Daily Blogs : Bead Embroidery, Wire Wrapping, Beading Tools

The Top 12 Beading Daily Blogs of 2012 - And a Giveaway!

Jennifer VanBenschoten — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 08:00:00 GMT

Today is 12.12.12! We're almost halfway through December, and there are less than three weeks left in 2012. I always get a little nostalgic in December, and I usually take some time to meditate and reflect on all the wonderful things that have happened during the year.

This year is no different, but it's a little more special because of that date -- 12.12.12. So, to celebrate, I've put together the Top 12 Beading Daily blogs from 2012! Read on to see if any of your favorite blogs made it into the list:

		January: Find Your Steampunk Style with Jean Campbell Steampunk always seemed so intimidating to me, but this post from Jean Campbell took all the mystery out of making amazing, easy steampunk jewelry.

		February: Your First Seed Bead Stash Stocking your stash of seed beads can be a huge task if you're just getting started with bead-weaving! Here are some great tips for starting your seed bead stash.

		March: Readers Share a Bounty of Brick Stitch Projects I love brick stitch -- it will always be special to me, as it was the first beading stitch I ever taught myself. I asked for our readers to submit their best brick stitch projects, and the resulting eye candy is just amazing!

		April: Start With...A Simple Strip of Peyote Stitch Ever feel stuck in your beading? You can create some really spectacular beaded jewelry just by whipping up a simple strip of peyote stitch!

		May: Readers Share Beautiful Bead Embroidery Once again, I asked, and our readers delivered. This time, they shared some truly breathtaking bead embroidery pieces with us. Enjoy the beautiful beading!

		June: 5 Common Jewelry Findings That You Can Make Yourself Save time and money when you learn how easy it is to make these five common jewelry findings with your basic wire wrapping skills!

		July: Why Necklace Length Matters Understanding the different lengths of necklaces is important to be able to match them with your favorite necklines.

		August: Use Wire to Bezel a Cabochon This isn't so much a "how-to" blog as a "how-NOT-to-do" blog. Read about my adventures using Viking knit to make a bezel for one of my favorite gemstone cabochons!

		September: Getting Started With Flat Peyote Stitch Peyote stitch was one of the last bead-weaving stitches that I taught myself. However, had I known some of these tips or had some of these tools, it probably would have been a lot easier!

		October: Meet a Chain Maille Genius At Bead Fest Philadelphia in August, I met a lampwork glass artist who takes the ancient art and craft of chain maille to a whole new level! Read about her and see some of her absolutely marvelous creations.

		November: Four Beading How-Tos You Need to Know You might be surprised at some of these four beading how-tos that every beader needs to know!

		December: Make This Free Embossed Leather Earring Project December isn't even half over yet, but so far, this free embossed leather earring project is our most popular December blog!

Did any of your favorites appear in this list? If not, now's your chance to nominate them, and win a little something, too! Simply leave a comment on this blog before midnight, CST on December 16, 2012 with your favorite Beading Daily blog from 2012. You don't have to choose from just this list, either -- take a look through all the blogs that were written by our friends over at Inside Beadwork Magazine and Inside Jewelry Stringing Magazine, as well as the blogs we posted in Beading Instructions and Beading Supplies We Love, too. You can post a link in your comment so everyone else can see it, too!

On Monday, December 17, 2012, check your email, because we'll notify three winners: two lucky people will win a five-pack of assorted back issues of both Beadwork and Jewelry Stringing magazines. One lucky winner will get to choose a prize from four of our favorite digital beading products! (Please note: we can only ship magazines to U.S. addresses only due to customs regulations.)

One lucky winner will get to choose one prize from the following great digital beading products:

You can also find links to all twelve of our Top 12 Blogs of 2012 on Pinterest for your pinning pleasure!

Good luck, and Happy Holidays from all of us at Beading Daily!

Bead Happy,

Jennifer

How Has Jewelry Making Changed Your Life?

Jennifer VanBenschoten — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 08:00:00 GMT

It's funny how learning one jewelry making skill can lead to so many others. When I first got serious about learning how to bead, I was mostly doing stringing and making earrings using head pins and eye pins. Then after my mother gave me a beautiful pair of Native American-style beaded earrings, I decided that I wanted to learn how to do bead-weaving and bead embroidery.


	The lampwork studio in my garage.

Of course, once I got started learning how to do bead-weaving, I discovered all those wonderful lampwork glass artists and their luscious creations. So, I decided to buy a single fuel torch and learn how to make my own glass beads. (We even bought our house because the garage had an insulated workshop that was not only perfect for setting up a glass torch and a kiln, but also had a huge picture window overlooking the mountain range across the river!)

Then, once I had the torch and the kiln set up, someone mentioned glass fusing to me. Well, I already had the kiln, and I was comfortable working with glass. Why shouldn't I learn how to make my own dichroic glass cabochons, right? Off to Vermont I went with my buddy, for a weekend course in fusing dichroic glass.

These days, I don't do much at the torch anymore, just because I'm so focused on my bead-weaving and my bead embroidery. But all those jewelry making skills that I've been learning for the past eighteen years have really transformed me and my ideas about art.

I don't know if it's just that another year is coming to an end, or if it has anything to do with the new jewelry making toy -- er, tool -- that I just bought for myself, but lately, I've been thinking about all the ways that jewelry making as changed my life and made it so much better.


Some of my handmade glass beads, in a necklace, We're All the Same But Different.

Learning how to make my own glass beads, believe it or not, made me much more confident when it comes to learning new jewelry making techniques. I mean, if I can sit there at a torch that's hooked up to one or two tanks of potentially explosive gases, with a flame hotter than 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit and melt glass rods into beads, I can do anything, right? Of course, thinking like that is what led me to go buy a little butane micro torch so that I could try my hand at fusing silver wire into handmade chain. (And who knows where that will lead me next!)

Jewelry making has made me more open-minded, both creatively and in my personal life. I used to be someone who wasn't eager to venture out of her comfort zone, but I've learned through my jewelry making projects and travels that saying "yes" to new experiences really enhances my creativity, and gives me new jewelry making skills to add to my arsenal!


My dear friend Jane and I in Vermont at a glass fusing weekend class.

I've met some pretty extraordinary people through my jewelry making journey, as well. It always amazes me how much we all really have in common when we sit down to bead together. After all, if we can be brought together by a little pile of beads, can world peace really be that difficult to achieve? I've met some of my best friends through my jewelry making journey, and whether we talk every day or only once or twice a year, we always seem to know how to pick up right where we left off!

Now, I'm not going to say that Handcrafted Wire Findings by Denise Peck and Jane Dickerson is a book that will change your life, but, you never know. I never thought of myself as someone who was particularly interested in making wire jewelry or wire wrapping, but once I tried a few of the projects in this book to make my own clasps and ear wires, I realized that making your own jewelry findings can add an entirely new dimension to your handmade beaded jewelry! Now, when I need just the right clasp for a jewelry making project, I prefer to make it myself instead of buying a pre-made clasp. And ear wires? No need to panic if I run out, as long as I have some copper, sterling silver, or brass wire lying around!

You don't need a lot of fancy tools or equipment to make your own wire jewelry findings -- if you have a good set of jewelry pliers and a good flush cutter, that's enough to get you started! All you need is your copy of Handcrafted Wire Findings, on sale now in the Beading Daily Shop. Or, if you want to get started right away, Handcrafted Wire Findings is also available as an instant download, ready for viewing in just a few minutes on your favorite desktop or laptop computer.

So, how has jewelry making changed your life? Have you met your best friend through a beading class? Discovered something new about yourself? Changed careers (like I did)? Leave a comment here on the Beading Daily blog and share your story!

Bead Happy,

Jennifer

How to Bead For Halloween!

Jennifer VanBenschoten — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 07:00:00 GMT

Halloween is arguably my favorite holiday for the fun factor: watching my son get dressed up in his costume, carving pumpkins, and, of course, my favorite fall foods like roasted pumpkin seeds and apple cider donuts. But even if you don't dress up for Halloween, if you know how to bead, you can make some pretty cool Halloween-inspired beaded jewelry! Here are a few suggestions for how to bead for Halloween, along with some of my favorite Halloween beading supplies!

		Tiny ceramic skull and teeth beads are great for getting into the Halloween spirit, and these little beauties can be found in The Crafty Bead Etsy shop, along with other ghoulish goodies like coffin beads, eyeball beads, ghost beads, and jack 'o' lantern beads!

		Just because it's Halloween, that doesn't mean that you have to use skull and ghost beads. These wonderful black Lucite flowers from The Hole Bead Shop are dramatic all year long -- and this particular Lucite flower bead comes apart into separate components that can be layered.

		More skulls! Cabochons are a favorite jewelry making supply of mine, and I'm having a blast working up two new Halloween necklaces with these. The cowboy skull cabochon is from Bead Stalkers, and the ceramic three skulls cabochon is by Lisa Peters Art.

		While I love the texture of the fish leather from Naturebeads, some of my friends have told me that it looks a little...well, creepy. Perfect for Halloween, right? The scaly texture of the fish leather, especially in green, looks like it could be alien skin!

		Always appealing to my inner science fiction geek, the wonderful work of MAKUstudio works just as well at Halloween as it does the rest of the year for making cutting-edge beaded jewelry. Use your imagination -- what kind of Halloween jewelry would you bead with this handmade ceramic cabochon?

Now, the "trick" to using all of these delightful Halloween treats is knowing how to bead, whether it's bead stringing, bead embroidery, off-loom bead-weaving, or maybe wire wrapping or even mixed media jewelry techniques like resin. And if you need some fresh ideas and fresh techniques for how to bead with some of these fun Halloween beading supplies, check out Beads, Baubles, and Jewels TV Series 1700 on DVD!

This newest season of Beads, Baubles, and Jewels includes dozens of new techniques for how to bead with your favorite beading supplies from the artists you love like Jean Campbell, Leslie Rogalski, Christi Friesen, and Katie Hacker. Pre-order your copy of Beads, Baubles, and Jewels TV Series 1700 and find out how to bead in new ways with these great beading and jewelry-making techniques!

Do you have a favorite beading supply for Halloween? Tell us what it is and where you got it, and leave a comment here on the Beading Daily blog!

Bead Happy,

Jennifer

Use a Little, Use a Lot: Just Use Some Crystal Beads In Your Next Beading Project!

Jennifer VanBenschoten — Fri, 04 May 2012 02:00:00 GMT


Triangulations by Kathie Khaladkar

Crystal beads are everywhere these days! When I was at the Tucson bead shows earlier this year, you couldn't turn around without seeing some glitz and glam, and walls and walls of sparkling crystal beads. Truthfully, I was not a huge fan of crystal beads when I first started beading, preferring to use my favorite gemstones and freshwater pearls in my beading designs.

But one grey Sunday morning with my regular beading group changed all that when our project was a beautiful and delicate necklace made with several hundred sparkling crystal beads. After that, I started looking for ways to include a little bit of sparkle in most of my beading projects by using crystal beads here and there. Now, I've completely fallen for those huge 27mm crystal stones that I keep seeing in colors that look good enough to eat, and my collection of crystal beads has grown from just one large tackle box to two whole drawers in my bead cabinets!

Now that I'm a smitten kitten when it comes to using crystal beads, there are lots of reasons why I love to use them in my beading projects!

Crystal beads are fashion-forward. There's a reason why fashion designers like Coco Chanel, Elisa Schiaparelli, Christian Dior, Yves St. Laurent, and Gianni Versace all used crystal beads in their fashion designs! Crystal beads have always been at the cutting edge of modern fashion design, and they continue to be a favorite with both designers and fashionistas alike. Check out any photos from red carpet arrivals, and you'll see famous actresses just dripping with sparkling crystal beads!


	Band of Jewels by Melanie Potter

Crystal beads are instant classics. Just look at how popular vintage crystal beads are! Some of these beads were produced forty, fifty or even sixty years ago, but they fit in easily with today's modern jewelry and beading designs. Yes, crystal beads will always have a place in modern jewelry design, no matter what their shape, color, or size. One of my favorite thrift-shop finds was a small cardboard box filled with vintage Swarovski crystal beads from the 1920's. I strung them up with some modern pressed-glass beads for a necklace that I can wear anytime, anywhere.

Crystal beads can be used with any other kind of bead! It's true. You can mix crystal beads with seed beads, drop beads, cube beads, triangle beads, handmade ceramic beads, Lucite beads, or even gemstones and pearls. The crystal beads don't have to take center stage, either. I love using crystal beads as fringe and accent beads when I work up a piece of bead embroidery using my favorite gemstone cabochons. Crystal beads are so versatile, you can even use them with leather, silk cord, and metal stampings to create unique jewelry pieces with a vintage feel.

Crystal beads can be used with any beading or jewelry making technique. Crystals work well with simple stringing projects, wire work and wire wrapping projects, beadweaving projects, and even in bead embroidery. Crystal beads are such a versatile addition to any beading project that you want to make because they come in so many shapes, sizes, and colors and because they mix so well with other types of beads.


Crystal Connections by Daeng Weaver

Crystal beads are...well, fun! There's no denying it: it's just fun to use crystal beads in my beading projects. Adding those little sparkly bits to my beadweaving makes the whole project shine! Crystal beads make me glad to be a girl, because I can get away with wearing them pretty much any time I want. I can't say the same for my husband -- somehow, it just wouldn't look right if he showed up at work wearing a crystal bead bracelet.

Are you ready to see what adding a few crystal beads can do to your beading projects? Check out Beadwork magazine's special issue, Favorite Bead Stitches 2011. You'll find over fifty-five amazing projects, some of which include gorgeous crystal beads, using all of your favorite beadweaving stitches like peyote stitch, herringbone stitch, and right-angle weave! Plus you'll get expert advice on developing your own beadweaving skills and beaded jewelry designs from master beadweaving artists Carol Huber Cypher and Carol Wilcox Wells! Check out Favorite Bead Stitches 2011 on Zinio and start adding some sparkle to your beading table with some crystal beads!

Why do you love using crystal beads in your beading projects? Do you prefer to use large, splashy focal beads? Or are you happy to let the crystal beads take a backseat to some other focal bead? Leave a comment here on the Beading Daily blog and share your thoughts about using crystal beads!

Bead Happy,

Jennifer