Easy Bottle Rocket Earrings

I designed these earrings for our occasional Girls' Night Out event we hold at the shop along with our neighbor businesses Therapeutic Balance Body Work and Designer's Touch Hair and Skin. There are some pretty tough criteria for coming up with a project for these events: #1) it can't cost to much because we're giving it away. #2) it has to be easy so we can teach women who have never done any beading before. #3) it has to be quick so we can teach it to up to 60 people a night. #4)it has to use top quality materials that we are proud to sell.

AND - #5) it has to look good enough so everyone likes it! If any of you reading this make jewelry to sell, you definitely have at least some of these same criteria to meet!

These earrings were a hit last night, so we decided to record a quick video for you to be able to make up a pair yourself tonight to wear for the July 4th holiday tomorrow. Of course, you can vary the wire colors and the bead colors to fit any occasion or outfit you want!

The supplies come to about $3 per pair, which left us plenty of money in the event budget to spend on snacks and wine! Here's what we used:

6" each of three colors of flexible beading wire, either 19 or 49 strand. The video uses navy blue (about 6") and silver (about 12")
2 clamshell bead tips
2 ear wires
2 crimp beads (2mm sterling)
6 micro crimp beads (1mm sterling)
2 Swarovski 4mm bicones in dark red coral
2 Swarovski 4mm bicones in crystal AB
2 Swarovski 4mm bicones in dark indigo

Tool you'll need are:
chain nose pliers
nippers

Now, take a look at the video for a how-to and go bead something!
http://bit.ly/9trw5v

Cheers,
Gail

Memory wire is easy to use, and even easier when I show you how in this video. Watch and bead along as I make a simple memory wire bracelet using a strand of Czech glass mixed beads, and add some vintage glass beads and shiny spacers. I show you how to choose beads that will work well on this stringing material, how to properly cut the wire without damaging your tools, and how to finish the ends with a professional look.



Want to bead along? Gather these tools and supplies: Memory wire cutters, round nose pliers, bead mat, enough beads and metal spacers for 10”. You will also need crimp covers and either chain nose pliers or a crimp tool.

Now, go bead something!
Cheers,
Gail

Here's a tip for finishing a flat peyote weave design. This works great when you are using size 11 Delicas or size 15 seed beads on the ends you are finishing. I’m directing this post in particular to my old college buddy Gigi who recently posted to Facebook that she dreads putting the clasps on her beadwork! I know a lot of folks share this dread – how to finish a piece of beadwork is one of the more frequent questions we get in the shop.

Gather: Chain nose pliers, E6000 glue, a paper plate, a coffee stirrer or toothpick, your finished beadwork, two crimp ends that match the width of your finished beadwork, a clasp of your choosing (we love the ball-and-socket clasp shown!) and two sturdy jump rings. By sturdy, I mean jump rings made from 20 gauge wire or thicker – these will hold their shape and won’t pull off easily.

Adjust the crimp end: Use the pliers to gently close each crimp end just a little until you can slide the beadwork in from the edge. DO NOT do this with your beadwork inside the crimp end because you WILL break beads. (Trust me on this.) Take the beadwork out of the crimp ends.
Attach: Use the jump rings to attach each side of the clasp to one of the crimp ends.

Glue: Place a dab of glue onto the paper plate. Use the stirrer or toothpick to apply the glue to the end of the beadwork. Slide the beadwork back into the crimp ends and let the glue cure completely.

I love these crimp ends – so easy!

Techniques for Great jewelry design – the power of editing and how to play with beads.

The power of editing.

I own a bead shop and am therefore spoiled by having everything I need right at my fingertips when I decide to design a new project. It’s a wonderful thing for our customers as well, to have access to an enormous array of choices. However, that can be intimidating for someone new to beading. Here are some techniques we use every day to help all our customers design jewelry they love. Give this a try with your own bead stash!



1. Start with a bead you love. I will hand someone a bead board and encourage them to walk around the shop, and let their eyes wander and start by choosing beads they are drawn to. It’s important to let this instinct guide you.

2. Next, start choosing other beads you love. Don’t think about whether they “match” or if the finishes go together. Ditch all your preconceived notions about what goes together and just pick things you love.


3. Make sure to select more beads than you think you need to complete your design. I’m just designing a bracelet in the photos, but just LOOK at all those beads!

4. Now, just start playing. Arrange the beads on the bead board, swap them around, try out different combinations and sequences. Try things that are unexpected. While you’re doing this, trust your inner design eye to help you edit out whatever doesn’t work. You may need to go back and get more of one bead or another.







5. Eventually, you’ll edit your selections down to something that’s beautiful, and you’ll love it because you started out with what you were naturally drawn to.


Finally, I always find it amazing that for our younger customers, under 12 years old, we don’t have to explain any of these steps. Kids have such free minds that all the techniques I just told you about come naturally, and they come up with some absolutely awesome designs. You can too – just start with more and edit out, and remember how to play like a kid!

Twisty Easy Tubular Herringbone!

I'm so excited to be back blogging again! I've got SO many new ideas to share that I thought I'd start out with some detailed project instructions for this fun, quick weave.

I came up with this design at a playday at my dear friend Ann's house, where I need to work on quick, easy projects or I don't get anything done in the creative melee that occurs there monthly. NOT complaining; it's just that some projects are better left to quite time in the studio. We were nearing the end of the day and I was sorting through some beads and came across some 12mm bugles I had in my stash. I added some size 11 rocailles in a matching color, size 10 beading needle, and Sono thread. Here's the result:

Start with a two-bead ladder, 4 rows long, using size 11 seed beads (rocailles).

Join the ends together to form a tube, and add another row of herringbone using the size 11 seed beads.

Now, work one row of two-drop herringbone, using a 12mm twisted bugle bead, two size 11 seed beads, and another bugle bead for each set of beads you stitch (two sets per row). Step up after the second set. Continue adding rows until you reach the desired length, and finish with a clasp.

I finished mine with a loop and beaded toggle, but you could also stitch on your clasp of choice. This beaded necklace was completed in about two hours - not bad for a stitched piece of that length!

These instructions are necessarily brief for this blog format, but I imagine a moderately experienced beader familiar with tubular herringbone weave will catch on and make this fun and QUICK project without any trouble.

If you like to bead with people and want to try this project, come by the shop some Friday night during Open Beading (6-9pm every Friday night) and I'll help you with it!

Now, go bead something!

Book Addiction and UFOs

Long before I became hopelessly addicted to seed beads (and all the stuff that has since followed), I was addicted to books. I can’t have enough books. Cookbooks, art books, history books, photography books, gardening books, great fiction, trashy novels, even a book about weeds. (I admit, I bought that for my husband to arm him in his hopeless yard battles.)

That book addiction is manifesting itself here in the shop. We keep getting more and more new books in stock to feed your love of beads, books and learning. I keep ordering more, new books because I’m also addicted to learning new things all the time. I think this is where all my UFOs come from (unfinished objects – what did you think I meant?) When I start a project, I’m learning something new. Sometimes I can’t visualize where it will end up, but I have at least learned something from it and I’m ready to move on. So it becomes one of my UFO collection.

So, I’m learning…..learning new things from books, learning new things from you - my wonderful customers, learning from the classes we offer here at the shop, and learning that a UFO doesn’t have to be something that hangs over my head waiting to be finished . I’ve learned to let go, accept what I’ve learned and to set it aside and move on to the next thing I can learn.

What prompted these random thoughts this morning was the arrival of a new shipment of books – some are titles we’ve had before, and some are totally new to us. Stop by, have a cup of hot tea with us, and sit on the couch a while to page through some of our new books and get inspired. You might just learn something new!

No Substitute For A Great Bead

I love when I come across a truly great bead, and these Groovy Window tablet beads are a perfect example of what I think of as a great bead. The colors are wonderfully muted and they’ve got a lot of style on their own, yet they will pair well with lots of other beads. We’ve already made up a couple sets of earrings!

So, come on over Thursday night at 6:30 and “make and take” a pair of earrings with these versatile new beads. Michelle will show you how, even if you’re never made earrings before! And, while you’re here, check out our huge new shipment of Czech glass beads. We’re expanding our selection “beyond the firepolish” to bring you unusual sizes, colors, shapes and cuts of the finest quality high end Czech glass we can find. Of course, we still have all the basics, including some fabulous new opaque orange fire polish that will please all our UT fans.

October is also Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and we’ve got awareness ribbon beads and charms so you can show your support with your own unique style.

You’ll love all our new beads – they’re truly great beads!