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.

Make Art Monday

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Make Art Monday!

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

Starting tomorrow, I will be posting a link to a clever holiday gift or decoration idea each and every week day from now until Christmas! They will all include…what else?…beads. Some jewelry, some non-wearable gifts, cards, ornaments, you-name-it! I’m excited about this, because many of the tutorials use items that you probably already have, and most of them are great ideas for beginners too!

As the month progresses, I’ll be trying to make the ideas faster and easier, so that as we come up against the Christmas eve deadline, you can still be squeezing in just one more great gift! If you absolutely can’t wait until tomorrow to get started, here’s a link to my old jewelry making tutorials, or you can simply click on the category “Technique Tuesday” in the right hand sidebar.

I think it’s going to be a really fun month

Make Art Monday

All of the pieces that I sent for consideration for the upcoming book, 1000 Jewelry Details, have returned home. I was very happy to see them again, especially Orinoco Flow. It happens to be my current favorite

I don’t know which if any of my pieces will end up in the book, but there were six in all that they asked for in order to consider them. The pieces they wanted spanned a wide variety of styles too. Here are two samples:

All the Daughters of Eve

Orinoco Flow

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Make Art Monday!

Here it is already: the time of year that I have to start thinking about and making springtime and summer projects

Tomorrow, for Technique Tuesday, I’ll discuss some general tips for making lariats.

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Make Art Monday!

Here’s one of the pieces that I made with the silver Art Clay maple leaves that I showed you last week

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Make Art Monday!

Art Clay is one of the two brands of fine silver metal clay available in the United States. At least I think it’s only two! I got mine from Rings & Things.

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Make Art Monday!

At last, the perfect excuse to eat more Chinese food…

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Make Art Monday!

I make a lot of these pins, using old vintage pieces, computer parts, broken jewelry, and other interesting objects. Here’s one that I particularly like for this time of the year because of the colors:

I’ll share some tips for making your own tomorrow for Technique Tuesday!

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Make Art Monday!

This piece is similar to a crocheted necklace I shared awhile ago, but this one has a hook and chain closure.

Tomorrow for Technique Tuesday, there will be a few tips on construction!

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Make Art Monday!

I just couldn’t get this picture to come out any better, and I’m really sorry about that, because this little sucker is so cute! I used the instructions in the October/November 2007 issue of Beadwork magazine, in the wonderful article written by Cathy Collison entitled “Starflower Bracelet”. Obviously from the name, these are supposed to be flowers, but I decided to make several of them in different sizes using white and crystal beads. I wanted snowflakes for a future Bead Journal Project page that I’ll be making, and I thought these little flowers made great snowflakes as well.

Thank you Cathy!

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Make Art Monday!

The October issue of Bead&Button has a great article on making bracelets with herringbone helix stitch. When I started to play with the stitch a little bit, it occured to me that short lengths would make wicked cool beaded beads!

While there are free instuctions on the net for how to do herringbone stitch, even tubular, I recommend getting this issue of B&B, because author Linda Gettings has a variation that causes the really cool twist!

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Make Art Monday!

A just-for-fun piece

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Take nine artists, a color scheme, and a “can do” spirit. Some assembly required. What emerges? A story that we’re all proud to be a part of.

We’ve been waiting for this moment for more than a year! Our traveling charm necklace is finally up on auction. All of the proceeds will be donated for breast cancer research. The auction ends Sunday, September 16.

You can read the story of our necklace here, and a direct link to the auction is right here.

Thank you for looking, and thank you even more if you bid!

Love from,
Leah, Bobbi, Wendy, Amy, Ellen, Dorothy, Dulcey, Illaya, and Cyndi

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