Bead Arts

This will be my final official post here at Bead Arts!  It’s been a wonderful place to hang out my shingle and share beading with you all…my own, my readers’, people I haven’t met but wish I had…

I won’t be going away completely for awhile.  I believe that I’ll still be here to respond to comments and questions, and to just do general blog maintenance until the network finds a replacement for me.  At least I think that’s what’s going to happen.  In the meantime, you are all welcome to visit me at Jewelry & Beading and at Layers Upon Layers for new projects, artist profiles, the weekly blogging round-up, and other features you’ve gotten familiar with here.

Nate and Lizzie will be presenting us with our first grandchild, sometime close to their first anniversary! Somehow, that seems to make it even more magical

Mike and I couldn’t be happier!

About.com Jewelry Making
New Year’s Eve means it’s time to put your big bling pieces on, and Tammy has lots of ideas to make you super sparklie.

Art Bead Scene
The crew is on a short holiday break, but we hope you will come by the blog to celebrate with our special week’s worth of the Best of Art Bead Scene posts from this past year.

Jewelry & Beading
One of Cyndi’s designs was chosen for a new book on the Art of Jewelry ~ Wood. Come and see her necklace, called “Measure Twice, Cut Once”!

Snap out of it , Jean! There’s beading to be done!
Jean just had to repost these sweet necklaces that she made for the childrens’ teachers as holiday gfts! They are just too yummy looking snuggling up aganst the luxurious rose velvet pouches she packaged them in. Happy Holidays to the VIPs in our lives!

Katie’s Beading Blog
Katie’s getting ready for the next filming of Beads, Baubles and Jewels. This week, she shares a cool necklace idea using a chain bail and tassel.

Savvy Crafter
No clue what jewelry you’re wearing to the big New Year’s Eve bash? Hop on over to Candie’s blog for an easy and festive fix!

So, I’ve managed to end the year still on schedule! I spent the month of December thinking about how the word beaver makes me giggle in a very juvenile way, and realizing that I really didn’t want to do an actual portrait of a beaver on my beaded page for November’s Beaver Moon.

What to do, what to do? A friend had shown me how to do simple needle felting, and I ended up using that technique to create a log that had been “gnawed off” by a beaver. It was fun to try something completely new. I used an off-white pipe cleaner for the armature of the log, and letting the ends stick out does look somewhat like chewed off wood. Ok, that’s a stretch, but I’m happy with it!

You can find links to more of the Bead Journal Project’s participants on Robin Atkin’s blog.

You can also click on “Bead Journal Project” under “categories” in the right-hand sidebar (of my blog, that is!) to see the past five months’ beaded journal pages. Here’s a link for last month’s page.

bead-embroidery, beads, beading, bead-journal-project, mixed-media

Keeping my eye on you

This is just the beginning of Rebecca Brown’s amazing work!

Do you have today off? If so, you might want to think about a little maintenance work:

Virginia, over at Art Bead Scene, has a great little tutorial on how easy it is to clean the tarnish off your silver! It involves baking soda and aluminum foil, which might sound like hocus-pocus, but I can attest to the fact that it works!

tutorials, jewelry, silver polishing

You can pick up inexpensive seed beads, or even the micro “beads” that don’t have holes, at any craft store. Don’t use expensive beads for this project…the idea is for the frame to be encrusted. Mix several colors together to get a wonderful impressionistic look. Not only is this project really fast, but it will make the gift of a framed picture into something really special for your giftee! Another great project from DIY Network!

beads, beading, tutorials, picture-frame, mixed-media

About.com Jewelry Making
Still in need of some last minute jewelry gifts? Earrings are the way to go, and Tammy has some super easy projects to help you out.

Art Bead Scene
Elaine wraps up the Art Bead Scene 12 days of Christmas with a joyous rendition of a classic holiday tune, updated with our favorite beading goodies! Come sing along!

Jewelry & Beading
It’s not too late to make a super-easy sparkly pin for Christmas!

Katie’s Beading Blog
Visit Katie’s blog this week for links to a fun podcast interview, last-minute bracelet idea and the final (for now) installment of Ornament Thursday.

PearlEsq.
Track Robin’s travels to the traffic-laden trickiness of NYC and the tasty trinkets she turned up at Tinsel Trading!

Snap out of it, Jean! There’s beading to be done!
Jean shows a new necklace for her chain maille gallery for her book, Links: all the great beads are made by Cathy Lybarger!

The Impatient Blogger
It’s the final installment of Ornament Thursday and Margot pulls out all the stops with four fabulous ornament ideas! Check out what this week’s roster of talented crafters has in store for you!

Here is an extremely clever idea to dress up a photo that you might want to give as a gift! Instead of a frame, this holder can be used to swap out pictures quickly and easily. You could make up a bunch of these really quickly too! Great gift idea, thanks to Ben Franklin Crafts! Even though they’re suggesting it for Mother’s or Father’s Day, I think it’s a great idea for any holiday.

beads, beading, tutorial, photo-holder

Thank you to Tammy Powley over at About.com’s Jewelry Making site! Tammy has compiled links to 8 different beginner projects, at least 5 of which would be fun for Christmas and other winter holidays. One of the projects is a simple ornament cover…once you try one of these and see how they work, the more complicated ones will not seem quite so daunting!

beads, beading, handmade-beaded, jewelry, wearable-art, mixed-media, ornaments, tutorials

Here’s a really quick and easy pin that you can make in a snap…

My tutorial is on Jewelry & Beading.

HobbyCraft has directions for a beautifully simple beaded ornament that you can make for your own tree or to give as a gift.

beads, beading, tutorials, beaded-ornaments

Thank you to Rings & Things for these cute and fast earrings from seedbeads:

beads, beading, bead-weaving, earrings, tutorial

Artist: Penny Purdie
Location: Mackay, Queensland, Australia

Penny was one of the award winners that I “met” through the Swarovski Design Competition.  I think you’ll fall in love with her work as thoroughly as I did!

Artist Profile