The Beading Gem

We may not have very much in the way of expensive jewelry.  But if you do have a few items or sentimental pieces beyond price, then it's best to keep them somewhere safe in the house.  Preferably somewhere hard to find. So check out this inexpensive safe tutorial for storing your precious jewelry. It is  by The King of Random on Instructables.

Epoxy clay or resin clay is a cousin of the popular epoxy resin.  Although it has been around for decades, it's only been in recent years that the material has been used for jewelry making.  There are two major benefits to using this type of clay.  Firstly, it cures without heat.  Secondly, its inherent adhesive qualities make it a fabulous cold connection material besides wiring and riveting.

Recycling glass bottles sounds like a good idea, right?  Even better if they are wine bottles as you "have" to drink the contents first!  Johnnie Collier of Saved by Love Creations has a couple of neat tutorials which works for glass bottles, not just wine ones.. First she shows how she uses a commercial bottle cutter to score the bottle so she can easily break off rings. The rings then have to be full fused in a kiln so they look fire polished and smooth.  Here is some information on firing schedules. You can also use a microwave kiln (follow instructions).

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

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.

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.

French beading is a relatively easy bead and wire technique. But it requires stringing on lots and lots of beads onto a wire spool. You can speed up all that bead stringing with a bead spinner. The wrapping of these beads is a breeze because you don't really have to count the number of beads you need.  Just watch this pretty french beaded butterfly hairpin tutorial and see what I mean  - Part 1 and Part 2.

I love the look of thread wrapped jewelry because of the color punch. Couple it with an adjustable leather bracelet and you've got something fast and easy!  This tutorial is by Cathy Attix over on Trinkets and Bloom. The bracelets look great teamed up with other bracelets on wrists.

Copper wire woven designs are simply gorgeous especially when a patina is applied. These are not full tutorials which is why I consider them advanced ones for those of you who are already familiar with wire weaving.   This tutorial by Russian wire artist, Valerly Vorobev shows how the multiwire weaving technique is applied for this button pendant.  The instructor said he failed to photograph all the steps needed for a paid class so he is sharing what he has !

I remember when I made the classic wire wrapped ring without any bead a long time ago. I thought the resulting rosette was the coolest thing to discover. But have a look at this all in one wire rosette earrings tutorial (UPDATE : no longer available) by I Make Stuff. It is definitely cooler!

Here are two beadwork tutorials which show different ways to depict rose petals.  They are both round in shape.  The first is the beaded bullion rose tutorial by Janie's Beads. Here the "petals" are suggested by seed bead whorls. These little bullion roses can easily be made into earrings or linked together for other jewelry pieces.

Russian based Katya Bo, the artisan behind Cosmogony, shows beyond doubt her talent and skill with polymer clay. Her outstanding art deco style for her polymer clay mixed media jewelry is eyecatching. Her work looks like metal clay pieces at first glance!

I do not drink coffee but almost wish I do whenever I come across colorful recycled nespresso cup jewelry. Naomi and Isabel of Switzerland are a pair of highly creative recycled jewelry artists behind Bijouxfaitalamain. They have shared several Youtube tutorials on how to create many different styles of nespresso cup jewelry. Here is a selection of some of my favorites staring with the  Nespresso Star Earrings.  Note that some of the tutorials are in French.  But the directions are clear enough to follow without knowing the language.

Polymer clay jewelry is very light. So large pieces are easy to wear because there is no weight to it.  But for some people, the very lightness does not appeal because they prefer some heft to their jewelry. So the solution is to add weight to polymer clay. Rhonda Chase Design has a clever tutorial over in Instructables on how to laminate with polymer clay using low grade gemstones as the base.

Trendy tassels go bold and big that is what Arnaz Sunkersett of Osofree Jewelry's latest collection is all about. The Goa Velha, India based designer specializes in boho and tribal statement jewelry. She has created leather tassel jewelry before. Her current statement tassel jewelry is all about cotton yarn, some of which Arnaz hand-dyes.

My next How to Photography Jewelry webinar is this Sunday at 2 pm EST - here is the signup/register link to be notified of the next one.  There is still space so email me beadinggem@yahoo.ca ASAP if you'd like to attend.  I focus on smartphone camera photography because more and more people (77% in the US, 70% in Canada, 66% in UK) have them and they are much, much easier to use. The quality of the smartphone cameras have improved considerably so it is hard to justify buying an expensive dSLR.  Wouldn't spend the money on beads, wire, glass etc?

Got lots of beads?  Why not make several beaded rings to match different outfits? Here is an easy (if you can handle the fiddly smallness) how to bead crochet a ring tutorial.  It uses elastic for no fuss sizing. The tutorial is by Starmeg over on Craftster . She called it the Amazing Crochet Bling Bling Tutorial!