Beading Arts

  Carmi's Art/Life World Carmi has turned a vintage watch face into a bracelet component.   Earthenwood Studio Chronicles Melanie pairs some new woodland inspired components with gorgeous chain from Fusion Beads. Resin Crafts! Black and white resin looks beautiful!   Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done! Jean has two cool offerings for you to check out today! See her blog for a fab new book and of course the challenge she is in!   The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton Andrew shares the inspiration behind a few of his new pieces, recently added to his store!   About.com Jewelry Making Is it time to return to the jewelry classroom? If so, here are some suggestions for you.   Art Bead Scene Heather provides a beautifully sunny forecast for summer's jewelry making trends!   Technorati Tags: handmade beaded jewelry , wearable art , beads , jewelry , necklace , mixed media , beading

Jodie Atherton I love sharing new artists with you, but I don't want to forget about the ones we've already visited with! Especially because new people are joining our happy little band of bead and jewelry crazies every day, and they may not have seen these terrific artists! Please drop me a line if you'd like to share your work! There's always room for more :-) Just email cyndi @ mazeltovjewelry.com (remove the spaces) anytime. Rebecca Brown Susan Shaw Morwyn Dow Karen Paust Margie Deeb Denise Perreault   ( update ) Dulcey Heller Amy Clarke Moore Tina Koyama Mary Tafoya Beverly Ash Gilbert Nancy Peterson Jean Hutter Kathryn lane Berkowitz Sylvia Windhurst Paula Motsinger Meyncke  Susan Sorrell  Annika deGroot MaryLou Holvenstot Cheri Meyer Dawn Dalto  Paula Huckabay Shaaron Chambers Wanda Harvell Jennifer VanBenschoten Robbie Payne  Claudia Chase  Laura West Kong Dyane Bradley Elizabeth C

Diane Fitzgerald's Favorite Beading Projects: Designs from Stringing to Beadweaving by Diane Fitzgerald Betsy Beads: Creative Approaches for Knitters by Betsy Hershberg, Elaine Rowley and Alexis D Xenakis Metal Clay Fusion: Diverse Clays, Detailed Techniques, Artful Projects (Metal Clay Master Class) by Gordon K. Uyehara Gemstone Settings: The Jewelry Maker's Guide to Styles & Techniques by Anastasia Young Show Your Colors: 30 Flexible Beading Wire Jewelry Projects by Sara Hardin Oehler and Jamie Hogsett Getting Started with Seed Beads by Dustin Wedekind Technorati Tags: handmade beaded jewelry , wearable art , beads , jewelry , necklace , mixed media , beading

Every year I find that I have to update this list!  Obviously, seed beads are a passion of mine... Here are all the seed bead tutorials from the archives, both off-loom bead weaving and bead embroidery.  Some of these are quick and dirty techniques, and some follow a larger project from beginning to end.  Enjoy! Bead embroidery techniques Free e-book on bead embroidery stitches Treasure Chest: a basic bead embroidered project Peyote stitch a beaded bead The spiral stitch A free form beaded pendant from a geode Two drop peyote beaded beads Right angle weave bezel and bail Cigar box handbag A simple square stitch bail Twisted peyote spiral necklace Simple cuff bracelet A wrapped paua necklace Free form seed bead necklace Spiral square stitch Autumn Arbor Beaded cabochon pendants A free form beaded bauble Beaded flowers Floral bead embroidered necklace Interesting spiral Deco scarab necklace Lady of Shalott Midnight at the Oasis

Ancient Waves Last week, I walked you through the initial steps of constructing my new ammonite bead embroidered necklace .  This week, we'll finish up, and I'll once again ask for your help in naming it! 8. I added stacked stitch as embellishment all the way around the edges (edging brick stitch), both inner and outer.  Instructions for edging brick stitch and stacked stitch can be found in Chapter 1 , my free e-book chapter. 9. Here is a detail shot of the edge. 10. I used size 11/0 and 15/0 seed beads for this embellishment. 11. Hammered oval links were added to the two ends of the necklace with a square stitch bail on the back.  This bail style is covered in Chapter 3 . 12. Make a hook for yourself from wire or choose an appropriate hook and attach it to some heavy chain. 13. Make a dangle to finish off another length of chain.  14. Attach the chains to the hammered ovals. 15. Complete!  Now what

  Beading Arts Cyndi has gotten inspired by Spring Fever! Has that ever happened to you? Do you have some work you'd like to share?   Earthenwood Studio Chronicles Melanie creates a new necklace kit design, buzzing with flying creatures and blooming with leaves and trees to celebrate spring. Snap Out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done! Jean has to solve a very big bead problem and gets some help from an extremely inspirational (ahem) source! A Bead A Day Oh, for the love of buttons!! If you love buttons stop by A Bead A Day to spread the love and obsess a little!     About.com Jewelry Making Tammy pulls out a previous interview of a jewelry designer who makes jewelry for celebrities.   Art Bead Scene Gaea finds beady inspiration in the sights of her hometown of Ojai   Technorati Tags: handmade beaded jewelry , wearable art , beads , jewelry , necklace , mixed media , beading

Red Galaxy Artist: Sarah Sequins Business name: Saturday Sequins Location: Central Illinois Website: Saturday Sequins How do you describe your work? My work is bold, colorful, and detailed. I don't stick to a particular style or type of jewelry making – I like to let my imagination run wild. Sequins tend to be a common theme in my pieces, though, which is one reason I picked the name Saturday Sequins. What is your creative process like? I start out with a very basic idea in mind. A shape, some colors, the type of metal I'll use, if any. From there, my work is improvisation. I fit my components together like puzzle pieces until I come up with something I love. My favorite place to work is on the couch in my living room, with my supplies spread out everywhere. Once I get started on a project, it's hard to stop, even for things like food and water! I tend to work alone, but I don't mind having other people around, either. My husband, Mr. Sequin,

Do you love Diane Fitzgerald and her amazing work as much as I do?  You'd better, or else let me tell you...you're just plain wrong! In this beautiful brand new Lark publication, Diane Fitzgerald's Favorite Beading Projects , Diane shares 24 never-before-published projects that actually span both her incredible 20 year career and her amazing technical skills.  If you've ever wanted an introduction to beading like Diane, this book is it.  It would be great if all of us could actually take a class from her, but since that's not practical for some people, here's your chance to have Diane sitting right with you as you work through her projects.  I would recommend this especially for beginners or advanced beginners who would like to be challenged to broaden both their skills and the materials they work with.  The instructions are easy to follow and have great tips included for creating your own variation on her projects. Crystals, seed beads, Lucite, pearls,

Dole Plantation on Oahu It's been so warm in New England lately that Spring Fever has struck me early.  In fact, I went outside to get on my Harley and go for a ride yesterday, and then I suddenly remembered that I don't have a bike!  It's just been that sort of week... So I thought that I should do something about this wicked case of Spring Fever, and it occurred to me that you could all help!  How about if we visit some far-off places and see come cool stuff, and we can do it without having to spend any extra money too...IF you will help me put it together.  I've been blessed to be able to visit Guatemala, Italy, and Hawaii within the past few years, and I found each of them to be inspirational in my work after I returned.  Especially when I was able to bring stuff back with me to actually use in my work! So how about it?  Have you been to any cool places (they don't have to be foreign...see Hawaii above) that have inspired you and/or where you found r

WhimBeads My favorite on-line sources…  WhimBeads Delicas and other Japanese seed beads in all sizes, fancy shapes Empyrean Beads Many antique and vintage seed beads Kawahara Seed beads with dichroic coating ~ fantastic! FusionBeads Great selection of Japanese seed beads with quantity discounts. Beyond Beadery A site which tends to have all the newest shapes and colors. …and my favorite catalogs Rings and Things A huge selection of larger seed beads and mixtures Technorati Tags: handmade beaded jewelry , wearable art , beads , jewelry , necklace , mixed media , beading

Any suggestions for a name? I finished this ammonite bead embroidered necklace a few weeks ago and have been busy since trying to figure out how to best share the process with you.  There are so many details that I felt I could cover, especially since this is seed bead month, but I didn't want to spend four weeks on it and get all bogged down.  So my "brilliant" solution is to show you the basic construction steps now and to tackle some of the details, like the bezeling, later. If you don't already have a copy of my free e-book chapter (scroll down just a bit to find the free one), which covers the basic bead embroidery stitches and walks you through the process of assembling a necklace like this, please go help yourself...I'll wait. Ok, let's get to work! 1. Here are the pieces that I made for the necklace.  I tried to make a few more than I thought I'd actually need, and that worked out well, giving me a couple of options.  Each of the

***Free Stuff Alert!!!***  I've got a book giveaway going on that you won't want to miss over at Mixed Media Artist .   Creative Quilting with Beads is a book that you won't want to miss if you've got any interest in beading non-wearables...tons of inspiration and practical suggestions!  You must visit MMA to leave your comment...please don't leave it here :-) Deadline: March 22, 2012 Technorati Tags: handmade beaded jewelry , wearable art , beads , jewelry , necklace , mixed media , beading

  Beads & Books Get inspired with 20+ spring jewelry designs from the Suddenly Spring Blog Hop.   Carmi's Art/Life World Carmi never tires of making buttons wearable! Earthenwood Studio Chronicles Melanie rocks out to the "Rose Tattoo" and it inspires a new pendant design.   Resin Crafts! Responding to a question about transparencies and resin means we have a new pretty sample to show off!   Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done! Jean jumps into Spring revealing what she made for Michelle Mach's Suddenly Spring Challenge! How fun!   The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton Andrew creates "Color Bundles" from enameling experiments and offers them up for sale!   A Bead A Day Have you ever thought about wearing fringe? Lisa's contemplating it after watching an episode of Sewing with Nancy!   About.com Jewelry Making Catch up on some of the latest jewelry books recently published.  

Red Crest Necklace , 2011 Artist: Karen Williams Business name: Skunk Hill Studio    Location: Seattle, WA Website & Blog:   Skunk Hill Studio Baublicious Ocean Waves Collar , 2007  Freeform peyote with seed beads, pressed glass and trapped sea glass focal.   A detail of this piece is on the cover of Karen's book . Karen, how do you describe your work?     My primary interest is and has always been color.  Whether I'm working with paints, dyes, fabrics or beads, color is what first draws me in.  Beyond color, I love texture, both visual and physical.  These days, I work almost entirely with seed beads; each bead a discrete dot of both color and texture with which I can paint and sculpt simultaneously, which I love.  Most of my designs are abstract and for the past couple of years I’ve focused primarily on jewelry because I love the idea of it being worn, used and enjoyed.  My studio’s name harkens back to the dark ages of my artistic career, i

Hi Cyndi! I've really enjoyed the chapters of your eBook that I've downloaded! I'm looking forward to reading the others. I have a book idea of my own, and while I haven't ruled out traditional publishing, the eBook option is one I'm seriously considering.  I was wondering. What made you go the eBook route as opposed to, say, using CreateSpace or Lulu.com? Is it something you would recommend? Also, do you have any tips for successfully promoting an eBook? Sara Hi Sara, I'm really glad you asked these questions, because I've been trying to figure out whether or not it's something that readers would be interested in.  Since you asked, I think I can safely assume that there are quite a number of others who would like to know but weren't sure whether I would answer! Let me take them in order.  If you can secure a traditional publisher, I would never tell you to turn it down!  However, I would caution you to first read every singl

Lucky lucky Shirley, who writes Beads & Bread !  She just won the copy of   Right-Angle Weave that we had to give away!

This was not my best result to date!  Since I've worked with whipped wheel stitch before, I thought I'd get tricky and turn it into a clam shell.  That would have been fine, but you can see that in my first row, where the two parts come together, I wound the thread the wrong way.  I didn't figure that out until I had finished the entire thing, so I decided to leave it as an object lesson: pay attention to the basics! Depending upon how full my Take a Stitch Tuesday quilt becomes as this challenge continues, I may very well go back and add a few more clam shells.  And this time I will do them properly! TAST week 1 - fly stitch TAST week 2 - blanket stitch TAST week 3 - feather stitch TAST week 4 - cretan stitch  TAST week 5 - herringbone stitch TAST week 6 - chevron stitch TAST week 7 - detached chain stitch TAST week 8 - chain stitch TAST week 9 - couching stitch  TAST week 10 - running stitch  TAST week 11 - whipped wheel stitch Technorati Tags: h

Jewelry artist Rie Nagumo has a way of looking at polymer clay and working with it that is completely unexpected and delightful.  In her new book Enlightened Polymer Clay: Artisan Jewelry Designs Inspired By Nature , published by Interweave Press , the author brings her own unique sensibilities to the task of designing necklaces, bracelets, rings, pendants, and earrings using very simple techniques.  There is an organic quality to Rie's designs, but also a precision in the simple and elegant forms. All the pictures come first, so you can pour over them, feast your eyes, and then go back to decide what you want to learn to make.  The instructions are clear and easy to follow, with simple techniques building upon each other as the designs become more involved.  There is also a bonus for the polymer clay artist, where Rie gives instructions on making metal clay links and ring forms.  To be able to combine these findings with your own polymer clay designs has to be the ultimate

Last week, I posted the first half of this tutorial plus the materials and tools list, so if it seems you are missing something here, you are!  Visit Beaded Lily necklace - part one .   7. Using one of the tails, pick up 4 size 11/0 seed beads and stitch through the focal bead.  On the other side, pick up 4 size 11/0 seed beads and stitch through the closest 6/0 in the next rope.  8. Pick up 3 more 11/0s, and stitch back through the last size 11/0 from the other group, through the focal bead, and through the first size 11/0 on the first side.  Pick up 3 more 11/0s and stitch through the closest 6/0.  Follow the thread path and restitch the entire thing.  Work the thread tail through several more beads down the rope to anchor it.  Clip the end.  9. Using the tail on the other side of the focal bead, retrace the thread path at least once more, working from the other direction.  If you can do it twice without the beads being too full of thread, that will be even bette