« January 2011 | Main | March 2011 »
Wire was hot, hot, HOT! The colored wire spools were delightful to drool over. Many of the booths had folks giving demos on creating your own wire masterpieces. Like potato chips, once you start, there's no stopping.
Wireworking pajama parties until the wee hours were plentiful in Tucson! A tradition sure to continue next year.
Improve your skills as a jewelry making silversmith while you create an outstanding silver pendant, ring, and pin. In this new Jewelry Making Daily free eBook, available for download today, you will discover three silver jewelry making projects packed with valuable information to help guide you further into the art of silversmithing. Whether you’re into making silver jewelry for yourself or friends, or to create custom silver jewelry to sell, you’ll find Silversmithing Techniques from Jewelry Making Daily: 3 Free Silver Jewelry Making Projects a valuable reference and source of inspiration. With silver sheet, silver jewelry findings, and basic silver jewelry making supplies, you’ll be sure to hone your silversmithing skills as you re-create these outstanding pieces. You can also use any of the projects in this terrific free eBook as a springboard to develop a unique silver jewelry design of your own.
by Jean Campbell
I always get excited when Pantone releases their fashion color reports. These color-splot lists feature the shades top fashion designers are using on the runways for any given season. Spring 2011's report has an "exotic journey" theme, with the designers citing their color influences as anywhere from New Wave French electronica (Honeysuckle) to Peruvian textiles (Regatta) to a 1950s garden party (Lavender). The great thing for us jewelry designers is that these reports can give us a leg up on one area of design that many of us struggle with: color. Why not rely on the pros to help us be fashion forward?
Marsupials are jerks.
Look at ‘em, with their beady little eyes, lording it over us because they’ve got pouches. “Look at us,” they say, “our young don’t even have to walk because we’ve got these rad pouches.”
We found the cure to pouch envy.
It’s an amazing way to turn photos into pouches. All you need is some easy-to-find photo fabric and some glue: you don’t even need to sew.
These are just like the pouches you see in hip shops that look like cassette tapes, tacos or PB&J sandwiches. You can make your pouch look like any object you can find!
Now we can carry anything: cameras, credit cards, spare batteries, tiny fetal marsupials…Take that, smug koalas of the world.
I just received a copy of Mixed Metal Mania for review and dove right in. Here's the scoop.
Mixed Metal Mania makes metal jewelry accessible to a brand-new audience---those looking to include wire, metal and other materials in their work. Beginning with a excellent introduction to both traditional and "unconventional" tools, the book then moves into basic metalworking techniques, including cold connections, sawing, soldering and more. These sections of the book are detailed enough to get a novice off on the right foot.
Kim then moves on to simple projects before building into more challenging work. The author also includes the stories of inspiration behind each project, adding to the appeal of this book.
I found most of the projects in the book attractive and aspirational, with detailed, well-written instructions. The major flaw of the book is the lack of crispness in both the photographs and the text. Sharper photos and text would make the book much more visually appealing and easier to use as well.
About the author: A former public school instructor and current owner of a retail store, Expressive Impressions, Kim now combines her love of teaching with her creative talent as a jewelry maker. Kim teaches metalsmithing and other jewelry-making techniques at the William Holland School of the Lapidary Arts, the Bead&Button Show, Swarovski's Create Your Style in Tucson, the Wildacres Retreat, and other venues across the U.S.
Get your copy of Mixed Metal Mania here.
Here are a couple of tricks to make swatching circular knitting easier. No longer do you have to make a hat to test your gauge for that new seamless sweater, or knit half a sock before discovering you're really making a mitten for your favorite kid. Today's little tricks let you test your CIRCULAR gauge on a piece of FLAT knitting. One of these tricks has been shown on TECHknitting blog before, although rather hidden, but the other trick is making a first appearance here.
by Chelsea Clarey
In this business, most of us serve as our own advertising department. What better reason to learn to be better copywriters? For this reason, it's wise to consider our language with care.
Therefore in this multi-part series we'll be picking up an overused word or term with each entry and exploring how to use it better.
The concept of authenticity is important in the social sciences, as we'll hint at a little below. It's also remarkably common in online marketing.
