Beading Arts

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton Check out what the participants of the Inspired by Reading Book Club made for August's book, "The Infinities" by John Banville. Resin Crafts Blog Making a locket picture last is easy with resin. Carmi's Art/Life World Have you tried Chinese knotting yet? Carmi has a wonderful tutorial on her blog this week! Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!  Jean's teaser post for Beads & Baubles and what she received from the store to design with is pretty dramatic! See her blog!  About.com Jewelry Making Combine shells, bamboo beads, and hemp for this unisex necklace design. Technorati Tags: bead embroidery , handmade beaded jewelry , wearable art , beads , jewelry , necklace , mixed media , beading

Rena Klingenberg shares her tutorial to make these gorgeous cuffs! For inspiration and tips, don't miss these talented artists who have previously shared their work on Beading Arts ! Ling-Yen Jones Heather and Kerry Alice Collins  Renee Lemoncelli and Roberta Hawkins Jessica Lillie Joseph Rissin Kharisma Ryantori Sommers Diane Perry Elena Kriegner Joan Rhodes  Pam Brown Judy Grum   Fred and Janis Tate Elisabeth DeCaprio Rena Klingenberg Technorati Tags: bead embroidery , handmade beaded jewelry , wearable art , beads , jewelry , necklace , mixed media , beading

Bead Crochet Basics: Beaded Bracelets, Necklaces, Jewelry, and More! by Suzanne McNeill Marcia DeCoster's Beads in Motion: 24 Jewelry Projects that Spin, Sway, Swing, and Slide  by Marcia DeCoster Polymer Clay Global Perspectives: Emerging Ideas and Techniques from 125 International Artists by Cynthia Tinapple The Complete Idiot's Guide to Making Metal Jewelry by Nancy Lee Polymer Clay Color Inspirations: Techniques and Jewelry Projects for Creating Successful Palettes by Lindly Haunani and Maggie Maggio Artisan Filigree: Wire-Wrapping Jewelry Techniques and Projects by Jodi Bombardier Resin Alchemy: Innovative Techniques for Mixed-Media and Jewelry Artists by Susan Lenart Kazmer Technorati Tags: bead embroidery , handmade beaded jewelry , wearable art , beads , jewelry , necklace , mixed media , beading

Hinged project from Rings & Things Since metal isn't my primary thing, I always feel that I need to supplement what I share with you during Metal Month !  Here are some gorgeous projects that I've been collecting from all over the web, along with great instructions to go with them. Metal clay and seaglass Four free projects from Jewelry Making Daily Making a hinged project  (pictured above) Adding patina and texture Enameled copper tube beads Using an alphabet tool with clay Stamped metal bracelets Technorati Tags: bead embroidery , handmade beaded jewelry , wearable art , beads , jewelry , necklace , mixed media , beading

August cabochon, finished I chose to play with right angle weave (RAW) to make my August piece for  the  Bead Journal Project .   RAW has never been my favorite stitch , but it does work really well in the round, so it would have been pretty silly to skip it!  It took multiple tries to get the bead count right in each round, but once I had it worked out, the piece came together quickly and easily.   I'm 99% sure that I will be using this stitch again in an upcoming embroidered project.  It is a very useful as a filler, and is easy to convert from beadweaving stitch to embroidery stitch. Bored By Back Stitch  will teach you how to create twelve different bead embroidery motifs, using nine different beadweaving stitches.  Learn how beadweaving stitches can be morphed into beautiful bead embroidered motifs, created to surround and enhance your cabochons or accent beads. The specific motifs you will learn are designs that use embroidered forms of basic pe

Resin Crafts Blog   A simple resin bird mold becomes a wonderful piece of jewelry.   Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!  Jean shares a great free guide to etching jewelry by Jewelry Making Daily ! It is great!  About.com Jewelry Making   Say good-bye to summer but not your flip flops with this fun flip flop earring tutorial.   Art Bead Scene   Check out Brandi's colour palettes drawn from ceramic beads from Pajego Art House - yum!   Technorati Tags: bead embroidery , handmade beaded jewelry , wearable art , beads , jewelry , necklace , mixed media , beading

My friend Christine Ritchey took one look at my miserable pieces from the Tuesday post and promptly sent me some more suggestions for what could have gone wrong.  Aren't friends wonderful?! Hi Cyndi, First, it's refreshing to see someone posting failures! Heaven knows, we all have them. Here're are some thoughts, although you've probably thought of them yourself.   Did you reconstitute with distilled water? Were the pods and twigs really really dry? Could the clay or brush have been contaminated in any way? It does look like the clay might have needed a few more coats, but of course I'm having to look at the pictures on this itty bitty screen! ;-) I wrote back: Chris, you're such a sweetie! Thank you for your ideas. I did NOT use distilled water, but it was highly filtered. Still...hmmm... The twigs and pods were bone dry, but that's a good thing for me to mention to readers anyway, and I forgot. I think the major problem was two-fold: th

Lorena Angulo If you're still looking for inspiration, don't forget about these fabulous artists that have shared their work with us over the years!      Dale Wayne Avril Scott Delia Marsellos-Traister Jennifer Vestal    ( update ) Cheri Platter Joseph Rissin Shahasp Valentine Michelle Loon  Lis-el Crowley Carol Gregory Kristi Bowman-Gruel Vie Blakey Linda Kaye-Moses  Andrew Thornton Sherry Eckert JJ Singh  Maureen and Rebecca Worth   ( update ) Melissa Lee  Lorena Angulo Joan Rhodes   Judy Grun Technorati Tags: bead embroidery , handmade beaded jewelry , wearable art , beads , jewelry , necklace , mixed media , beading

Create Colorful Aluminum  Jewelry by Helen Harle Simple techniques and recycled materials...how can you beat that? Mixed Metal Mania  by Kim St Jean A fabulous manual that will take you through beginner techniques right into intermediate. Heat, Color, Set and Fire  by Mary Hettmansperger Surface effects for fabrication artists who have mastered the basics.  Rustic Wrapping  by Kerry Bogert An amazing section on adding patinas to metal. Metal Magic   by Kim St Jean Picks up where Kim's first book left off.  Great projects and techniques. Unconventional Chain Mail Jewelry  by Laura Poplin  Merge your chain mail mania with other materials, like textured metal. Metalworking 101 for Beaders  by Candie Cooper  Want to add creative metalwork to your beaded designs? Stonesetting for Contemporary Jewelry by Melissa Hunt Not a beginner's book! Metal Jewelry in Bloom by Melissa Cable If you love flowers, you must get this book. Bead Meets Metal by Kay Rashka Learn-as-you-go

I collected some twigs and pods from around my house to do one of my CopprClay experiments.  If you've been following along with me, you know that I actually had some success at reconstituting some old clay and forming new pieces , firing them , and finishing them with a lovely LOS patina.  Now for the ones that didn't work out so well! I gave each of the twigs and pods coating after coating of copper slurry "paint", allowing each coat to dry.  I propped up and hung them between coats.  Before firing, I baked them at 200 F in my oven just to make extra extra sure that everything was dry. I carefully buried them in the activated charcoal and fired them in my kiln, and this is what happened: Every one of them crumbled, broke, flaked, and crunched away.  The problem is that I can't tell you which of two possible problems was the ultimate cause of the failure.  The clay was old and reconstituted, so as you may have noted on my other pieces (the o

Ok, so I've made some new pieces , mostly from reconstituted CopprClay, I've fired them, and now I'm ready to give them a nice finish.  All of these pieces are going to be wire brushed and then treated with a simple patina solution.  If I wanted a shiny finish, I would have followed up the brass wire brush with a red rouge polish instead.  You'll find more information on finishing pieces at my prior post, but I'm going to be using the same basic method here. The pieces come out of the kiln with no luster at all.  If they've been fired properly, the metal in the metal clay mixture has sintered and formed a solid metal pieces.  Impurities, moisture, and chemical reactions may get in the way of that.  But if all is well, you can get a wonderful shiny finish, though not mirror bright, with just a simple brass brush.  I use a few drops of dish soap as well, to remove the charcoal residue while I'm brushing.  The shot above shows one piece brushed and

Art Bead Scene   Check out Erin's big news - she will be presenting a webinar on Fibre Findings and Finishing Techniques for Jewelry for Interweave/FW Media!   Carmi's Art/Life World   Do you have a charm bracelet? Wear it again as a necklace!   Resin Crafts Blog!   A vintage Parisian frame and a very old dried flower makes this new resin filled object special.   Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!  Jean reviews the 10th Anniversary Collector's Issue of Bead Style Magazine and it is GREAT!  The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton   Andrew was (subconsciously) inspired by the color palette of his shirt when working on this brick stitch bracelet.   A Bead A Day   It's new product sharing day on A Bead A Day blog! It's all about stainless steel findings.   About.com Jewelry Making   There is still time for some summer time earrings.   Technorati Tags: bead embroidery , handmade beaded jewelry , wearable art , beads , jewelry , necklac

Copper Clay elements by Kristi Bowman Nothing like some beautiful eye-candy to inspire you to dive into working with metal clay!  These pieces are not part of any tutorials that I know of, so please respect the artists' rights and be inspired by them only. Bronze Clay beauties by Aja Vaz Copper and Silver Clay brooch by Angela Crispin Beautiful patinas by Hattie Sanderson Technorati Tags: bead embroidery , handmade beaded jewelry , wearable art , beads , jewelry , necklace , mixed media , beading

The Art of Metal Clay  by Sherri Haab Artist and instructor Sherri Haab demonstrates metal clay’s remarkable versatility, showing how it can be textured, molded, carved, and sculpted to create gorgeous beads. Metal Clay Magic  by Nana Mizushima Packed with color photos showing each step of working with metal clay. Covers more than just beads, but has lots of techniques that can be used in making beads. Metal Clay Beads  by Barbara Becker Simon A highly rated book by a highly rated author  Pure Silver Metal Clay Beads  by Linda Kaye-Moses Wonderful step-by-step projects Enameling on Metal Clay  by Pam East Learn how to add a whole new dimension of color to your metal clay projects Metal Clay and Mixed Media Jewelry  by Sherri Haab How to combine this magical material with everything from resin and concrete to fibers and polymer clay Picture Yourself Creating Metal Clay Jewelry  by Tammy Powley Disclaimer: one of my projects is in this book, so of course I'm biased. I also think

Yesterday, I showed you my most recent attempts to use reconstituted CopprClay to make some new pieces.  Once they dried out completely, I placed them in a 200 F oven for about 20 minutes just to make sure they were all bone dry.  Then it was into the kiln.  I've got more information on firing copper clay at this link.  It must be buried in a pan of activated charcoal to avoid oxidizing when it's fired.  The picture above shows you only one layer of pieces...all of the pieces I made fit into one firing by layering them with charcoal. I fired them at 1700 F for a little over three hours, and then ramped them back down over another hour, leaving them to finish cooling overnight.  It says a lot for my kiln that in the morning, the pan was still hot!  Not enough to burn, but certainly enough to notice. Here are the pieces that emerged.  You'll see that they are all dirty looking, and have no shine to them at all.  Just wait until they're finished properly...it