Beading Arts

Editor's note: Jen wrote to me about macrame with beads, and then told me that her primary job is dairy farming!  I love it when I meet artists who have other interesting things that they do!  If you'd like to contact her to discuss her work further, or to commission a piece, you can email her.   Here's Jen's story. I've always done something with my hands, and I believe it comes from my mom's side. Her dad was an "Old World" cabinet maker, and loved to work with wood. My mom has done "crafty" type things since I was little. She taught me basics on knitting, crocheting, and sewing, but my first love was drawing. I was accepted to the Art Institute of Chicago, but never went. If hindsight is truly 20/20, I'm glad I didn't go, because, I would have never found out about the world of dairy cattle! I played around with wire in junior high, and made name bracelets to sell to classmates (in the mid 70s). I got some seed bea...

Each year, I like to share a list of books with you that I think are really the top picks from all the books published in this past year.  I still think that many of the books from prior years' lists are good too, and if you'd like to see them, they are linked at the bottom of this post.  Also, I keep running lists of all the books that pertain to specific topics and media , like wirework, bead embroidery, etc, all linked up at the Books tab at the top of every page.  And finally, if you are looking for all of the bead and jewelry books published this past year , just scroll down to the bottom of the linked page and you'll find them all listed by month. My Top Picks for Everyone This Year: Marcia DeCoster Presents - Interviews with 30 beaders on inspiration and technique 1000 Beads , compiled by juror Kristina Logan The Beader's Guide to Jewelry Design by Margie Deeb Beading All-Stars by Lark Books For Beginners: Bead Crochet Basics...

Expertise and a lot of free time are NOT needed for the great ideas you'll find in this book!   Artful Christmas , a Lark book by Susan Wasinger has 30 easy and elegant projects for everything you'll need: dishes, stockings, ornaments, unique wrapping ideas, wreaths, garland, advent calendars, cards, and candle holders.  Here's a sampling that you'll find in the introduction...can you guess what each pretty thing will become? Most of the projects are short, with easy steps, but the longer or more complicated ones have the excellent instructions you expect from Lark.  Most don't require specialty tools either, but the few that do need something special use them for more than one project. This is one of my favorites...isn't that pretty?  And you can probably guess how easy it is to make :-) Technorati Tags: bead embroidery , handmade beaded jewelry , wearable art , beads , jewelry , necklace , mixed media , beading

This Wild Rose Necklace is the piece that I made for the Bead Journal Project back in August.  Sorry that it's taken so long to share the tutorial, but I had to first show you all the parts, which are linked below! 1. Create a wild rose flower according to the instructions at the link.  Make a leaf according to these instructions. 2. Cut a small piece of backing fabric and lightly glue it to the back of the interfacing. 3. Stitch the flower and a leaf to the backing fabric, and clip it so none shows from the front. 4. The finished centerpiece. 5. Stitch on two soldered loops. 6. Add a wire to each side with wrapped wire loops . 7. Add a bead and a filigree piece to each side. 8. Add various chains pieces and wire-wrapped beaded links to one side and finish with a hook clasp. 9. Finish the other side similarly, and end with a beaded dangle. Copyright 2014 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved. Not to be rep...

Grace and Hope Cherie thinks about grace and hope this week as she paints and even does the dishes! Holiday Crafting with The Artful Crafter: Kids' and Christmas Card Projects Looking for little crafty gifts or something to keep the kids busy on a snow day? The Artful Crafter has just the thing! Beautiful Paper Art! Take a look at cards decorated with intricate looking quilled paper techniques. Carmi's Art/Life World The pendant I have featured can be located on my computer in a file called "Resin Disasters." How I saved it is on my blog.

DIY Holiday 2014: The Crafting Life Interweave/F+W; $9.99 DIY Holiday 2014 is the premiere issue of a new publication that is being released as a special edition of Interweave's Stitch magazine !  If you are a lover of all things hand-crafted, this is for you: 25 beautiful projects that you can make for the holidays, or make just because you want to learn something new!  And guess what?  I've got three of them to give away!  More on that in a bit... There are eight different art areas that the projects fall into: crochet, knitting, quilting, modern sewing, needlework, jewelry making, mixed media, and weaving.  As you can see, there is something for everyone, and a lot of inspiration to help you kick-start your next obsession.  Personally, I'm really intrigued by a new-to-me technique called ply-split weaving.  Many of the projects are marked as "cool crafts on the cheap".  That's helpful too, don't you think, especially at this t...

Animals: 20 Jewelry and Accessory Designs (Magpie) by Tansy Wilson Flowers: 20 Jewelry and Accessory Designs (Magpie) by Sian Hamilton Jewelry For All Seasons: 24 Bead and Wire Designs Inspired by Nature by Linzi Alford Sabine Lippert's Beadwork Evolution: New Techniques Using Peyote Stitch and Right Angle Weave by Sabine Lippert Convertible Crystal Jewelry: Reverse it, Twist it, Wear it Many Ways by Diane Whiting Making Silver Jewellery by Louise Mary Muttitt 2015 Crafter's Market: How to Sell Your Crafts and Make a Living by Kelly Biscopink Beautiful Bracelets By Hand: Seventy Five One-of-a-Kind Baubles, Bangles and Other Wrist Adornments You Can Make by Jade Gedeon Technorati Tags: bead embroidery , handmade beaded jewelry , wearable art , beads , jewelry , necklace , mixed media , beading

I didn't get this Bead Journal Project piece finished for October, but now at last it's done for November!  I used metal mesh ribbon from   Fire Mountain Gems, Czech glass beads from  The Best Beads , and the embroidered forms of St Petersburg chain stitch, African helix, chevron stitch, and Russian spiral  from Bored By Back Stitch . Soon, very soon, I will have a tutorial to post! Here are the rest of my  Bead Journal Project  pieces so far: January February March April May June July August September October

Children of God Being God's child was the inspiration for these prints. Carmi's Art/Life World Who knew that scissors designed to shred your private papers could create gorgeous flowers too? Christmas Stocking Advent Calendar This charming Christmas Advent Calendar will add to your holiday decor, delight kids of all ages, and be used for years to come. Knitted Sampler When you can't figure out which knit stitch to use, why not use all of them? Art Bead Scene Check out our Art Bead Palette Inspiration from Brandi and Zesty Frog! What can you say in 30 words? Over the past year, Andrew has participated (off and on) in Erin Prais-Hintz's 30 Words Thursday Project. Erin has selected entries from different participants of the challenge to create a book to raise money for the Alzheimer's Association.

If you're thinking about heavy dark hemp, forgetaboudit!  Try this instead: This is the style of macrame done by the Raquel Cruz , author of Kalmbach's new book Micro Macrame Basics and Beyond . I have been fascinated by macrame since childhood.  Of course back then, when dinosaurs ruled the earth, think and colorful cords were hard to come by.  I think everything I made used that terrible brown shreddy rope that ripped your hands apart while you worked. Then came beautiful C-Lon and other brands of nylon cord.  All the colors of the rainbow, and no shreds !  As you can clearly see, micro-macrame looks nothing like the old style.  I've done a bit with half knots and square knots, but Raquel shows you how to combine these with lark's heads and half hitches to create beautiful patterns and gorgeous jewelry that are a far cry from the scratchy hippy jewelry and friendship bracelets of the past.  But, if you want to make a beautiful friendshi...

This week, I want to take some of the individual pieces ( petals and leaves ) that we looked at last week, and show you a couple of ways to use them together in a finished flower.  And very very soon (I promise), I'll be posting a tutorial for the flowered necklace I made several months ago. Wild Rose 1. Make 5 petals according to the instructions given last week for single petals .  Make each one from a piece of ribbon that is 1 1/2" long.  Cut a small circle of interfacing and stitch each petal to it. 2. Here are all the petals, slightly overlapped, with a small space left open in the middle. 3. Stitch one or more large beads to the center.  I cut a small hole in the center of the interfacing so that the center bead could be suspended. 4. Optional, but nice: add wired stamens.  These are double-tipped, so I bent them in half and inserted them through the hole in the interfacing. 5. I stitched the stamens down to the inte...

Carmi's Art/Life World The Happy Flappers Necklace with Fabric by Kelly Panacci features a new fabric line! Personalized Thanksgiving Clothespin Magnets Use these cute clothespins as place cards for the kids at Thanksgiving dinner or clip them to gift cards or a few photos of each child. After Thanksgiving, the kids can use them to post their artwork on a magnet board or refrigerator or just hold papers together. Bears, Bunnies, and Birds! Enjoy some cute amigurumi goodness with episode 8 of Crafty Princess Diaries Podcast. Peace I Leave With You Cherie reflects on John 14:27 and the topic of peace. BIG NEWS! Andrew shares that he'll be co-teaching two classes with his sister at the Bead&Button Show 2015 in Milwaukee! Check out pictures of their class samples!

I've been promising you tutorials on making pleated silk shibori ribbon flowers for awhile now, and I have finally made the time to figure out which are the most useful and the best to share with you.  The problem is, I went down a LOT of rabbit holes in the process of coming up with just a few that I really liked!  So this week and next, we'll take a look at the styles that I think will be the most useful for everyone. Hollyhock or Rose 1. Cut approximately a 10" length of silk ribbon.  With right sides facing, stitch the short ends together. 2. Baste along one long edge, leaving thread tails. 3. Gather the stitching and fluff the flower out.  As is, it makes a fine hollyhock.  To make a rose, make another flower the same way, but with a shorter piece of ribbon.  You can layer as many as you want to make a full rose. Single Petals 1. Cut as many pieces as you will need petals.  I make mine from 1" to 1 1/2"...