I have completed the colour family update for the size 6, 8, 11 and 15 seed beads. You may remember that I completed the Delica beads a little while ago.

Where the colour name is something like turquoise, rose, or seafoam for example, then a search by colour may not have found them. I have added a colour family to the description, so that searches will find them. So, for example if you now put blue in the search, then turquoise beads will also be found, and a search for pink will find rose ones.

I hope that you find this a useful feature when you are looking for beads by colour.

You may also notice an alternative reference that I have included in the description. Some of you may recognise this number and it is the number given by our wholesaler and may help with global searches by reference number.

After having been out of stock for a while, I’m pleased to say that I have managed to get some more letter beads in different colours for my pins. I have had a busy time sorting them all out into full alphabet sets and also making some of them into Pin sets. Bead and Pin sets are also available in White.

Someone is looking forward to the end of the lockdown, and has his party hat on.

This fun penguin is the latest design in my Christmas hanging decoration range. Kits are £5.95 and include materials to make 3 penguins. Full instructions, with diagrams are provided for working in brick stitch. https://www.halfpenneys.co.uk/product/party-penguin-kit/

Party Penguin is also available to download as a pattern for £2.50 or, if you confident in brick stitch, you can purchase the Chart only for £1.00. You can also order printed patterns or charts for the same price. https://www.halfpenneys.co.uk/product/party-penguin-pattern/

Why not get ready to join the party?

Let’s not forget how much we rely on our postie these days and Royal Mail are asking everyone to put their thumbs up to say thank you.

We are sending out orders every day and I created some stickers that we can put on the parcels . Like a lot of people I’m sure, we are also ordering more online at the moment so, well, I just had to, didn’t I?   Had to what? I hear you ask. Well, bead it of course!

The original says “Your Postie”, but then I thought – well if it’s going in our window it should be “Our Postie”, so I revised the pattern and have now made both available as patterns.

You do need to be experienced with odd count peyote (or brick stitch) as the pattern comprises a colour chart and peyote word map only. There are no instructions for peyote stitch.

Patterns are free to download UNTIL 30th June 2020, after which time they will be £2.

Printed copies are £2 each (our usual postage applies).

Yes, there are still quite a few more beads that we want to add to our range and we are always looking at ways we can best use the space we have. I have just added 5 more Delica colours to the website, 1 x Miyuki size 11 seed bead, 1 x 14mm rivoli by Swarovski and a new colour of 4mm bicones by Preciosa.

We are slowly moving all of our bicones to the Preciosa range as we can get them re-stocked more quickly.

The Delica colours have also been added to our latest category – Delica Beads by the Gram.

Happy beading

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I’ve just been told that there is a slight error with the Rainbow Panel Brooch in Peyote Stitch pattern. The colour chart and word map are fine. It’s just the coloured squares at the top of page 1 against the materials list. Here’s a photo of the wrong one with the right one. The pattern has been replaced online, so if you want to download another one you can.

I’m thrilled to say that you can now buy your Delica size 11 beads by the gram directly from our website – you no longer need to wait for a quote. We have been planning this enhancement to the site for a while and I hope that it will encourage many of you to now try those larger pieces that take just a few beads of lots of colours.

According to Miyuki there are about 200 size 11 Delica beads per gram. However, the quantity can vary depending on the finish of the beads and can be between 180-200.

The quantity ordered of each colour will be weighed and bagged before being labelled with the DB number and weight supplied. As these packs will be weighed to order, they may take a little longer to send out during busy periods, but in the majority of cases we expect to still be able to dispatch your orders on the next working day at the latest.

This service is available for all the Delica size 11 beads in our main range and excludes any reduced price and clearance colours and sizes.

Happy days, and happy beading.

We have been inundated over the last few weeks with spam comments on many different products, which are trying to get me to click on links to medicine websites. This takes a lot of time to sort through to make sure I don’t miss anything genuine.

If you want to leave a comment in future, you will need to be a registered user and be logged in. I am hopeful that this will resolve the issue.

As always, you are welcome to email kathryn@halfpenney.co.uk with any comments, questions or feedback on any of our products.

Full pattern is not currently available for new beaders.

If you follow our Facebook page, you will have seen the rainbow box I made for my daughter-in-law a week or so ago. She’s a nurse and I made the 3D figure by Thread A Bead, but I wanted a way to gift it that she could treasure, so I designed this box.

Since then, I have been working on a way to use the rainbow in a wearable form and this brooch is the first to be finished. I used Miyuki Delica beads and worked it in brick stitch. It could be worked in peyote if you’re a whizz with increases and decreases, although I am also still working on a peyote version. There has been a lot of experimenting with different colour combinations and cloud sizes!

Full pattern is not currently not available for new beaders.