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Beading Tools

Spending time with our beads can be so much more enjoyable when we use the right beading tools! Your trusty beading tools should include a good set of jewelry pliers, thread snips or good embroidery scissors, your favorite beading needles and your favorite beading mat or beading surface. When you start expanding your jewelry-making skills, you’ll undoubtedly need to expand your beading tools to include more specialized beading tools. Beading tools can be quite simple, like the plain wooden dowels that are used to provide support for beading stitches like African Helix or tubular right-angle weave. More specialized beading tools can include things like beading awls, pearl knotting tools, wire straighteners and jump ring openers. Using your beading tools properly can help you make beautiful beaded jewelry that will last a lifetime.

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  • August Vintage Bead Treasures from the Bead Hoard Curiosities Club
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  • Free Beading Project: Easy Wire Wrapped Cuff Bracelet
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    I've got Olympics on the brain. Right now, I'm watching "The Fab Five" win the women's all-around gymnastics competition. Michael Phelps just became the most decorated Olympian ever with 19 metals. This is good stuff. In honor of
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  • Beading Books I Love: Jill Wiseman's Beautiful Beaded Ropes
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  • Making Necklaces That Flatter: Why Necklace Length Matters
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  • 5 Essential Jewelry Making Techniques from Tammy Jones
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  • The Battle Has Begun: Battle of the Beadsmith!
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  • Make Neon-Dipped Beads!
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  • Seasonal Color Trends: Transition Jewelry Into Fall
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  • Czech Glass Beads: My New Stash of Glass Beads - Spike Beads and Mushroom Beads
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  • One Bead, Three Bead-weaving Stitches
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  • My Top Five Picks for Great Earring Making Resources!
    Beaded necklaces are usually my first choice when designing beaded jewelry, but in the winter, I find myself hunting for some great beaded earrings to wear with my favorite cozy sweaters and turtleneck shirts. I find myself designing beaded earrings more
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  • It's Easier Than Ever to Get Started with Steampunk Jewelry
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  • Five Common Jewelry Findings You Can Make Yourself
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  • Wish Necklaces Re-Imagined
    Try as I might, I cannot figure out why I thought it was necessary to buy 600 feet of pink embroidery thread to make one necklace when I was in Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago. (I am claiming temporary craft-store induced insanity. We've all been there
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  • What's Cookin'? Jewelry Making Ingredients from Your Kitchen!
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  • The Beyond Beadery Road Show at York Beads, New York City
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  • When Is a Gemstone Not a Gemstone?
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  • Anklet Inspiration, Part Deux
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  • Seed-Bead Braids
    I'm Kate Wilson, Junior Project Editor for Jewelry Stringing and Beadwork magazines. I've been stringing beads for about 15 years, and now I'm jumping into beadweaving. However, I still love and will always continue working on stringing projects
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  • How to Do Circular Flat Peyote Stitch
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  • Don't Go Around in Circles with Circular, Flat Peyote Stitch
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  • Bead Hoard Curiosities Club for June
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  • Which Jewelry Findings Are Essential for Learning How to Bead?
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  • Free Beading Project: Bead Netted Bottle
    A very long time ago, when I first started beading, beaded bottles were very popular beading projects. Even though I loved making peyote stitch needle cases, it took me ten long years to discover how much fun stitching beaded netting is around a tiny
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  • My Top Five Picks for Favorite Glass Bead Books
    The other night, I had a dream that I was browsing through a table of Czech glass beads , and they were all on sale for half off their marked price. Imagine how disappointed I was when I woke up, only to discover that there were no new beads in my stash
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  • Polymer Clay Bead Making: Expert Advice from Lisa Pavelka
    I am quite happy to report that I had so much fun with my last polymer clay bead making project, it appears that I have overcome my fear of bead making using polymer clay! I've been playing with all kinds of tools and techniques for bead making using
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  • The Great Thread Debate: Beading Threads for Bead-weaving
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  • Work Table Wednesday: Vintage Treasures from A Grain of Sand
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  • Free Summer Anklet Project
    Just in time for showing off your tan legs and super-cute sandals this summer, I've created a fun anklet that you can make in a matter of minutes. The finished size of the anklet shown is 9 1/4". What you'll need: 11 dusty rose size 6°
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  • Favorite Beading Supplies
    Do you have favorite beading materials? Those beads and findings you turn to again and again? In the Summer 2011 issue of Jewelry Stringing , I listed my must-have materials. Take a look! (Items are listed from top to bottom.) * Wood rounds. Wood beads
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  • Anyone Can Make Polymer Clay Beads...Right?
    The necklace from Enlightened Polymer Clay that served as my inspiration. I've never felt that polymer clay has been a particularly strong set of jewelry making skills for me. After watching a peculiarly talented friend of mine create an entire Lord
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  • Name That Beadwork: Win a Kit of Beads and Findings from Artbeads!
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  • Wire Wrapping Tools for Survival
    Could you survive on a desert island with just three wire wrapping tools? No, it's not that old television show where a group of mismatched tourists gets stranded on a desert island with enough clothing and accessories to last them for years of misadventures
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  • Use a Little, Use a Lot: Just Use Some Crystal Beads In Your Next Beading Project!
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  • Wireworking for the First Time
    It may be hard for some to believe, but I've never tried my hand at any type of wire work. Being a life-long crafter, coupled with the fact that I work on a jewelry magazine, has afforded me the opportunity to experiment with lots of materials and
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  • Jump Start Your Wire Jewelry Skills!
    Learning how to swim is like learning a new jewelry making skill. You dip your toes in the water, then your foot, then you wade in until you're knee-deep. By the time the water is up to your shoulders, you realize you might just be in over your head
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  • How Safe Are Your Beading Tools...Really?
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  • Making Mistakes: How to Correct Five Common Mistakes in Your Beadwork
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  • Bead Table Wednesday: Beading Outside of My Box
    Betcey Ventrella from Beyond Beadery and I at The Best Bead Show in Tucson, Arizona This crazy beautiful orange Swarovski crystal stone just captured my imagination! While I was in Tucson, I stopped in to see Betcey Ventrella over at Beyond Beadery and
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  • Basic Materials for Seed Beading
    I've long been an admirer--not a maker--of beadwoven jewelry. Recently, however, I've been inspired to try my hand at a few stitches, specifically ladder stitch, brick stitch , and peyote stitch . I've found the rhythm of stitching beads to
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  • Make a Cabochon Bezel with Right-Angle Weave
    Making an open-backed bezel for a cabochon has certain advantages over making one using bead embroidery techniques. If you're using a transparent or translucent cabochon, stitching an open-backed bezel for it will allow light to pass through it and
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  • Why Should You Use Right-Angle Weave?
    Right-angle weave is one of those love-it-or-hate-it beading stitches, I think, based on what I've seen from fellow beaders, and even from my own experiences designing beadwork. But right-angle weave definitely has its advantages when it comes to
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  • Channel Beads from Nunn Design
    While I was in Tucson, I had the pleasure of meeting Becky Nunn of Nunn Design and after I got home, she sent me a little sample of some of their newest products, including these awesome channel beads. The channel beads were meant to be used with resin
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  • Start With: A Simple Strip of Peyote Stitch
    I think pretty much everyone who learns peyote stitch makes one of "those" bracelets. You know the ones I'm talking about: a wide (or narrow) strip of peyote stitch, usually even-count, with a button clasp on one end. It's probably the
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  • Lampwork Glass I Love: Evolving Creations Lampwork by Beau and Shani Barrett
    While I was visiting the Best Bead Show in Tucson this year, I happened to see a small booth set up near the entrance to the show, full of some of the most mesmerizing lampwork glass beads that I have ever seen! The young woman behind the counter was
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  • New Bead-Alongs Are Ready!
    It's been a long time coming, and everyone has been very, very patient, and I'm so excited that we now have three new Bead-Alongs ready for the month of April here on Beading Daily ! Bead-Alongs can be fun whether you're beading by yourself
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  • All Buttoned Up: Use Some Buttons in Your Necklace Making Projects
    My first foray into jewelry-making came when I was five years old. My sister and I would dig through my mother's stash of buttons, selecting the brightly colored plastic and sparkling cut glass buttons to use for necklace making . We strung our button
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  • It's Official: I'm a Bead Hoarder!
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  • What Does That Say? Understanding the Lingo of Seed Bead Patterns
    When my sister and I were kids, we assisted my mom when it came time to type up the directions to her knit and crochet projects. We quickly grew accustomed to the abbreviations and terms used in her patterns. How grateful was I when I started working
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  • New Vintaj Patina Ink Kits
    I've always been more of a "natural" girl when it comes to my metal beads, particularly the gorgeous African brass beads that I've discovered in my favorite bead shops the last few years. But the other day as I was shopping online at
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  • Things to Bead Around: Large Cabone Rings
    These cabone rings can be found in any craft supply store with the yarn notions and make fabulous focal beads when covered with your favorite beading stitch! I'm a craft store junky. If I have to run into my local bead crafts store to pick up just
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  • Free Travel Friendly Jewelry Project
    No crimping pliers, no wire cutters...no problem ! I ran into a dilemma last week as I was preparing for a weekend trip: I wanted to bring a jewelry project with me to help pass the time during my flight, but knew I wouldn't be able to get any pliers
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  • Free Santa Fe Themed Necklace Pattern!
    THIS WEEK STARTS BEAD FEST SANTA FE 2012 . HERE WE COME! Actually, I personally will not be headed to Santa Fe this year. My coworkers Debbie Blair and Chloe Chatenever have been elected to represent the magazine, though I have fond memories of what is
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  • Which Wire Cutters Are Best For Me?
    From Jennifer: A couple of summers ago, I realized that I needed to upgrade my wire jewelry making tools. I had just embarked on a series of projects using beadweaving and wire jewelry making, and as I worked, I realized that my wire cutters, in particular
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  • Free Bracelet Making Project: Make a Simple Bead Embroidered Cuff Bracelet
    I don't often wear bracelets, but I love a good bracelet making project. One of my favorite techniques for bracelet making is bead embroidery using lots of different types of beads and cabochons in all sizes! I used to be of the opinion that bigger
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  • Bead Embroidered Cabochons: Finishing Techniques for Bead Embroidered Cabochons
    Once you have bezeled your cabochon using peyote stitch, you can continue to work bead embroidery around it. Or, if you want a quick and easy focal piece for a beaded necklace or bracelet that combines bead embroidery and beadweaving techniques, you can
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  • Haute Hardware
    The latest handmade jewelry craze? Hardware jewelry! Nuts and washers abound in the latest posts on DIY craft blogs and online creative communities. Eager to get my hands on some hardware to play with, I headed to my local home improvement store last
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  • My First Adventures in Chain Maille!
    Every once in a while, I am assigned a topic to write about here on Beading Daily that pushes the limits of what I know about jewelry-making. This time, it happened to be chain maille. I've never done anything with chain maille, and I was a little
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  • National Craft Month: Pass On Your Passion and Win Some Goodies from Interweave!
    As crafters, why do we love to do what we do? I've met a lot of beaders during the last ten years, and I've even created some new beaders through my beading classes, and they all have one thing in common: they are utterly passionate about beads
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  • How to Bezel a Cabochon with Peyote Stitch for Bead Embroidery
    I have trust issues with the cabochons I use in my bead embroidery. The first time I tried to use cabochons in my bead embroidery, I just glued them to the bead embroidery backing and started stitching around them. To my surprise and dismay, those cabochons
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  • Captured Crystal Cubes Earrings
    For National Craft Month, I thought I would participate in the Fusion Beads 30 Day National Craft Month Challenge. The Day 1 challenge was, of course, to make a pair of earrings! And I just happened to have a pair of these lovely 14mm Swarovski crystal
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  • What Can You Learn From Our Best Wire Jewelry Making Blogs?
    It never fails to amaze me when I take a look at all the fabulous jewelry making resources available here on Beading Daily and over on Jewelry Making Daily . If you've done some jewelry making, you'll know that there are loads of great free projects
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  • Secrets to Savvy Supplies Shopping
    More and more beaders are choosing to buy their materials online. And since the worldwide web has become a veritable buffet of delectable beads and findings that are sold online, who could blame them? While online shopping will never replace a trip to
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  • Mashed Up Hearts Polymer Clay Project: Raku Variation
    If you loved the Mashed Up Hearts project over on our Beading Daily blog, here's a cool variation made to resemble ceramic Raku! Read on to find out how you can win a free kit including a package of Premo! Sculpey clay and the glitters used to create
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  • Free Polymer Clay Beading Project: Mashed Up Hearts
    Although I've tried my hand at bead making using polymer clay, I've never considered myself to be particularly good at it. Especially after seeing a friend of mine who created an entire Lord of the Rings chess set out of polymer clay -- I just
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  • Fast, Fun & FREE Necklace Project!
    Don't you love these beads?! In my last post , I shared some of my treasures from the Tucson bead shows. One of those treasures was this strand of floral polymer clay beads from Cherry Tree Beads. When I first saw them, I imagined a Wilma Flintstone
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  • Your First Seed Bead Stash: Buying Seed Beads When You're Learning How to Bead
    When I started learning how to bead with seed beads a long, long time ago, I ordered most of my seed beads from a paper catalog. Yes! A paper catalog! I could look through the pages of this catalog and see all the colors of seed beads that were offered
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  • Give Me a Ring
    With Valentine's Day upon us, some of you may be thinking "bling." Well, you don't need Valentine's Day as an excuse to treat yourself or a loved one to a piece of jewelry that you can craft in a matter of minutes! Over the weekend
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  • I Gotta Have That Beading Tool!
    I came home from the Tucson gem, mineral and bead shows with more than just a new stash of beads. I came home with loads of new ideas! One thing is for certain as I look at my new goodies - I need some new beading tools ! I can't wait to start working
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  • Buffer That Bead! Protect Your Stringing Material When Using Lampwork Glass Beads
    Nothing gives your beaded necklaces and bracelets a bit of character like a handmade lampwork glass bead . These lovely little bits of glass art come straight from the human imagination, and I love the way they can infuse a beaded necklace design with
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  • Making That Crazy Flat Odd-Count Peyote Stitch Turn
    Each beading stitch has its own intricacies and tricks, and flat odd-count peyote stitch is no different. When mastering this popular beading stitch, you have to learn how to make that tricky little turn at the end of every other row. For some beaders
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  • Find Your Steampunk Style with Jean Campbell
    Jean Campbell is the founding editor of Beading Daily. From Jennifer: Steampunk is one jewelry-making trend that is not going away anytime soon! And for good reason, too - it's all too easy to get wrapped up in the romantic, funky findings and materials
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  • New Year's Resolution: Buy More Crystals, Wear More Crystals!
    I've always had an affinity for natural rock crystals. A couple of weeks ago, I sat down and took stock of my beading goals for 2012 with a few New Year's beading resolutions . But then once I started looking over my sketchbooks and designs, I
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  • The Well-Stocked Tool Box: Tools for Wire Wrapping (And More!)
    You'd never know it, but when I got serious about jewelry-making back in college, I started out by doing wire work! Yes, when I began my journey into jewelry-making, I went out and bought a book and tool set that was all about wire wrapping. I still
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  • Freeform Peyote Stitch: Feels So Wrong, But It's So Right!
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  • Learning How to Bead: How to Set Up Your Beading Area
    When I first started beading, I found myself sitting in the same position for literally hours. I was so focused on my beadwork that unless I got up to change the video tape that I was watching, I wouldn't move for hours on end. From an ergonomic point
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  • Embellish a Pair of Jeans with Beads!
    A little bit of bead embroidery goes a long way on a pair of my favorite jeans! Beads make fabulous jewelry, as we all know, but there are so many other crafts that you can do with beads! Crafts with beads can be things for home décor or special
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  • Free Beading Project: Crystal Bead Chain
    This sparkling crystal bead chain works great by itself or with a special pendant. This project was inspired by an amazing ceramic and crystal pendant I bought from Lisa Peters Art on Etsy . I loved the colors as well as the way Lisa combined the ceramic
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  • Favorite Bead Shops: City Beads
    Some of the more unusual beads I found at City Beads in New York City . Looking more like a high-end fashion boutique than a well-stocked bead shop, City Beads was an unexpected but delightful stop on my recent New York City shopping trip. For those of
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  • Shopping for Beads in New York City!
    I got to go bead shopping with the fabulous Lisa Peters Russ of Lisa Peters Art! How much fun is THAT? On the second day of my recent trip to New York City, my friends and I went into Manhattan to do some bead shopping between Fifth and Seventh Avenues
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  • Favorite Bead Shops: Beads on Fifth
    Me, my two friends, and all those beads at Beads on Fifth in Manhattan! Some of you may remember that a couple of weekends ago, I decided to take a little break and do some bead shopping in New York City with my friends. Each bead shop that I went to
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  • Get Your Sparkle On: Tips for Bead-weaving with Crystals
    The Ootheca cuff by Rachel Nelson-Smith is a perfect example of how crystals can provide sparkle without being front and center. I love bead-weaving with crystals, but I don't think I do it often enough. (Somehow, it just doesn't work for me to
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  • Think You Can't Make Wire Wrapped Beads? Think Again!
    These easy wire wrapped beads make great spacers with more antique trade beads or more organic gemstone beads. Being sort of a newcomer to wire work and wire jewelry-making, I have always admired those folks who can take a piece of wire and bend it (like
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  • Great Holiday Gift Ideas for Beaders
    Yes, it's that time of year again. When it comes to the holiday gift-giving season, there are two types of people. The first type, like my sister, has all the holiday shopping done before the end of August, and everything is neatly wrapped, tagged
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  • Bead and String Reference Chart Poster by The Beaded Phoenix
    Don't get me wrong - I love technology. I love being able to subscribe to my favorite beading magazine and have my issues delivered to my iPad, and I love being able to download movies, music and books without having to wait for the mailman to deliver
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  • How Do I Cover a Bead with Peyote Stitch?
    This spectacular peyote stitch Bloomin' Bead was designed by Carol Dean Sharpe of Sand Fibers . Beaded beads are fascinating for so many reasons. It's more of that Zen-like quality of beadweaving for me: imagine making a bead out of beads! Where
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  • Bead-weaving as Mindful Meditation - Can Bead-weaving Reduce Stress?
    I've been interested in things such as yoga and meditation ever since I took a stress management class in college. (I tend to be wound rather tightly at times!) For years, I used writing as my primary practice when I was looking to do something meditative
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  • The Challenges of Bracelet Making: How to Make Great Beaded Bracelets That Fit!
    I love making beaded bracelets , but bracelet making presents its own unique set of jewelry-making challenges! "Kissing your hand may make you feel very good, but a diamond and sapphire bracelet lasts forever." - Anita Loos I think Ms. Loos
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  • Six Super Blog Posts from Beading Daily!
    November marks six months since I've been here at Beading Daily , and I have to say that I'm thrilled to be able to sit down every day and write about my favorite thing in the entire world - beads! Having the chance to connect and correspond with
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  • Beading Looms: Mirrix Beading Looms Product Review
    The Little Guy 12" beading and tapestry loom by Mirrix Looms is a great gift for yourself or for someone else! My first beading loom was one of those "Native American" beading looms that I got for five dollars from a big box craft store
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  • The Busy Beader: How to Organize Multiple Beading and Jewelry-Making Projects
    Yes, I have more than one project on my beading tray in this picture. It's cluttered. I don't even know why that spool of blue Nymo beading thread is there! I don't know if I qualify as a typical beader, but I always find that I have about
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  • Necklace Making: Five Ideas for Designing Beaded Necklaces
    Necklace making is something that has always come easy for me. Even now, I find that my sketchbooks are full of more necklace designs than anything else, and I'm always finding inspiration for new designs everywhere. My process for designing and making
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  • Four Fun Ideas for Earring Making!
    When I first started learning how to bead and was learning basic jewelry-making, I loved earring making. I didn't realize it at the time, but making earrings a great way to learn new beadweaving stitches and jewelry-making techniques. Handmade earring
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  • Beading Supplies I Love: Ceramic Bead Dishes
    I love using ceramic bead dishes for certain beading tasks. Here is an assortment of my ceramic beading dishes with beads for various projects in them! When I first started beading, I used to pour my seed beads into large, bulky plastic storage boxes
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  • What's In a Name? Maybe a Free Beading Kit!
    The piece: a twisted herringbone rope accented with two lush tassels of fringe and a crystal flower centerpiece. Come up with the best name for this piece of beadwork, and you win the beading kit pictured below courtesy of Red Panda Beads! Sometimes I
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  • Project Accessory: Bead Fearlessly!
    Dangles from an old crystal chandelier make the perfect accent for a braided necklace and belt! You might not believe this, but she's using match sticks to create a necklace! Some of us around here at Interweave were so excited by the new Project
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  • What Can You Learn From Beadwork Magazine's Designers of the Year?
    Beadwork magazine chooses some pretty amazing beadweaving artists to feature as their Designers of the Year. These artists teach internationally and are known for both their gorgeous beaded jewelry designs and their innovative uses of traditional off
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  • Seed Bead Storage: Bead Tubes or Bead Boxes?
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  • Flat Herringbone Stitch with a Traditional Start
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  • Question of the Week: What's Your Favorite New Beading Product?
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  • Five Tips for Better Peyote Stitch Bezels
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  • Easy Ways to Make Your Own Clasps with Wire
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  • BeadBacking for Bead Embroidery
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  • The 6 Wirework Tools You Need
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  • Learn How to Add Fiber to Bead Loom Projects
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  • Shhh, Don’t tell . . . Jewelry-Making Secrets from Kristal and Marlene’s DVD
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  • Six Steps to Perfect Wrapped Loops
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  • Our Readers Don't Fool Around: Best Tips From Our Readers
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  • 3 All New Designs to Bead on Vacation
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  • 3 Easy Ways to Hang a Pendant
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  • 5 Free Crystal Bead Projects : Create Jewelry with Crystals
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  • How to Get the Perfect Crimp
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  • Learn Bead Crochet in 7 Easy Steps
    Learn Bead Crochet in 7 Easy Steps
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  • To Wrap or Not to Wrap; Wire that is...
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  • Helen’s 10 Ideas for Textured Metal Treasures
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  • Top Tools for Working with Wire
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  • The Dos and Don'ts of Twisting Wire
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  • Mmm. Quick and Easy Cupcake Jewelry in 5 Simple Steps
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    Kristal Wick is the editor of Beading Daily . I am one lucky ducky; I've never wanted to change my name. No, not even once. (Okay, maybe once, when I was seven and couldn't find a cute little wall plaque at the store with my name on it. They always
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  • Beading on Summer Getaways: Make Your Portable Bead Kit
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    As you read this, picture me packing up a U-Haul for my move across town. I've been in this house for nine years now, and sorting through all the stuff of my life has been daunting. For instance, why do I have two irons-did I think having two might
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  • 3 Beading Mysteries Solved: Learn the Whys of Seed Bead Techniques
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  • Master Wireworking the Easy Way
    Wire isn’t mastered in one take Wirework is not wirework is not wirework. Those of you who have played with or mastered wireworking know what I mean. It’s enticing at first: those wire projects lure you in with their hip metal style. Then
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  • How (and Why) to Buy a Micro Torch for Making Jewelry
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  • Lariats You Will Love and a Free Project
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  • Fast Gift Idea: Easy End Cone Earrings
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  • 10 Tips for Fusing with a Micro-Torch
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  • Why Math Matters in Jewelry Design
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  • Show Off Your Cabochons
    Working with cabochons I used to have something called a worry stone. It was a small polished stone with a smooth indentation, offering a tactile path to serenity, like a kid who rubs the satin on a comfort blankie. I have the same sense of “ahhhh”
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  • Trimming Threads
    Trimming Threads In what seems like a lifetime ago already, I was the editor of Beadwork magazine. At Interweave in 1997, Linda Ligon played Spanky, I was Darla, and we said “Let’s have a magazine!” Much like the sewn-together blankets
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  • Fall in Love with Seed Beads at Bead Fest!
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  • 4 EASY Ways to Improve Your Wire Jewelry
    Details make the difference So true! It’s the little things that make your jewelry designs look good. You can spend days or weeks on a jewelry project, but if your finish work is messy, it ruins the entire look. Whether you’re just starting
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  • Favorite Pearl Projects & How-to Tips from Readers
    The allure of pearls Oh, those pearls! They've captivated us for eons, in hues that span the rainbow, with textures and shapes from dewdrops to crusty grain. Lustrous. Shimmering. Exotic. Birthstone of June babies and traditional gift for thirtieth
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  • Handy Guide to Jewelry-Making Terms
    What's in a name ? I live near this kid named Christian. Nice boy, a little shy, but very polite. "Hi, Christian!" I yell from the porch when he walks to the bus. "Hi, Mrs. Campbell." "Hey, Christian! How's your sister
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  • 4 Tips for Crystal Jewelry Projects
    Make your jewelry special with sparkle ‘Tis (almost) the season to be glam! Even I, ever the industrial chic, seed-beads-4-ever chick, totally love the look of crystal jewelry at this time of the year. There is a magnificent brilliance that only
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  • Easy Ways to Texture Metal
    Hammer Metal to Make Your Jewelry Unique I believe we can make jewelry out of anything. Put things together in a well-crafted, interesting design, and voil à , wearable art. Might not be “art” jewelry at a certain level, but it’s
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  • 2 Free and Easy Wire Projects
    Hook and eye clasp is hardware chic! Rubber tubing called “spline” is one of my favorite hardware store materials. Commonly used to press around a screen door panel, it’s cheap, easy to cut, comes in a few gauges and shades of gray or
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  • How to Make a Wire Bead Chain!
    Great Wire Jewelry Deserves Perfect Loops I was doing some domestic spelunking and found a rosary I made before I knew much about wirework. It was a gift I'd made for my son when he was little. I'd invested in stone beads, made the cross in metal
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  • How to Choose the Right Wire Gauge
    A Quick Guide to Wire Gauge and Hardness Chances are, if you've been making jewelry for a while, you're feeling ready to expand your skills. For many beaders and stringers, that means moving into the realm of wire. But I know wire can feel a little
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  • 4 Ideas for Necklace Extensions
    How do you deal with a necklace design that's perfect but too short? Like most of you, when I design a new necklace I make it to my favorite length. I happen to prefer 16" necklaces because the focal bead sits just perfectly above my “Great
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  • Discover your jewelry-making style with a Beads, Baubles & Jewels video!
    My Style, Your Style! We beaders love a challenge! The challenge of learning new stitches and twists on a technique. The challenge of that “blank page” moment when you spread out your beads and wonder what you’ll make. But the challenge
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  • Is Your Jewelry Design Finished? 5 Tips to Help You Decide
    A few short years ago I decided to quit my day job and attend culinary school. Okay, so it wasn’t exactly on a whim, but I had finally decided to follow my passion and learn the art of creating beautiful cakes and pastries. Although I learned how important it is to work neatly and to mise en place my
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  • Create a Seed Bead Necklace with an Interchangeable Pendant
    I may be the owner of the last reversible skirt in America. To be honest, I've only worn it with the pattened side showing, but I love the idea that I could wear the plain blue side showing if the mood ever struck. I especially enjoy packing that skirt for trips. It lets me pretend that I'm one
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  • 10 Favorite Tips, Techniques, and Projects from Beading Daily
    Beading Daily turned two on August 1st. When I started several months before our official launch date, there were 1,500 members. Now there are more than 100,000! It's amazing that despite this huge growth, Beading Daily still feels much like it did when it started—a fun place to hang out with your
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  • Join Beading Daily's First Earring Swap
    Remember when you first got your ears pierced and you had to wear a simple post earring for a few weeks while they healed? Geez those weeks seemed interminable. That curious ritual of putting holes in your earlobes was surely a rite of passage. It was either a trip to the mall where some teenage sales
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  • Create Chain with Wire, Beads, or Yarn: 10 Ideas
    I like chain so much that back in April I spent a full day making my own in a wireworking workshop. Using steel wire, I made my own jump rings, formed my own links, hammered them, joined them, and polished the finished piece. The best tip I learned: once you've figured out the size of wire you need
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  • Jewelry Design Ideas for Briolettes, Plus Free Project
    As a teen, I routinely stuffed my size 9 feet into size 8 shoes, trying to deny that my feet would never be small again. The same kind of denial recently led me to try stuffing a piece of 22-gauge wire (my favorite size!) into the tiny, delicate drilled channel at the top of a lovely Oregon sunstone
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  • Make Your Own Spiral Head Pins
    Working as a freelance writer and designer has its perks. For instance, right now I’m still in my pajamas, my hair looks like I’ve been on a G-force machine, and it’s 11:00. The commute is very eco-friendly, and the commissary is about ten steps away from my office.
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  • How to Use Silver Wire and Findings on Any Budget
    It wasn’t all that long ago that I used nothing but sterling silver in all my jewelry. My ear wires, clasps, jump rings, chain, even crimps, all of it was sterling. Of course, that was back when gas was a dollar, our houses were worth more than we’d ever dreamed , and our 401Ks were making us feel like
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  • Do You Bead Green?
    In the Summer 2009 issue of Stringing, we present an article about eco-conscious beading, Bead Green: New Earth-Friendly Beading Supplies. In the article, author Melaina Juntti writes, “Nowadays many of us think critically about how our lifestyles and hobbies affect the planet and, coupled with
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  • New Free Earrings eBook
    6 Reasons We Love to Make Earrings Soon after joining Twitter (under the name BeadingDaily ), I asked jewelry designers to tell me what they liked about making earrings. Within minutes, I was deluged with reasons. Here are just six: 1. "It's
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  • Denise Peck's Easy Peasy Wire Wraps
    I love playing with wire, don't you? The design possibilities and colors are endless. Denise Peck is considered one of the wonderful wire women influencing wire popularity, trends, and techniques for many moons. I asked her to share one of her fave
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  • Free Metalwork Earring Instructions
    Last month I was lucky enough to take an intensive 2-day jewelry making workshop. Not only did I learn a lot in the workshop (notably, how much easier it is to use a jeweler's saw if you don't push down into the metal as hard as you possibly can), but I also learned a lot from my repeated trips
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  • 7 Tips for Using Steel Wire in Your Jewelry Designs
    Does this ever happen to you? You wake up and feel the sudden need to start adding, say, starbursts to your designs. So you do. But then the weird thing is you start noticing starbursts everywhere. In other people’s beadwork . . . on T-shirts . . . wrapping paper . . . on the sides of buses . . . It
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  • Why Simple Designs Aren't Always Simple to Make
    Recently, Stringing editor Danielle Fox and I were marveling over a necklace that had been submitted to the summer issue by sisters Silvija and Taya Koschnick. It was so simple, yet very appealing, the kind of piece that both of us would feel comfortable wearing often, even though our personal styles
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  • Plotting Your Next Bead Adventure
    I was just checking out the classes at BeadFest Philadephia and having a nice dream about taking classes from one of the top-notch teachers that will be there this August 21-24. Sometimes it’s hard to make trips like this a reality, but being the superb plotter that I am, I’ve developed a quick plan
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  • Are You a Bead Snob?
    I met a well-known bead designer last year who confessed that she sometimes enjoyed mixing high- and low-end components together--beads from her local craft store with some high-end silver or handcrafted art beads or findings. I admitted to her that I did this, too. Looking back, it's funny how we
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  • Six Steps to Perfect Wrapped Loops
    Like you, I’ve taken classes of all sorts over the years. Most teachers use memory techniques to help you remember lists or a process. For instance, my piano teacher used the acronym (E)very (G)ood (B)oy (D)oes (F)ine so I could remember the lines of the treble clef; in 10th grade typing class
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  • Bargain Basement Beauty: Create This Necklace Under $25
    Of course you can! The real challenge is to design something for that amount that looks like it came from a pricey boutique--or Stringing magazine. Danielle Fox, Elizabeth Murray, and I all took the challenge for the Spring 2009 issue. I had so much fun, I decided to make a second "under $25"
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  • Beading Techniques, Tools, and How-To Articles
    Check these pages for instructions, illustrations, related articles/magazines/books, and occasional videos on how to create jewelry, whether you favor bead stitching, stringing, or wireworking. You'll also find links to selected articles on selling
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  • Thread
    Thread is one option for stringing material. Popular types include braided thread, nylon thread, pearl cotton, quilting thread, and silk thread. Thread will often need to be conditioned with a wax or conditioner before use to protect it from fraying and
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  • 5 Shopping Tips for the Tucson Bead Shows
    Usually the weather in Minnesota at this time of year makes people cuss and throw things. But I’m happily whistling away as I pack up beading kits and my Bermuda shorts. You see, I get to join 60,000 of my rock, gem, and beading enthusiast buddies and head down to Tucson, Arizona in a couple weeks!
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  • Michelle's First Trip to the Tucson Bead Shows
    Beading Daily editor Michelle Mach shares photos and news of her first trip to the Tucson Bead Shows, February 2-6, 2009.
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  • How to Bezel Cabochons and Answers to Other Reader Questions
    Beading Daily readers are full of questions! I was reminded of this when editor Michelle Mach sent me dozens of your questions this month, ranging anywhere from “How do I hang an 18mm heart pendant? Jump rings don’t seem to work.” (use a pinch or prong bail instead) to “How do I remove a crimp cover
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  • Top 10 Free Beading Tips & Projects from 2008
    Any way you count it, 2008 was a terrific year for Beading Daily! We welcomed Jean Campbell as contributing editor every Wednesday. We also welcomed our magazine editors (Marlene Blessing, Danielle Fox, Denise Peck, Leslie Rogalski, Sara Graham, Melinda Barta) and their thoughts on topics like ethnic
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  • Create an Easy Elastic Beaded Bracelet
    Here's a confession guaranteed to fill up my inbox with reader mail: My favorite beaded watch is made with pretty Kazuri ceramic beads in various shades of blue, silver beads, and a silver watch face. Very simple to make and easy to wear. So what's the big deal?
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  • Learn African Helix Stitch in 4 Steps!
    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
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  • Your Favorite Beading Gifts and a Simple Winter Bracelet
    Months ago I asked Beading Daily readers to share their favorite bead-related gifts. If you're still shopping, take a look at these ideas that will fit a range of budgets, including a few that won't cost you a dime!
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  • Create a Perfect Wire Spiral: Free Video Class
    Along with simple loops, the spiral was the first wire technique I learned. In fact, my mom still wears a pair of earrings that I created back then with 8mm black rounds and a silver spiral dangle. (I try not to cringe when I see them--my technique has greatly improved since then!)
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  • Last-Minute Beading Gift-Making Ideas
    We both know that a handmade piece of jewelry is one of the nicest gifts you can give someone. People love receiving jewelry that was designed specifically with them in mind, and when the wearer knows the designer personally, she’s afforded another layer of bragging rights.
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  • 6 Brick Stitch Tips, Plus Free Seed Bead Pendant Project
    Brick stitch, aptly named for the way the beads sit like bricks in a wall, has to be one of my favorite all time stitches. After building my bead vocabulary with lots of techniques, I still rely on brick stitch in its many forms for most of my signature designs.
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  • Vintage Jewelry Inspiration: Design Sketches and Ideas
    In the fall issue of Stringing, the editors (Melinda Barta, Danielle Fox, and Elizabeth Murray) all went shopping at flea markets, antique stores, and thrift stores and with some advice from jewelry designer Mysti Gulsrud, they each created a design using modern components and antique finds.
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  • Behind the Scenes of Stringing Magazine
    I don’t know about you, but I’m kind a sucker for those "the-making-of" special features included on DVDs these days. You know, the laugh reels, the director’s commentary, the short history documentaries that provide a backdrop to the movie. I’m not the only one, right?
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  • 5 Ways to Share Your Love of Beading
    When I moved into my neighborhood seven years ago I knew it was going to take extreme measures to break the ice with my neighbors. At first meeting, it seemed like we had nothing in common. From politics and religion to level of household cleanliness and meal planning it seemed like we lived in different
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  • What Makes a Great Jewelry Making Class?
    Last spring I took a metalworking class with Susan Lenart Kazmer, author of the new book Making Connections. Ever since her beautiful hardcover book came out, I've been thinking about that class. What makes one class good and another amazing?
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  • Simple Wire and Crystal Ribbon Earrings
    I recently heard from my high school friend Kristy who was planning on running a race in California to raise money for cancer research. When I saw Sandra Lupo's wire earring project, I immediately bought some half-round silver wire and a 5mm rose Swarovski crystal pearl to make a pendant version
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  • Wire Gauges: How to Find the Right Size
    I recently redesigned a pair of earrings using a different gemstone colorway. I found out pretty quickly that the new stones I was using had very small holes. So, with my stash’s head pin box before me, I started trying…22-gauge? Nope. 24-gauge? Nope. (I was starting to feel like a toddler with a shape
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  • 5 Tips for Designing with Color
    Color is such a key element of good design. Yet each of us wrestles now and then with being in a color rut—“I only buy purple beads”—or wondering what shade of blue brings out the best in a new multicolored lampwork pendant. Do you ever watch The View on TV? If so, you’ll
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  • 5 Essential Findings for Your Bead Stash
    I had all the on- and off-loom techniques down pat before I discovered that bead stringing can be an equally refreshing and creative mind teaser. As a technique for making jewelry, stringing is definitely easier than bead weaving, but once you delve into it deeper, you find there’s a nice design challenge
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  • 6 Ideas for Using Cord, Ribbon, and Other Stringing Materials
    Every beader has a shopping weakness, that one type of item that you always look for--and buy--nearly every time you enter a bead shop or show floor. My current weakness is not a special kind of bead (though I still manage to buy plenty of those!). My weakness is wide strands of hand-dyed silk, thin
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  • Beginning Silver Fusing: Free Video on Making Headpins
    Using a torch can be scary. There's something about holding a flame--no matter how petite and charming--that is a little unnerving. I've taken three classes that used a torch for a small part of the class. I'm not going to lie and say that I'm perfectly relaxed and comfortable around
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  • Quick Wire-and-Bead Fireflies
    I've been searching for a delicate way to ask this, but I can't find one, so I'll just be blunt: What's up with beaders and bugs? Does everyone else who beads have the compulsion to make beaded insects? (Take a look at the "Bead a Bug" gallery from the June/July 2006 issue of
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  • 5 Ways to Stretch Your Beading Budget
    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
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  • Power Crimping and Other Crimping Tips
    Ah, the time-eating joys of the Internet…I just Googled the word crimp and the #1 entry that came up was the “friendly rap” stylings of The Mighty Boosh, a surrealistic comedy troop that our BBC-viewing friends probably know well. Being from the States, I had no idea! Judging from the half hour I just
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  • 7 Steps to the Perfect Crimp
    When channel surfing the other day I came across a show featuring a home built by its owner. The guy had used recycled materials and industrial cast-offs to create a very modern, fresh space. One of the best features was the staircase, which employed thick steel cable and eye screws as balusters. The
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  • Beading Thread 101
    Many seed-beaders don’t realize that beading threads have different widths, strengths, and qualities and blindly buy their thread based on price, color, or availability. But the type of thread you buy is just as important as the beads themselves. Thread truly is the backbone of an off-loom or loomed
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  • 5-Minute Hammered Wire Earrings
    Each month, one of the magazine editors will share a free project with Beading Daily. Today's guest editor is Denise Peck, editor in chief of Step by Step Wire Jewelry magazine and senior editor of Jewelry Artist . An editor by trade and a lifelong
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  • Crimp covers
    Crimp covers hide a 2mm crimp tube and give a professional finish. To attach, gently hold a crimp cover in the front notch of the crimping pliers. Insert the crimped tube and gently squeeze the pliers, encasing the tube inside the cover. See also crimping
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  • Wireworking
    Wireworking Wire is a versatile jewelry design element that may be used to connect chain or beaded links, to embellish beads, to hang pendants, or create a number of elements like head pins, eye pins, ear wires, bails, pin backs, ring shanks, clasps,
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  • A Quick Guide to Bead Speak (A Beginner's Glossary)
    Are you new to beading? Are you wondering what can you do with all those beads you have stashed away? Beading Daily contributing editor Sandi Wiseheart shares a quick overview of some common beading techniques: Stringing: This is the first thing most
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  • Thread is Cheaper Than Frustration and 4 More Thread Tips
    "Thread is cheaper than frustration." That was some recent advice I received from Bead Expo Philadelphia instructor Liz Smith. I laughed when I read her email because it reminded me of when I started to learn beadweaving. Coming from the world
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  • Learn to Create Perfect Simple and Wrapped Loops
    Wired on Wire Remember your first simple loop? I remember mine. Santa Monica, 1990. It wasn't neat and it wasn't pretty, but it opened up a whole new wirey world to me. I guess you could call it an "entry" technique. Not far behind were
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  • Jean Campbell's 10 Must-Have Beading Tools
    Jeanward Pliershands Did you ever see that movie Edward Scissorhands ? It's a modern-day-Frankenstein fantasy about a young man who's been built with a cacophony of scissors instead of hands. Edward ends up becoming quite a master at haircutting
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  • Beading as Therapy: The Children's Healing Arts Project
    Recently, I talked with Lindsay Ross, the managing director of the Children's Healing Arts Project (CHAP), a program that teaches hospitalized children as young as three how to bead, along with their families. During the interview, Lindsay remarked
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  • How to Win Beading Competions: 6 Tips from a Contest Judge
    What would you do with $1,500? If you had a $1,500 gift certificate to spend at a huge online bead store, what would you buy? Every kind of gemstone available? Enough seed beads or toggle clasps to last a lifetime? A top-of-the-line set of beading tools
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  • Tips for Beading While on Vacation
    Wahoo! I'm on vacation. A sleepy Florida beach on the Atlantic Ocean where there are so many shells that every step makes a cruuuunch. It's been so nice to take my long early-morning walks, looking out at the thundering waves and see the sun peaking
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  • 6-Strand Pearl and Crystal Wedding Bracelet
    If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? No wisdom here on that question, but I can tell you that if you whisper the word "wedding" in an empty room, everyone within 50 miles will hear you--and regale
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  • Avoiding Bridezilla: Tips for the Beading Bride
    Certainly many of you have come in contact with brides. Maybe you were a bride, or maybe you know one. And from what I've sussed, the bridal experience is, well, sometimes worlds away from what a wedding is actually for. I figure there's a fine
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  • Basketweave Crimps and Other Hard-to-Find Items
    What's in a name? Awhile back, I heard from several readers who were having trouble finding the "basket-weave crimp end findings" that Carol Huber Cypher mentions in Mastering Beadwork . I did a little looking around online and only found
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  • Beaded Watch with Your Favorite Clasp
    Meet Your Favorite Clasp: The Toggle "I never met a toggle that I did not like!" Those were the words of one Beading Daily reader--and more than 50% of the nearly 1,000 readers who voted recently on their favorite clasp agreed! Why do you like
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  • Top Organization Tips from Readers
    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
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  • Tucson Trends: New Beads & Inspiration
    The World's Largest Treasure Hunt Every February, beaders and jewelry makers gather in Tucson to meet one another, see what's new, take classes, stock up on beads and supplies, and get inspiration for the coming year. It's an intense two weeks
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  • Simple Necklace with Polymer Heart Pendant
    The Problem with "Just Make Something" My friend Jeanne walked into a local bead shop for a beginning beading class. She was instructed to pick out some beads from the store and "make something" with help from the staff. To me, this
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  • Choosing the Right Bracelet Clasp
    Choosing the Right Bracelet Clasp Beading Daily reader Nicole asked a great question about bracelet clasps. Her "best clasp" question is one of those questions that seems on the surface to be quick and easy. While there are some basic facts
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  • New Contest: Share Your Organization Tips
    It's easy to be an organized beader--if you've only been to one bead shop in your entire life and your entire "stash" fits in the palm of your hand. Now that I'm a "professional" beader, I can't get by with a tiny plastic
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  • Necklace Design Ideas
    Necklace Ideas from Stringing Magazine When I flip through a beading magazine, I'm not only looking for beautiful pieces of jewelry, but I'm also looking for ideas and inspiration. What unusual techniques or materials can I adapt for my own designs
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  • O-Ring, Crystal, and Wire Earrings
    Oh, Those O-Rings! When was the last time you shopped in a hardware store for your jewelry components? (It's been a couple of months for me, personally.) This week's featured project from the editors of Step by Step Wire Jewelry uses three sizes
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  • Cats, Beads, and Kitchen Tables
    Results of the Kitchen Table Poll, or The Very Strange Domestic Habits of Beaders This poll made me feel like I was channeling Margaret Mead! I learned so much about your your cats, your houses, your families, and, oh yeah, your beading habits . . . It
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  • The Beaded Sculptures of Natasha St. Michael
    Meet Bead Artist Natasha St. Michael I first learned about Natasha St. Michael's three-dimensional beaded sculptures when looking through back issues of Fiberarts magazine. For those of you not familiar with Fiberarts , this internationally focused
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  • The Amazing Power of Beads
    If there was a fire threatening your home and you had only minutes to grab a few things, what would you take? One Beading Daily reader and Beadwork contributor, Cathi Tessier, knows. Cathi was one of the estimated 500,000 people recently evacuated in
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  • Kazuri Beads and Other Good Causes
    Kazuri Beads and Other Good Causes I fell in love with Kazuri beads at a local bead show. ("Kazuri" is the Swahili word for "small and beautiful.") I loved the bright colors of the ceramic beads and once I learned the story behind
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  • Rubber Stamping Polymer Clay Beads
    Make Your Own Beads with Polymer Clay and Rubber Stamps Isn't it funny how you sometimes start out in one craft and end up going back to it years later? I used to be into rubber stamping--on paper--so this Rubber Stamping Polymer Clay Beads project
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  • A Case of Bead Doom
    A Case of Bead Doom On Wednesday (" Make Your Own Pendant "), I wrote about creating the Love Birds Necklace , my Beadwork challenge piece. After finishing the pendant, I thought the necklace needed something more--like individual seed bead
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  • Make Your Own Pendant
    Fear of Large Butterflies or How to Make Your Own Pendant Only one element in the latest Beadwork challenge--a gorgeous 38 x 46mm brass filigree butterfly--felt large enough to use as a necklace pendant. But, honestly, it was so large it made me feel
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  • Zulu Beadwork
    Copper, silver, brass, or ? I'm going through a copper phase. The last few necklaces I've made (including "September" pictured at left) have all used copper. I'd blame it on fall--this time of year always makes me want to wear brown
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  • Designing with Pearls
    Wild Trellis shows off top-drilled pearls Katie Hacker recently wrote a fun blog entry titled " Then and Now ," where she described the process of pulling out old projects to see how far you've come. (She has a photo of friendships pins
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  • Why Would I Want to Wash Clothes When I Can Play with Beads? An Interview with Cassie Donlen
    Cassie Donlen When I saw Sandi Wiseheart's Caribbean Breeze Earrings and Melinda Barta's Flower Burst Bracelet, I knew I wanted to talk to the lampwork artist, Cassie Donlen. Her beads are feminine and fun and come in a range of bright colors
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  • More Than Meets the Eye
    On the surface, the Dancing Daisy Necklace by Melanie Brooks Lukacs looks like a traditionally strung necklace—a beautiful, symmetrical pattern with porcelain flower beads in springtime pastel shades and a coordinating flower toggle clasp. Upon
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  • The Bracelet-Earrings-Necklace from Hell
    It started out happily enough. I found these wonderful painted beads at my local bead shop (Bead Cache). Over the next few weeks (and more bead shops, Bead Happy and the former Loveland Bead Company), I bought some copper spacers, wonderful wooden beads
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  • Creating a Wearable Bouquet
    Beadwork's managing editor, Melinda Barta, describes her reaction to the June/July challenge kit supplieddd by lampwork artist Cassie Donlen : "The second I opened the kit that Cassie Donlen provided for Beadwork’s Challenge Project and
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  • Getting Loopy: How To Make The Perfect Wire Loop (after a bit of practice)
    Beading Daily contributing editor Sandi Wiseheart offers some advice about making wire loops: Even though it may be invisible, the type of string, wire, thread, or cord you choose to make your jewelry is critical to the overall success of the piece. Heavy
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