The Beading Gem

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

I'm glad Jet Beads did another giveaway last week because there were many readers who had not heard of the service before. A number of you though, have already found Jet Beads to be very useful. Margaret said, "I've used Jet Beads the last several times I've needed something from Fire Mountain Gems. It has saved me a lot of money, and is surprisingly fast!"  Enchanting Accents made a good point : "This giveaway is a fantastic option for people like me to get a chance to try something new without having to make a commitment."  Please note you can also do a trial quote with Jet Beads to see how it works.

Enameling - the fusing of powdered glass onto metal by firing - is an ancient technique.  It has been used mainly in the decorative arts and jewelry. And no wonder! The vivid colors are simply wonderful. It is arguably the best way to add color to metal.  One well known type of enamel work is cloisonné where thin wires form barriers to the colored enamel.

You don't have to be a beader to really appreciate this wonderful wavy bead woven cord necklace tutorial by Svetlana McDaniel. It is a versatile design because you can create different cord foundations as well as use different types and colors of beads. The general technique is very similar to the ever popular bead wrapped bracelets - see links below.

Adding beads to chain mail does add color!  I've seen a number of captured bead chain mail designs but they are usually linear. So this captured bead chain mail flower design is something different! The tutorial is over on livemaster.ru

I've often walked by the wood burning tool section in Michaels and wondered if this craft can be used for jewelry making.  Of course it can!  Aki over on Minted Strawberry shared her clever coloring book inspired wood burned earrings tutorial (no longer available).  She has certainly noticed the adult coloring book craze!

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.

Coiled wire embellishments to just plain wire certainly adds texture and elegance to wire jewelry designs. There are different ways.  This first tutorial for coiled and twisted wire earrings  over on the Kreativ Vagyok site is by  Erika Schneider. Here the wire coiling is carried out on a long wire. The embellished wire is then twisted and looped.  The beads are then wired onto the final design.  I would use a wire coiling tool to make the coiling go faster instead of just manually wrapping around the main wire.