The Beading Gem

One great way to add a lot of individuality to necklace designs is to work with many strands. They do not have to be bead woven or linked together in any way except at the clasp. Each necklace can be worn on its own - nothing wrong with that. But when they are clustered together like Cindy's creation here, the design quality just moves up several notches.

Cindy's main necklace has the larger beads in peridot greens, with shades of pale pink/purple and touches of topaz. Her secondary necklaces consisted of one with just gold seed beads alternating with gold bugles and the other with bronze variations. It seems all so easy but the trick is to choose the right beads in the right colours to go together.

Beader Design #: 230
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Grace is a promising jewelry designer even at the grand old age of nine. She's not even in the double digit age group yet!

She spotted the new shell pendants in my collection and made it for her mother who likes yellow. This pendant was buff coloured with all the iridescent character of shells. However, the rectangular shell itself was adorned with a real pressed yellow flower.

Simplicity was the key to this design. Grace showed restraint unusual for one so young, using just simple brick shaped gold coloured beads to form the rest of the necklace. The colour of these beads match the actual flowers on the pendant. The brick shaped were also angular just like the pendant.

Beader Design #:229
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Many of us enjoy crafting and making jewelry. For some, it stops there. Others have gone on to sell their much admired work which also helps fund their hobbies. For the lucky few, it becomes their vocation. But craftswomen in the developing world, trying to start out face a huge barrier because they lack the capital to buy what they need.

The concept of micro-credit loans began with Grameen Bank in Bangladesh in 1976. The founder, an economics professor, Muhammad Yunus noticed some poor rural women paying crippling loan interests just to buy the bamboo to make simple furniture. The pittance they made kept them in abject poverty. These women had no collateral but he advanced them small interest-free loans anyway. His first efforts were successful and the idea blossomed.

The repayment rate is well over 90%, far better than conventional business loans. Better yet, these businesses thrived and the women were able to use their own talents to earn an income and better their lives and those of their families. In 2006, Yunus and the Grameen Bank shared the Nobel Peace Prize.

Also in 2006, a remarkable young woman, Rebecca Kousky (St Louis, Missouri) still only in her twenties, took this concept one step further and established a non-profit organisation called Build A Nest. She had volunteered abroad before in India and Mexico. She came back determined to "change the world one purchase at a time". Ironically, Rebecca herself was turned down for a business loan (no savings, no collateral) when she wanted to open a shop selling merchandise for struggling artisans abroad. So she put on her creative hat and went online.

There are a couple of outstanding points about her idea. Firstly, Build A Nest is creating and connecting communities of craftswomen in both the developed and developing world. Secondly, it provides an international marketplace for the products produced by the loan recipients. Build-a-Nest partners with emerging artisans in the US (so far) who create unique items for sale and donate part of the proceeds to use as loans. One such partner is Juliana's Creations who was a featured designer on this blog.

Rebecca is wondrous a loan as little as $50 (perhaps a pair of shoes for us) has the ability to change a woman's life somewhere else in this world. I was delighted to learn the first loan recipient was a jewelry artisan, Mercel Tuncer, from Izmit, Turkey. Rebecca herself is sporting an older Nest necklace (no longer sold) in the picture.

Build-a Nest shows that "entrepreneurship, social activism and microfinance" can all be combined into a successful business model and benefit our global village. You can see her CNN "Young People Who Rock" interview report here. She has also been featured in numerous print journals shown here.

Photo with kind permission from Rebecca.

Feature Designer

Coralsal is a jewelry designer who comes from Alexandria, Egypt. She is a fine arts enthusiast. A true artisan, she says it best - "My art goes from heart to hand". As she lives right next to the Mediterranean Sea, her designs are not surprisingly influenced by the ever changing sea.

Taking her cue from the rolling waves and sea foam, she created this free form turquoise necklace made up of a large central turquoise gemstone framed with elaborately coiled silver wire and smaller round turquoise beads, reminiscent of crashing waves along the sea shore. The rest of the necklace consists of flat oval turquoise punctuated with two smaller clusters of silver wire coils and turquoise beads.

You can see the original and larger Flickr photo here and whilst you are there, you can browse through her other pictures of her free-form style of jewelry design.

Picture with kind permission from Coralsal.

Continuing on the red and white theme, here is a different approach to creating one of a kind jewelry. Nancy was tired of just plain stringing, so she ventured into beadweaving for the first time.

She used four rather than two strands to weave through bright red faceted round crystal beads as well as clear cube beads. Tiny pearlised seed beads covered the rest of the wires. This design is best worn as a choker otherwise the necklace will not lie flat enough. The four strands add more substance to the necklace and the total of eight strands going back to the clasp makes it far more interesting.

Beads from Widget's Beads' Collection
Beader Design #: 228
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If I had to pick the top design element beaders think about first when they are creating, it would have to be colour. Red is one of the more vivid hues so if you are not keen on wearing too much of it, then tone it down with cooler colours or neutral ones like Stephanie did here. She used pearlised seed beads in different sizes as well as silver-lined ones to space out the fire engine red brick-shaped beads.

Just the perfect patriotic set to wear on Canada Day! For Americans, Australians and the French add blue. For Egyptians, add black, for Italians add green. You get the idea! If you are thinking of making a gift based on the colours of a country's flag, check out the pictures on this Flags of the World site.

Beads from Widget's Beads' Collection.

Beader Design #: 227
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Verdigris is the green patina consisting of copper salts that develops after copper, brass or bronze have been exposed to air for a long time.

It is a desirable trait on statues and for architectural features such as the copper cupola atop the tower of Dalhousie University's Arts and Administration building in Halifax, Nova Soctia, Canada (picture). Indeed, copper(II) acetate was once used as a green paint pigment.

However, this phenomenon is not at all attractive when seen on older pieces of jewelry. Invariably called green gunk, it should be removed by using one of the following cleaning materials. These cleaners from your kitchen cupboard are best on metal such as the clasps. Glass (yes, Swarovski is still glass) and hard gemstones are fine too.

But do NOT use them for soft gemstones like pearls - these are easily damaged. Also on the no-no list are rhinestones due to their foil-backings or sterling silver and silver-plated metal. When in doubt, test first or just clean only the tarnished metallic portions. These simple remedies are acid based, so any glue or plastics in the jewelry piece will also likely be affected.

First remove as much of the green gunk as possible with a soft toothbrush - a baby toothbrush might work better for small pieces. Then apply a little with a cotton swab or tip to clean. Severe verdigris though may make the metal piece brittle and unsalvageable especially if it is a functional part like the prongs holding a gemstone or the clasp.

This is the most common remedy used especially for copper. Lemon juice (citric acid) has a less acrid smell and works faster than vinegar (acetic acid). If straight lemon juice is too runny, make a paste with a little water and baking soda added. Some people also use a combination of lemon juice and salt, again as a paste. For a short history of lemons and its uses, see this article. Vinegar also works but some people might find it too acrid for their noses.

Works great with copper although it can be somewhat messy if you overdo it. If you don't believe me, take a tarnished copper coin and leave it slathered with sauce for a while. Rinse it off and you will find a shiny new penny! A "magic" trick to amuse children, too. They work because both contain vinegar. Remember to rinse and dry, dry, dry! It is the moisture that helped create the green gunk in the first place.

Prevention is better than the cure - jewelry should really be kept in zip-lock bags to reduce future tarnishing. So ban verdigris from your jewelry box!
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Original Post by THE BEADING GEM
Jewelry Making Tips - Jewelry Business Tips 

Few of us can afford the pigeon's blood rubies from Burma, prized for centuries. The rich colour was so desirable that other red gemstones like the spinels were often thought to be rubies. The Black Prince's Ruby is the classic example. Today, few of us would wish to buy the deep red Burmese rubies anyway because doing so would support the cruel military regime there.

But we can get this wonderful colour in glass. Janet chose this gorgeous faceted geometrically shaped glass pendant. This striking focal point needed just a simple touch with tapered cylindrical beads in the same colour alternating with faceted gold glass beads. Black seed beads were added only at the clasp end of the necklace. Janet decided to keep her earrings simple using just the black and gold coloured beads.


Beader Design #: 226

When I put the pictures of these three sweet earring designs together, I kept humming the tune "Three Little Maids" from the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, "The Mikado"! These are dainty little earrings were all made from members of the same extended family. I thought they collectively illustrated some easy ways to design hoop earrings. Beginners may wish to note some placement tips.

Stringing beads
Using either wire hoops formed around a suitable round object or bought findings, beads can easily be strung, partway around the hoop or even all the way around. The seed beads and metal flower beads used by Christy were just right. Longer beads like bugles or tubes cannot be used due to the curvature of the hoops.

Adding dangles
Dangles can also be added. Taylor's natural coloured heart-shaped shell beads dangled such that the hoop itself had to be hung from an additional jump ring so that the earrings faced forward. Thus better placed to be admired!

Sideway Hoops
Madison strung her pretty pink shell hearts through the top drilled holes. She also added clear seed beads before and after the hearts. In this case, the hoop were attached directly onto the earwires so that only the hearts faced forwards. The hoops would thus be viewed as full circles only from the side.

Beader Designs #: 223-225

The temperature dipped down to -6 degrees Centigrade (21 degrees Fahrenheit) the other night. We can no longer kid ourselves that winter is still far away.



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Beadweaving is fun to do for all ages. The children who made these bracelets and necklace worked with no less than four colours each. Grace (9) who made the top three bracelets was not only fast but she had no difficulty coming up with any number of colour combinations. The top one reminds me of old military or naval uniforms - white pants, black tunics and gold buttons! She made them mostly for her mother.

The second last from the bottom was a necklace made by Kara (9) using a very pretty Spring/Easter selection of hues. Girls are often good at coming up with a young and fresh palette of colours.

Mark (10) made the very last bracelet as a Christmas gift for his teacher. What a great idea! Something handmade from a pupil would mean so much more than just a store bought trinket. After all, which teacher needs yet another wooden apple pencil holder? Jewelry however, is another matter. There is no such thing as too much jewelry, right?

Beadweaving Collection #2
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Teresa adores the colour green. She had previously made green earrings before but of course there is no such thing as too many earrings. So she ventured forth with a new pair using double circled link connectors. Her glass beads on the dangles were on the larger side which balanced the round metal components.

Teresa was then encouraged to try designing her very first necklace. The dark green glass beads sharply contrasted with the off-white glass rice pearls. In between were the metallic looking coated glass pearls and pale translucent green beads. The varying bead shapes added interest to this green creation as did the small metal beads. You don't have to be Irish to like this creation!

Beader Design #: 221
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Feature Designer

Joelle is the Canadian designer behind June Designs. She is presently located in Montreal, Quebec. She could be a role model for aspiring jewelry makers thinking of making the jump to selling for Joelle has only been seriously making jewelry for a year.

Many artisan jewelers will completely understand and share her "NEED" to create. It is by creating something beautiful that our restless souls are appeased at least for a while. Then, we need to start the process all over again. This nesting pearls necklace is a delightful example of Joelle's aesthetic tastes. The pearls resting in half-domes are reminiscent of pearls in oyster shells. You can see the original work on Etsy here.

Picture with kind permission from June Designs.

Sue loved the look of burnished copper so she chose to make earrings using that metal. She enhanced the coppery look with a brownish grey faceted crystal bead with smaller glass bead accents in copper or gold colours. The result is a pair of earrings with old-fashioned charm.




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Wearing a holiday pair of earrings is a fun way to get into the festive mood. They also make a great gift. So I was not surprised when someone recently dug through my bead collection looking to make some Christmas earrings. I didn't have any Christmas tree beads in glass, metal or charms but there are other ways of making this holiday classic. So here are some ideas and tutorials from the Beading Gem to get your creative juices flowing.

Shape
Find triangular beads like those in my earrings here, or perhaps even arrowhead beads to get the tree shape. Solid cone glass beads are also perfect but these are harder to find. Those metal cones (see middle design) lurking in any beadaholic's arsenal are great alternatives for a funky metallic look.

Stacking
Use diminishing sizes of rondelle, flower or disc beads. Fire Mountain Gems has this popular Swarovski Crystal design tutorial.

Wire Work
Like working with wire? Then you will enjoy this spiral tree tutorial design from Wigjig.

Wrapturewirejewelry has an awesome free tutorial (shown on left) which was originally published in Step-by-Step Wire Jewelry that you can download for free.

I also like this wire and bead Christmas tree inspired tutorial. It's actually ornaments but make them small enough and they will be earrings!



Friendly Plastic
Friendly plastic comes in gorgeous colors and can easily be fused together. This lovely set is by Jana Ewy.


Beadweaving using seed beads

• Beadjewelrymaking has a Christmas tree charm tutorial which definitely can be made in earrings
• 
  
• Christina Wojcik's brick stitch design is one of my favourite tutorials to learn this stitch as you can see from my rightmost earrings pictured way above (update :  tutorial link no longer available).
  

Chain maille
This simple chain maille pair by Auntie's Beads is rather like a Christmas tree. They have a video tutorial. Alternatively check out the Japanese maille style earrings from Metaldesignz for inspiration.


This alternative chain maille Christmas tree is by Emily of For the Love of Beads (link no longer available). The green color is definitely festive!








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Original Post by THE BEADING GEM
Jewelry Making Tips - Jewelry Business Tips 

Double-holed metal "slider" beads decorated with crystals are popular choices as they work as elegant connectors for two-stranded work.

Sliders are most commonly found in bracelets. But Chris' design set show sliders can also be used as the central focal beads in a necklace and matching earrings. For her necklace, she just strung the wire only through the top holes. The earrings required a different approach using beading wires to "hoop" up the sliders. Then both ends of the wires were strung through the same beads and crimped inside clamshell findings.

Chris carefully chose seed bead colours that complimented the silvertone, black and blue colours of the slider beads. Bright silver filigree balls also added to the classy look to her design.


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Beadweaving can be a simple technique that pays dividends to jewelry designs using mainly seed beads.

Here, the designer Linda used not just the typical two strands of beading wire but four to come up with a different kind of necklace. The alternating clear and purple faceted crystal beads were the accent colours to the pale blue seed beads covering the wires. Notice how she twisted the wires towards the back of the necklace.

Beads are from Widget's Beads' collection.
Beader Design #: 218
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The Son of Heaven was the formal title of Emperors in Imperial China. One such Son of Heaven was Qianlong (1711-1799), the fifth Manchu Emperor. He had a number of wives and a multitude of concubines but the woman he loved most was his first consort, the Empress Xiao Xian. She was a lovely, caring and virtuous woman who died early at 36 after a sudden illness.

Like Shah Jahan, the Mughal Emperor of India, the loss of his beloved devastated Qianlong. Unlike Shah Jahan's Taj Mahal mausoleum, Xiao Xian was buried in a lavish subterranean tomb complete with jade flowers, her body encased in a cinnabar box. A prolific poet, he composed poems to the love of his life whenever he visited her tomb, placing the lacquer plaques in her Spirit Hall.

After her death, he transferred his feelings and capacity to love deeply to jade, a gemstone whilst cold and hard, also embodies human-like qualities such as beauty, virtue, nobility and purity. It was as if jade represented his lost love. He slept on a jade bed, ate from jade dinnerware, wrote poetry about jade with a jade handled brush and a jade ink pot. In short, everything that could be made of jade or inset with jade, was indeed made so for him.

He went to great lengths to find and secure Burmese supplies of jadeite or imperial jade that the Chinese call fei cui or kingfisher (feathers) jade and prized above nephrite, the other kind of jade. The difficult military campaigns to obtain the gemstone drained his treasury and cost the lives of thousands of his finest soldiers. Supplies were eventually secured through a ceasefire in exchange for trade.

Painting : The Qianlong Emperor in Ceremonial Armour on Horseback, 1739 or 1758 by Giuseppe Castiglione (Chinese name Lang Shining). Hanging scroll, ink and colour on silk. The Palace Museum, Beijing.

References
Wikipedia : Qianlong
Wikipedia : Xiao Xian
A. Levy and C. Scott-Clark (2001). The Stone of Heaven: The Secret History of Imperial Green Jade. Orion Books Ltd.

This gorgeously rich set was designed by Jane. It somehow reminds me of medieval churches, cardinal reds and stained glass windows. No wonder as Jane used clear copper framed or window beads as well as the beautiful red Czech cathedral beads with copper tips. These fire polished crystals are also used for rosaries. So it is fitting that Jane completed her design with a jasper gemstone cross.

She used the clear window beads for the main part of her earrings with cathedral beads as dangles. The richness of her design is maintained with gold seed and topaz coloured glass beads.

Beads are from Widget's Beads' collection

Beader Design #: 217
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Feature Designer

Susan Hood is an expert lamp work bead artist of long standing. She has been developing her skills since 1987. She is located in Yarmouth, at the southern tip of Nova Scotia. She has always lived by the sea which naturally inspired her Phantasea collection.

This stunning necklace using her lamp work creations made it to the cover of the Toronto Bead Society's 2008 Calendar . It's easy to appreciate why out of 80 entries, her design made the coveted spot. She will be featured next on a local magazine called Open to the World about Nova Scotian businesses. Her work can be found be found in Japan, Australia, Paraguay, Chile, United States, Dominican Republic, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Hong Kong and naturally, Canada.

She, like many creative people, is accomplished in more than one artistic pursuit including stained glass work and painting. Only by painting with glass though has Susan finally found the one endeavour which gives her so much satisfaction and joy. Perhaps that is why her website is called the Glass Harp Gallery. Each bead sings its own beautiful song.

Susan also teaches students from beginners to advanced, in the art of hot glass lamp worked beads using Italian Effetre (Moretti) soft glass. She even offers 2-day courses with B&B, private lessons and extra studio time for those keen to learn the art. Interested but Yarmouth is too far to visit? Try the Cranberry Studio and Supply in Halifax. Susan instructs there too. One past student I know praised Susan as a patient teacher. For more details and her bead designs, check out her website.

Photo with kind permission from Susan.

Design note : Focal beads such as lamp work are centre stage in a jewelry design. For more jewelry design inspiration using centre stage beads, I recommend a new project book by Sara Connell called One Beautiful Big Bead (Lark Books).

June chose a coppery theme for this pretty bracelet. The clear copper framed glass beads are squares on the diagonal which lends interest to her design. June definitely remembered the "contrast" design tip as these square beads were placed amongst round coppery glass beads. Again, for a sharp contrast, clear seed beads were used as spacers. The copper clasp neatly tied all the elements together.

Window beads are made in the Czech Republic. Its long glass-making history dates back to Roman times. The industry though has had its ups and downs in the past century. Both the World Wars, the Great Depression and the communist government's initial disinterest severely disrupted production. Today, Czech beads are hugely popular due to the exquisite craftsmanship and innovative approaches.

Beader Design # : 216

Reference
History of Czech Glass by Beverly Fernandes
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Susan is a new beader who shows a love of colour. Vivid cobalt blue is an uncommon choice but the right one for the focal bead she chose. This particular blue Chinese metal and enamelled cloisonné bead is quite large and intricate. So she kept the rest of the necklace simple with extra long cobalt blue bugle beads alternating with short gold ones for contrast.

This Beijing art form first appeared in the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) and later became popular in the Jingtai Emperor period (1426-1456) of the highly artistic Ming Dynasty. The blue shade of enamel was developed during that period. It became the dominant colour of enamelware so much so the Chinese word for cloisonné became known as "jin-tai-lan", or "Jingtai blue."

Beader Design #: 215

References
China Travel : Beijing : Chinese cloisonné enamelware
China Style : Chinese Cloisonne
Wise Geek : What is Cloisonne
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Fear of the the evil eye dates back thousands of years. People believed the envious looks of others could cause them harm or illness. The belief is common to many cultures but it is particularly strong in the Mediterranean and the Middle East.

So eye beads were created as talismans to ward off the bad luck. The distinctive bright blue eye beads of Turkey are called nazar boncugu (bonjouk). The eye is sometimes found on a palm forward hand shaped amulet called a hamsa of khamsa as if it acts as a stop sign to malicious envy.

These beads are so engrained in Turkish culture that it can even be found painted on the tails of the Turkish Airline planes.

An aircraft with Nazar boncuğu; the blue eye that protects from the evil eye. Sabiha airport, Istanbul Nederlands: Vliegtuig met het blauwe oog dat beschermt tegen het boze oog (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Tourists flock to the large Covered Bazaar in Istanbul to buy these evil eye beads from the many vendors there.

Photo credit: Bunshee

Turkish people hang amulets on their car rear view mirrors, give away small evil beads as gifts and naturally wear them as pendants, necklaces, bracelets and anklets. Turkish silversmiths are very talented. You can see examples of their work incorporating the nazar boncugu beads on the Evileye store website.

The Turkish Director, Ali Akyuz has produced a documentary just on the nazar boncugu. On his website, he features the last of the evil eye bead masters in his homeland still making these glass beads in rudimentary pine wood fueled furnaces that have been used for thousands of years. These master craftsmen located near Izmir make the real evil eye beads.

Watch this short documentary by Don Wildman who traveled to Turkey to show how these are made by a modern artisan.  He had a go himself which proves it's not easy to produce perfect evil eye beads!



Photo Credit : Stina Baruh on Flickr

References
Wikipedia Evil Eye
The Evil Eye by Cat Yronwode

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Original Post by THE BEADING GEM
Jewelry Making Tips - Jewelry Business Tips 

Carmel picked these red modern glass eye beads for her dangle earrings. She must have just liked the bold look. But when I told her that eye beads were once widely used to guard against the "evil eye" and bring luck to the wearer, she was most amused. She said she could use all the protection and luck she could get!

The evil eye belief is centuries-old, best described as the harm, bad luck or illness caused by the envious look of others. So what better than to wear eyes for staring right back at the malicious evil eye! Even more so when they are as brightly coloured as Carmel's earrings.

Beader Design #: 214

Feature Designer

This delightful turquoise bracelet is the work of KittyD, a fellow beadaholic from North Carolina who has been crafting just about forever.

This design is an example of thinking outside the box. Memory wire is usually worn coiled a few times around the wrist. What KittyD did was to use three independent coils to make a cuff bracelet. She also covered the bare wire with sterling silver twisted tubes. The eclectic mix of turquoise beads and small nuggets mixed in with sterling silver beads just on the top of the bracelet made this a fun and one of a kind design.

You can see the original work here. I was also taken by her moss agate bracelet on her blog. It will appeal to those who like nature inspired jewelry.
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