The Beading Gem

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.