Weekly Wanderings Around the Beadosphere

Last weekend of September already. Nights are getting longer, it's barely light out when I have to get up to get ready for work. I think I'd love living in a much more southern latitude. Had a great visit on Friday night with some virtual acquaintances - I'd only met one of them before in person. I'd had a pretty awful day up till I sat down for drinks and great conversation. I may blog about that on my other blog one of these days.

Then Saturday was a lazy day, talked to both of my kids and watched shows on TiVo, took a long nap mid-afternoon. Cooked a late lunch for the husband and me, too - if you can call making salmon patties, nuking a tray of store-bought mashed potatoes and opening a can of peas cooking. It was very yummy nonetheless. Sunday will be a jewelry making day, I hope, because I've got a lot of ideas to work through.

Well, enough about me...this is about all my neighbors out there in the Beadosphere - so let's check 'em out!

• Just A Tish has had a banner week - posting every day! Start on Monday with this plea for info on knotting elastic thread, Tuesday about fall color trends, Wednesday and Friday she shows some of her beautiful work, Thursday on bead contests and other places to showcase your work, yesterday she shared her cool design package of beads from The Beadin' Path.


• A Bead a Day's week was also jam packed with great posts - Amber shell beads, Brown ceramic disks, rubber tubing for memory wire work, and see what she did with them in Saturday's post! Of course you want to check out the other days too.


• Welcome Carolyn Weir to the Beadosphere with me - see her posts Skysetter's Handmade Holidays.


• ErtheFae's Cthulhu is nearly done! I've been watching the progress and love the design. For some time now a pair of lovely earrings have graced the upper right corner of her blog - well, she sold them and there's a new piece in their spot - be sure to take a peek. Also worth a good long look is the gorgeous necklace "Elvensoul" she featured on Wednesday.


• At Brenda's blog, The Jewelry Box "a hodgepodge of beaded jewelry" she shows off the design created with her Artbead selection


• Check out the Staffordshire Hoard via The Beading Gem's Journal - fascinating stuff!


• Kelley of Kell's Creations shares pictured of the Renaissance Fair in Santa Fe where she had a lovely booth (visible in her first picture).


• On the other side of the globe and down to Australia - Deez News reports that Davinia visited her favorite bead shop for a beading lesson - lots of bead eye candy on that post!


• Daily Jewel shares the winners of the Paragon Lake Inspired Design contest.


• Silver Parrot shares more luscious beads and some chain and wire, too.


• SmuTopia has some Halloween themed finds to share


• SCDiva - I loved these gorgeous pendants the first few using an innovative technique, and others featuring her various polyclay designs, including image transfer, and then three fall color palette necklaces with beautiful image transfer pendants. I so admire her designs!


• Happy belated birthday wishes to Pink Pooch's Staci!


• Margot Potter shares about Friendly Plastic and if you comment on the post, you're entered in a giveaway drawing.


• WillowWalker's Fall Festival report, lovely Ember earrings and a gorgeous pendant/earring set, The Willows - I also received my beautiful dichrotic glass pendant and earrings this week as well as a beautiful pair of amber glass earrings. She does fabulous work so visit her ArtFire store, too!

Just one little plug for me - I finally broke down and started one of those 'fan pages' on Facebook. I'd love it if you'd become a fan.

• Soft Flex Girl shares Fusion Beads sale


• I think Dave's been too busy on the road with the Rings & Things Bead Tour (next one in my general area is San Mateo in November) to post this week - I look forward to the blog posts to come, though.


• Artbeads blog shared their top rated products, a visit to Boeing to see the new FedEx 777 freighter, lovely lampwork art beads and new free priority shipping for orders over $75.


• Dara's Weekly Beadditudes at The Beadin' Path chats about vintage beads at the Bead Forum.

Hope you're not too worn out from our little hike around the Beadosphere this week - lots of great places to visit. I highly recommend bookmarking or following the blogs mentioned so you never miss a post!

See you tomorrow for Monday Miscellany - I've got a good post planned! And if you're on Twitter, I hope you're going to enter the #TweetYourStudio contest - the contest runs tomorrow only and there are three great prizes being offered!

Weekly Wanderings Around the Beadosphere

• Just A Tish has given us some lovelies to admire this week! Three consignment & special order necklaces, flower inspired picks from Artbeads, and a post about a new source of Tiffany stone - what a gorgeous mineral that one is!


• A Bead a Day featured coral cubes, snack cakes, a lovely briolette bead, and much more. As usual, you should check every day to see what she's found and to enjoy her bright and positive outlook.


• Janeen looks like she found some great buys at the Northwest Bead Society Bead Bazaar


• Melanie from Earthenwood Studios shows how she used the Rings & Things challenge pieces from the July set of connectors.


• Margot gives a tutorial for bangle bracelets, and shares a beautiful black & white necklace featuring Lucite from The Beadin' Path - but the real beauty of the post isn't the necklace, it's what Margot says. Don't miss her Saturday post, either - it's just as much of a compelling read as the one before it.


• While I love the eye candy she featured on Friday (those shell beads!) Silver Parrot's Rings & Things challenge post also caught my attention - great selection, now I can't wait to see what she's going to make!


• For the Love of Beads shares her fun pictures of the Rings & Things Minneapolis Bead Tour stop.


• Davinia at Deez News shows off this really cool mixed media piece.


• Willow Walker bravely posts a picture of her studio 'before' her big fall cleanup. I am not so brave - and her workshop looks positively tidy compared to the mess I've been working through all weekend! She also shares what her show booth looks like - make sure to scroll down to see the pendant display - I really *love* it, and you'll be surprised when you read how it came about! Speaking of shows, which = sales, I'm excitedly looking forward to some really lovely new pieces of jewelry I ordered from her Art Fire shop the other day. There's one other piece I'm in love with, just need to save up some before I grab it.

• Artbeads features a customer creation by Jeannie Dukic, Q&A with Bailey Beader, and their Awareness Items sale this week.


• At the Rings & Things blog we get info on an upcoming bead cruise, gives us a look at an interesting project: resin belt buckles, and the R&T staff trying out Image Transfer Solution at Rings & Things HQ.


• This week Sara at the Soft Flex Girl blog has shared about the Best Beads Show, a video featuring Lewis Wilson, new Jamie Hogsett pieces, Cynthia Markson's story of how a winning lotto ticket helped her start her jewelry business, and news that you can get printable projects from Soft Flex.


• The Beadin' Path's Dara gives us some great bead tips this week.

Well, that's it for today's wanderings - see you tomorrow for Monday Miscellany. I have a Beadin' Path design partner necklace to show featuring their new glass River Rocks, *plus* I'll finally be able to share pictures of that Step by Step Beads Colorworks design contest finalist necklace I made, so I do hope you'll stop by.

Weekly Wanderings Around the Beadosphere

Today is the Mountain View Art & Wine festival and I'm really looking forward to visiting it. The weather will be cooler this year with a small chance of showers. Maybe that'll make it less crowded in the morning when we go. I love to visit all the jewelry crafting booths - they're part of the inspiration to make my own jewelry. I only get to buy their pieces once a year, but in the meanwhile I can create complimentary things on my own all year 'round.

It is also my son's 24th birthday today. Happy Birthday, Matt!

Well, I know you're not here to hear me ramble - you're ready to wander so let's get going!

• A Bead A Day: Colorful Cubes, Opally Lampwork Teardrops, Wrought Iron Links & more - every day Lisa shares something fun and wonderful.


• Just A Tish: September Birthstones, Rings & Things goodies and a new necklace (full disclosure - I made it), Green Man necklace tutorial (great pics!)


• The Beading Gem's Journal has been sharing a "series of wonderful jewelry display tutorials from blogdom from artisans who not only channeled their creativity in another way but also shared the results with everyone. A big round of applause!!" - Yesterday was necklace displays, Thursday was earring displays, Tuesday was ring displays. The Beading Gem's Journal is another one of those wonderfully helpful and informative blogs I try to read every day, hope you will, too!


• Deez Newz Dee is another gal after my own heart! Read about her re-worked necklace - love the design, Dee! And yesterday was a lovely post about her beautiful 91 year old mom.

• Earthenwood Studios - Melanie shows how she's used the Rings & Things Swarovski cubes. I'm glad I wasn't the only one to take my time figuring out what to do with them.


• ErtheFae's Wandering Thoughts: Turtle Talisman and Cthulhu's tummy getting its beads.


• The Lampwork Diva, Cindy Gimbrone has opened her ArtFire shop (yay!) for her jewelry creations and shows us some beautiful looking glass nuggets charms she's added to her other web store. I think I will have to add those to my stash very soon.
  


• Margot Potter the Impatient Crafter - Last week was a lot of fun on Margot's blog - a tutorial for a cool back to school denim book cover, lovely necklace patterns you can purchase from e-Patterns Central, her thoughts on the evolution of a design (which I read with great relief - she doesn't always like the first try, either!) and yesterday I got a thrill when I saw that she linked to my review of her wonderful Beyond the Bead book.
  


• SmuTopia was getting ready for this weekend's big show - I hope it went great for her! She also dedicated her Friday Finds to handmade display pieces she found on Etsy.


• Silver Parrot shared Back to School thoughts and a beautiful Nevada Lapis and borosilicate drops necklace, and a post I just loved about a number of fun and random things plus a gorgeous necklace and some "bead porn" as she calls it - you will love the beads she features and nothing is X-rated!


• I've just added a new blog to my follow list here at Blogger - Runako Designs by Dee. You'll probably be seeing some links to her blog in future Wanderings.

• You don't want to miss any of last week's posts from SoftFlexGirl - she took wonderful pictures of London and posted about them over several days (starting here). Then yesterday she had a guest blogger, Jennifer Wilson. Jennifer shared about working with her father to prepare some necklaces for an upcoming show. He looks like a fun dad!


• Congratulations to the winner of the Rings & Things "I Wanna Be a Blog Partner" contest - featured in the Rings & Things blog on Friday, Angela Bannatyne. A couple days before that they talked about "The World's Longest Beaded Necklace".


• Artbeads shares a gorgeous Swarovski and gold-filled chain lariat necklace from their customer gallery and a great "Using ICE Resin" video.


• Beadalon Blog has great info on Fall jewelry trends and their most popular tools.


• Not exactly a blog, but occasionally the founder of Blue Buddha Boutique, Rebeca Mojica, posts some relevant news on its homepage and this week they're asking folk to consider voting for them in the Shine A Light award from American Express and NBC Universal. They could be in the running to receive up to $100,000 in grants and marketing support. The deadline is today (Sunday, September 13th) so please visit the Shine a Light site to register and vote!

That's it for today - I'm sure this was a lot less exhausting than the Art & Wine wandering will be - but definitely easier on my pocketbook! See you for tomorrow's Monday Miscellany where I'll share some of the new work I've managed to get done between bouts of workroom clean-up (it seems to be a neverending task!).

Dawno's Weekly Wanderings Around the Beadosphere

It's Sunday, so you know the drill - grab your walkin' shoes (aka, mouse) and let's go wandering around the beadosphere...

• Lisa at A Bead A Day had a great week of beads (and hemp cord, too) - On Tuesday there were frosty white beads, on Saturday she featured a beautiful Italian glass bead. Be sure to check out every day of the week.


• Just A Tish had a short week - glad you're feeling better in time for the holiday weekend, Tish! On Thursday she let us peek into her thought process on "Creating for the Model" then she posted a great public service post on Friday about bead sales & bead shows.


• Wednesday at SmuTopia Jessica shared a wish list item, and on her Friday Finds she featured beautiful Harvest Gold work by various Etsy artisans.


• On Thursday over at Erthe Fae she showed off some lovely earrings. and on Friday we see she's working on Cthulhu's arm - I've been following her progress beading a plush Cthulhu with interest and can't wait to see the finished work.


• Davinia at Deez News shares what she considers her successes and failures. I love her cool grungeboard necklace.


• At The Beading Gem's Journal you'll adore the lovely beaded clutch her mother made for her using tiny seed beads (15/0) in beaded cross-stitch look like petit-point tapestry by a master of the craft. She also shares info on upcycled tie jewelry and a how-to for jersey t-shirt necklaces.


• Lori Anderson talks about fidgeting and her fidgety bracelet at Watch Me Create

• Addictive! Objects and Elements blog such amazing creativity featured there.


• Soft Flex Girl, Sara, is in London! Here's her day one post.


• This week's Weekly Beadditude with Dara is full of good advice about Selling Your Beadwork and Jewelry.


• Rings & Things shared the October birthstone for those of you who plan ahead, and speaking of planning *way* ahead, info about the 2010 Design Contest. What to pair with the basic 'little black dress'? The featured bead on Friday was the basic black bead.


• Artbeads shared a lovely pair of earrings, an Outlaw Necklace and a cute pair of earrings by a new crafter - all of Friday's posts were customer creations, which is such a nice thing to do.

Speaking of suppliers - don't forget to peek back at my Supplier Sales Saturday post if you missed it to get the scoop on some good sales - some are ending today, others pretty soon, so don't miss out. I hope to make this a regular feature every Saturday.

If you have the time tomorrow, do drop by, I'll be sharing a new piece which is *finally* using the last of the Rings & Things gluable challenge (and it was back in March) bracelet blanks that's been sitting on my worktable mocking me since.

I visited Michael's on Friday to pick up, oh, one or two things (ha! thank goodness I remembered my 15% off coupon) and found a whole bunch of gunmetal items from Plaid. One of them inspired me to grab that bracelet blank and make something! Hint: it's not a bracelet and there's no glue involved.

Thursday Feature: Reviews & Interviews - Lisa from A Bead A Day

One of my favorite blogs in the Beadosphere is A Bead A Day. It's a daily dose of cheer, with shiny beads tossed in! Lisa, the author of the blog, has also been a steadfast commenter here, bringing her enthusiasm and support to my blog and efforts to become better at my craft. I am so grateful for that and her generous feature of my work not that long ago on A Bead A Day.

On February 5, 2008 Lisa said in her first post "This is a new site geared toward all beaders who appreciate the individual beauty of beads and the unique works of art they are used to create." And indeed, each day since she's done just that.

You can also follow Lisa on Twitter. Now, let's hear what Lisa has to say!

Dawno: How did you get started blogging about a bead a day on A Bead A Day? It's a great idea!

Lisa: Thank you! I am working on a jewelry book that is being published by North Light Books at the end of the year. Prior to the Acquisitions Editor presenting my proposal, she suggested that I begin a website or blog. I wanted to get something up and running that day and the first thought I had was to talk about beads since they make me so happy. I didn't realize then how much joy this blog would provide and how many friends I would make in the process. It has been a wonderful experience!

Dawno: Did you have any goals or hopes for your blog when you started? Has that changed? How?

Lisa: I wanted to maintain consistency and produce something the publishing company would think was appropriate. I never dreamed I would get to know so many talented and wonderfully encouraging and kind beaders and crafters! I also had no idea of my potential for rambling on about beads!! : )

Dawno: Have you always been interested in beading and are there other crafts you like to do?

Lisa: I've always loved crafts, but until I started to bead, I had no idea of the wide variety of crafts and products available. I started to bead in 1990 after a vacation to San Francisco where I purchased my first piece of beaded jewelry from a street vendor. It was a strung bracelet using all the same hematite beads. It dawned on me when we got home that I could probably do something like that and I started buying beads at Joann Fabrics and Hancock Fabrics. I didn't have any awareness of swarovski and glass designers, etc. until much later. Several years later I got hooked on memory wire. In the last 8 or 9 years, I have taken classes and started reading every book and magazine I could find about beading techniques.

I also enjoy decopauge and anything having to do with hot melt glue and glitter!

Dawno: What has been your most challenging project?

Lisa: Good question! Sometimes I find projects challenging that do not even appear to be challenging. That's when I know I need to step back and realize this is supposed to be fun! That usually happens when I know I am making something for a specific person or purpose. Otherwise, since I'm not doing craft shows right now, most of my beading is for fun or gift giving.

Several years ago I made a woven bracelet using hemp cord and wooden beads that required every bead to be reamed in order to get 2 strands through each bead. That was definitely a tad challenging, but it wasn't until a couple of craft night friends admired it and I decided to teach them how to make it that the challenge began! I then had to ream beads and prepare kits for 5 other people. That was a bit of a challenge and my fingers were pretty sore afterwards. The reward was that they all turned out great and everyone was happy!

Dawno: What kind of beading do you like best?

Lisa: I have a love for memory wire. It is easy to use and has so many possibilities. You can make formal or informal pieces with it and technically just need one pair of pliers to turn the ends as long as you have a heavy duty pair of scissors to cut the wire. If you plan to use a lot of it, definitely invest in a memory wire cutter! It's a wonderful medium to teach because it is not intimidating to most people. It is usually adding a clasp and crimping that many people are concerned about learning. With memory wire, you can focus more on your design.

Dawno: You have a great eye for colors - any idea how that developed or if there was an early influence?

Lisa: That is very nice of you to say, thank you! I haven't thought of myself in that way, I just sort of go with things.

Dawno: If I were just starting to think about getting into making my own crafty jewelry, but was on a hugely limited budget, what "must have's" would you suggest starting with?

Lisa: Memory wire!! As I mentioned above, especially if funds are limited, you can get away with using a $2.00 pair of pliers and some kind of cutting tool you might have around the house, if you begin by using memory wire. Once you buy a package of memory wire, all you need are beads! As many or as few as you like. There are just a few limitations regarding beads. If they are too long or too fragile, they might not produce the results you are looking for on memory wire. However, most beads work great and if you are looking for immediate gratification, most projects are quick and easy!

Dawno: Sort of a "desert island" kind of question - you're going away somewhere and you can't buy any supplies while you're gone. You can only take a small tote full of stuff to work with to keep you sane, but you can also use anything you might find in your hotel, as well as your tote stuff to craft with. I'll be kind and let you come back to the world in one week :-) What is in your tote?

Lisa: Lots and lots of crystals!! They don't take up much space, but they provide lots of sparkly happiness wherever they go. You don't even have to make anything with them really, just LOOK AT THEM! I promise your mood will improve!

What do you think you could find to use? Gosh, I'm stumped! All I can think of is taking the laundry bags to put more stuff in! : )

Dawno: You can buy $500 worth of only one type of stone or bead to use in your jewelry - what would you pick and why?

Lisa: How funny, as I just mentioned above, I would buy crystals and for the simplest reason of all, the happiness factor. I don't know how you could look at even $10 worth of them and not become happier. Looking at $500 worth of all shapes, sizes and colors would be heavenly!

Dawno: As a beader/crafter, why is blogging and/or social networking important?

Lisa: Up until a year ago, my world was so much more limited. Once I began blogging I was able to better communicate my thoughts and feelings associated with beading/crafting. I have learned about many more techniques and products available. I have had the privilege to "meet" some of the brightest, and most popular, jewelry designers who are all so encouraging and willing to share what they have learned.

Once you begin meeting others on blogs or through facebook and twitter, you just can't go back! It restores your faith in humanity because everyone who is out there doing self promotion is also willing to take a minute to help you do the same. I would definitely encourage individuals hoping to promote either their craft, their art of themselves in general, to get on twitter and facebook and begin building relationships.

Thank you so much, Lisa, for letting us get to know you better. I hope everyone will bookmark or subscribe to ABeadADay and enjoy her fun and fascinating posts every day!

PS: There are no pictures of Lisa on her blog, so I thought I'd share pictures of her adorable pups, who you can also read about in: "The Magical Doggie Bead"