Felt Beads
Posted by Administrator on Jan 30, 2008
I’ve been making a bunch of felt “beads”. I put beads in quotes because they don’t actually have a hole in them, so really they are felt balls - but they can be used just as beads. All you have to do is poke a needle through them to string into necklaces, bracelets, etc. They can be strung on something thicker, like wire, by poking a needle through & immediately following that with the wire. I’ve made earrings and pendants this way, and they are really fun.
These are fun to make. Working with loose wool fiber is really different from working with metal, so I think of them as something completely different from most of the jewelry I make and sell, but they give me a chance to just play with color and experiment with new techniques. I’m gradually incorporating some felt into finished jewelry, but mostly I just like making the beads.
I love this picture of some of my newest felt beads:
If you are interested in learning how to make jewelry using felt beads, I have a tutorial coming out in a month or two and I will be sure to post a link to it from here. In the meantime, if you’d like to own some of my felt beads to play around with, check out my etsy store.
Cute new shopping blog
Posted by Administrator on Jan 29, 2008
I just discovered a cute new blog with ideas for online shopping: chocolate canary. The blog has only been live for a couple weeks, but it looks like it’s going to be a good one. She’s already having a giveaway, but you have to enter before Feb. 1st to win.
Beautiful New Jewelry Books
Posted by Administrator on Jan 27, 2008
I went to my local book store yesterday & browsed the section of jewelry books - there are some really beautiful new (within the last year) books on all kinds of topics in jewelry making. Here are links to a few on Amazon that I’d love to add to my jewelry making library:
The Art of Jewelry: Wood: Techniques, Projects, Inspiration (Art of Jewelry)
The Art of Polymer Clay Creative Surface Effects: Techniques and Projects Featuring Transfers, Stamps, Stencils, Inks, Paints, Mediums, and More
500 Wedding Rings: Celebrating a Classic Symbol of Commitment (500 Series)
JET Treasure Hunt
Posted by Administrator on Jan 24, 2008
The Jewelry on Etsy team (JET) is having a two-day treasure hunt Friday, January 25 & Saturday, January 26. The prizes for this hunt are jewelry donated by members of the team.
To play, go to etsy, and search the shops of participating members for a hidden image. If you find all of them, you could win free jewelry! More details are at the JET blog.
New Bead Embroidery Book
Posted by Administrator on Jan 23, 2008
The Art of Bead Embroidery: Techniques, Designs & Inspirations
If you’ve never tried bead embroidery, be prepared to spend a LOT of time on this craft. Each tiny little bead has to be stitched on individually, so even small projects can be time consuming. But, like knitting, the repetitive action of stitching each bead onto a piece can be a meditative experience for a lot of people, and there is definitely potential to make some absolutely beautiful things with bead embroidery techniques.
Thing-a-day
Posted by Administrator on Jan 17, 2008
This looks like a fun project - I’m tempted to participate, but with a baby due sometime during the month of February, I expect I will be a little bit distracted.
New Camera
Posted by Administrator on Jan 14, 2008
My old digital camera (a Sony Cybershot that I had for almost 4 years) broke, and since I’m running a business that operates partly online, I really needed to replace it quickly. I liked the old one a lot - it was easy to use, and took pretty good pictures of my jewelry, as well as my husband’s artwork, and was a great point-and-shoot for vacations, holidays, and pics of my pregnant belly over the last seven months.
Well - I replaced it with a Nikon D40, and I have to say, I never knew taking pictures could be this easy. It is a DSLR, so it has all kinds of manual controls that I could use if I knew more about photography, but what I love about it is that, set to automatic, and with the lens set to autofocus, it does a really good job on its own. I haven’t had time to really play with it and see what it can do, but here are a few jewelry pictures I shot over the weekend.
This one is a resin pendant I made a while ago. Resin can be tough to photograph, because it is so shiny there tends to be glare. For this shot, I just put the pendant on a background outside & snapped a few shots. I think it looks pretty good.
This is a close-up of an earring I made recently. I have always had trouble getting decent pictures of earrings for some reason, but I think this one isn’t bad. I think better lighting would have improved the shot, but it’s better than most of my previous attempts using the old camera.
I didn’t edit these at all, except to crop out the excess background. Oh yeah - both pieces are for sale in my etsy store.
Here’s a link to the camera on Amazon: Nikon D40 6.1MP Digital SLR Camera Kit with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED II AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor Lens
Info for craft business owners
Posted by Administrator on Jan 7, 2008
There is a great blog for people with etsy stores, Etsy for Everyone. It is written by an etsy shop owner, and has lots of information. Some is specific to selling handmade work in an etsy store, but a lot of it could be useful for anyone trying to run a small business.
Now if only I had time to do everything she recommends…
New Jewelry on Etsy
Posted by Administrator on Jan 3, 2008
I’ve been adding a few new pieces to my etsy shop…and there are lots more to be added throughout the next month! Items in an etsy shop are listed by date, starting with the most recently listed item, so it’s easy to see the new stuff in a store. Check out my new work here.
