Jewelry Making

Hopefully you’re not like me and you actually write down on your calendar important TV shows that you want to catch. I kept on missing Diana Friedberg’s two-part “World On A String” presentation on public television which was a segment on the importance of beads and beadworking around the world historically and in present day usage. (I think they are coming out with 2 additional segments as well.) I know they keep showing it periodically but I keep forgetting to set the VCR.

And now I realized that I goofed and missed checking out Oh! Be Jewelled on the Oxygen network this past weekend. Oh well, I’m sure they’ll be showing other episodes, right?

A little blurb from their website:

Oh Be Jewelled gives you a insider’s look into the latest trends in jewellry and shows you step-by-step how to create your own pieces that are unique, personal and totally current. Some of the hottest looks are easy enough for a beginner and surprisingly affordable.

I did hear some people say that the jewelry design processes shown were a bit quick, though that’s probably to be expected in these rapid fire cable shows.

For those who can’t wait until the next one airs, they actually have several videos on their site including tutorials for making a charm bracelet, making a layered necklace, and making hammered earrings. There are also downloadable PDF files that explain the process, though I was a bit disappointed that there were no pictures to go along with the text…

I found about this grant from Halstead through Tammy’s About.com Jewelry Making site. I had to admit I was a bit skeptical at first. Can you really get a grant like this to make jewelry? It turns out you can, and the prize they’re offering for the winner of the contest is quite substantial: $5000 cash business grant, a $1000 gift cert for Halstead, and a profile in their upcoming 2007 Metals Catalog.

The deadline is actually coming up pretty soon: June 15, with winners to be announced some time in July. They have full information about how to submit your pieces and other information on their site.

The purpose of the contest is to highlight the growing difficulty of so called “Bridge Jewelry design” in the United States due to competition from both designers overseas and mass-produced stuff. (I had no idea what this term “Bridge Jewelry” meant, but apparently is the catch-all designation for jewelry that “bridges the gap” between precious metal jewelry and plain old costume jewelry. In other words, this is probably most of the stuff that any serious home jewelry designer is making!)

For full information and the mailing address to send submissions, please visit the Halstead Bead site.

I’m sorry folks that I haven’t been posting regularly… I’ve been battling some serious illness. Anyhow, I felt better enough to put together our third jewelry making interview which features Peggy Li who runs her own jewelry business called Peggy Li Creations.

Originally, we were looking to pick the brains of a successful designer that also made jewelry making their full time gig. Although it turns out that Peggy still does the “day job thing”, it’s her amazing success with publicizing her work through various media outlets, including hit TV shows, that makes her really stand out. Oh, not to mention that the jewelry she makes is really beautiful! She mixes simple, contemporary looks with artisan style, featuring unique takes on contrast and texture.

In any case, this is a great interview to check out whether you’re a seasoned pro or just starting out. The interview was done over email and is highly recommended reading.

Interview with Peggy Li, Peggy Li Creations

Just a quick note that the new prizes for SeekIndie just went up on site. This one is called “April Showers Bring May Flowers”. You may remember us writing about this contest held by crafters earlier. The basic idea is a sort of scavenger hunt where you look at the pages of participating sites for special banners… you need to find five of them before you can submit your entry to win on of 13 gift boxes.

More info at: Seek Indie website

Because several readers have asked about this, we are actually going to make an effort to review specific jewelry supply products here on Bloglander Jewelry Making. To kick this off, Peter from The Contenti Company was nice enough to send us a few jewelry making related items for consideration. We’ll be attempting to review products from other companies as well. (If you manufacture or sell jewelry making products and you’re interested in this, please let us know!)

First up are these great compact Chain Nose Parallel Pliers which are made by Valor exclusively for Contenti. These particular pliers are around 5 inches in length which are about the same length as the ordinary chain nose pliers that we use for making jewelry.

The pliers come in either flat nose style or chain nose style and with smooth or serrated jaws. The one we got was the smooth chain nose variety. I believe there is also a longer model that features springs between the handles for easy return.

The overall construction is pretty solid, unlike a lot of the pliers that we have gotten at larger craft stores and swap meets. The heft and fit, at least for my hand, was perfect. It actually reminded me a bit of my swiss army type Leatherman tool. It was a bit heavier than most of the cheaper plastic chain nose pliers that we have lying around. The handles are nickel plated and have an indentation pattern for easier gripping. For folks who aren’t used to rubber coated or plastic handles, this may take some getting used to. (Though, I assume it’d be easy enough to “dip” them in the usual rubber solutions.

One of the only issues that I have with this plier are that the tips of the pliers don’t taper down small enough at the end for certain smaller items. This makes it a bit difficult to grasp extremely small findings and wire. However, I don’t believe this tool should be looked upon as a “works for everything” plier anyhow. For me, it has turned out to be more of a specialty plier for larger items when I need better grip on things.

Continue reading “Chain Nose Parallel Pliers” …

I found out about Blend Creations through the Mighty Flirt site. The Canadian husband and wife team of Eric Jean-Louis and Vivian Cheng have created an array of interesting and unusual pendants. Using modern stainless steel as an exterior housing for more traditional Asian-inspired designs and materials, they create a unique, organic contrast in their jewelry.

Some of the different types of items used for these pendants inner designs include bone, bamboo, coral, mother of pearl and Japanese Washi paper.

A little blurb about their work from the Blend Creations website:

“Eric and Vivian find inspiration for their work in the design of everything from furniture to housewares to graphic art. By fusing hand-drawn design with automated manufacturing — imagery from the East with technology from the West — the creators of Blend Creations have become a rare blend, indeed.”

Continue reading “Blend Creations” …

Hello there, jewelry makers… sorry we missed posting last week. We are trying to get up to speed on various new site features as well as grappling with a potential upcoming redesign.

Here are the results from our latest jewelry poll in which we asked readers how jewelry making figured in their lives as far as career went:

The results were pretty much skewed as I expected. It looks like the majority of folks out there who make jewelry are doing it either part-time in addition to a normal job as just a hobby. But to the 25 folks who answered that they’re doing it as a full time career.. kudos to you! You’re in the big time now…

Of course, if you’re like me you might have chose the last answer, hehe. Maybe it’s not so true now, but when we first started out trying to make our own jewelry, it was pretty tough. We really had no idea what we were doing, and part of the reason this jewelry beginner blog exists is because of that. So, if you chose that last answer we’d just like to offer some words of support… keep at it because like anything in life the more you practice your jewelry skills the easier it becomes and the more you learn.

I’m currently working my way through a ton of email submissions… I need to set up some sort of official policy to handle these, but for now I just try to do them in the order received. Also, please remember there are so many that I can’t possibly write about all of you!

This one is from sharonunlimited.com, a fairly new online shop (actually, it opened only last month) created by Sharon Marzonie to provide unique jewelry making supplies and findings for artisans. They do have some nice things for sale there, so I decided to make a writeup.

A tiny bit from Sharon’s site:

“It is a place where artisans can come together to browse, shop and share in one anothers creativity … Our goal is to provide you with a unique offering of products and a high level of service that might be otherwise difficult to find.”

Continue reading “Sharonunlimited.com” …

I had meant to post this last week but got sidetracked. About.com’s Jewelry Making guide Tammy Powley (who we interviewed earlier for Bloglander Jewelry Making) tipped me off about a potential opportunity for aspiring jewelry peeps out there.

She has a new book in the works that is going to be about “Mixed-Media Jewelry” and they are currently soliciting project contributions to be printed in it! If selected, your piece will be photographed in full color and will be included with project instructions and/or full captions.

Now, before you get all discouraged that you can’t POSSIBLY make something spectacular enough to be included in a jewelry book you should know that what they are looking for are projects that involve standard jewelry findings or simple wire-working along with threads, fiber, and leather… basically any sort of mixed-media jewelry project. The requirements for the project are that it should be simple enough for the average home artist to make, and not necessarily someone with full access to soldering/casting methods or other complex jewelry making techniques.

One other thing to note is that this isn’t a CONTEST per se… this is an opportunity to be included in an actual book on jewelry making. Actually, in my mind this is potentially BETTER than winning a contest.

Here are the project categories that you can choose from:

* fiber and fabric jewelry
* paper jewelry
* found object jewelry (incorporating recycled/found materials)
* jewelry featuring unique and/or unusual combinations of materials (bones, shells, glass, wood, beads, chain etc.)
* memory jewelry (incorporating photos, charms, imagery

They are accepting entries up until April 30 of this year. The full details about this jewelry making opportunity can be found on Tammy’s website. If you decide to enter a project, good luck and please let us know if you’re accepted so we can post about it here!

I got a note from Jeaneen Benson regarding an interesting online contest being held by independent crafters. The site is called “Seek Indie” and was created by bunch of the Switchboards community members as a way to promote the sites of independent craft peeps.

The idea is sorta neat… this is similar to a scavenger hunt online where you search the pages of participating sites in order to find special “heart banners”. Next to each of the banners is a specific number that you need to write down. Once you find five of these numbers, you can submit your entry for a chance to win prizes that are submitted by the indie crafters. (They select a set number out of all the correct entries who will receive the gifts.)

It’s a pretty simple concept, and we dig it because it helps these indie sites out. Seek Indie’s first contest was held earlier in the year and though it is now finished, they are going to keep having them periodically. Although, there weren’t too many jewelry designers featured in this earlier crop of indie businesses (14 in total participated), I’ve heard they are getting a ton more for the next one.

So if you’re a jewelry designer and are interested in getting some much needed PR, you might want to contact them to volunteer a prize for the next contest.

For more information, check out the Seek Indie website.