Leaves of Gold Necklace in Unexpected Findings

Hello, September! What a Summer it has been. I completely skipped the month of August around here on the blog. It was a busy month keeping the Summer fun going for my little Nora girl. She's back to school now and it's time to think about all things Fall. Autumn is my favorite season next to Summer. It will be here before I know it and it's just as busy as Summer, if not more. In October, we have our wedding anniversary, my birthday and my daughter's birthday all in the same month.

And speaking of fun things to look forward to this Fall, another is a new jewelry-making book I'm really excited about! Unexpected Findings: 50+ Clever Jewelry Designs Featuring Everyday Componentsby Michelle Mach. I'm proud to be a contributing designer to Michelle's first book. I have 5 jewelry projects among the pages and I could not be happier.


Today, I wanted to showcase one design in particular. My autumn-inspired, bohemian chic statement necklace called "Leaves of Gold". A trip to Vermont last October was the inspiration for this piece. It was so beautiful there. We had lunch in Brattleboro, VT. The downtown was picturesque. I remember giant green mountains dotted with GOLD, red and orange trees against a bright blue sky. The main street was filled with all these cute little artisan galleries and shops with an eclectic mix of art and handcrafted wares from furniture to jewelry. I could imagine a hip, stylish girl walking down that street wearing boots and a sweater, sporting this necklace!   

The colors and materials of this piece make me think of spending time outdoors in the Fall. That is something I absolutely love to do! A walk in the woods, a hike in a beautiful forest or a getaway to the countryside to take in some leaf peeping. I have a feeling I will be wearing this a lot come Fall or even right now! You can make one, too or a version like it with my step-by-step instructions in Unexpected Findings: 50+ Clever Jewelry Designs Featuring Everyday ComponentsJust by looking at this necklace, you might be wondering what the "unexpected" finding is? It's not exactly obvious. At least, I don't think so. Can you tell what it is? Well, if not, you'll have to wait til my next post about this book or better yet, get the book now and find out for yourself. 





Disclosure: If you make a purchase of the book via the links I have provided in this post, I will receive a small amount of Interweave affiliate credit. Thank you!!

Beaded Bookmarks

 

I've got books, books, books on the brain lately and rightly so. Lorelei and I will be doing the final edits and will be getting our very FIRST look at our completed book, Bohemian-Inspired Jewelry: 50 Designs Using Leather, Ribbon and Cords over the Christmas holiday! A very special gift for me, indeed. I came up with this idea of making a beaded and braided bookmark as a celebration of sorts and also as a way to create and share my joy and excitement with others as I wait in great anticipation for the release of the book! I'm really excited about how my projects came out. I just had to share. I'm giving these as holiday gifts this year to family and friends. Everyone as been so supportive over the last year and this is my way to express my gratitude for that special support that was needed and given during the book writing process. I really like that it's something other than jewelry, but still expresses my style, esthetic and materials I love using in my jewelry designs.

Looks great holding your place in your favorite novel! Or these bookmarks would certainly be perfect to use along side your favorite beading book, don't you think?...just sayin'. :)

I think these will make great gifts, even for the guys! The guys on my list are getting one, like this bone bead one pictured above. 

Hmmm...maybe I could make up a tutorial for these so you can make one for yourself or give as a gift as well. Would anyone be interested in that? Let me know. I would love to share this with all of you, too!

A Jewelry Accord: Our Book

Bohemian-Inspired Jewelry: 50 Designs Using Leather, Ribbon and Cords

by Lorelei Eurto and Erin Siegel

 Book News! Check out my post on A Jewelry Accord Blog...

A Jewelry Accord: Our Book: If you've been following us for a little while now, you know that Lorelei and I are writing a jewelry-making book all about creating beaded ...

A Jewelry Accord: Making of a jewelry book: Tools, Materials and Fin...

 Hey, Everyone!

Check out my post on A Jewelry Accord blog. There's a little sneak peak and an update on our book!

A Jewelry Accord: Making of a jewelry book: Tools, Materials and Fin...: "Today, I'm going to give you a little update and a behind-the-scenes peek at the making of our upcoming jewelry instruction book due out in ..."

And The Contributors Are....

Please visit our new blog to find out who we have selected to contribute to our upcoming book!

A JEWELRY ACCORD 

Making Jewelry with Cording, Ribbon and Lace

Lorelei and I hope you will join us on the new blog!

Thank you!

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! :)