To bead or not to bead

AT first sight it looks more like a sweet shop, a magical sweet shop as invented by Willie Wonka perhaps. Rows and rows of jars glinting and glistening with all the colours of the rainbow.

Closer inspection reveals the jars contain not sweets, but beads - so enticing that even the most hopeless might be tempted into making something with them. Read article ...

A beady eye on business

By Iain Laing

THE wife and daughter of one of the North-East’s most prominent entrepreneurs are following in his footsteps and launching their own business venture.

Jill and Kate Watkin – wife and daughter of the Tyneside-born entrepreneur Karl Watkin – have joined forces to open up LeBeado, a jewellery and accessories retailer with a difference, delivering a truly individual approach to style. Read article ...

Bead the world

By Kathryn Armstrong

Mother and daughter Jill and Kate Watkin have hit on a gem of an idea which gives a traditional craft some funky appeal.

We are talking sweetshop-shaped treats here. Jars look like they’re filled with every colour of sherbert. Baskets sit bulging with mis-shapes and take your pick from sugary coloured bon bons, lime or strawberry anyone?

In every sense, Lebeado is like being let loose in a sweetshop. The colours, the shapes, the sales-by-the-weight.

It is an assault on the senses in a very pleasant way. And more so, an enterprising way. Read article ...