I Heart Tools - Flush Cutters

image courtesy of Anne Mitchell's website

I Heart Tools by Jean Yates

I had a problem. Like many of you, I like to learn new techniques. It is one of my great loves, in fact. In my situation, I have to teach myself at home most of the time. To accomplish this, I learn from books, DVDs, or from online teaching services. This usually works pretty well!

My latest interest involves learning how to fuse fine silver. I see that this is a direction in jewelry making which is getting increasingly popular. I am a curious person anyway and this appeals to me. Additionally, I just don't like to be left behind! Don't do that to me!

The problem, however, was this: I needed the right flush cutters. A "flush cut", as you probably know, is one where the wire, after cut, is not left burred. You need a good flush cut for making proper jump rings, or for making any kind of chain from rings. The wire needs to have as flat a surface where you have just made the cut as possible.

When you start learning about fusing fine silver, one of the first things you learn (Jean, "the big knowledgeable pro" is talking, here) is that if you don't make a perfectly flush cut, the relatively simple fusing procedure will not happen. The magical (at least that is the way it looks to me, when I see it take place!) wire fusing will not occur! You will be admiring a gloppy pile of nothing instead, where there should be a lovely fine silver circle, to which you should then be able to connect another lovely fine silver circle. When you have spent a lot of money on fine silver wire, it's a waste of money to do it wrong, plus it is a waste of your time.

My specific problem was compounded by the fact that I wanted to be able to cut very heavy gauge fine silver wire for projects, and then fuse it. Now, granted, fine silver wire is softer than regular sterling silver wire, but that doesn't mean that 12 gauge wire isn't really hefty! So I needed the right tool for the job! That's where my troubles started. Everywhere I looked, the cutters didn't seem to be able to cut the gauge wire that I wanted to cut.

Then, Eureka! I found the right tool for the job over at Anne Mitchell's site (http://www.annemitchell.net/)! Just look in her tool section. She's got great flush cutters (see photo above), which I purchased. They are reasonably priced! They can cut "up to 8 gauge fine silver wire" according to Anne. I am thrilled because this is the answer to my dreams, flush-cutting wise.

That is why I "heart this tool"!

These flush cutters can get me up to speed in my latest interest, which is fusing fine silver. I can make the pretty chains I have been dreaming of. So, if you choose to fuse, check my suggestion out!

Wouldn't it be great if everything were this simple?

Jean Yates, guest editor
author of Links, website www.prettykittydogmoonjewelry

Featured Designer of the Week - Jewelry by L Designs

LAVENDER & CREAM
Originally uploaded by jewelsbyldesigns

Each Monday we feature the Designer of the Week. One of our editors pick their favorite from the Monthly Challenge entries.

Our current designer was chosen by Cindy Gimbrone. She choose Jewelrybyldesigns Lavender and Cream earrings. Cindy noted, "lovely combination of lampwork, beading and wire. The glass colors are complemented nicely by the pearls and wire. I'd love to have these swinging from my ears! :-)!"

Our theme for June is Pearls of Wisdom. I love the use of the keshi pearls in this design.

You can view more work from Jewelry by L Designs by visiting her blog.

Want to be the next featured designer? Enter our monthly challenge and you could be next!

Great Gams in the Desperate ABS Neighborhood!

Pssssttt!!! There's someone new in the Desperate ABS Neighborhood! The paparazzi can only seem to catch her at night.....



...can you see who she is? It was really really really dark in the ABS Neighborhood when the paparazzi snapped this picture. They chased her down last week and snapped this picture....



...great gams but she's hiding behind her book!! Who is this new Desperate Neighbor?!? Will the Desperate Neighbors leave her alone or will they gossip about her like everyone else?

Speaking of gossip - let's see what the Desperate Bead Bloggers are dishing on this week....

About.com Jewelry Making
My New Metal Clay Jewelry Making Book is Out!

Bead Style Magazine
Naomi talks about this weekend's Bead & Button Show

Jewelry & Beading
Fabulous bead artist Margie Deeb has an artist profile on Jewelry & Beading!

Naughty Secretary Club
Learn how to make a resin bracelet using an ice cube tray watching Jen’s latest how-to video! The Secretary’s Delight Bracelet is a sneak peak at some of the projects inside Jen’s new book The Naughty Secretary Club: The Working Girls Guide to Handmade Jewelry.

Savvy Crafter
Candie crafts up a simple necklace, perfect for making round' the picnic table in the back yard with the kids.

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!
Tammy Powley's super new book! Read her interview with me, here!

Did you know the Desperate ABS Neighbors open up their studios on Saturdays? Stop by and read Studio Saturdays to find out more about the Desperate Neighbors of the Art Bead Scene!

Did you read or write any good dirt on a bead blog this week?
Leave us a comment and a link and tell us the latest scoop!

(Photo credits: Seeing Stars photo of Desperate Housewives set.
Desperate Neighbor pictures from Jean Yates' blog.)

Exciting Textiles Inspire Studio Saturday!

Welcome to Studio Saturday! Each week one of our contributors gives you a sneak peek into their studio, creative process or inspirations. We ask a related question of our readers and hope you'll leave comments! As an incentive we offer a free prize each week to bribe you to use that keyboard. The following week we choose a random winner.

This week's winner is Emma Todd! Congratulations, Emma! You're the winner of Tari's mystery bead! Please send your postal address to the ABS Suggestion Box and Tari will send your mystery bead!

Today's Studio Tour is with Cindy Gimbrone, glass beadmaker. Let's see what's going on in her studio....



Good morning! If you're a regular reader of Studio Saturdays, you'll know lately I'm looking to textiles for inspiration. I often find inspirational textiles but then am frustrated by the glass color palate I have to work with - often, I don't have the glass color available to me. So sometimes, I work backwards from the glass. Here's a good example of a color I love - a deep raspberry sherbet color.




The raspberry glass is "well behaved" and isn't too runny or fussy when I work it in the flame. It's yummy to work with! I couldn't wait to create a necklace with them but wanted more. So I went on the hunt for a textile. Wow, did I ever find it and then some!



Excited, I bought the pink and brown fat quarters - I KNEW the colors perfectly match the glass rods I have. Look how perfect they are! Cool! This is going to lead to another bead series and how to incorporate beads and textiles but you'll have to read my blog to see what I'll create as well ashere on Studio Saturday.

Here's a close up of the raspberry glass links in a necklace I created for next week'sBeading on a Budget. I'm excited to get to work!





Today's question is: What gets you excited about work?

It can be any work you do from creative work to simply doing the laundry. For me, it was finding a set of textiles that perfectly matched the glass colors I have. I'm excited to get to work now! What about you - what gets you excited about work?

Comment-ers will be entered to win a set of the Raspberry Links. I look forward to reading your comments!

Jewelry Trends for Summer 2008

So what's the "in" for jewelry this summer? I'm certainly not a slave to trends, but those clever fashion designers are a great source for inspiration and well, a girl does need baubles to match those cute little summer outfits.

Necklace designed by Jess Italia, pendant from Earthenwood Studio.

Look for pendants and beads with nature as the theme. If it has wings, it's go for summer!

Canaries from Humblebeads

Flowers and leaves aren't just garden perennials. They are a summer staple. Think tropical rain forest in leafy greens with splashes of bright colors.

Necklace by Goddessjoy, lampwork leaves by Ingrid Hein.

Iridescent Flat Spirals by Cindy Gimbrone


And what colors are sizzling? Bright hues borrowed from nature.

Necklace by Lorelei, pendant from Gaea



Flower button from Creative Impression in Clay

Yellow, pink, purple and blue are favorites with designers.

Color Forecast Guide from Firemountian Gems.

Gold is the metal de jour. But you know what? I'm not a gold person, so brass is pushing my creative buttons for summer inspired designs.

Necklace by Heather Powers, art bead from Humblebeads

And one last tip: long and layered chains, pair them with your favorite pendant for instant art bead style.

More trend resources:

Trends from the Bead Jewelry Blog

Summer Jewelry from Accessories.about.com

Color Report for Bead Artists Spring/Summer 08

Color Inspiration from Fusion Beads

Fashion Trends from Artbeads.com

Fashion Forecast from BeadStyle Magazine

Findings Worth Finding: A/D Adornments

I've been interested in minerals and semi-precious stones since I was about six years old (I have very distinct childhood memories of dragging my parents through the Hall of Gems in the Field Museum of Chicago, each time we visited the city). It's therefore not surprising that I use a lot of stone in my jewelry designs. One of the things I'm always on the lookout for when I visit shows, new bead stores and/or new websites (it's amazing how many ways we can indulge our addiction for beads and findings these days, isn't it?) are nice stone clasps. To my mind, a beautiful clasp adds a tremendous amount to a design, but it can be a little challenging to find just the right one.

I was first attracted to Chicago-based A/D Adornments at a show a few years ago not by the high quality of clasps, semiprecious beads or lovely assortment of chain that the company carries, but by the fact that there were excited shoppers six deep around the booth. After waiting patiently (okay, there might have been a little tactical use of elbows involved, but I was polite about it), I finally was able to wade close enough to the booth to actually see, and drool over, its contents. Kathy Domokos, proprietor of A/D Adornments, takes stunning pieces of druzy quartz, turquoise, agate, fossilized ammonite and other stone, as well as a lovely assortment of vintage buttons not pictured here, and turns them into box clasps for a beautiful finishing statement in any piece of jewelry. They range in size from modest single strand clasps all the way to big, showcase triple-strand clasps.

So, if you like fine clasps the way I do, I highly recommend A/D Adornments. You can find the company at various bead shows throughout the Midwest (including the Bead & Button Show in Milwaukee, this week) or by visiting their website.

Written by guest blogger, Melissa Lee. Read her blog at Strands or visit her etsy shop to see more of her work.

Fit to Print Book Review: Ceramic Bead Jewelry by Jennifer Heynen

Ceramic Bead Jewelry (30 Fired &Inspired Projects)
by Jennifer Heynen

Two Books ... in One Fantastic Volume!

review by Jean Yates, guest editor for June 2008

This totally lovely hardback book, Ceramic Bead Jewelry, by one of our own beloved bead makers, the super nice and very cool Jennifer Heynen, is the first book of its kind to really get right to the heart of ceramic bead making. Additionally, it offers fabulous jewelry designs, all created by Jennifer herself. So, in one sentence: What a GREAT book! You are actually getting two books in one! A beading making instructional book, and a jewelry design book!

I was blown away by the projects, the glorious colors which Jennifer employs when creating her ebullient ceramic beads, and also her fantastically fun and innovative ideas, all of which are clearly explained.

In case you don't know, Jennifer owns the online bead business called Jangles (http://www.jangles.net/ ). If you go to her site, you will see right from the start, by looking at her photograph on the home page, that this person is a happy soul, doing what she loves... and she is doing a great job!

In her book, she teaches us to create the beads in the manner in which she does, and then to design with them. This is a first for ceramic bead making. What a great help to everyone looking for lessons in this beautiful and creative art process. Ceramic has not been a medium which has been covered sufficiently in print, although there are many fabulous artists out there who are extremely popular right now. The author is one of the leaders in this great group, and sharing her manner of working is a very wonderful gift which she has given to the reader.

The projects are myriad in variety, too. If you don't want to make your boyfriend a cool necklace (I personally love that "Boyfriend Necklace"!), move on, and try her "Cupid Ring"! If that doesn't suit you, prepare yourself to flip out over her "Cute as a Button" earrings or her neat, wrist-fitting "Polka Dot Fun" bracelet. Interesting to me as well are her "Flowery Cuff", where she has studded her flower shaped beads on a wide, soft, tan velveteen band, like something I have never seen anywhere before (Wow! Very impressive to me! In all honesty this is high praise from me--I am the original research geek who spends days online just looking around at all sorts of "stuff"!), and then, there is her "Fabulous Fiber Belt ", which shows off her superb sense of color. That sense of color is always on target, whether she is working with brights or muted tones.

Even if you don't plan to make your own ceramic beads, this book stands as a success simply as a jewelry design book. The author's website (mentioned above) is also cited right in the book. Her fantastic, gorgeous beads can be purchased there, which makes it easy to start at Step two, if you like. She has lots of kits, too! I hope she continues make her kits available and adds even more after Bead and Button is over!

To sum up, "Step one", which would be creating beads like Jennifer's, before designing, looks like lots of fun. "Step two"--buying her beads outright and simply enjoying her book, of course is a great alternative as well!

The photographs are wonderful (it is a Lark book), with very vivid and exciting colors.

I think that this book, with its many bracelets, pendants, earrings, rings, and even a cute pineapple pin, is a total winner! I am delighted to own this lively, high quality, clearly explained, well written, beautiful piece of work: Ceramic Bead Jewelry by Jennifer Heynen.

You can read more of Jean's writing on her blog.