Daily Blogs : Crystals, metalsmithing, How To Bead

Make This Easy Crystal Chakra Pendant

Jennifer VanBenschoten — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 08:00:00 GMT

As I go further into my daily practice of yoga and meditation, I'm learning more about the ancient beliefs surrounding the physical and spiritual aspects of the poses. I'm particularly interested in the chakras, or energy centers, that are believed to exist in certain key areas of the body. There are colors associated with each of the seven chakras, or energy centers, and they can be used to balance our mental, spiritual, and emotional well-being. I wanted to find a way to express my own connection with the chakras, so I decided to make a necklace using crystal beads to symbolize each of the seven energy centers.

At first, I had envisioned a very complex pendant, but as I sat with my crystal beads and thought about what I wanted my chakra pendant to look like, I realized that sometimes, a simple design is the best. You can make your own chakra pendant using crystal beads in just a few minutes, too!

Materials:

7 crystal beads, Swarovski 5052 6mm mini round bead in the following colors: Crystal red magma, crystal golden shadow, sunflower, fern green, aquamarine, amethyst, crystal AB
14 sterling silver or silver-filled seamless beads, 2.5mm
1 sterling silver head pin, 20 gauge, 1 1/2"
6 sterling silver head pins, 20 gauge, 2"
18" of sterling silver chain (your choice of style)
Clasp of your choice

Tools:

Flush cutter
Chain nose pliers
Round nose pliers OR
Combination pliers

Step-by-step Instructions:

On the head pin, string 1 sterling silver bead, the first crystal bead (go in the order that they are listed in the materials list), and 1 sterling silver bead. Make a wrapped loop at the top.
On each of the first 5 eye pins, string 1 sterling silver bead, a 6mm crystal bead, and 1 sterling silver bead. Make a simple loop at the top, joining the links together as you go.
For the last crystal bead, string 1 sterling silver bead, the crystal bead, and 1 sterling silver bead. Make a wrapped loop at the top of the eye pin large enough for your chain to pass through.
Slide the pendant onto the chain and attach the clasp.

The finished crystal chakra pendant is approximately 4 1/2" long, so expect it to dangle gracefully from the chain. You can also make it longer for a more dramatic look! Wear it when you need a little boost in your mood -- the rainbow of colors is guaranteed to make you smile.

Jewelry made with crystal beads and pearls never really goes out of style. Whether you're looking for simple or sublime (or both), you need to check out Create Jewelry: Pearls. With 22 pearl jewelry projects ranging from classic to modern, and suitable for pretty much any occasion, you just can't go wrong with pearls. Now is the time to get your copy of Create Jewelry: Pearls and save 70% off the original cover price during the Interweave Overstock Book Sale.

If you've ever wanted to complete your collection of this timeless series of jewelry-making books, take advantage of the special savings through February 14, 2013 at 12:00 midnight CST.

Are you ready for a little giveaway to brighten up your winter?

We have 19 copies of Create Jewelry: Crystals to give away, along with 19 prize packs of brand-new crystal beads from our friends at Fusion Beads! Just leave a comment on this blog between now and 12 midnight, CST on February 27, 2013. We'll randomly choose 19 winners to receive a copy of Create Jewelry: Crystals along with this fabulous crystal bead prize pack. (Please note: due to customs regulations, giveaway is only open to those residing in the United States at this time.)

The crystal bead prize pack from Fusion Beads includes a great selection of Swarovski Elements crystals from two of their most recent launches. From the Swarovski Innovations Fall/Winter 2013 launch, there are an assortment crystal beads in the new crystal color Light Turquoise, and the new effect, Crystal Blue Shade.

Also included is a sampling of Swarovski's new Mini Bead line -- two sizes of the round bead and two sizes of the oval bead. These two bead shapes are a great basic bead for many designs.

From the newest Swarovski Innovations launch for Spring/Summer 2014 comes the new crystal color, Light Silk, and the new effect, Crystal Rose Gold 2x, as well as the new crystal pearl color, Rose Gold. These three colors and effects were just announced last week, and are so new that the winners of this giveaway will be some of the first to have them! Fusion Beads has also included a new pendant shape from Swarovski Elements, the 6028 Oval Pendant.

As a special offer for Beading Daily readers, you can take 20% off your entire purchase of $50 or more at Fusion Beads by using the code SPARKLE20! (Offer expires March 4, 2013.)

Good luck, and bead happy!

Jennifer

Work Table Wednesday: Vintage Treasures from A Grain of Sand

Jennifer VanBenschoten — Wed, 23 May 2012 08:00:00 GMT

This Wednesday, I had a lot on my beading table, but the two pieces that I wanted to share with you were a couple of beaded necklaces that I created using this month's vintage treasures from the Bead Hoard Curiosities Club through A Grain of Sand.


I had a lot of fun using the sea urchin spines in this brick stitch necklace design.

Part of this month's treasures included a giant pack of huge sea urchin spine beads. I bought a bag of smaller sea urchin spines when I first started learning how to bead, and I love finding new ways to include them in my beading projects. They make a gently tinkling noise when they come into contact with each other, almost like they were made out of ceramic or porcelain. I was immediately inspired to make a tribal brick stitch necklace, and included a few of them as fringe.

The challenge for me was finding seed bead colors that wouldn't overwhelm the sea urchin spine beads. The end result is a funky, tribal-style beaded necklace. I used a brass chain to finish it at first, but then decided to go in a different direction and made my own chain out of wire. Sorry, you'll have to wait a few weeks to find out how I made the chain and see what it looks like!


	My Portland Retro beaded necklace reminds me a little bit of planets in the solar system!

Vintage Lucite beads are among some of my favorite beads to work with when I'm making handmade jewelry, and the big, cream and white striped Lucite balls in this month's box of vintage beads were just begging to be used. I love the way they look when mixed with lots and lots of vintage silver chain and a few black, faceted Czech crystals. A friend of mine watched as I assembled this necklace and remarked that it reminded her of a cool retro diner she used to frequent when she lived in Portland, Oregon!

If you want to become a member of the Bead Hoard Curiosities Club, head on over to A Grain of Sand for all the details. Boxes go out around the first of each month, so you still have a couple of days to sign up and receive the June box packed full of vintage beads, findings, and jewelry making components.

What's on your work table today?

Bead Happy,

Jennifer

Beaded Chain Jewelry by the Light of the Moon

Jennifer VanBenschoten — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 01:00:00 GMT


	Beaded chains are very symbolic to me.

Tonight is the winter solstice, the longest night of the year here in the northern hemisphere. Years ago when I was a writer of poetry and short fiction, I would always celebrate the winter solstice by lighting a few candles, making a special meal, and having a marathon writing session beginning at sundown and lasting late into the night. (That, of course, was when I worked the afternoon shift and didn't have to be up at the crack of dawn with a four-year-old!)

This year, I'll be celebrating the solstice with my son at a (short) meditation walk outdoors with some like-minded friends and their children, but after he goes to bed, I'll be sitting up with a few candles, some homemade cookies, and a beaded-chain project.

Beaded chains are very symbolic to me, as they represent the flow of days into months, seasons, and years. Each unit in a beaded chain can represent a day, and the entire chain comes to be a way for me to reflect on my life and what's really important to me as I bead. Making beaded chains is probably my favorite way to use my bead-weaving as mindful meditation.


Stitching up beaded chains using 4mm beads makes the project go quickly!

If you've never tried stitching up a beaded chain for a favorite pendant, here are a few tips to get you started:

Using larger beads such as 4mm fire polished beads or 4mm druk (round glass) beads will make the chain work up quickly while providing a sturdy base.
Weave in as much thread as possible when stitching a beaded chain. More than one thread pass through each bead or motif will add strength and structure to your beaded chain, and it will be more likely to last longer.
Your beaded chains don't have to be intricate and thick. Stitching up a quick length of right-angle weave can make a beautiful and delicate chain when accented with tiny crystals or silver-lined seed beads in a contrasting color.
You can make your beaded chain feel more like fine jewelry by using metallic size 15^o beads. (Just make sure that you seal or treat the beads before using if the chain will be for a bracelet.)

Beaded chains don't necessarily have to be used with a pendant, either. A delicate chain of right-angle weave accented with a few tiny crystals makes a sparkling statement all on its own, and a simple beaded chain can be a beautiful and quick bracelet for everyday wear.

If you want more ideas for making great beaded chains, then you'll be thrilled to see the new 2009 Beadwork magazine collection available as an instant download! Every issue of Beadwork magazine from 2009 is included, and it takes just a few minutes to download onto your desktop or laptop computer. Get instant access to over eighty beading projects plus all the fabulous articles and tutorials in every issue!


	You can find the instructions for making this easy crystal bead chain over on the Beading Instructions blog!

What's your favorite way to make beaded chains? For a new free beaded-chain project, hop on over to the Beading Instructions blog here on Beading Daily to find out how to make this sparkling beaded chain using two types of crystal beads and seed beads!

Bead Happy,

Jennifer

Amazing Beaded Earrings and a Creative Challenge

Jennifer VanBenschoten — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 03:00:00 GMT

A sampling of the earrings I made during my self-imposed creative challenge: create a pair of earrings every day for an entire month!

I don't often wear earrings. Part of that comes from a habit I got into after my son was born - it's just not good to wear long, dangling earrings in front of an eighteen-month-old who likes to grab things. (Ouch.) But the other reason I don't wear earrings too often is because I don't usually think about making them. When I come up with a new beading project, it's usually a necklace or a bracelet. For some reason, my brain doesn't want to come up with beaded earring projects.

So back in January, I challenged myself to correct this situation. I decided that I was going to make one pair of beaded earrings every single day for the entire month of January. In retrospect, I should have chosen a shorter month like February. But I figured if everyone else was making New Year's resolutions, then January would be the perfect month for a creative beading challenge. I sat down with my sketchbook and my beads and started coming up with designs for beaded earrings.

While I was stitching up those thirty-one pairs of earrings (a sampling of which you can see in the photograph), I started thinking about how versatile beaded earrings really are. Making one pair of earrings every day for an entire month really showed me how easy it is to make great earrings. Earrings don't need to use a lot of beads, they don't need to take a lot of time to make, and they can be as intricate or as simple as you want them to be. And because they don't take a lot of time or materials, beaded earrings make fantastic last-minute gifts. I was really inspired when I saw how even the simplest of my earring designs (an easy peyote stitch beaded bead strung with a couple of Swarovski crystals) attracted comments from admirers!

I have to admit, I was worried that I wasn't going to be able to come up with thirty-one earring designs. Like I said, beaded earring designs don't come to me easily, and the ones that I do come up with are usually hit-or-miss. But surprisingly enough, the ideas just flowed for those first few weeks of January, and I had more than enough beaded earring designs to get me through my self-imposed challenge! After I finished the first two or three pairs, the ideas came much easier. I'd find myself inspired by the pair of beaded earrings that I had just completed to make two more pairs using the same beads. Then I found some old sterling silver chain in my bead stash and got the idea to make little peyote-stitch "banners" and suspend them from the chain. I found a pair of 1940s-era Japanese glass beads that made a spectacular pair of vintage-looking earrings. I even found a design that used my precious cobalt blue vintage German glass drops, purchased at a trunk show back in 2004!

To make sure you never come up empty when you need a new beaded jewelry design, check out the new special issue 101 Bracelets, Necklaces, and Earrings from the editors of Beadwork and Stringing magazines. You'll find 148 pages of gorgeous jewelry projects from designers such as Melinda Barta, Jamie Hogsett, Marlene Blessing, Danielle Fox, and Denise Peck. Not only will you find some gorgeous fashion-forward jewelry designs, but you'll also get expert instruction, detailed materials lists and resources and loads of inspiration. Get your copy of 101 Bracelets, Necklaces and Earrings and be inspired!

Have you ever given yourself a creative challenge? What was it? How did you do? Share your story here on the blog with us!

Bead Happy,

Jennifer

How to Design Asymmetrical Earrings

Jean Campbell — Wed, 25 May 2011 08:40:00 GMT

Asymmetrical Earrings by Bob Ebendorf

I was digging through one of my earring boxes the other day, looking for the perfect set of pearl earrings to wear with a fancy outfit. I ran into a lovely pair I received as a gift from my friend Bob Ebendorf. He made them about eighteen years ago, and they still look so contemporary, so fresh. Bob is a master jeweler, so that's the main reason they look so great, but what struck me is how the asymmetry added to the beauty of the design.

The discovery made me think about what it is exactly that makes asymmetrical earrings visually work. I spread out the dozens of pairs of earrings in that box and started matching different pairs to each other. My little exercise helped me discover that there are quite a few rules of thumb to follow when designing asymmetrical earring pairs.

These earrings are asymmetrical "sisters."

Bead Type in Common

If you've got a striking bead type in each earring, chances are you can match them up. This mismatched pair works especially well because the 6mm potato pearls "talk" to each other. The added bonus is that they each employ the same type of tiny silver chain, making them look like sisters. They are slightly different in profile (like many sisters); one is teardrop-shaped, the other is a line and is carrying a little crystal star. These slight differences add to the excitement of the relationship.

This asymmetrical pair works because they are made with the same stuff.

Materials

Each of these earrings actually come from pairs I wear just about every day . . . I never thought of wearing them together before! I like this pairing because the material and treatment (silver clay with a liver of sulfur patina) is exactly the same, but the lengths are slightly different, adding visual interest. The earring on the left is very linear and the one on the right is very, well, not linear, so the dichotomy between the two make for another nice visual conversation.

Color helps make asymmetrical earrings sing.

Color

I would have never, in a thousand years, thought to wear these two earrings together until I started this little exercise. But when I put them together, I thought, Wow! It's the crystal and metal color that makes these two a perfect pair. Again, we've got the DNA to make these two look like sisters (crystals, silver, dangles, etc.), but they're different enough to make a nice visual dance.

It's important to balance asymmetrical earrings.

Balance

When I sat these two together, I didn't think they'd work until I put them on; they look great as a pair! These earrings are the same color and bead type, but what makes them work together is that the visual weight of the big fire-polished bead in the left earring balances with the cascading smaller fire-polished beads on the right.

Have you designed a pair of asymmetrical earrings lately? If not, try my little exercise, perhaps with some of the dozens of earring designs you'll find in every issue of Stringing magazine. With the help of Stringing's great projects and some of these rules for design, you might be surprised at how easy it is to design asymmetrically.

Happy beading-

Indulge in 5 Creative Gifts for Yourself

Jean Campbell — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 09:00:00 GMT

To-do for you–

Like many of you out there, my to-do list is very long and complicated. So much so, actually, that I’ll admit I have a second to-do list that prioritizes the first to-do list. And like Pavlov’s dog, when I cross something off the short list, I drool a little, knowing it’s time to give myself a little treat. Sometimes it’s as simple as a piece of chocolate or a high five with the person who happens to be walking past my office at the time. Other times it’s a more tangible treat. One that fills the creative void, especially when the thing on the list was something like “Finish the taxes.”

So I was thinking . . . what creative things do I do to give myself an artful treat? Here’s a short list:

		Make a pair of earrings. Just about any earring pattern is quick to make and doesn’t elicit a third to-do list. I just finished a big book edit, so I’ve been looking in the Beading Daily store for a treat just like Marcia DeCoster’s Little Black Dress Earrings.


		Take the camera out of the house, away from family and friends, and play National Geographic photographer. I use the camera to look at nature, architecture, and people in a fresh way, framing what I see. This lets me go into artist mode (“I am creating”) rather than my usual mom/worker mode (“I am documenting”).

		Head to the bead shop and buy supplies for the Next Big Thing. It’s good to have a plan before I go, though, so that I don’t buy too many things. Right now I’ve got my eye on a project like Daeng Weaver’s Crystal Brilliance Necklace. Dust off a craft supply I don’t usually use. For example, I often go to my sewing machine for this treat, using it less as the ripped-jeans repairer that it has become and more like a drawing utensil for fabric. I just cut a square of scrap fabric and topstitched circles, lines, and random patterns in different thread colors all over it. I figure one day I’ll have enough of these little swatches to create a quilt!

		Make myself a present. I feel like I’m often making jewelry for other people . . . for publication . . . for teaching. But I don’t often make things for myself. Things I know I’ll wear every day. This creative treat is the best of all, because not only do I get a creative release, it’s very self-indulgent! Right now I’d like to give this to myself: Colleen McGraw’s Simply Silver chain maille bracelet. I know I’d wear it all the time.

Do you give yourself creative treats like I do? What are they?
Please share which projects get you feeling creative here on Beading Daily.

New Right-Angle Weave eBook: 5 Free Projects

Michelle Mach — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:33:00 GMT

One of the fascinating things about beading is that just by changing the beads you can make a project look completely different. Take the Triple Quatrefoil by Tina Koyama, one of the featured projects in our latest free ebook, Right Angle Weave: Beading Daily Presents 5 Free Beadweaving Patterns. In her original version, Tina used a base of 4mm fire-polished rounds with size 10, 11, and 13 Czech charlottes for the edging and embellishment. I loved her fun, summery version, but I didn't have any beads like that in my stash and I didn't want to wait until I had time to shop. ...(read more)

How to Use (and Mix) Metals in Jewelry Designs

Michelle Mach — Mon, 04 May 2009 10:58:00 GMT

Some things are better done solo. Shopping for unmentionable comes to mind. Or flossing. Or, in our opinion, diving (we are still shocked that synchronized diving is an actual Olympic sport!). But writing beading books?...(read more)

5 Ways to Stretch Your Beading Budget

Michelle Mach — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 08:40:00 GMT

Beading and saving money are two topics near and dear to my heart. My Celestial Sparkle necklace was inspired when I could only afford a single strand of borosilicate beads. I wanted to showcase them in a necklace, but everyone who saw the tiny strand said I should just give up and make a bracelet. Luckily, I didn't listen! I found some relatively inexpensive clear teardrops to space out my more expensive treasures and ended up creating one of my favorite necklaces....(read more)