The Beading Gem

There are some wonderful beaded necklaces you could make for the upcoming Christmas season.  Nothing like wowing at the office party, right?  I shared this awesome Christmas Cascade design tutorial from Beaddiagrams on my Facebook page  recently and many of you loved it. No wonder! It is a gorgeous design with seasonal colors!

I've written about fabric jewelry bags, organizers and roll ups before.  They are great as gift bags for jewelry items. Or use them for travel as they will protect your pieces.  Some of the tutorials I featured before do take some time to make.  However, I found this really easy peasy jewelry gift pouch tutorial from Handmadediya to be just the ticket if time is short. 

One of my favorite instructors is Gloria Uhler of Domestic Diva Online. Why?  Her tutorials are always refreshingly different and often, not hard to do.  One of her latest is this easy alcohol ink and liquid polymer clay cuff bracelet tutorial .

I don't know about you but having to order rivets specially for jewelry making can be a pain.  But I loved the idea from Tracy Stanley, the designer and author of the wire and metal book I reviewed not too long ago.  She showed in this tutorial how easy it is to use just regular hardware store escutcheon pins as nail rivets.

It's not what you use, but how you use it that counts. Croatian designer, Iva of Pevalek Art,  uses uncommon materials like polymer tubing to create her bold contemporary jewelry designs. She often favors black tubing with just the odd splash of vibrant color.

You can almost feel the angst of some of the people who commented on last week's giveaway of a professional photographer's service.  Gerry Maffris summed it up for all  -  "Getting good images is a huge stumbling block for me."  

Remember my easy peasy wire wrapped tutorial with Nunn Design's open frame rings? Well, wire wrapping is not the only technique you can use to dress up these dainty rings.  This tutorial uses resin clay which requires no baking at all because it hardens at ambient temperatures.  The resulting hardened clay is very durable. Plus, it is an adhesive clay to boot!

Back in 2014,  I was deeply moved when I saw the amazing ceramic poppy art installation, "Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Poppies" in the Tower of London's dry moat to mark the centenary of World War I. There were 888,246 poppies -  one for each British and Colonial fatality during the war. The poppies pouring over a wall and out of a window were particularly vivid and poignant (see this video)

There are all kinds of family keepsake designs you can make using jewelry and craft supplies.  For example, birthstone jewelry is a perennial favorite. Or see links below. But I also love this shrink plastic hand print key chain charm tutorial by Hayley over on Grey House Harbor.

This innovative wire wrapped bracelet tutorial by Vietnamese wire artist, Lan Anh is a must see.  It is a clever start where the first bend becomes the loop where the clasp will catch.  You do need a good eye and careful strokes and bends of the wire to be consistent.

There are many products you can use to color polymer clay. Gilder's Paste which is typically used for metal is one of them. They come in many colors.  Samantha Burroughs of Jessama Tutorials has an easy mokume gane polymer clay tutorial for wood grain effects!  You can have a lot of fun coloring lots and lots of squares of polymer clay shapes. These are then stacked into a tall layer. The multiple colors as well as the translucent clay used are key to the complex design result.

Italian beader, Sara Spoltore rose to the challenge of making a beaded ankh pendant using cRAW (cubic right angle weave).  She shared the information on how to construct one. She assumes you have learned the cRAW so these instructions are not for the beginner.  She gives the number of beads for each "side" including the rounded portion at the top.  She uses both 15/0 and 11/0 seed beads for the straight sides but had to omit the smaller beads for the curved portion.