The Beading Gem

For those of you who have been reading my blog for a while, you might remember Grace. She's still only 10 and is a pint-size beading dynamo. Grace works at a phenomenal rate. She got to come along to a recent workshop because her mother couldn't quite sneak out of the house and leave Grace behind with the rest of the family. Grace wasn't about to miss out on the fun.



In just one afternoon, Grace totalled up 3 necklaces with matching earrings which were gifts for her cousins. She then spotted these earring chandeliers and decided dagger beads will look splendid with them! I would have put different dangles on them but I must say Grace's idea was spot on! Now whenever I come across these findings, I can't seem to think of anything better than dagger beads.

Beader Design #: 455
Some of Grace's Past Designs:
Grace's Yummy Necklace
Floral Pendant Necklace
Speedy Beadweaving
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Blogging is a great way to make your website dynamic. Indeed many artisans write blogs to highlight new products and to engage fans of their work. But blogging is like a hungry animal at times. It requires frequent updates if it is to stay alive. For many busy artisans, blogging might be too difficult or making jewelry is far more enjoyable than writing. There is an alternative called Twitter. It's a wildly popular micro-blogging platform. All you have to do is "tweet" - write a sentence or two in just 140 characters. You tweet to your friends and family via the computer or your mobile phone and share what you are doing at that moment. Here is a video explaining what Twitter is in Plain English :

Of all the fancy coloured diamonds, blood red ones are the rarest of all. Out of the few dozen known red diamonds, only 3 are over 5 carats. The largest is the trilliant cut Moussaieff Red at 5.11 carats. But close behind is the Kazanjian Red at 5.05 carats. If you're a science geek like me, that translates to about 1 gram.

This gorgeous rare gemstone has just begun the US leg of a world tour. It is currently on display at Los Angeles' Natural History Museum until February 1. The exhibition entitled Hollywood Jewel Collection is located in their Gem and Mineral Hall. The LA-based jeweler, Kazanjian Brothers Inc has loaned not only the Kazanjian Red but several celebrity pieces once owned by stars like Carole Lombard, Faye Dunaway and Madonna. Later this summer, it may be at the Smithsonian.

The Kazanjian Red has had an adventurous history. It was found in the diamond fields of South Africa as an umpromising rough 35 carat stone in 1927. No one knew what it really was until it was sent to the Netherlands for cleaving and polishing. The master cutter made "windows" on the side of the stone, shone a lamp and saw a reddish glow - the first hint the gem was truly extraordinary. It took 7 months of studying, cutting and polishing to produce the final rectangular emerald cut gem. Douglas Kazanjian, the current CEO of the firm said, "They were so surprised because it showed this amazing red color. They said it was as if a drop of blood fell upon the hand of the cutter."

The gemstone was so rare no dealer then could really estimate the value nor were there any buyers willing to pay a high price. So the diamond was placed in a safe for years until the Nazis stole it in 1944. It was taken, along with other gems and art treasures to Germany and hidden in a salt mine. When the war ended, American soldiers found and reported the war loot. They understandably mistook the Kazanjian Red for a ruby, so vivid was its hue.

The gemstone was eventually returned to the family who owned it and it was subsequently sold and resold a few times. It then disappeared into a private collection for 30 years until the Kazanjian firm bought it in 2007. Douglas Kazanjian would not not reveal how much the firm paid for it nor would they speculate about the value of this stone.

Back in 1987, a 0.95 carat red diamond sold for almost a million dollars. The Kazanjian Red is five times larger and far rarer. So it's likely to be worth at least $5,000,000! You can bet security at the museum is tight!

Via and via

Related Posts
Rare Gemstone : Moussaieff Red Diamond
Of karats, carats and carrots!
Hearts and Arrows Diamonds
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Take a close look at these earrings I made. Don't they remind you of steampunk? I work with a lot of scientific instruments. The earrings were made from old washers from an outmoded piece of equipment I was dismantling for disposal. It seemed such a shame to see unwanted material especially metal go to waste and clog our landfills. So instead of tossing the washers which cannot be recycled into any other equipment, I cleaned them, added some jump rings and put them together for this fun and funky pair!



If you've never really poked around a hardware store, I highly recommend it. There are all sorts of potential jewelry findings you could use. Alas, I am not the first to think of it as Nicole Noelle Sherman has already published this book Making Designer Jewelry from Hardware, Gems, and Beads on the subject! The jewelry is on the chunky side but then many people like their jewelry big and unusual. One benefit of hardware jewelry is the metal is often stainless steel or aluminium which is not susceptible to rusting or discoloration.

The book also shows you how effective it is to make recycled circuit board jewelry for high tech adornment. But a word of caution, these boards have lead solder so if you are hacking up boards, work in a ventilated environment.

Beader Design # : 454

Related Post : How to make a Steampunk Ring

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Yesterday's feature designer, Jean Hutter of Totally Twisted Beaded Jewelry was a big hit judging by the comments! No wonder. Bead work can add a beautiful dimension to jewelry making. Even if you are not up to artistic beaded pendants, making a spiral bead rope to go with a bought focal pendant is a design possibility. You can also crochet a spiral rope using prestrung beads but believe me, the spiral stitch using needle and thread is much easier if you've never done a rope before.



There are many types of spiral bead stitches and here are some of them. The basic spiral rope tutorial by Teresa Isanhart of TCBeads which I recommend for beginners.




My favorite though is the flat spiral stitch.  Very pretty.  Flat Spiral Part 1 tutorial is demonstrated by Karla Shaffer of Auntie's Beads.

 

 Flat Spiral Part 2 

A double row flat spiral tutorial anyone? MyAmari has this lovely variation. See her elegant bracelet tutorial.



The Russian Spiral Stitch looks just like the DNA double helix when done with bugle beads.  You can see an example in this Flickr photo by hands2heal. Check out the basic Russian Spiral tutorial from Potomac Beads :

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Original Post by THE BEADING GEM
Jewelry Making Tips - Jewelry Business Tips 

Feature Designer

I've always loved beadwork although I no longer have time to indulge in this kind of beaded designs, I still do drool over the work of talented artisans like Jean Hutter. I actually stumbled on her blog very early in its existence and have been a fan ever since.

She calls her Etsy store Totally Twisted Beaded Jewelry because as you can see here, she is particularly fond of the spiral stitch. It is a really easy bead stitch to learn but it takes someone with an artisic eye and a flair for colour to pick the right beads for awesome designs.





I really love her flat spiral bracelet below - her choice of brown toned beads is truly inspired!



Her embroidered bead pendants are also lovely. Below is her Southwestern turquoise donut pendant and further down is her abstract pendant design which shows her artistic flair.





Jean is also a gifted abstract artist - her art gallery is definitely worth a peek. She also writes two blogs, an art blog and a bead blog.
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Woo hoo!! I just got a post comment from BlogNet Awards telling me they have accepted Diana Norman's nomination of my blog for the Best Hobby Blog category. Thanks, Diana for doing this!



You can read what Diana wrote about the Beading Gem's Journal as well as the review by the BlogNet Awards team here. They apparently check every nominated blog manually before it is accepted on the site "to make sure that only good quality blogs are entered into the BlogNet Awards." Double woo-hoo!

BlogNet Awards holds monthly and yearly contests in different categories as well as the best overall one. They accept nominations until the 15th of the month but voting and comments are accepted until the end of the month. Blogs that don't win, get automatically entered to the next month's competition.

You can see, comment and vote for my blog if you click here. You do have to be registered to vote and comment on any of the blogs.

Remember, if you are a blog owner yourself, commenting there earns you link love. Not only that, commenters can potentially win prizes for commenting! Winners are picked from monthly random draws and can win either cash ($50-150 CAD) or Entrecard credits. What are you waiting for?
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The light was fading by the end of the afternoon of this workshop so this picture doesn't do Myrna's designs justice. She wanted to make bookmarks for her daughter Melissa and her three friends who are away doing missionary work. Myrna brought in a prototype design someone had helped her do but unfortunately it looked unfinished. So we put our thinking caps on and came up with another design featuring a beaded loop focal on one end and a cross on the other. Tiny seed beads in complimentary colours covered the rest of the beading wire.

As you can see Myrna used different beads including a blue and white porcelain bead and tortoiseshell dagger beads to create one of a kind bookmarks for 4 amazing young people.



Beaded Bookmark Tutorials
There are many ways to make a beaded bookmark. They make terrific gifts - teacher gifts, stocking stuffers, party favours and so on. Bookmarks are a wonderful way of using up your mismatched beads too.

Online tutorials
1. Simple cord bookmark with beads knotted at either end is an easy design idea by Denise Witmer. Or use a narrow ribbon instead as shown in this tutorial.

2. Tammy Powley's Bead and Wire Bookmark tutorial features a purchased metal shepherd's hook bookmark finding with a hole where the beader can then hang long pretty beaded charms on it. If you're good with wire work, you can easily come up with a hook of your own. Crystalaffair.com shows you how to make a bead cluster to add as a charm to these hooks. Cindy Lietz's tutorial has multiple dangles using polymer beads. You get the idea.

3. The Bookworm Bauble (left) is another bead and wire bookmark originally from a book called Easy Beading (Better Homes & Gardens). The full tutorial was reprinted here.

4. Craftbits has the cutest butterfly bookmark tutorial made from wire and bits.

5. Agnes Farside's themed bookmarks involves seedbeads and the right charm for the recipient.

6. Familyfun.com's braided tutorial is a nice variation with three beaded sections on each end. This is a good idea if you want to practice some macrame work with hemp.

7. Try  this really easy bead and ribbon bookmark tutorial too from Favecrafts.

Beader Design #: 450-453
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Original Post by THE BEADING GEM
Jewelry Making Tips - Jewelry Business Tips