The Beading Gem

Today's collection is much hoopla about hoop earrings! There are so many ways to make them. So pick one, or more! You can make them from scratch or use hoop findings or beading wire. Some of the videos do repeat the steps but each artisan has different tips to offer.

Hoops as ear wires
Wanda over at the Making Beaded Jewelry site has a super set of hoop earrings tutorials. One which stood out is her chocolate pearl hoops - you'll have to scroll down a bit to get to it.

My thanks to Carol over at the Designingit store on Etsy twice over. Firstly, she graciously included me in another treasury, Touch of Green and secondly for having such keen eyesight! She picked the niobium or hypoallergenic earrings from my store. They were essentially a purple and clear crystal pair but the tiny seed beads I used in between were the rainbow or aurora borealis (AB) kind with flashes of green which my camera caught.

Do you like whodunits? I do and one of the first mystery authors I read when I was younger was Agatha Christie (1890-1976). I also enjoy the dramatized Poirot and Miss Marple series. Long after her death, there is another Agatha Christie mystery.

One fan, Jennifer Grant, purchased an old trunk auctioned at the estate sale of Christie's only daughter Rosalind Hicks back in 2006.  The trunk bore the initials of Christie's mother, Clara Margaret Miller.

Making your own jewelry means never having to say you're sorry!  When you get tired of a design or you changed your mind about the choice of clasp, you can easily undo the piece and do a jewelry makeover. That's what Erica did with her two designs here. She had made the bracelets at a previous beading party.

The highly creative folks at Beads Unlimited (UK) have been at it again. Here are three easy chain jewelry tutorials to add to the previous collection of tutorials, How to make different kinds of chain jewelry.

Swarovski Right Angle Weave Pendant
We can never get enough of Swarovski crystals, right? Well here is another sparkler sure to please.  The right angle weave pendant tutorial is great  for beginners who have never done this bead weaving technique before. It's also an excellent way to use up your odd colors of crystals. I like the way they added the chains to the design.

Sometime ago, I wrote a post about the gemstones in skin care fad. Crushed pearls were used by Imperial Chinese women for centuries as a pigment and for its anti-aging properties (acts like a sunblock).



Lady Gaga, the singer and performance artiste skipped the pulverizing step and just glued pearl beads all over her face and her body when she performed at the amFAR (The Foundation for AIDS Research)annual gala last month. With white skin makeup, white pearl encrusted bikini jacket, hats and boots, she was a pearl wannabee in the flesh. I wonder if she used water soluble glue for easy removal?

Jo from the Chubby Hobby blog shared this awesome tutorial on how to make origami heart earrings. If you're wondering about paper jewelry, they are fine so long as you protect them. Jo used polyurethane.

When you create, you put something of yourself in that design. And so it is with Moulaye Niang, an extraordinary lamp worker who creates African art in Murano glass. Born in Dakar, Senegal, Moulaye now makes distinctive glass beads in Murano, Venice where he manages to evoke the colours and the atmosphere of Africa in his chosen art form. He calls his work, Muranero - a blend of Murano and nero which is Italian for black.

When I posted Michelle's tool certificate giveaway from Evie's Tool Emporium last week, I thought I was writing a giveaway post. I was wrong! Judging from all the tool lust comments, that had to be a tool porn post!

PS I Made It has done it again! After her hair roller necklace tutorial, she has come up with a spike necklace tutorial made from.....coffee stir sticks! The maroon Dunkin' Donuts sticks make for a dramatic contrast with the black ribbons.  A stunning and fun conversational piece for sure.

However, this design also shows "good bones". The basic focal structure is inspirational. You can do something similar with beading, wire, or fan or spike components like the gemstone ones we have in our workshops.

I have seen many jewelry designs which include words like "Inspire", "Dream", "Love" and so on. But a whole sentence? Just check out the amazing quotation jewelry by Spanish artisan Victoria Contreras Flores. The acrylic and metal chain pieces from her Words Collection are visually stunning and perfect for literature fans.

It's March already, begorra! Time to check your wardrobe and your jewelry box for something green to wear on St Patrick's Day on March 17. Better yet, make yourself some shamrock  jewelry.

The shamrock is actually a 3-leaf clover of the Trifolium species. The ancient druids in Ireland believed 3 was a mystical number and regarded the plant as sacred. There doesn't appear to be much evidence for the story of how St Patrick referred the three leaves to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit of the Holy Trinity.