The Beading Gem

Were you wowed by the fabulous real living succulent jewelry by PassionflowerMade which I featured recently?  Well, here is how you can make your own.  The tutorial is by a self confessed succulent addict,  Cassidy of Succulents and Sunshine. She was taught the technique from a landscape designer.

Remember string art?  I tried my hand at making a string art pendant (see tutorial post) a while ago. It is usually accomplished by winding something like embroidery floss in a certain pattern with the wire coils of the frame to anchor the thread.  Well, this clever tutorial by Elvira Zorina over on Biserok combines a beaded hoop earrings design with string art!

Many of you were introduced to Nunn Design products through this blog.  Holly said, "Becky Nunn & her team always come up with wonderful designs, all made with quality materials and I like that they are made in the USA."  Lorraine also said, "Becky Nunn's ideas and the Nunn Designs are so versatile. Whether using resin, polymer clay or epoxy clay the possibilities in design are only limited by imagination." Spot on, both of you!

Most if not all beading stitches have been around for so long no one knows who first created them. So it is pretty rare to come across a new beading stitch, let alone one which is so versatile and fits right in there with other modern beading techniques.

Fine silver metal clay is usually the clay of choice for metal clay artists.  Almost pure silver, it doesn't need firescale clean up after torching. And it is very slow to tarnish later because there is no copper. But it's not as strong as sterling silver especially for bracelets.  Recently, metal clay artist Lisel Crowley got to test out Cool Tool's new EZ960 Sterling Silver Clay.

I've covered some nifty ways to travel with jewelry before. Ways in which keep them protected and organized. Here is one more which is simple yet stylish. The tutorial is by Lia Griffith. You don't even need a sewing machine for this one as it just requires blanket stitching.  But if you do have a machine with fancy stitches, then the job is a breeze. You could even consider using these as gift bags!

I don't know about you.  But I personally do not like to wear jewelry with a personal message like "I Love You" emblazoned in script.  Using morse code is thus a discrete way of conveying sentiments.  I've designed a morse cord or name necklace before using wire coils and beads (see link below).  This easy tutorial is a different take using resin clay and channel bangles.

Sometimes the simplest solutions are the cleverest.  Becky Nunn's clever idea to use deep channel open bezels or open frames (available from Nunn Design)  directly in prepared silicone molds led to some pretty amazing resin pendants. There is nothing wrong with using just a silicone mold to make many resin pendants.  But as Becky points out, there is the effort of cleaning up the edges of the final resin piece. So placing the  bezel in the silicone mold itself avoids that task.

It's really wonderful to come across a beadwork tutorial that's different from most.  This tutorial by Olga Barannikova features a beautiful beaded floral cluster pendant.  It is a layered 3D design. What the designer clearly tried to do was create a basket of flowers.  It took her 8 hours to finish.

California based Melody of the House of Blings enjoys making things pretty.  Especially smartphone cases!  She has been adding her own touch to these for years in one of 2 ways. She uses pressed flowers in all sorts of clear smartphone cases - Apple, Samsung and Sony. These are colorful and unique in their compositions.

Hats off to the readers who are already exploring the enameling technique!  Last week's book giveaway certainly intrigued some beginners.  While others were more experienced not just with enameling but with the instructor.

Many of my favorite components are from Nunn Design.  I especially like the antiqued finishes.  The overall handmade look to designs is simply lovely.  Their collection is constantly being updated. Their Summer 2016 collection is now out and one lucky winner will win a sample pack of this new offering.

Knowing that heat can color copper in glorious ways is one thing.  But to paint with it? That kind of blows my mind. So thanks to friend and reader Aims who spotted this amazing flame painted copper art video everyone's minds can be blown too. The Copper Colorists shown here are Skip and Racheal Mathews, metal smiths based in Arkansas. They are both masters at this unique art form.  They also teach the craft.

Hummingbird by the Copper Colorists

If you've never done french beaded flowers before, you'll love this easy bobby pin tutorial.   The video shows how you can easily wire a simple flower with a pearl center and wire it to the end of a bobby pin. It is so easy, you can whip up a few in next to no time. Perfect for the little girl(s) in your life!

Metal smith designer and instructor, Melissa Muir demonstrated how she makes her gorgeous copper flower pendant in this video.  She also gives viewers a serious case of tool envy! She does not hand saw the petals but uses custom dies and her hydraulic press to cut the flower shapes quickly and easily. And the sanding machine with what looks like a ventilation grid?  Sigh.

There are so many ways to make your own charms and buttons for jewelry making.  Did you ever consider shrink plastic (Shrinky Dinks is a well known brand)? You can easily do that.  Here are a couple of tutorials posted on Karen`s The Graphics Fairy. It is a fantastic resource for free vintage images (the majority are in the public domain).


Heather of the Thicketworks designed the charm bracelet, earrings and necklace in this tutorial using various images from The Graphics Fairy.  The basic tips on how to work with shrink plastic are covered. You can use a heat gun rather than a toaster oven.  Heather even prepared the PDFs so you do not have to figure out what the sizes need to be to shrink down to the right charm size.

Andrea from the Cottage Market wrote the tutorial for making shrink plastic buttons.  I love the scroll pattern she chose from The Graphic Fairy`s collection. The buttons can be used for all sorts of jewelry making projects (see the links below) or as actual custom buttons for sewing garments.


Before You Go:

• How to Make All in One Button Earrings
• Shrink Plastic Jewelry Tutorials
• How to Make Button Bracelet Tutorials

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

Gloria over on Domestic Diva Online has a lovely wire wrapped caged crystal earrings tutorial. It is elegant and yet not to difficult to accomplish.  She has a simple yet clever way to form the cage frame. The wire wrapping on the sides just adds a touch of elegance to her design. She has used briolettes for her tutorial.

Butterfly Hair Fork

Before You Go:

• Amazing Wire Wrapped Jewelry by Wire Dreamers
• Wire Work Rosette Jewelry Tutorial
• How to Make a Wire Wrapped Seahorse

I'm glad Jet Beads did another giveaway last week because there were many readers who had not heard of the service before. A number of you though, have already found Jet Beads to be very useful. Margaret said, "I've used Jet Beads the last several times I've needed something from Fire Mountain Gems. It has saved me a lot of money, and is surprisingly fast!"  Enchanting Accents made a good point : "This giveaway is a fantastic option for people like me to get a chance to try something new without having to make a commitment."  Please note you can also do a trial quote with Jet Beads to see how it works.

Enameling - the fusing of powdered glass onto metal by firing - is an ancient technique.  It has been used mainly in the decorative arts and jewelry. And no wonder! The vivid colors are simply wonderful. It is arguably the best way to add color to metal.  One well known type of enamel work is cloisonné where thin wires form barriers to the colored enamel.

You don't have to be a beader to really appreciate this wonderful wavy bead woven cord necklace tutorial by Svetlana McDaniel. It is a versatile design because you can create different cord foundations as well as use different types and colors of beads. The general technique is very similar to the ever popular bead wrapped bracelets - see links below.

Adding beads to chain mail does add color!  I've seen a number of captured bead chain mail designs but they are usually linear. So this captured bead chain mail flower design is something different! The tutorial is over on livemaster.ru

I've often walked by the wood burning tool section in Michaels and wondered if this craft can be used for jewelry making.  Of course it can!  Aki over on Minted Strawberry shared her clever coloring book inspired wood burned earrings tutorial (no longer available).  She has certainly noticed the adult coloring book craze!

There are a number of you who are intrigued with beadwork but have yet come over to the "dark side" as this glass artisan quipped in this humor post about Fantasy Bead Studs. So this one is for you.  An easy peasy pearl and seed bead necklace tutorial just for beading newbies.  The pretty  tutorial is by Megan over on her jewelry making blog.

Coiled wire embellishments to just plain wire certainly adds texture and elegance to wire jewelry designs. There are different ways.  This first tutorial for coiled and twisted wire earrings  over on the Kreativ Vagyok site is by  Erika Schneider. Here the wire coiling is carried out on a long wire. The embellished wire is then twisted and looped.  The beads are then wired onto the final design.  I would use a wire coiling tool to make the coiling go faster instead of just manually wrapping around the main wire.

I was quite surprised how many of you liked soutache jewelry as featured in last week's book review. It is an elegant but formal style. But clearly many of you want to learn and a handful of you actually have the supplies on hand but haven't started! Holly said, "Soutache has been on my "to-do" list for a while now. I have the supplies to make a small project & this book looks like just the inspiration & push I need to actually give it a try."

It doesn't matter if you are a hobbyist or selling your own creations. Buying your supplies at competitive rates means you can buy more if you're on a limited budget. Sellers  need to make better profits by controlling costs. So Tuscon based Jet Beads is here to help.  What Jet Beads does is allow you to shop for less than 200 items from Fire Mountain Gems and still get their lowest discount.  This saves up to 40% off!

Owls are fun to use as design elements.  So it's not surprising to see all kinds of jewelry designs featuring this wise looking birds. They have such adorable puffy shapes and large eyes as well as those horn- like feathers.  So here here 3 fun macrame owl jewelry tutorials by Macrame School  to add to the ones I have already collected!  You can make them any color you want.

Upcycling plastic bottles not just reuses a throw away item. There are some benefits too.  First and most important, the jewelry piece will not be heavy. EcoHeidi Borchers demonstrates in her first video tutorial how to use plastic pieces as the foundation to her Boho sea shell embellished necklace. The ridges of the common plastic water bottle does add texture to the foundation.

Sometimes it is not enough just to see the finished work of talented artisans.  The work may be gorgeous but the process itself is even more amazing and inspirational.  This feature shows how Russian metal artist, Mariya Yeskina, created her stunning enamel rocking horse brooch.  In the process she demonstrates her skill in a number of techniques.

It has been a while since I gathered together recycled fork and spoon jewelry tutorials (see links below).  But reader Aims alerted me to James Faber's excellent fork bracelet tutorial  where he demonstrates how to make a stainless steel fork bracelet.  These are much harder to bend when compared to real silver forks or cheap forks.  So his tips are much appreciated.

I still don't have a proper bracelet mandrel. I did get some car exhaust piping from my local hardware store to help me shape and pound wire into bangles.  But a tapered one sure would be handy to do the same plus help make a small bangle larger. I never thought about baseball bats until friend and reader Aims sent me this cool tutorial.