At the moment I am secretly beading away on 4 different geometric projects at once, all of which I'm keeping hidden as they'll be featured in the second volume of Geometric Beadwork...

I am so delighted every day to get emails from people who have bought the book and love it- it makes all the work worth it.

I am also delighted to get all the emails from people asking me about pre-ordering volume 2 and I will have an annoucement to make about it all by the end of next week, so make sure you sign up to my newsletter to get the full details, plus a discount code to use when purchasing a pattern from me.

In the meantime, just as proof I am beading, here is a picture of my new favourite travel beading 'mat' with a little glimpse of one of the projects on it (as well as a variation of my Liekulis Necklace). I bought the mat recently from Ezel Findings- it's a Beading Pal. I have no idea if anyone is selling them yet but I really hope they do- it is wonderful!

Not only is it the perfect surface to bead on but it has a little pocket to hold items and lots of places to put bead tubes, scissors etc. Unlike other travel beading mats I have tried, my beads don't get permamently stuck in little crevices and there are no hinges or latches to get your thread caught on. In addition the padded sides are soft and just perfect for resting your wrists on and the 'lid' folds right under the bottom to make its footprint much smaller - can you tell I love my new mat?

I love it so much I'm not just using it for travel but it has rapidly become my go-to mat when beading at home. Now I just need some more for all those other projects on my list...