If you’re like me, when someone asks you to make a piece of jewelry for them you automatically go to beads, findings, wire, and thread. But after reading through Elements of Style, I think I’ll open my mind a little wider next time. ...

I have a sick kid at home today. She’s barking like a seal, but she doesn’t have a fever so she’s got just enough energy to knock on my office door every half hour. Not too conducive to the technical editing I’m doing this week. So I put her to good use by asking her to organize my jewelry “vault”—the nearly bed-size plastic box where I keep most of my finished jewelry. ...

Healing Beads After experiencing a frustrating year of health concerns, doctors, and hospitals in 2007, I started seeing a naturopath. I'd never been to a natural healer and can't claim I welcomed Diane into my life without a big dose of skepticism...

It’s a cliché and dorky tradition, but my husband and I light a candle and make resolutions on New Year’s Eve. We’re each allowed only one. And those amorphous “I’m going to eat healthier” or “I will strive to be a better person” type of resolutions won’t fly. What we come up with are more like personal action items. They have to be utterly simple: things we know we can and will do without being overwhelmed. For instance, one year mine was “make one new friend in the neighborhood”. That was pretty easy to accomplish. Joe’s was “run an Ironman race.” That one seemed ridiculously overwhelming to me, but my dear obsessive mate crossed it off his list, no problem. ...

Organization Tips Large and Small Sometimes a small organizational tip can make a huge difference. My headpins are stored in tiny plastic bags and as a result, they are bent every which way. When contest finalist Susan Jacob mentioned that she kept her...

Official Rules *** Please see an important update to these rules posted at the bottom of this page.*** Join Beading Daily for its first earring swap and help us celebrate Denise Peck's new book, 101 Wire Earrings . Create a pair of handmade earrings,...

Attention Beading Men: This post does not refer to you, not one bit. I asked a knitter friend recently what she thought knitters like to make most for the men in their lives. She said, "Oh, come on. Most knitters would rather spend the time making...