Bead Bloggers

Jennifer Jangles Blog
It's time to get started on those Holly - day projects, here's one from Jennifer.

Art Bead Scene Inspired by Steam
Art Bead Scene picks for Steampunk Style.

Art Jewelry Magazine
A holiday gift to you: a sale on downloadable patterns from BeadStyle, Bead&Button, and Art Jewelry magazines.

Barbe Saint John - New Jewelry from Forgotten Artifacts
Getting know Barbe=7 random things post!

Naughty Secretary Club
See what fun baubles Jen and her collage artist buddy Traci Bautista come up with this week. Hint: there are vintage cupcake toppers, chunky plastic chain and fabric involved!

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!
Jean thinks this class with Anne Mitchell and Gail Crosman Moore would be a fabulously fun and educational experience. Make this upcoming February a truly special one! Read all about it here!

Jewelry & Beading
Cyndi has rounded up a few fast and easy projects from some of her favorite suppliers.

Strands of Beads
Melissa is inspired by astrolabes and orreries to create a pendant from a beautiful lampworked bead.

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton
Magic Words – Text-based jewelry components can be a great source of inspiration. Andrew investigates these worded beads and pendants in six new designs.

About.com Jewelry Making
Tammy's drooling over the big and beautiful cloisonne beads.

How Ya Hanging - Flickr Favorites

Today wraps up our 4 day series on jewelry displays. We started with pictures from a few of my favorite books, a how-to section on making your own jewelry holders, my personal favorite a glimpse into the jewelry boxes of a few crafters and bloggers and today is all about the Flickr. I had a surprisingly hard time rounding up pictures on Flickr in the realm of jewelry displays, hence why I started the Flickr group How Ya Hangin' – Jewelry Displays. Remember to add your pictures! Onto those Flickr pictures….


There are so many elements in this picture by Ambrayasmin called Bedroom Decor that catch my eye: creepy head, vintage wedding cake toppers, are those elephants on the sides of that mirror. Awesome display example!


There once was a store in Los Angeles that sold my jewelry called Sweet Charity and I always loved their jewelry display which was a large tree branch. Who knew this was such a popular theme on Flickr.
1) Viva Terra Jewelry Holder by Design Milk
2)A Cute Little Corner of my Bathroom by Cori Kindred (Love the roller skating girls picture!)
3) A Place for Jewels by Shopursula
4) An Amazing Earring Holder by Lucybird (Love that these have not only been painted pink but that they have been made to look like deer antlers!)


When I have an Art Attack by Boopsiedaisy looks like my kind of kitschy casa and her Etsy store makes me wanna blow my pay check!


1) Necklace Collection by Happymeat (be sure to click to see this picture full size love that the display says Family Jewels)
2) Karate Holders Make Good Jewelry Holders by Caprinelicious (I couldn't agree more, I may need to tweak this idea with my collection of bowling and dirt bike trophies.)
3) Birds on the Wall by Elena777
4) Hanging Around by Greenapplegrenade (hey I have that plaster wall plaque too!)


My Little Loft by Amberrenée.com. I wanna live in that little loft, how cute is everything!

After the last 4 days you have no excuses for your jewelry to be tangled up in a box or drawer. What was your favorite of the posts? Any of the ideas inspire you to try something new? Did you see even Apartment Therapy is talking about the jewelry displays.

How Ya Hanging - Journey Through a Jewelry Box

When I had the brain storm for this blog-a-thon about jewelry displays, one of my first ideas was to rally the troops. I sent a call out to my crafty contacts, bloggers I heart and friends whose jewelry organization I covet. The end result was a handful of emails with tons of fun pictures to snoop through. Join me on a voyeuristic journey through the jewelry boxes of some of my favorite people, in alphabetical order.

Julie Briggs makes some of the cutest Handmade Julz I have ever seen and has a fun bamboo screen earring holder I am digging.



Amy Cluck of Pepto Girl Industries & Pimp Stitch comes in with a double colorful whammy!


Lish Dorset one of the crafty mavens behind Handmade Detroit and the Detroit Urban Craft Fair sent us these pics, I spy some Naughty Secretary Club.


Fellow Texan Jessica Doughterty of Funky Finds has some funky jewelry display ideas. Look closely in the bottom right hand corner to see the yellow, pink, white and green necklace she made in my Revamped Vintage Necklace class at the Make Studio in Dallas.


Lady about town in Austin Karly Hand is half of Design Crisis, 1/4 of Stitch, 1/8 of the Austin Craft Mafia and the entire force behind this mean green jewelry display machine.


Another Stitch producer and Austin Craft Mafia member making our list is Jesse Kelly-Landes who these days is focusing on cooking, just check out her new blog Bread Baby for proof. She wins the award for most creative use of a scraf.


Kathryn Lasater of Method Hair was kind enough to take a minute off from being a new mommy to send us a snap of her bedside jewelry box!


The world famous Crafty Chica Kathy Cano Murillo sent over a quick pic of a few of the necklaces she has hanging on her wall.


Otherwise known as the craftiest mom this side of the Mason Dixon line Fredda Perkins let me snap some pictures of the antique jewelry display she keeps in her bathroom.



I couldn't leave myself out of the mix. Not only do I make jewelry, I collect it so that entails a whole lot of display action.



Photographer extraordinaire (refer to the picture above of me blowing a bubble for an example) Cory Ryan took time out of her busy schedule to send over a couple of some snaps of her jewelry to share!


Bonnie Rue is probably one of my very favorite Austin artists. I have several T-shirts from her Model Citizen clothing line and am always in the mood for more. Her earring holder, which was once a mirror before her cat broke it, incorporates in some of her amazing illustrations.


How does Jenny Ryan find the time to organize her brooches so adorably between running Felt Club and blogging for Craft Magazine? Man she is a true Jill of all trades!


Oh how I love me some Amy Sperber and her fun line 31 Corn Lane. Though I don’t make it to Brooklyn often to see this fantastical lady and her baubles she was kind enough to send me a picture of her stash.


Don’t forget we are dying to see how you have your jewelry organized at home join our How Ya Hanging – Jewelry Displays Flickr Group and show us what you got. If you are tuning in for the first time this week be sure to check out How Ya Hanging – 4 Days of Jewelry Displays and How Ya Hanging – Make Your Own Jewelry Display. Tune in tomorrow for our final installment of our Flickr Favorites!

How Ya Hanging - Make Your Own Jewelry Holder

You’ve heard the slightly morbid old saying “there is more than one way to skin a cat”, well this old adage proves true when it comes to creating your own jewelry storage solutions. Today is part 2 of our 4 day jewelry display extravaganza and if you are completely perplexed about how best to show off your baubles we have a few suggestions and how-to guides.

One of the most popular ways to organize your earrings is the old standby the framed piece of screen. I know this is how I have my earrings displayed. I found several different methods to skin this particular cat.

For those of you that are visual learners check out this Decor It Yourself video where Meg walks you through making your very own earring holder.


The lovely Anne Marie Beard of Shop Austin has a handy and easy to follow tutorial on her blog.

Then from one of my favorite vintage craft books Don't Throw That Away I found a slightly different version of the project involving velvet!



Sometimes you can get lucky enough to create a jewelry holder out of items you already have lying around your house that virtually need nothing done to them other than to have jewelry on it.

Got an old belt with lots of holes or eyelets that you are no longer sporting out on the town? Well don’t sell that bad boy to Buffalo Exchange just yet, Ready Made magazine came up with a clever solution to breathe new life into that dated belt. Hang up the belt by its buckle, then slip hooks and posts through the holes until you’re ready to don your ear bobs.

If you own a copy of The Naughty Secretary Club: The Working Girls Guide to Handmade Jewelry you might have noticed that one of the many jewelry holders I have in my home include an old stamp carousel.


Using an old vinyl record to store your earrings seems to be the perfect companion to making a record bowl to hold your bracelets. You can buy some dang cute ones online like the one pictured from Retro Grandma or you can pop over to Craft Bits to learn how to make your very own. I’d like to point out that Craft Bits suggests poking the holes in the record with a hot needle, I say get yourself a Dremel and drill those holes!


Craft Lab guest and Richmond Craft Mafia member Kelly Ferrell came up with an adorable how-to jewelry holder project using one of my favorite things old suitcases. I just saw a vintage navy and white Samsonite at the thrift store I’m lamenting now because it could have been perfect to hold earrings.


Last but far from least are the amazing Hookers by Studio Normad, the picture is from a fun book called Flea Market Jewelry. No instructions on how to make your own here, but I bet with a pair of stilettos, paint and a sturdy nail you could figure it out.


I of course highly recommend giving handmade jewelry as a gift (might I suggest some Naughty Secretary Club), but a handmade jewelry holder is a close second. From suitcases to screens you have plenty of options to get you started. Remember to join the How Ya Hanging – Jewelry Display Flickr Group to show us what you come up with.

Tomorrow look for a peek into the homes of the ladies behind Felt Club, Handmade Detroit, 31 Corn Lane and more to see how they have their jewelry organized at home!

How Ya Hangin - 4 Days of Jewelry Displays!

I’ve noticed that I love looking at pictures of how people display their jewelry. In magazines, books, Flickr, online I’m always prone to pause on a picture of someone’s jewelry display. Maybe it is a subliminal vanity thing and I am looking closely to see if they have any Naughty Secretary Club in their collection or maybe I am just looking for inspiration about how best to arrange my own overwhelming collection of baubles. Either way I noticed I was amassing quite a collection of scanned pictures, book marked websites and Flickr favorites that I thought you might like snooping through as much as I do.

Over the next 4 days I’ll be covering a glimpse into the jewelry displays of some of your favorite crafters, how-to make your own clever jewelry displays and starting today a flip though of the pages of a few of my favorite books.

The first set of pictures are actually not from a book at all but an amazing photo blog called The Selby. Todd Selby photographs interesting people and their creative spaces and frankly if he made his photos into a book, I’d already have that bad boy on my Amazon wish list.

The first colorful pile of jewelry belongs to Marylouise Pels and Vanessa Giovacchini of Posso the Spat.


I am pretty sure that Judi Rosen of The Good The Bad and The Ugly could be my friend. After all on her bio she mentions that while shopping flea markets she is always on the look out for bad taxidermy & clowns – not to mention her array of Dream Pets that could almost rival mine.


When snooping through the pictures of Jennifer Earle and Mike Gabel’s house I can tell at one quick glance of their colorful jewelry stash that they are fans of Tatty Divine.


I have the entire set of Junk books by Mary Randolph Carter and love each and every one. On the pages of American Junk I spotted this amazing collection of Bakelite jewelry that makes me green with envy!


I love the Apartment Therapy book! I clearly think they should include the online tour they did of my casa in the next one! Until then I will settle for the amazing pink machine gun earring holder belonging to one Ms. Melissa Shockley.


Collectors Style is a book my mom told me about that I was just sure would have nothing I would like inside, boy was I wrong. This is probably one of my top 5 home decorating books just take a look at these two amazing examples of how different people display their jewelry in a very Deco way. I LOVE the Enid Collins collection.



I think I enjoy looking at the pictures of the staged rooms in my Ikea catalogs almost more than I do shopping there. Though I did get one of my favorite jewelry trees, the statist there.


Through the years I have collected a set of small and hip home decorating books that are written in Japanese and feature pictures of apartments in Paris and Stolkholm. With titles like Appartements d'amoureux á Paris and Ma deco a' Paris how could they not be good. Here are a few of my favorite things....




How do you have your jewelry stored in your casa inquiring minds want to know? We started a Flickr Group called How Ya Hanging – Jewelry Displays just so you could show us!

Tune in tomorrow to find out several different ways to make your very own jewelry display out of things like high heels, screen and suitcases!

Bead Bloggers

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!
Jean could easily picture herself as the lead in the book, The Secret Garden. Come play dress up with some jewelry using Green Girl Studios components! (Blythe Doll Picture and Jewelry by Jean Yates)

Strands of Beads
Melissa gets inspired by a favorite strip from "Peanuts."

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton
Finding Inspiration – Andrew explores a few examples of where he discovers inspiration and how it relates to the jewelry he makes.

About.com Jewelry Making
New Gathering Leaf Project - Use a chipboard sticker and some wire to make a leaf necklace for fall or to wear at the Thanksgiving table.

Art Bead Scene reviews their favorite tools
This tool gets around!

Bead&Button Magazine
Always wanted to publish a beading or jewelry-making book? Kalmbach Publishing Co. is looking for authors.

CHA Winter Show and Trends
Join Katie as she shares trends from the upcoming CHA Winter Show.

Carmi's Art/Life World
Carmi decides to make a name tag she'll actually wear,

Carter Seibels for Divali Glass Jewelry
It's not beaded, but it's quite entertaining! Carter shares some of her other creative talents this week.

Jennifer Jangles Blog
Jennifer's showing some funky sticks for your hair this week.

Jewelry & Beading
Kerry Wilkinson works with resin and...fruit? Well, ok, it's really polymer clay!

Naughty Secretary Club
Naughty Secretary Club and Etsy team up for a fun bracelet how-to project and a shopping guide for kitschy cool jewelry supplies.

E.A.S.T. & Team Fabrication

Looking for something free, fun and arty to do in Austin this weekend? Might I suggest E.A.S.T. otherwise known as the East Austin Studio Tour. I will be set up selling jewelry at my friend Amy’s studio located at 1402 Kirkwood Street from 10am-5pm Saturday and Sunday. We are number 141 on the map. Stop by for an assortment of dead rapper paintings by Hot Pink Pistol, handmade bags from Sweet Tooth and of course oodles of kitschy jewelry by Naughty Secretary Club. Get a jump start on your holiday shopping and suport local handmade goodness! Rumor has it there will also be a keg there to sweeten the deal!

I also hear good things about Arthur Simone & The 1408 Studios, both of which I will be hitting up!


Saturday night if I can stay up past 10pm I will be at The Mohawk watching my besties and sister walking the cat walk at the annualy awesome Team Fabrication fashion show.

Kinky Candles a PG-13 Craft Project

As if I don’t collect enough things two items I can never say no to when I see them staring back at me from the thrift store shelves are cute cocktail glasses and kitschy nudity. When the two are combined like in the case of these vintage Playboy glasses my heart goes pitter patter and I make a mad dash to the check out. I liked the irony that as I checked out I realized I was buying glasses with naked ladies and baby clothes, but I digress. These glasses are especially fun because they are the type that when a hot or cold liquid is poured in the glass their clothing disappears! Instead of adding the glasses to my never ending collection of cocktail glasses that I never use I thought I would make them into a set of Come-Hither Candles. Want to try your hand at a set? Well grab some kitschy cocktail glasses, yours don't have to have naked ladies, and play along with these easy to follow instructions.


More often than not when I score some nudie glasses or other fun goodies I set them up on a shelf for people to admire and most times gather dust. With this latest purchase ($5 for all 4 glasses – naughty nurse, raunchy in the rain, coy cutie and lewd librarian as I've named them) I decided to take a more utilitarian route and make the glasses functional. Sadly these glasses are not great to drink from because they are not dishwasher safe and you have to be careful the decals do not come off after too many washings. I had to learn the hard way.


First gather your supplies…
Blocks of Wax
Glasses
Wicks with metal tabs
Pens, swizzle sticks, paint brushes
Scent
Melt pot
Cooking pot to act as a double boiler
Stove
Scissors


Fill your cooking pot with a few inches of water and bring to a boil. In the center of the boiling water you should have your candle melting pot filled with a couple of blocks of wax. As the water boils it will heat and melt your wax to make it liquid and easy to pour. Dip the metal tab of your wick into the heated wax and attach to the center bottom of your candle.


Using items you have lying around like pens or swizzle sticks from the bar wrap the excess top part of the wick around something and lay it across the top of your glass. This will help keep your wick straight and centered.


While your wax is in a liquid state add the fragrance of your choice, I opted for vanilla but the craft store has a bazillion scents. Once your molten wax is scented using your melting pot pour the wax into the glasses. Be careful not to splash the wax and fill about 3 inches from the top of the glass. Allow to cool and harden completely which is about 6 hours.


Once the wax has cooled and hardened you might notice a dip in your wax right around the wick. No worries, it happens to the best of us. Heat up one block of wax in your make shift Dutch oven and gently fill in the valley and thinly cover the top of your candle.

Next use scissors to trim your wick to the desired length which is about to the top of the glass.

All that’s left to do is spark these babies up to set any mood, give them away as gifts this holiday season or do what I am doing and take them to sell at your local craft bazaar.


Not to sounds like the Schooner Tuna ad from Mr. Mom, but times are tough and there is some belt tightening going on this holiday season. I will be posting several how-to projects that would make perfect holiday gifts over the next few weeks. Most are a double whammy and also incorporate in some form of up-cycling like these glasses. Keep an eye peeled and in the meantime I’d love to know if you make your own version of these candles and what other handmade lovelies you are thinking about whipping up as holiday gifts this year.