Double Snappin' Organizer Mega from JewelrySupply.com
Let´s first talk about how to organize the stash. This is a problem we all come across when we decide to start beading whether it is as a hobby or professionally. Some people find creativity when they are immersed in a big ocean of beads and like to have them all over the house, inside whatever imaginable, even old shoes. (I don´t wanna think about the smell of that jewelry). Others prefer to store their stuff in plastic bags sorted by type, which by the way, is a method we don´t recommend. Plastic bags are prone to snag and rip at times, not to mention how much of a hassle it is to pick them all up when it eventually does break.
Another way to store your beads is to put your stash in glass jars. We see two big inconveniences with using glass containers. Firstly if you need to work on your project somewhere else you can´t take them with you easily since glass is just too cumbersome. Secondly there´s always the possibility you drop the jar and it breaks to smithereens. What a drag! Some people use old mint or candy tins in order to avoid breakages. That´s good, but you can´t see what is inside so you have to label them which is double the job and no fun at all.
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Hello again!
Before we get started, I completely forgot to mention that we are offering FREE SHIPPING for the holidays so order now!
I hope you enjoyed yesterday’s Christmas Tree tutorial ’cause here we go again! Its time for part 2: Christmas Wreaths!
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Don’t you just love the holidays? My mom sure does and her spirit is certainly infectious. This year she asked me to make some Christmas charms for her to give to our family on Christmas Eve. I really like what I eventually came up with and so I thought I would make a tutorial for any chainmaillers who celebrate Christmas (or want to give a small but handmade gift to someone who does.) These are also pretty fast so they make good last minute oops-I-forgot-someone gifts too!
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Welcome to our handy list of easy tutorials from the For the Love of Beads Blog!
Each post below features a step by step tutorial for creating your own piece of jewelry (or something else pretty) as well as a list of supplies required. Happy crafting!
Once your done, I’ll bet you want to get some good photographs of your work. If you need some tips, head on over to our helpful photography guide and get snapping!
Chainmail:
Other:
Welcome to our photography guide; first in a series of Do-It-Yourself Instructions to help you show off and sell all your beautiful jewelry creations!
The first post will walk you through the steps for building a lightbox, a simple tool for getting great lighting in unlikely situations; the second talks about how to use your cameras settings to achieve the look you want; and the third is a discussion of composition and background choices.
Part 1: DIY Lightbox Tutorial
Part 2: Aperture & Other Camera Settings
Part 3: Backgrounds and Composition
Part 4: Best Photos From the Blogosphere
But before you can get a good picture, you need something cool to take a photograph of so if you need some inspiration to get started, check out our easy and fun
DIY tutorials and my
experiments with wirewrapping!
Welcome to the wire jewelry index page!
The posts below describe my experiments with wire as I seek to master this versatile medium, as well as some hopefully helpful tips I have picked up along the way. For guides featuring other media, click on over to our Tutorials page.
Part 1: Introduction & Pegboard/Wig jig
Part 2: Simple Wire Jewelry & an Easy tutorial
Part 3: Showcase!
Featured here are all of my chainmail tutorials in order by the date of their original posting. More are sure to be added so check back and see what other new ideas we have for you! For other kinds of tutorials, click here.
I set out to write this post the other day (after a few delays with my camera) only to realize that lighting conditions weren’t exactly optimal. However, I tried anyway and it turned out to be a great way to demonstrate how well a lightbox can work. See?
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Fall is in the air. The leaves are changing color and an array of apples, pumpkins, gourds and tomato baskets flood the farmers markets. This season for us (as I am sure for many of you) means tons of candy, costumes, scary movies and parties! And to celebrate the beginning of the end (of the year!) we decided to make some kid friendly crafts.
So the first one (the most challenging one) was making bats and ghosts out of paper Mache. It was a challenge because the finished product takes a very long time to dry and a lot of patience. It took us about 4 days to finish 3 bats and 1 ghost (only 1 because we failed miserably with 4 other balloons). I don’t know if any of you have ever done any paper Mache crafts but it’s fun, easy (not so easy for a 3 and 5 year old) and you can create pretty much anything with a little creative thinking and imagination. So for this project we used:
- Balloons
- A mixture of warm water and flour (about 2 cups of water and 2/3cup of flour) to act as adhesive
- Newspaper, ripped into small pieces
- Acrylic paint, nothing too expensive since most of it will end up on the floor
- Paint brushes
- String
- Tissue paper
- Eyes (plastic) and glue
- Construction paper or painted cardboard.
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Hello again!
The flu has passed, the last long weekend of the summer is over and I have been playing with lots of wire recently. We got some new stringing supplies in and I got a little sidetracked from my wire-wrapping practice. I did, however, bring the two media together for some interesting and fun projects that I decided would make a good tutorial/inspiration post so, here we go! Now that the kiddies are back to school (or have been for a week or two), you parents should have a bit more time on your hands – why not make a fun colorful necklace for yourself, (or your kids who might need some cheering up now that the summer is over).
These are pretty easy to make and don’t take much time. All you need is some wire and some creativity!
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