The Beading Gem

Got some donuts or large round glass focals? Then break out some thin cord and have some fun making summer necklaces. Jennifer over at the Jennifer Jangles blog has an easy knotted necklace tutorial  that will help you use up odd beads.  Each necklace can be really unique!

Sherry Aitken is a mother of 2.  Not only is she well acquainted with the make believe world of young children, she also makes super hero capes and other accessories for her Etsy shop, Baby Pop Designs. What kind of personal blog would such an artisan have? A delightful one aptly named SuperExhausted.

Sherry  understands fully how difficult it is to get young ring bearers down the aisle. Small boys will consider having to carry a ring cushion at a wedding totally uncool unless of course they are the superheros of the occasion.

Perhaps some readers have not caught my previous posts on Michelle's work. She is a recycler extraordinaire who takes common household items and transforms them into jewelry. Every design is pure creative genius.

So if you haven't encountered her blog before, check out her most recent tutorial and inspirational post, Comb One, Comb All which features the humble plastic comb!  Her blog posts are often funny, puns and all.

The international community of beaders is fantastic! They not only share their expertise but help one another. It's a truly well connected network!

The original tutorial for the fabulous Sultan's turban bead was created by a Hungarian beader. This was spotted by Mandy over at the Beads for Brains blog who I had featured before for her year long beading marathon.

August is that time of year when not much is blooming in the garden, at least not in my garden. So it's on to flowers in jewelry!  Here are some more flower jewelry tutorials to inspire :

Lucite (a kind of plastic) beads are fun but flower ones are even better when layered in awesome color combinations like Sherri Haab did with her Lucite Flower Bracelet tutorial. It's based on one of the projects in her book, Sherri Haab Jewelry Inspirations: Techniques and Designs from the Artist's Studio.

We often talk about jewelry being wearable art. Sharon aka as The WristBandit walks the talk. I'm glad she commented on my Facebook page because her hand-painted leather cuff bracelets are definitely works of art.

Every piece is one of a kind - the sort which will appeal to those who have a distinctive individual style.

 Making jewelry is actually the easy part. Taking pictures is quite another thing. So many of you struggle with jewelry photography just as I do. It is good that we all wish to improve.

So it is no wonder the response from the Modahaus Table Top Photo Studio Giveaway from readers was tremendous and occasionally a little desperate. But remember, no table top studio will give good results unless you know how to use your camera properly. Even a simple point and shoot has a couple of settings you must make.

Okay, you're all going to have to indulge me here. I was so excited when I bought my Modahaus I could hardly wait to try it out.

This first picture I took for last week's giveaway post was the most decent jewelry pix I've ever done with the least amount of effort!

I've had more time to experiment with the portable studio set up over the weekend. The two lucky winners of the giveaway which I will randomly pick later today and other new owners might be interested to see additional pictures and tips.