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!

Beads, Baubles and Jewels and a Beaded Leather Wrap Bracelet Video

Hello!

I wanted to tell you that I'm leaving tomorrow for a week. I'm flying to Cleveland, Ohio to film 2 segments for the television show, Bead, Baubles and Jewels hosted by Katie Hacker. I'm very excited and happy for this opportunity to reach out to the beading community. I'm going to be promoting our book, Bohemian-Inspired Jewelry, but mostly I'm just going for the experience of it all. You might remember back in February, I revealed that my word for this year is EXPAND. I've been exploring the meaning of that and manifesting it in many ways. I'm open to any and all possibilities. I've said "Yes" to just about every opportunity that has come my way. I'm happy to report there's been a few lately! I'm so thrilled with that fact. I'm contributing some of that to me being open and ready for things to happen.

Anyway, back to Beads, Baubles and Jewels. It's kind of a huge leap for me to appear on this show. I mean, I've never been in front of a camera before. I haven't even taken any videos of myself....that is until now! I decided I better get practicing teaching or demonstrating jewelry on video.

So, here's my very first jewelry video! Gah, try not to laugh too much. Oh, and btw, I've been informed by my husband that it is NOT okay to take videos vertically like I did in this one. Apparently, is a no-no faux pas that I was not aware of since I am such a newbie at this whole taking videos thing. He dislikes it very much. I am posting this video without his consent. Sorry, Honey. See you next week!!!



In this video, I'm demonstrating how I make my Rhinestone Leather Wrap bracelet project I designed for Ornamentea.com. Materials list and instructions are below!

Rhinestone Leather Wrap

Erin Siegel

Ingredients:

24 Swarovski crystal dangles

1 yard of red 3/16” deerskinleather lace

2 brass fold-over ends

33 brass 5mm jump rings

1 brass 9mm spring clasp

Tools:

Scissors

Ruler

Pen

Chain nose pliers

Hole punch

1: Insert the leather lace into one fold over end and close with chain nose pliers. Attach the spring clasp to the fold over end as shown.

2: Lay the leather lace on the ruler. Use the pen to mark the center of the leather ¾” from the end of the fold over end. Mark the remaining leather every 1 ½”. Punch holes through all the marked places in the leather as shown.

3: Use 1 jump ring to string 1 crystal dangle and attach it to one hole in the leather lace as shown. Repeat 22 more times.

4: Trim the leather lace ¾” from the end. Insert the leather into one fold over end and close. Link 9 jump rings together to create a chain extender. Attach one end to the fold over end and attach the last crystal dangle to the other end as shown.

Resources: All materials and supplies from www.ornamentea.com

Bead Fest Philly

I went to Bead Fest Philadelphia for the first time. I had the pleasure of meeting many wonderful, beady friends, that I hope to be able to make lasting connections with! My husband, Josh and 10 month old, daughter, Nora were unable to make the trip with me. Nora is in the middle of teething and we decided traveling with a cranky, teething baby wasn't such a good idea. So instead, my Mother-In-Law, Nancy Siegel made the trip with me. When we arrived Friday night, we met up for drinks and dinner with my friend and Co-Author, Lorelei Eurto along with Nancy Schindler, Lisa Petrillo, Diana Ptaszynski and her husband, Colin, Mary Hubbard and her daughter, and Melinda Orr and a few others. Later that evening, the amazing Melissa Cable came over to our table. What a treat. A fun night of meeting, drinks and chatting!

On Saturday, at the show, we went straight to the Ornamentea booth, where I met owner, Cynthia Deis and ceramic bead artist, Elaine Ray.

 Ceramic beads, pendant and button by Elaine Ray from the Ornamentea booth.

There, we met back up with Lorelei, Nancy, Lisa and also Kelley Wenzel. From there, we popped over to Green Girl Studios and chatted with Andrew Thornton. Then, it was off to Earthenwood Studio to meet Melanie Brooks...

Ceramic pendants by Melanie Brooks of Earthenwood Studio. Greek Leather from Ornamentea.

And also, Diane Hawkey, who was my Bead Swap partner.

Ceramic beads by Diane Hawkey.

After that, we headed over to meet Barbara Lewis at her Painting with Fire booth.

Enameled metal beads and recycled sari silk from Barbara Lewis of Painting with Fire.

Then, a bunch of us met up for a bead swap hosted by Diana Ptaszynski of Suburban Girl Studio.

Diana Ptaszynski at the bead swap with a button by her swap partner, Kristi of Artisan Clay.

At the bead swap, I met Kristi Roeder, Jenny Davies-Reazor, Marsha Neal and Anne Gardanne for the first time. After the swap, we all met up for dinner Saturday night at Legal Seafoods, which my MIL and I were fashionably late for. A BIG thanks to Diana for making this event extra special and fun! She even made us all cute "Bead Snob" buttons. The whole experience was so much more fulfilling with the get-togethers and that was the main reason I even wanted to come to this show in the first place. To meet creative, like-minded people and make connections.....and well, the beads aren't bad, either. ;)

Here's the rest of the bead stash I snagged at the show on Saturday:

From top left: Coco shell beads from Priscilla Beads, Hand-rolled paper beads also from Priscilla Beads. Seed beads from Bead Biz and Metal nugget beads from Hands of the Hills.

What a great time! Looking forward to it again next year.