Beady Back Track: Creative Jewelry

In all the excitement about Creative Jewelry, we forgot to add that ABS editor, Cindy Gimbrone's one of a kind art beads are incorporated into one of the projects in the magazine: Sara Graham's bracelet design entitled Creamsicle on page 133 - a perfect summer confection for your wrist!

It's always exciting to see the ABS editors' work in print along side other inspired and creative work. Sara's design is just one of the many projects incorporating handmade art beads. We look forward to seeing more of Creative Jewelry!

Beady Back Track - Jangles at Fusion Beads!

We got a sneak peek at the new Jangles beads in a Studio Saturday post back in August. In case you've missed it, you can find Jennifer's new line at Fusion Beads. I just happen to spot this Flamenco Fever project using the flowers and components and wanted to share it with you. I really love the textured cluster of beads to accent the art beads. Hmm, I'm feeling some inspiration take hold!

Stop by tomorrow for a studio visit with Tari of Creative Impressions in Clay.

And kudos to Fusion for supporting artists who make beads, I count 16 different bead artists in their shop!

Beady Back Track - Beads on a Budget

Last week I posted on the budget friendly chains from Blue Moon Beads.

Cindy Gimbrone did a whole series of posts on beading on a budget last week. You can see the instructions combining inexpensive craft store components to showoff her spiral art beads. I love the tips she included when shopping for glass beads, be sure to read the whole series.




Today I posted a free project on my blog for a $15 art bead bracelet! Yes, that was the total cost. So you may be watching your money a little more closely these days, but your creativity and style doesn't have to suffer!

Beady Back Track - Melissa Lee in Bead Style

Back in May 2007 Melissa Lee entered this lovely necklace, Midnight Garden, in the Art Bead Scene Challenge as her interpretation of Ophelia's Garden.

Now we see that Midnight Garden is featured in BeadStyle Magazine Readers Gallery for the month of January! Congratulations Melissa - we love to see our readers in print!

Beady Back Track: Embroidered Soul Bracelet Design

In the interview posted Monday with Foremost Focal, I failed to properly credit the designer of the beautiful bracelet above. I had mentioned that it used a bead by Sharleen Newland,

but I did not fully credit the bracelet photo and design to Helen O’Donnell of Embroidered Soul. If you don't know Helen's site, please take a moment to check it out! She not only sells her own delightful handcrafted ceramic and raku beads, but also the works of Sharleen and other ceramic beads from Kazuri and from Bulgaria.

Here is a lovely example of one of Helen's leaf pendants, available from Embroidered Soul.

My sincere apologies for this mistake.

Melanie

Beady Back Track - Halstead Bead Business Grant Winner

Belle Brooke Designs has been announced as the winner of the Halstead Bead Business Grant. The photo above shows some examples of this jewelry designer's work.

Now is a great time to start the application process for next year's grant and to help you along Halstead has provided some Hints and Tips. One article that especially caught my attention discusses the importance of understanding your target market and gives some great tips on this subject. In the article three main target groups are indentified, their lifestyles described and a sample marketing plan outlined for each of the groups. This is definitely worth taking a look at in order to help refine your marketing plan. Take a look here.

Beady Back Track Jane Mormino

Take a peek at this month's Beadwork

Let's Fly by Jane MacGregor Hamilton Mormino features typewriter keys, art beads, charms and fibers. Jane was the winner of our first challenge launched back in April. Her "Fly" necklace is now featured in Beadwork this month.

Congrats Jane from the Art Bead Scene Crew!

Beady Back Track: April's ABS challenge and Stringing Magazine

Dragonfly Necklace by Bonnin Designs with pendant by Earthenwood

You may recall that our first Art Bead Scene monthly challenge was launched in April and the theme was Taking Flight. We had so many great entries for the challenge...it was a real joy to see all the creative work our readers made with art beads!

I was leafing through my latest copy of Stringing Magazine, and found out about a new challenge that they are running that I thought would be perfect for our readers, especialy for those of you who entered our April challenge. It is their own challenge, also with a flight theme! This is your chance to be published...come on, you already did the work...why not submit? See below for details, taken from Stringing, Summer 2007, page 9:

"We often hear from readers how much they enjoy the titles of the projects featured in Stringing. So we decided to create a beading challenge: In every issue, we'll give you a fun title for a project, and you create a piece based on that title. Our favorites will be featured in the Winter 2007 issue of Stringing, and all of the submissions will be posted on our website, stringingmagazine.com. The first title is "I'll Fly Away". Please send a high-resolution JPEG(300 dpi) of your project to stringing (at) interweave (dot) com no later than August 6, 2007."

We encourage you to submit and wish you all luck!

Beady Back Track

Our friend Andi over at Mystic Spiral thought of another solution to yesterday's Ms. Bead-It-All question. It involves a thoughtful and unique beading technique that one can use with almost any kind of stringing material.

Check out her blog post for the details, and take a look around at her other great posts.

Thanks Andi!