Beautiful Bronze from Art Beads

copyright Artbeads.com

A couple of weeks ago I got this beautiful bronze pendant from ArtBeads.com. It has birds on a branch and says "All happiness is the joy of achievement." The quote is by Franklin Delano Roosevelt. I love this quote, so I had to get this one but they have others I liked just as much.
Joy: "Joy is not in things, it is in us.", The Heart Has Reasons -"The heart has reasons that reason cannot know" and Dreams - "Let go of the past, and go confidently in the direction of your dreams" which is quote by Thoreau. Did I ever mention one of my oldest friends does living history as Thoreau? One of the coolest jobs on earth I think.

Anyway, this one spoke to me the most, so that's what I ordered. It's really lush in person and I had fun making this necklace. Want to make one for yourself? just hop on over to Artbeads and get a pendant.

I started stringing beads but decided I wanted bring out more of the nature feel of the pendant so I used bits of wood twigs as part of the neckchain. I wound brass wire around them to mimic the detail on the top of the pendant and added Czech glass leaves and flowers for color. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. It's simple but not boring and very wearable. I'd love to see what you create with some of the wonderful jewelry making supplies from Artbeads!

Muertos Mania

Images courtesy of Cindy Gimbrone. Copyright Cindy Gimbrone

A couple of months ago, Cindy emailed me to ask if I'd like to do a collaboration with her. She'd send me some of her COOL skull beads and I'd work some jewelry magic with them. I love her work and couldn't type "YES PLEASE!!!" fast enough!

Cindy Gimbrone is a lampwork bead artist. She makes all kinds of fabulous beads, glass links and bowl bezels. My faves are of course the Heartz N Skullz series and also her new Surreal Rhythym beads.

She sent the beads shown above and I couldn't wait until the package arrived! YIPPEE! They are so wonderful in person! I had some ideas before they arrived but after holding them I changed my mind. I wanted to showcase the beads in such a way that someone wouldn't think they could only wear them in the fall or just at Halloween time. I had a great time working with these beads and want to thank Cindy for letting me play with them! Here is what I did with them.


image copyright Barbe Saint John/Saints & Sinners®

First the Calaveraz (on right). I had envisioned them on a necklace full of vintage plastic flower beads. I had a few flower beads but not enough for my vision, so bought more on ebay. The universe was against this idea and I had numerous problems getting flowers. So I nixed that idea and tried a few others. Everything I tried seemed to take the attention away from the bead, then it hit me - make into a centerpiece by turning the bead into a cameo. I absolutely love the way it turned out!

The Skele'Bowz beads are really adorable and the challenge was to make them cute but not TOO cutesy. I played around with them alot until I finally starting bending black steel wire into heart shapes. I wanted the wirework to be like fancy wrought iron scroll work, but using the heart shape kept from looking too heavy or gothic. I made the necklace strands asymetrical as well to help with the whimsical look.

I sent Cindy a preview pic, HOPING she would like what I did with her glass art. Happily she was just as thrilled with them as I was!!! I hope you'll visit Cindy's website and snatch up her fabulous beads and make your own gorgeous jewelry. Also be sure to check out her blog too, where she shares lots of her work, progress, inspiration and load of eyecandy!!!

Late Late Late

So I come on to post about work I've done this week and notice that my Sunday post, didn't post...ugh... I don't get why Blogger does this to me sometimes. So my Bead Bloggers linky love is a couple of days late.

I wanted to put up the pics of a newly created Marie Antoinette collar and the vintage glass bead drops I got but blogger is being buggy and won't let me. Bugger!

Hopefully I can post some eye candy later, but for now there's lots to look at on this weeks Bead Bloggers!

About.com Jewelry Making
Be chic and make jewelry with some help from a new book: Chic Metal: Modern Metal Jewelry to Make at Home by Victoria Tillotson.

Art Bead Scene
Is time for your 15 minutes of fame? There's still time to be the next Bead Star and 'bead famous!"

Barbe Saint John - New Jewelry from Forgotten Artifacts
Barbe makes a necklace with supplies from Alpha Stamps

Bead&Button magazine
Leslie's keeping up the creativity--see what she's up to

Jennifer Jangles Blog
Jennifer gives a great source for getting your designs made into rubber stamps.

Jewelry & Beading
Cyndi's written a tutorial on making a necklace with one of the new Swarovski discs from Artbeads!

Katie's Beading Blog
Get ready for wedding season with Katie's beaded bridal necklace pattern. This necklace is the perfect accessory for brides, attendants, and guests alike!

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!
There's a great giveaway prize to be had if you check out Soft Flex Company's Big Prize Giveaway! Jean has the low down on how to get in on it!

Strands of Beads
Melissa reviews Margot Potter's new book, Beyond the Bead

Come see me at Art, Paperie & Pleasantries!

I'll be vending at Art, Paperie & Pleasantries next weekend. It's being held at the Alameda County Fair Building in Dublin, CA. You can find more details here.

There will be lots of vendors, live music, book signings, make & take classes, coloring table for the kiddies and lots of pretties to buy! I'll be taking alot of new jewelry as well as some vintage supplies and fibers. I MAY have collage sheets ready too by then, and will bring them.

All the sparkly goodness happens Saturday May 2 & Sunday May 3, 2009 Noon - 5:00 p.m. both days, $3 admission, but get the dollar off coupon on the website. Mention reading my blog and get 10% at my booth as well! Hope to see you there.

You gotta fight for your Copyrights

Copyright free clipart

What is a copyright?
Answer: Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States to the authors of "original works of authorship," including "pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works." The owner of copyright in a work has the exclusive right to make copies, to prepare derivative works, to sell or distribute copies, and to display the work publicly. Anyone else wishing to use the work in these ways must have the permission of the author or someone who has derived rights through the author.

What is a Trademark?
Answer: A "trademark" is a word, name or symbol which is used to identify particular products or services offer by a particular manufacturer or from a particular source. The trademark distinguishes and authenticates a product of a particular manufacturer from similar products offered by others. The owner of a Trademark has the right to prevent others from using the same or similar trademark on their products.

There's been a lot of talk going around recently amongst artists, arts & crafts teachers and craftspeople about their work being ripped off by big companies, people taking a class then turning around and teaching the same class to others or cheap copies made in China and sold at rock bottom prices. But it isn't just corporations ripping off the small business artist/crafter, sadly the average Joe is also doing it too, some intentionally and some not. I did a long blogpost on Trademarks when I was having some problems with mine a couple of years ago. This post is geared more toward copyright infringement since its a hot topic right now.

Copyrights don't have to be registered (although you can pay to register them) so most people don't. Fighting someone who is infringing on your rights does cost money and its better if you are backedup with a registration. A lot of people don't think they could fight without a registration, so they just let it go. A trademark costs a pretty penny, so you are more likely to fight for your rights once own it. I think you should fight for your copy rights as well, and perhaps we can stop this rampant flood of creative thievery.

I would like to think that most people just don't understand that some of the things they do aren't ok. Artists/Teachers/Crafters work hard to create their work. They spend a lot of time, energy, money, sweat and sometimes tears of it. They want people to be affected by it and be inspired to go do something creative. But, being creative doesn't mean copying someone's work and calling it your own.

I love to share my knowledge and skills with others. I love to inspire people to make something, but I want them to put their OWN mark on it not make it a carbon copy of my work.

Anytime you take someone else's creative or intellectual property, you're breaking copyright laws. You are also taking money out of the hands and mouth of that Artist/Teacher/Crafter. They deserve to make money for their job skills just as you do yours. And let's be real honest -doing that is stealing, and no one wants to be a thief.

If you'd like to learn more about what some other artists think, Margot aka The Impatient Crafter has a post up about her thoughts on it. She will also be doing a group link post this week with links to more artists & craftspeople. You can learn more about copyrights at the Artist Resource and tradmarks at US Patent and Trademark office.

So think about what you are doing before you download someone's artwork to use on a card, take a class so you can teach your friends what you've learned or buy something so you can copy it and sell it yourself. Would YOU want someone to do that to YOU? I know you'll do the right thing! If you see your designs being ripped off, stand up protect your artwork.

Do You YUDU???

Yudu image courtesy of Provo Craft.

A couple of weeks ago, the wonderful people at Provo Craft sent me a Yudu to try out and create with. I have a Gocco as well and was looking forward to comparing the Yudu to the Gocco. Sadly I was bedridden with the evil flu when it arrived and couldn't test drive it then. I've been hurridly trying to catch up on everything I was behind since being sick, so I could break it out and play with it.

That day was finally yesterday & today! Yesterday, I pulled it out of the box and read through the booklet. The bulbs are already installed, all you basically need to do is attach the powercord and put the lid on it. The thing that took me the longest was the 3 hours I spent making art for a screen to burn! Note to self, have artwork ready when you want to burn a screen.

Okay, time to start keeping score for my Yudu vs Gocco review. After my design work was FINALLY done, I was ready to put the emulsion sheet on the screen. The screens are HUGE, such a plus!! The Yudu screen is at least 4 times larger than Gocco's screen. Score: Yudu-4, Gocco-0 on that factor.

My friend Margot,The Impatient Crafter has this fun and instructional Yudu-how to video, she just did. I just popped myself down in front of the computer after reading the booklet and watched her to make sure I didn't burn the screen on the wrong side or mess it up somehow.

I made sure not to get the screen too wet=which is key in it drying in a reasonable time. I couldn't find a spray bottle, so I just used a damp cloth. A spray bottle would be alot better, mine was still a bit too wet-but you sometimes you have to improvise. Applying the emulsion sheet was easy, and it took mine about 18 mins or so to dry. Burning the screen was easy too-pop it in, set the timer for 8 mins and its done. This is longer than Gocco's instant "press and burn" screen (1 point), but the cost of Gocco screens & bulbs far outweigh the price of Yudu's emulsion screens (2 points for Yudu).

So the score is now: Yudu-6, Gocco-1. After a quick rinse in the sink to clean the screen, I was ready to start printing!

This is the screen, primed with ink....now where was that pile of shirts I had set aside?? I looked in my closet-dang me for doing a big Goodwill purge 3 weeks ago-I put that bag in there too by mistake. No worries, I took one that I love and grabbed some fabric to print on as well. I created an image to put onto shirts and bags. Another point to Yudu for being able to print directly onto a shirt or back, unlike Gocco. Score: Yudu-7, Gocco-2

So I put the shirt on the platen (shirt form) and pulled the ink.

It's really smooth and easy. The platen has a tacky top to hold it on securely, no need to tape it down like with regular screenprinting set up.

Voila! Pretty t-shirt!!! I love the way it looks on the scoopneck. I'm waiting until the temp drops in my loft before I iron to heat set the ink. I'm too hot to want to do anything involving heat today. This wrinkled bit of fabric will soon be a fun totebag for some lucky jewelry buyer!

So, the winner hands down is the Yudu. I love the Gocco for doing small things like cards, or small paper artwork. It was workable on fabric, but the screen size really limited what you could do with it. The Yudu has a large enough screen and work area to really let your creativity flow. Having one or 2 screens to store is preferable to lots of littles that I may never use again. It's super easy for someone with no screenprinting experience and really useful. I have some projects I'll want to do with this and am thinking of lots of others! I want to work on my multi-color prints, and do some fun clothing items. If you are thinking about getting one, you won't be sorry. I'd love to see what "yudu" too!

Next time I burn a somewhat smallish image, I'll put 2 on the screen, so as not to waste 1/2 my emulsion sheet. You could cut it in half, but I if you are going to print a transparency, you might as well fill that up too! Also getting a dedicated squirt bottle for the screen is a must for me. Hindsight is always 20-20.

Bead Bloggers

Sorry this is a bit late, as I started this explosions occured outside my building. Turns out its the firestation SETTING OFF FIREWORKS IN THEIR YARD!!!!!!!!!! BIG ones, shooking the building at 10:30 at night.

Many of us called the police, who then just drove by and didn't stop and question them. I am so livid right now. Was out with Bettie and saw them do it again=called 911.

So on to better things-this weeks beadbloggers!

Candie Cooper Mother's Day is coming fast! Do you need a project idea? Candie and Katie have just the thing!

Art Bead Scene Worried about the economy? Take care of your bead business with these tips.

Barbe Saint John - New Jewelry from Forgotten Artifacts Marketing Monday: Its all about word of mouth

About.com Jewelry Making Puzzle piece jewelry is perfect to make during the month of April since it happens to be autism awareness month. Here are a few projects to help you make your own puzzle piece jewelry.

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done! Jean reviews an excellent wire wrapping book, Beautiful Wire Jewelry for Beaders, by Irina Miech

Art Jewelry magazine Demos and more planned for the Bead&Button Show 2009

Carmi's Art/Life World Carmi creates a punched fiber collage necklace.

Jewelry & Beading Make a fiber and wire necklace that will slide right on with no clasp!

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton Taking advantage of Artbeads.com's free shipping and fast, friendly service, Andrew attempts to capture the beauty of a Lord Byron poem with the new Crystallized - Swarovski Element Disk Pendants in his new necklace design, "Cloudless Climes".

Earthenwood Studio Chronicles Spring is here and Melanie announces a big springtime sale on her website, going on from now until Earth Day.

Strands of Beads Melissa shows off a new necklace design inspired by Sir Thomas Wyatt's poem "Whoso List to Hunt"

Beads - Beads- Beads!

Since I am constantly saying "I have no beads to work with" I went over to Oakland today to shop at the Northern California Bead Society show. The "Bead Bazaar" seemed a bit smaller than in the past, but its always a good place to buy and today was no exception. The weather is AMAZING today, and Rob went with me so he could go to the "boy smell store" aka the gaming store which is across the street from the convention hall.

I didn't buy a ton but got some goodies! From the top: African recycled record beads & chunky coral from my friend Carter at Bead Trust, black tourmaline crystals, fat baroque pearl (splurge!but I can't find the reciept to see who the seller is), mixed dark pearls, aquamarine nuggets, more pearls (I am on a pearl kick right now), amazonite beads and vintage glass all from Juliets Beads, and last but certainly not least is a bunch of vintage Lucite from Baubles & Beads. All that lovely Lucite is for the 'secret project'. I went the show specifically to look for solid colored, plain beads for the secret project but it wasn't easy to find! Then I see the mother lode and in plastic too!!! Be still my heart! I WANTED to take the entire booth home, but only chose things I needed like a good fiscally responsible girl. I hadn't been to their store in Berkeley, but needless to say I'll be Barting across the bay alot more frequently now! I also got to chat with Gail Crosman-Moore and I MEANT to get back and buy from her. I had to find my solid beads then shop for myself, but I got busy talking with others, got super hungry and had to eat then didn't make it back in. Dang me! She had some crazy cool metal pieces and beadcaps.

The only negative to the day was a woman who was going around shoplifting. They caught her at one booth I was at and she came back and returned the tiny bag of jumprings or whatever it was. Then I was talking to 2 other vendors about it and they also had been watching that woman as she attempted to steal from them as well. What is wrong with people?! The real shocker was that she only stole small $$$ amount stuff. If you are gonna steal and risk the humiliation and possible jail sentence-steal BIG! Steal the Hope diamond not a $3 pack of jump rings or a $4 strand of opal glass.....

We had a great deli sandwich then stopped for a cupcake. It's one of those days I REALLY wish we had a patio or an outdoor space to enjoy the warmth and sunshine. Tomorrow is supposed to be even nicer so I may pack a bag and go to the park and work on stuff with Bettie. Hope you all are having a wonderful Saturday as well!

Jewelry making with Alpha Stamps

A couple of months or so ago, I was asked to be a guest designer for some fun new jewelry products coming out on the Alpha Stamps website. I LOVE Alpha Stamps and was so flattered to be asked. Of course I immediately and excitedly said YES!

I received a package full of beautiful collage sheets, metal settings, bead caps, chain and beads. I couldn't decide which one to play with first!!! Eventually, I created 4 wonderful pieces of jewelry for the site, including the heart necklace above. Click on this link to go to the Alpha Stamps blog and see the rest of my creations.

I received the Half-Page Pendant Collage Sheets: Four Designs. The designs are Paris, Bathing Beauties , Collage Birds, and Birds & Butterflies. The artwork one these sheets are sized to fit the pendant settings. They are really pretty and I wanted to use them all. I got the gold colored heart, round mini bracelet links, and square pendant settings. They are really wellmade and a good weight so they feel substantial. I'll be adding alot of these to my own stash. Along with these, I got some of their pretty glass beads, trumpet flower beads, twig connectors, fern connector, chain & bead caps. I combined them a few of my own beads and voila! I think they all turned out great, and I can't wait to buy more to play with!

Marketing Monday: Word of Mouth

"The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about." Oscar Wilde
A friend and I were talking today about how some people seem to get a lot of publicity and others get none. This conversation revolved around a couple of people who make a similar product as hers, but aren't as unique as her product. I told her "The more people get talked about, the more people talk about them." Like a popularity contest, it isn't necessarily fair or right but that's the way it works.

In order to get this kind of word of mouth advertising, you need to keep promoting yourself everywhere you can. Send samples, get any kind of endorsements you can from friends and family and ask them to sing your praises to all their friends. You could hold contests that get people talking about the prizes. You can donate to charity events, gift bags or raffle prizes to put your name and product in front of people.

You have to keep putting yourself out there to get people to notice your product. Also, be sure to talk about other people's products too and keep that circle of energy flowing!


To get the ball rolling, here are a few of my fave small businesses:

Alpha Stamps: They have SOOOOOO much artsy stuff I can spend hours making up a thousand dollar wish list of all the things I want!! Its hard to narrow it down to a $$ amount my wallet will handle. You'll find some GREAT stuff for crafting on here, check them out!

La Patisserie Jolie: My personal soapmaker!!! Jessica's dessert soaps are a real treat. I get a special blend made just for me, but also use and LOVE her red velvet cake, marzipan, snickerdoodle and macupuno sorbet soaps.

Junque Girl: Mandy makes some amazing little houses, you want to build your own village with. Also fantastic rubber stamps on her website http://www.junque.net/

Aromaleigh: Where I buy my mineral makeup because its the only place I've found with foundation light enough for me (Ivory 1L). They have a huge range of colors for foundation from never seen the sun to lovely chocolate browns. Not to mention an amazing color palette of eye shadows. LOVE them, really love them-pray they never go out of business

Happy Easter

This postcard cracks me up. The cats are gathered around, waiting for their chicken dinner! Hope everyone had a wonderful day, whether you celebrate the resurrection of Jesus or the gluttony of chocolate. I did not buy even ONE piece of Easter Candy this year. However, I am going to run errands tomorrow and MAY stop by Walgreens and See's and see what is on sale. I can't stomach eating normal chocolate anymore so I rarely buy anything but M&M's or those mini candy bars. I do love Reeses PeanutButter eggs so may have to hunt a few down.

I don't know where the day went, but it went. Doesn't help I didn't wake up until 11:30 ish again...sigh...Gonna crawl into bed soon and hopefully get up at a decent hour tomorrow. I got some work done on one shrine, some angelina listed on Etsy, a bit of work with a jewelry project and a bit more sorting. I also fired up the inheirted laser printer and printed off some transparencies-SWEET! I feel like I have 2 weeks worth of stuff to catch up on, PLUS the projects and goals I thought about while sick. No time to sleep until noon tomorrow.

On to this weeks Bead Bloggers!

• About.com Jewelry Making Oy, may aching back! Tammy is de-stashing her jewelry and other craft supplies while on spring break. Here are de-stashing tips and places that need your jewelry supply orphans.
• Art Bead Scene This month's challenge is Botticelli's Birth of Venus.
• Barbe Saint John - New Jewelry from Forgotten Artifacts Barbe talks about riveting & finding the right size drill bits
• Bead&Button magazine Julia Gerlach talks about bead patterns and gifts
• Jacket Corsage Carmi sews a few hooked flowers and beads to create a jacket corsage.
• Jewelry & Beading Think that shell jewelry is just for kids? Take a look at Karen Sugarman's designs, and I guarantee you'll change your mind!
• Katie's Beading Blog Check Out Katie's Fun and Flowery Spring Inspiration!
• Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done! April is Austism Awareness Month. Express yourself creatively!
• The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton A new double-sided sugar skull pendant from Anne Choi, inspires Andrew to create this new bracelet.
  

Self Promotion Friday

Inhabitants of the Ley Lines: The Musician

Most people look forward to Fridays so they can have the weekend to relax. I am looking forward to getting some work done, after 2 weeks of being sick!

After making some extra spicy Texas Straw Hat for dinner tonight, I had the energy and motivation to add some new art to the website. I do a vegetarian version because I don't eat meat. I got addicted to Texas Straw Hat while going to Ohio State. I swear they made it at least every 2 weeks and I loved it! It's also probably why I put on the dreaded "Freshman Fifteen" weight gain LOL.

Anyway, I'm putting up the Ley Lines assemblages. I uploaded "The Musician", "The Mechanic", "The Astronomer", and "The Mermaid". Hopefully I'll feel good enough tomorrow to get a WHOLE lot more work done!!! I got a YUDU machine I want to crack open and check out. I inheirited a laser printer and coil binding machine that I want to play with too.

Tuesday's Jewelrymaking Tips

Here's a few random tips, that may help the jewelrymakers who read this blog.

Tip #1: Riveting goes ALOT easier with wire that is annealed first. A LOT easier, especially if you are just learning how to rivet!

Tip #2: as soon as you open a hew tube of jewelry glue (or any glue, paint, caulk or other sticky substances) -rub a thin layer of vaseline around the grooves. This will keep the substance gluing the lid shut your tube or container.

Tip#3: If you want to oxidize your sterling silver but don't have any chemicals, just head to the fridge! It's super easy and great if you can't wait for a liver of sulfer order. You just chop up a boiled egg and place it in a baggie with your silver for a few hours or until the silver has darkened to your liking then shine it up with some super fine steel wool or a polishing cloth.
This technique is not very cost-effective in quantity but is great in a pinch.

Tip#4: When working with resin there's no need to throw away the little measuring cups after one use. I have 2 that I mark on the bottoms in sharpie R on one & H on the other. R is the resin, and H is the hardener. I measure out the liquids in their appropriate cups, then pour into another recycled container to mix. Carefully wipe each cup clean with paper towel and store in ziplock bags. If you do alot of resin this saves a ton of little measuring cups!

Tip#5: When drilling a hole in something like baked polymer clay, plastic found objects, dominos etc....and you want to avoid splitting at the exit hole, mark both holes drill 3/4 of the way thru on one side then flip over and drill the rest of the way.

Tip#6: need to put a hole in a felt bead? Use a small brad or finishing nail and hammer it thru the bead. The hole will slowly shrink back down so you will need to do this right before you string them.

Hope some of these help!

Monday!!!!

Blue Ribbon Winner - mixed media necklace

Wow, a week sure flies by when you are laying in bed, wiped out from a crappy flu bug. I never get a cold but somehow always manage to have 2 HORRIBLE flu's a year. I thought for sure I'd make it thru the winter with out one, but oh no....it was just waiting for Spring!

I'm finally at about 75% health and hoping tomorrow I'm 100%. I haven't done anything but sleep or think about all the things I wanted to do when I didnt' feel like crap. I have had alot of revelations and going over things in my head. Lots of "if they can do it, so the hell can I!!!!" sorts of things, and now I just need to put them into action. I have a TON of things to do, and need to organize my time better.

Also, I finalized a teaching gig that I'm super excited about! I'll be teaching a Theater of Dreams Shrine class in Lancaster, SC on May 23. I'll post full details tomorrow. Also, I have some other FAB news I can't share yet-TOP SECRET!!!! but it is thrilling me so much and I can not WAIT to tell you about it. For now though, MUM's the word!!!!!

I haven't had the energy or focus to blog so I'm a day late with the bead bloggers but there's lots of good stuff to read!

• About.com Jewelry Making Tammy has some tips for branding yourself and your jewelry product while also putting together some awesome packaging.
• Art Bead Scene Feeling out of step with the trends? Here's some inspiration for the Fall 2009 season!
• Barbe Saint John - New Jewelry from Forgotten Artifacts Barbe reviews Dr. Weiman's 101 More Jewelry Selling Techniques Ebook.
• BeadStyle Magazine Linda's jewelry does the Lindy Hop far better than she does... check out her inspiration!
• Carmi's Art/Life World
  Carmi features a mini canvas pendant on a felted background, creating a collage brooch.
• Earthenwood Studio Chronicles Using gluable bracelet blanks from Rings and Things, Melanie shares ideas for how to use them in two very different ways.
• Jewelry & Beading The question of the month on Jewelry & Beading is about your hardest business decisions. Let your voice be heard!
• Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!If it has Margot Potter's name on the cover, you know it will be a super fun and interesting book! Beyond the Bead, Margot's latest, is just that!
• Strands of Beads Melissa shows off a celadon-themed necklace she made for Ornament Thursday.
• The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton A sleepless night for Andrew produced seven new necklace designs.