Beads, Baubles and Jewels!!!

Behind the scenes at BBJ!

 Top row: Jennifer VanBenschoten, Jill Wiseman, Jewelry set up.

Middle row: Kate Richbourg, Me and Katie Hacker, Jean Campbell.

Bottom row: On set with Katie and staff, Candie Cooper w/ my book, Barb Switzer.

The new season of the Beads, Baubles and Jewels TV series is airing now! You might remember I traveled to Cleveland, Ohio this past June to film two segments for the 1900 series. This was a huge deal for me. It was my first time in front of a video camera. I was so nerve-racked about how it would go! There is no rehearsal, no practice and no script. The segments are organic and free-flowing. In some ways that was a relief and in other ways I was completely terrified. Oh. My. Gosh, this could be a total disaster. I just had no idea how I was going to perform under the bright lights with those cameras pointed at me. I'm not exactly comfortable in the spotlight. I tend to shy away from that, but what I don't shy away from is opportunity, new experiences, and chances to grow and expand. I seem to crave those things! There were so many reasons for me to say yes to this opportunity. A chance to reach out to a larger beading audience and share my techniques and projects, promote Ornamentea, promote myself and my book, meet and connect with others in the jewelry community, gain valuable experience, push myself to meet all that I'm capable of and more...

 More behind the scenes...

When all is said and done, I'm pretty happy with how my segments turned out. More importantly, I'm thrilled with the experience I had at the production studios. Everyone was so friendly and welcoming. I felt comfortable and like I belonged there. The green room was like a beaders paradise social party! Lots of chatting, laughing and connecting going on. I loved every minute of it. One of the main reasons I was attracted to doing a spot on the show was the opportunity to meet some great ladies in the beading and jewelry community I admire. I met the show's host, Katie Hacker, Jean Campbell, Jen VanBenschoten, Kate Richbourg, Barb Switzer, Jill Wiseman, Candie Cooper, Patti Bullard, and Kellie DeFries. I'm grateful to have connected with these ladies. I could not be happier with my experience and I'm so glad I decided to go through with it.

 Host, Katie Hacker and me. 

I'm hopeful that my appearance on the show will help me connect with more of you out there, too! I want to continue to connect with others who like to make jewelry and creative like-minded people all over the world. I hope you enjoy my projects and I can inspire you in some way. I've been given the okay to share my segments as seen on Beads, Baubles and Jewels 1900 series. Without further ado, here they are:

 

All materials, supplies and instructions for both projects can be found on the BBJ website as well as my designer page on Ornamentea. com.

Happy Beading!

Gifts for the Creative

I offer some great products for the jewelry maker or anyone who likes to create things. (The Interweave items are on super sale right now!) It's the season to make and give handmade gifts. Let these items get your creativity flowing or give them as gifts all on their own!

Bohemian-Inspired Jewelry Book and e-book

Leather Ruffle Hoops Earring Kit

Fiber Findings and Finishing Techniques for Jewelry Download

Knotted Friendship Bracelets Kit

Happy Holidays!

Gilded Gold Tassel Necklace and Earrings TUTORIAL

Gilded Gold Tassel Necklace and Earrings

Erin Siegel 

for Ornamentea.com

Sparkle, dazzle and shine in this 1920's inspired jewelry set!

Ingredients for necklace:

1 crystal Swarovski rhinestone ball

1 brass tulip bead cap

1 antique brass 3” head pin

36” of antique brass straightbar texture chain

31” of antique brass sparklechain

Tools

Chain nose pliers

Round nose pliers

Cutters

Ruler

1: Cut the sparkle chain into ten 3” lengths. String all the chain pieces onto the head pin as shown in photo 1.

2: Use the head pin to string the bead cap and rhinestone ball bead as shown in photo 2.

3: Form a wrapped loop that attaches to both ends of the straight bar chain as shown in photo 3.

Ingredients for earrings:

2 crystal Swarovski rhinestone ball

2 brass tulip bead cap

2 antique brass 3” head pin

2 antique brass lever-backear findings

62” of antique brass sparklechain

Tools

Chain nose pliers

Round nose pliers

Cutters

Ruler

1: Cut the sparkle chain into ten 3” lengths. String all the chain pieces onto the head pin as shown

2: Use the head pin to string the bead cap and rhinestone ball bead as shown

3: Form a wrapped loop and attach a lever-back ear finding as shown.

4: Repeat steps of the second earring.

Shades of the Past: A Photo Gallery Event!

Please join me Saturday, November 23, 2013 from 12pm - 10pm

24 Water Street, Exeter, N.H.

Local friends, you are invited to a public viewing of the "Shades of the Past" photography project created by Bushor Photography and M. Lavigne Photography. I will have all my jewelry featured in the photos available for sale. You can get a closer look at the jewelry pieces in my last post about this project. This will be an all day open house event held in downtown Exeter, New Hampshire. Light fare and cake will be served from 5-10pm. Enjoy a bite to eat while viewing the photos and pick up a one-of-a-kind, handcrafted gift for the holidays!

See you there! 

 Photography by Bushor Photography and M. Lavigne Photography

www.shadesofthepastphotos.com

Online Beading Magazines

Bead Chat magazine 

November 2013

I'm honored to contribute to the latest issue of Bead Chat magazine! An online jewelry magazine published by Artisan Whimsy members. Artsian Whimsy is an online community for jewelry artists of every kind. The group is extremely active and with a website and a facebook page. They are doing some exciting things and I'm looking forward to see what the future holds for the beading community. 

Lead editor for Bead Chat magazine, Cynthia Machata asked me a few questions about getting jewelry designs published in nation-wide bead and jewelry magazines. Special thanks to her for extending an invitation to me to contribute content. She was a such a pleasure to work with! In the interview, I share a funny, true story about my first published piece of jewelry. I also share my best tips for getting your work published in top beading and jewelry-making magazines. Plus, there is plenty of other great content for jewelry-makers and of course, gorgeous jewelry designs and eye candy from members. I especially loved the tribute to Bead Trends magazine and the interview with jewelry artist, Jess Italia Lincoln.

The Beading Glass magazine

November 2013

Another online publication that has come to my attention is The Beading Glass published by Leah Curtis of Beady Eyed Bunny. The Beading Glass is another online magazine for the jewelry designer offering inspiration, jewelry and bead artist profiles and interviews. Some very talented artists are featured on the pages of this magazine. You'll find great jewelry design and simply stunning art beads. The thing that brought the magazine to my attention is that my friend and co-author, Lorelei Eurto, has an interview that appears in the November issue. Even though I know her very well, I enjoyed reading her answers, seeing her designs and learning a few bits I didn't know.

Happy online bead reading! 

Shades of the Past photo shoot

A local friend and photographer asked me if I wanted to have some of my jewelry pieces included in her photo shoot. Would I like pictures of my jewelry gracing the necks, wrists and ears of gorgeous models in an amazing location? "Um...YES! Sign me up, please!" I even got to be there on location the day of the shoot and play 'Stylist' on the set. The shoot was called "Shades of the Past". A passion project between my friend, Monica Bushor and another talented photographer, Mat Lavigne. More photos from the entire shoot can be viewed at www.shadesofthepastphotos.com. The photo shoot had four different themes or genres: Roaring 20's, High Fantasy, Modern Formal and Medieval.

Roaring 20's style photo shoot

 Gilded Gold Tassels Necklace and Earrings - 20's style photo shoot

 Gilded Gold Tassels Necklace and Earrings - 20's style photo shoot

 Hemlock Forest Necklace - 20's style photo shoot

Hemlock Forest Necklace - 20's style photo shoot

Champagne Shimmer necklace - 20's style photo shoot

High Fantasy photo shoot

 

Turning Leaf necklace - Earth Fae photo shoot

 Turning Leaf necklace - Earth Fae photo shoot

Fire Goddess necklace - Fire Fae photo shoot

Stormy Winds necklace - Wind Fae photo shoot

Stormy Winds necklace and bracelet - Wind Fae photo shoot

Modern Formal photo shoot

Champagne Shimmer necklace - Modern Formal photo shoot

Champagne Shimmer necklace - Modern Formal photo shoot

Midnight Pearls necklace and earrings - Modern Formal photo shoot

Midnight Pearls necklace and earrings - Modern Formal photo shoot

Misty Lilac necklace and bracelet - Modern Formal photo shoot

I'm grateful that Monica invited me to be apart of her special project. I had so much fun collaborating with her and the rest of the team. I will be working with them again on future projects. Stay tuned!

artBLISS 2013 in Latergrams

Oh dear, I'm woefully behind on updates around here. These pics are supposed to be Instagrams. Latergrams will have to do...

On the weekend of September 27th, 28th and 29th, I traveled to the Washington D.C. area's jewelry retreat, artBLISS. When I arrived, I was greeted by the artbliss mascot. She is pretty, classy and perfectly patriotic. I'm bad with names but, I think her name is Eleanor? Excuse me, if that's not right.

Friday night was the 'Meet and Greet' event. Here I am with my friend and fellow artist, Erin Prais-Hintz of Tesori Trovati Jewelry. I'm happy to have spent some quality time with her over the weekend!

On Saturday, I took Stacie Florer's Thin Gauge Metals class. These are the earrings I made during class. I'm thrilled with them! It was so much fun. Stacie's class was everything I knew it would be and more. I really connect with Stacie on a deep personal level and a creative one. Her class was inspiring in more ways than one. I learned a lot, got tons of personal attention from Stacie even though her class was full to the max and I just enjoyed creating in the environment that she facilitates. Oh, and laughed a lot, too!  I do hope our paths continue to cross and I get to work with her again in the future. Before I took the class, I said I was participating for the experience and had no specific intention of adding metalwork to my jewelry. Now, I could actually see myself playing with the techniques I learned. Working with the thin gauge metal is beginner-friendly, forgiving and very approachable. There's lots of potential. I'm excited about the possibilities!

Saturday evening was the 'Soiree' event of shopping and socializing! Here I am at my vendor table. I sold copies of my book, Bohemian-Inspired Jewelry, kits, and an array of my favorite jewelry-making materials, beads and findings from Ornamentea.com. I also demonstrated one of my favorite projects from Bohemian-Inspired Jewelry, my Leather Ruffle Hoop earrings.

Another treat was getting to see my friend, Tracy Statler of Make Bracelets! She also had a table at the soiree selling some of her stash. And oh, how I loved her stash! I did some shopping with her but, I would have loved to take that whole table home! Too bad my suitcase was already overweight. Tracy makes the coolest jewelry and she contributed some of her awesome designs to Bohemian-Inspired Jewelry. Tracy is a sot-after designer. She recently added Cindy Wimmer's new book, The Missing Link to her book contributions.

Speaking of The Missing Link book, here it is! ArtBLISS co-creator, Cindy Wimmer just authored her own wire jewelry book called The Missing Link: From Basic to Beautiful Wirework Jewelry. Fortunately, her author copies arrived just in time for her artBLISS retreat and she was able to have a book signing! WhooHoo! It just wouldn't have been the same without it. Having Cindy's book there and being able to get a signed copy straight from her was a highlight for me and it made artBLISS this year that much more exciting.

Here's Cindy signing copies surrounded by the fabulous jewelry from the book. Well, it's about time this talented jewelry artist authored her own book showcasing her incredible work. I've thought this for some time. I have to say it was well worth the wait. This is one of the best wire technique books I've seen in a long time.The wire links themselves are the stars here. The link designs are beautiful, original and highly adaptable. The step-by-step photos and instructions are thorough, detailed and well-executed. Even a beginner could follow along and make the wire links with these excellent photos and directions. One of the things I love the most is the gorgeous photography and styling. The photos do justice to Cindy's exquisite work and that of her contributing designers. The style of the photos shine with Cindy's personal touch and aesthetic with her own vintage props used for backgrounds. It's a gorgeous book and I'm thrilled I came home from artBLISS with my own author-signed copy!