Fortuneteller's Bracelet TUTORIAL

My friend Lori and I share a passion for Irish waxed linen cord. It's one of our favorite materials to work with. She invited me to design a special jewelry project and tutorial to post on her blog highlighting our beloved waxed linen cording. I'm thrilled to share the project with you here. I created a simple bracelet. The materials may be humble, but the design is one I would wear on a daily basis. Those are the kind of pieces I love to make the most. The everyday jewelry. I love the texture and look of the knotted multiple gemstone strands, the joyful colors of the waxed linen cord and the gorgeous, hand-crafted copper button by Barbara Bechtel of Second Surf Studio on Etsy. The techniques are easy. These simple, tried and true knotting techniques I use over and over in my jewelry. This basic bracelet project is a great example of how easy it is to incorporate Lori's color cord mixes featured in her Jewelry Accord Shop in a jewelry design!
 

Fortuneteller’s Bracelet

Erin Siegel

Sodalite is said to be the stone of “insight”. The bright, colorful threads of waxed linen cord remind me of a long, flowing gypsy skirt that a fortuneteller might wear.

Materials:
72 Sodalite 6mm rounds
1 copper 20mm artisan button by Second Surf Studio
4’feet EACH of 4ply Irish waxed linen cord in the following colors: Plum, Fuchsia, Red and Sage

Tools:
Scissors
Ruler

Finished size: 7 ½”

Instructions:

 

1: Hold the four pieces of linen cord together at their centers. Tightly twist the centers of the 4 cords together for 2”. Fold the cords in half and form an overhand knot, leaving a ¾” loop of twisted cord.

 

2: Separate two cords. Use 1 cord to string 1 Sodalite round. Use both cords to form an overhand knot after the bead. Repeat 17 times. Repeat entire step for remaining cords.

3: Use all 8 cords to form an overhand knot. Separate cords in half and form 3 square knots. 

 

4: Use 4 cords to string one buttonhole. Repeat for the other buttonhole. Form a square knot on top of the button. Trim cords to ¼”.

Resources:

Sodalite rounds: FireMountain Gems. Waxed linen cord: Jewelry Accord on Etsy. Copper button: Second SurfStudio on Etsy.

Asymmetry Made Easy

Ah, asymmetrical jewelry. You LOVE the look, but maybe designing this way just doesn't come naturally. You struggle. You feel discombobulated. You are not alone. Many designers feel this way. I used to feel like this, too. My brain automatically goes for symmetry, but guess what? You CAN learn to design asymmetrical jewelry. It just takes practice. The more you do it, the easier it gets. I'm sure you didn't perfect your wire-wrapping skills in a day. It's the same thing with this. The good news is you can train yourself to design asymmetrically!

Enter: Lorelei Eurto. A master at her craft that no one can deny. My dear friend and co-author has just come out with a new e-book. Asymmetry Made Easy. In this design guide, Lorelei covers classic jewelry design concepts such as size, texture, color and designing in threes, but she also talks about never-before-covered topics like transitioning between elements in a design. Lorelei also shares a visual example of how you can lay out a beaded necklace design in a symmetrical pattern and easily change it into an asymmetrical one. This is particularly helpful to those of us that automatically think symmetrically.

But wait! There's more. I haven't even gotten to the best part of this e-book. The best part is Lorelei's innovative design diagrams. I'm very impressed with these diagrams because they are concrete tools that you can apply to your jewelry designs over and over again. No more guess work!

Order your copy of Asymmetry Made Easy today.

With this handy guide, you will be creating successful asymmetrical jewelry designs EVERY time.

Sneak Peek!

I thought some might like to see this.
Interweave Press recently released this preview of our upcoming book.
Here's a sneak peek look! Enjoy and let me know what you think!
Interweave.comhttp://www.interweavestore.com/Jewelry-Making/Books/Bohemian-Inspired-Jewelry.html

Bohemian_Inspired_JewelryBLAD_web

NYC Weekend Bead Trip

I had a beadiful time in the city this past weekend with friends Lorelei, Nancy and Kelley! These ladies are the BEST friends a girl could ask for and so much fun to hang out with! We all met up in New York City on a serious mission for BEADS! (This is a looong post with lots of pictures, so grab a cup of something yummy and join me!)

 Lorelei and Kelley in the middle of Times Square! 

Nancy flippin' in Times Square!

Nancy took a few Flip videos during the trip. I can't wait to see how those turned out!

 Kelley in Times Square.
Kelley is an excellent photographer! She took a lot of great photos during the weekend. You can see her pics from the trip in Kelley's Album on Flickr!

 Kelley, Nancy and Me in Times Square!
I absolutely ADORE this photo that Lorelei took of the three of us! I want to frame this one and keep it on my desk. The only thing keeping it from being perfect is that Lori isn't in it!

I'm sorry to say that my picture-taking for the trip was sad, sad, sad, I'm afraid. Most of my pictures are all from the very beginning of our trip when we first arrived. After about 5 minutes of those fridged New York temperatures, the enthusiasm for pictures was quickly lost! Check out Lori, Kelley and Nancy on their blogs for more details on our trip and PICTURES! When we were in the bead shops, I was pretty focused on the BEADS, what I was going to get and how much I was spending, so sorry, no pictures of the bead shops either, but at least I can show you what I came home with and that's all that really matters anyway, right? Right!

So, without further ado, here's the tour of the NY bead stash!

Our first stop was Tinsel Trading Company! This shop was beautiful! It was filled with many vintage treasures and stocked from floor to ceiling with a vast array of trims and ribbons! It seems very strange that I didn't get any ribbon there, but I think I was just overwhelmed with the selection!

 Lorelei shopping at Tinsel Trading Company.

 Here's what I did get there. Some vintage metal sequins and a vintage metal button.

Next stop, Phoenix Stone & Beads Imports, Inc. Probably the best deals on stones at this bead store! Very nice people. It's wholesale, but if you pay cash they will let anyone shop. 

 Strands of metallic pearls, dyed agate, florite, turquoise, blue crazy lace agate and not sure what stone the purple teardrops are.

Next, was City Beads! This store had an amazing selection of Czech glass beads and seed beads! Very nice and helpful staff.

Some great quality wood beads and a selection of Czech glass.
 
Next, Toho Shoji! A Japanese bead shop! I love experiencing foreign ideas and concepts. It's especially exciting to see what's going on in the jewelry world outside the US. I really enjoyed this store. They had all kinds of different beads.

I ended up buying this book on wire mesh ribbon lace. It's all in Japanese! I can't read a word, lol! It's full of pictures of jewelry, though and that's enough! I've been wanting to try the wire mesh ribbon lace for quite a while now. It's on my list of materials to try and this book will help provide some inspiration!

Last stop on Saturday was M&J Trimmings! It was at the end of the day by the time we made it to this shop. We were pretty tired, so we didn't do much shopping. We barely made it through half the store! It was HUGE! Floor to ceiling, buttons, findings, leather, cords, ribbons and trims of all kinds!

I picked up these cool metal findings! I thought they'd make great earring components!

On Sunday, we went back to M&J Trimmings for another spin since we really didn't get through the whole shop the day before.

I'm sooo excited about these! I got these awesome faux leather flowers! I love the colors and finish they came in. I'm sure they are supposed to be appliques for embellishing a bag or hat, but I'm going to make them into pendants! L.O.V.E!

And last but certainly not least, Bead City New York Bead Center! This was a great, well-stocked shop! We spent a while in here. They had just about everything and a nice selection of EVERYTHING!

 Wood beads, silk beading cord, copper beads, copper flower pendant, turquoise donut and Japanese seed beads.

And there you have it! I hope you enjoyed the pics and the tour of the bead stash! Thanks for joining me! :) I had a great time with my beady friends. Couldn't have asked for a better trip and I can't wait for the next adventure!

Lorelei's Fusion Beads Challenge

 Today is the reveal day for Lorelei's Fusion Beads Challenge! Here's my necklace I call Feather Fall. A decidedly Fall-inspired design! The colors and beads that Lorelei chose reminded me of an Autumn palette, so I decided to just go with my first instinct! Fusion Beads was out of the green lucite leaves that Lorelei had picked out, so I went with these Sienna feather leaves instead since I wanted a Fall feel and the idea of the feathers went along with the Green Girl Studios Owl Toggle.

I started with the leather strand, taking full advantage of those fire-polished beads fitting perfectly on it! I knotted the beads an inch apart for a lighter feel. I simply strung the wood beads and Japanese seed beads and added the copper chain with the feather leaves dangling or "falling" down for the focal of the necklace.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you enjoyed my creation. Now, off to more blogs to see what the other participants did! :)

http://Lorelei1141.blogspot.com
http://erinsiegeljewelry.blogspot.com/  You Are Here!

http://beadingbymalindekoning.blogspot.com/
http://beadhappytoday.blogspot.com/

http://thebeaddreamer.com/blog
http://dreamsomedesigns.blogspot.com/
http://fryestyle.blogspot.com/
http://www.madmaggiedesigns.blogspot.com/
http://reginaswritings.blogspot.com/


http://www.mylifeunderthebus.typepad.com/
http://jennibead.blogspot.com/
http://maryhardingjewelrybeadblog.blogspot.com/
http://silverrosedesigns.blogspot.com/
http://lindalandig.wordpress.com/


http://fireflymyst.blogspot.com/
http://www.awishandacloud.blogspot.com
http://spiritrattles.blogspot.com/
http://formysweetdaughter.blogspot.com/


http://songbeads.blogspot.com/
http://beautifullybrokenme.blogspot.com
http://threeredbeads.blogspot.com
http://christinec3.blogspot.com/ 

Michaels Challenge-Winter Edition

Well, Lorelei and Nancy were at it, again! They went to Micheal's and picked out these beads above for another beading challenge. It's reveal day for the Winter edition challenge! I picked up my challenge beads when I was out visiting Lorelei a few weeks ago. Here's my necklace I call Black Lotus.

Black Lotus by Erin Siegel

I used the freshwater pearls, mother-of-pearl ovals and the black quartz nuggets from the chosen challenge beads. I added in this open design flower pendant, a flower toggle clasp and paired it all with some wide black leather lace.

The best and coolest thing I added to this piece though, is the plum color silk! This was a wide silk satin cord that was stuffed with chiffon. I un-stuffed it and cut it up into sections and strung it on the beading wire in between the black quartz nugget beads.

Thanks for stopping in! 

Looking forward to seeing what the other jewelry designers have done for this round!

Weekend with Lorelei

 I had a fun-packed weekend with my good friend and co-author Lorelei! She and Joe took good care of me with their wonderful hospitality! I flew into Syracuse, New York Friday night. Lorelei picked me up from the airport. I was so excited when I first saw her standing there waiting for me in the airport lobby! We arrived back at the house and Lori and Joe gave me a tour of the place. The house is so CUTE!!! I just love it! It's the cutest, prettiest Bungalow you've ever seen! They have put so much time, love and energy into fixing it up. It's beautiful. After the house tour, I was taken to one of their favorite spots for dinner. Mmmm...yummy Mexican food! I loved it. After dinner, Lori and I spent some time up in her bead studio! Yay! I was really looking forward to that! I even worked on an earring design for the book and Lori finished a few last minute earrings for her Jewelry Open House held on Saturday!

Here's a picture I snapped of Lori on Saturday right before guests started arriving!

On Saturday, Joe and Lori took me out to breakfast, my favorite thing to do! I love breakfast food to pieces! After breakfast, we headed back to the house to prepare all the food goodies for the party. Lorelei also made her Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread. Yum! I just loved it! I can't wait to make this for myself! The bread is so good, you have to make it. Thanks, L for telling me where you got the recipe from!

Here's some of Lorelei's cool jewels on display.

Lori had a nice turnout for her party. I was supposed to be helping with packaging up purchases, but instead I ended up just gabbing with the guests! Gah. Sorry, Lori! During the party, I was just hoping that a few of my favorite pieces would still be left at the end of the night. I was in luck! I grabbed a few pieces for Christmas gifts. I wish I could show you what I got, but they are for a special person who may be reading this!

After party time, Lori and I went out for a little shopping! We went to Micheal's Craft Store, one of my favorite shopping destinations and I picked up my beads for Lorelei's next beading challenge. Yay!, except I ended up forgetting them at Lori's house when I left! Gah, scatter brain! Anyway, after we were done at Micheal's, we went next door to TJ Maxx! My OTHER favorite shopping destination! We went in there with the intention of finding some necklace displays for Lorelei's jewelry. We didn't find any displays Lori was excited about, but we did end up finding some cute jewelry trays with compartments that you could use for storing beads or earrings!!! I don't have a picture of them, but I'm sure Lorelei will blog about the find soon! 

 

After we got back from our shopping trip, we logged onto Skype and talked to Nancy Schindler via video chat! That was fun! I was super excited to talk to Nancy. We all laughed and had a good time. I love Nancy and her fun and witty personality, but she's also a  down to earth kind of girl, too! I can see why Lori considers her such a good friend and why she adores her to pieces!

On Sunday, Nancy was in the middle of doing her last craft show for the year. The show happened to be in Syracuse. We had to be in Syracuse that day anyway to take me back to the airport, so we decided to head out early and stop by Nancy's show on the way! I was really looking forward to meeting her in person! I've admired Nancy and her work for some time. Even before I knew Lorelei, I had discovered Nancy way back when I started making my ceramic pieces. That was over 3 years ago now! To finally meet her in person was a real treat! I'm looking forward to seeing both Lori and Nancy on my next trip to New York!

Hmmm...let me see...what else...I'm forgetting something, right? What else did we do during my visit? Oh, yeah...we selected our contributing designers for our upcoming book! Yes, we did!!! We'll be announcing that very soon so stay tuned, everyone!!! Thank you!

Plans for the Weekend

I'm getting on a plane tomorrow. I'm leaving Nora with her daddy for a few days. I'm going to visit my friend Lorelei for the weekend. Yay, I'm excited! I'm so looking forward to seeing her! It'll be a busy time for us! We have so much to do, but it will be fun! I'll be assisting Lorelei with her Jewelry Open House she's having on Saturday....and I mean assisting as in helping her get rid of all the food by eating it all and drinking all the wine...lol. Hey, I was gestational while I was pregnant, after all. I didn't get to have a lot of goodies AND I haven't had a drink since before I was pregnant! So, I think that's reason enough for all that! Don't you think?

No, but seriously, we do have a LOT of celebrating to do this weekend. This will be the first time we've seen each other since BEFORE we got our book contract!!! Can you say PAR-TAY! hehe!The pic above is the last time we saw each other, which was over the Summer when the book concept was born!

Well, it won't be all fun and games. We do have some serious business to attend to. We will be choosing the contributing jewelry designers for our book! Now, that is going to be tough! So many of you submitted great designs. Thank you to everyone who submitted. I'm blown away by the interest and enthusiasm for this project. We appreciate it so much, Thank you! Stay tuned!

Call For Contributors Reminder!

Don't forget! If you are interested in being a contributor for our upcoming book, A Jewelry Accord: 50+ Innovative Styles Using Leather, Lace, Ribbon and Cords, you must have samples of your work submitted to the Jewelry Accord Flickr Group by December 1st! Yikes! That's only one week away!!!

If you're just tuning in or you need a recap, please go to the original blog post and read carefully for all the details about the book and how to submit! We've seen some great designs so far submitted to the Flickr group! Check it out, if you haven't taken a peak. Some wonderful inspiration there! Lorelei and I are thrilled with the response to our call out, so THANK YOU to everyone who has responded and submitted jewelry! You are going to make this a really tough decision on us!

Also, if you haven't submitted up to 5 designs, we encourage you to do so, really show us what you can do with those cording materials!!! As for the rest of you, get busy beading over the holiday and upload your designs to the Flickr group! ;)

Happy Thanksgiving!

A Book and a Call for Contributors!!!

Dear Friends,

I will be writing my first jewelry-making instruction book with my good friend Lorelei Eurto! Yes, that’s right. Lorelei and lil’ ol’ ME! :) The two of us will be co-authors of an upcoming jewelry-making book for Interweave Press! I am just beside myself. This is literally a DREAM COME TRUE for me! I have always LOVED all types of jewelry-making books. I have tons of books in my beading library that I’ve been collecting for years. I’ve flipped through my books dreaming of my own book many, many times. I never thought it would happen this soon! I am so happy to be sharing this experience with a great jewelry designer and friend.

I don’t know if many of you know this, but Lorelei was the first jewelry designer to contact me when I entered the blog-o-sphere over two years ago as a new ceramic bead artist. She was the first to buy some of my ceramic pieces and the first to introduce me to the beading blog community. We have stayed in constant contact with each other since then and we have become close friends over the last two years. Lorelei has never let me down. She has always been there for me personally and supported me in all the different directions I’ve gone in with my bead-making and jewelry-making career. When I was a new ceramic bead artist, she supported me. When I changed my style and look of my ceramic pieces, she was right there cheering me on. When I found out I was pregnant, she was happy for me. When I announced I was leaving the ceramic world to pursued more of a jewelry-making career, she was again one of the first to support my decision and my change. I’ve always been able to count on her. She is a good friend. I am so happy and honored to have her working on this project with me and I can not think of a better person to be doing this with.

CALL FOR CONTRIBUTORS:
We want this to be fun and exciting for you as well! We are sharing this opportunity with all of you here in this beading community. We are looking for jewelry designers to contribute projects to our book! Yes, that’s right, YOU could be apart of this with us and have YOUR work “out there” and published in a BOOK and get paid for it!!! What could be better than that! We have chosen one contributor already, but we’ve decided to open the field up and give some others a chance to be part of this project. We are looking for one other designer, possibly two. If you are chosen to contribute to the book, you will be paid on a per project basis. We would like up to 5 projects from each contributor. Your jewelry designs and complete instructions will be printed in the book along with your name and contact info. You will also receive a free copy of the book when it is published. We are excited to be able to take an opportunity like this and share it. We hope you will be really enthusiastic about this upcoming book project! So, now you want to know what the book is about, right? Well here it goes:

ABOUT THE BOOK:
Title: A Jewelry Accord: 50+ Innovative Styles Using Leather, Lace, Ribbon & Cords
A fundamental jewelry-making instruction book with a focus on the use of alternative materials in beaded jewelry such as, leather cord, suede lace, waxed linen cord, cotton cord, silk cord, ribbons and other cords. This book teaches how to incorporate these materials into jewelry designs using basic jewelry-making techniques such as stringing, wire-wrapping, knotting and braiding.

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR:

Do you enjoy using cords, ribbons or fibers in your jewelry? Would you be super excited and pumped to have your designs published in a book? If your answer is YES to these questions, then you could be who we are looking for!
There are some rules and requirements, so please read carefully.

• Please US residents only. We are very sorry, we wish we could invite absolutely everyone. :(

• We can not accept any projects that have been previously published.

• Your projects must represent original work by you.

• You must create your projects using basic jewelry-making techniques such as stringing, crimping, wire-wrapping, wrapped loops, knotting, simple braiding, etc. Think Stringing Magazine. Look through the techniques section to get an idea of what would be appropriate for this book. You may use more than one technique in a single piece.

• Necklaces and bracelets only please.

• Your jewelry projects must incorporate at least one type of cord or ribbon material in each design.

• We encourage you to use various cord and ribbon findings to finish off your pieces such as crimp-style or fold-over style cord ends, glue-in style cord ends, cone findings, clamshells, knot cups, ribbon ends or clamps, etc. Please look around and see what’s out there on the market today for options.

• We encourage you to use art beads and/or artisan made findings and jewelry components, if you want to, although this is not a requirement.

• We also encourage you to try incorporating more than one type of cording material in a single piece. Try mixing suede lace with silk ribbon or linen cord with leather cord or whatever combination you can come up with! Have fun with it! Use your imagination and don’t be afraid to experiment with the materials! 

• If you are chosen to contribute to the book, you will be responsible for supplying a complete materials list, list of tools used, complete instructions and a resource list for each of your jewelry projects.

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED, PLEASE DO THE FOLLOWING:

1. If you think you might be seriously interested in this opportunity, please fill out this form and send it ASAP.

2. Please join the Jewelry Accord Flickr Group and start submitting your jewelry designs that fit the above mentioned criteria. To be considered for the book, you must submit at least 1 jewelry design. You may submit up to 5 designs. We ask that any and all interested individuals to please have your jewelry designs submitted to this flickr group by December 1st 2010. Thank you!

If you have any questions, please feel free to email us. My email is in my profile. We are looking forward to hearing from you! Please feel free to spread the word on this CALL out! Happy Beading! :)