the Box + T-shirt option, than we will take care of the shipping costs for you 🙂

PROGRAM

Behind the scenes, we are still preparing some more sparkly surprises, two more jewels, and opportunities to meet and be(ad) together. This is what’s coming during the next week:

25. April (Tuesday) #CoffeeTimeWithErika – Let’s start the celebrations!

26. April (Wednesday)

27. April (Thursday) Colours of Beadingschool Day (check back on our Facebook page)

28. April (Friday) Sparkly! #NoOneHasToBeadAlone with a surprise design
CLICK HERE TO MARK GOING!

Theme: BIRTHDAY bracelet – SURPRISE DESIGN
Date: 28. April 2023
Time: 5pm CET / 11am NYC / 8am Cali / 3am NZ
Where: Facebook page, Club, and Youtube
THE TUTORIAL WILL BE AVAILABLE ONE HOUR BEFORE THE WORKSHOP.

Material list for one motif

29. April Saturday Beadingschool Team Day

– Getting to know all members of the Beadingschool Team better and how they contribute to make beaders happy 🥰
– Fun facts about Beadingschool – article on the Blog coming!
– AND THE BEST: Virtual Treasury visit!!! 🥳
at 5pm CET / 11am NYC / 8am Cali / 3am NZ.
This is an exclusive opportunity only for our Club and Beadingschool Academy members 👑 We will post the link in the Club and in the Virtual Classroom.
Zuzi, Heni, Edina, Timi, Bea, and Andrea are looking forward to meeting you very much!

30. April Sunday Surprises from fellow beaders and Storytelling Night with Csenge (for Beadingschool Academy Students) 

1. May Monday Beadingschool Friends – Designers Day

2. May Tuesday Good bye, Birthday Week!

And a bit of practical info for the end: in case that you’d like to adopt my Signature Box or some other sparklies during the Beadingschool Birthday Week, please note, that we’ll collect everything for you in the Treasury and start sending packages next Wednesday, when the celebrations are over. In the same way as during the Beadingschool Advent Calendar: you can always choose the ‘Join with order in progress’ option to save on shipping.