Stud Bracelet

I love this bracelet!  It takes around an hour to make so you can wear it the day you make it!!  Below the photos you will find jpegs that show the complete directions on how to make your own Stud Bracelet!  Please enjoy and give me the design credit when you share your own version!!!  Thank you all for supporting me!  Happy beading!!

A Little Bit of Organization Goes a Long Way

A little bit of organization goes a long way!  I have a large table area for beading which frequently (everyday) looks like this:

The above photo shows where I sit to actually bead.  I have my music there and all the other beading items at hand.  Moving slightly to the left is this area.

I use it to stack the pieces I am currently working on.  I get bored, frustrated, or loose sight of a design so I just box it up and set the beading mats here for later use, hoping inspiration comes quickly.  You will also notice that I use a lot of late post it notes for lists, design, or just notes on what I am working on.

Moving further to the left is this area:

Here I have more storage for projects that I need more time to figure out what to do with.  Some I even leave on my paper mat just so I can see them and keep them currently in my memory! 

Now for the important part...Can you see the plastic containers in the photo above?  They are my organization idea that I wanted to show you.  There is a larger one to the top right of photo.   Inside it  are several more smaller ones.

 Here is a close up of the larger container with the smaller ones inside.  These containers are made to hold and organize photos.  You can get them in the size as above that contain 6 smaller boxes or a larger size that contain many more.  I do have some of the larger ones but I do not keep them out on my beading table.

Here is a photo of one of the individual photo containers opened.  I like this storage solution because my post it note paper fits nicely inside the box along with the sample project.  The bead containers I use fit inside as well.  They can also be stacked with your bead mat so that nothing gets lost.  All the materials needed are right there.

These containers can be purchased at just about any hobby/craft store!  I can't remember how much they cost because I have had them for so long and reuse them all the time!

Happy beading!!

Stay tuned...I am working on a freebie beading pattern to be posted here!  

Christmas Fever

I'm in full beading mode.....doing Christmas ornaments when I should be working on things that I have started.  They need to get finished up before....I don't know...year's end!!

 Maybe those Elves, who work hard to create toys for Santa to deliver, will show up and complete these.....

I have a bracelet and two earring designs that I need to write instructions for.  The bracelet would match my Sunrise Pagoda Necklace....

Here are one set of earring designs.  I used peanuts and seed beads for the tops!

These earrings I made for me to wear for the holidays.  The one on the left was my first try...I made the second one and decided it was a keeper. And of course I love them and must write up instructions.....

This is a bottom portion of a new pendant design.  I stopped work on it when I started the top and rope section.  I didn't like what I came up with, so now I have to redo the top section and rope...Muse, where are you???

I designed this as a bracelet!  It is gorgeous, but doesn't work as a bracelet....I have to figure out what I am going to do with it....

 I love these stars...they are so easy to make and look so sparkley!  But I don't know what to make of them...

All I want for Christmas is a visit from those work crazed elves to finish up my work for me!!!!!

Oh well, I'm off to finish up another Christmas Ornament!!!

Happy beading!!

Playing with Baubles

First I would like to say that I love the word, "baubles".  Baubles, baubles, baubles!!

I have been playing around with beads lately making these small pendant like things that I call baubles.  I am trying to figure out what to do with them.  I thought that they would make small pendants, but I'm not too keen on that idea.  Small Christmas ornaments?  Nah!  What I probably need to do is put several together to form a nice necklace or bracelet....I just can't figure out how right now!!!  Do any of you have any ideas?  Please let me know!  Also, how about tutorials for just baubles?  Would anyone be interested in those?  Again, please let me know your ideas!!

Reading Peyote Patterns

Great link for reading peyote patterns!!!
http://www.rubysbeadwork.com/ReadingPeyotePatterns.html

Taking Photos of Jewelry

I am not a photographer!  With that said, I feel that I do take good photos of my jewelry and some of you out there in the internet world must agree somewhat.  I have had several people ask about my camera and how I photograph my jewelry.  I am writing this post to answer those questions.

The camera I use is an Olympus Stylus-90000.  It is at least 5 years old.  It is a point and shoot type camera, but with some changable functions.

I do use a light box that I purchased.  Here are some photos of it.  Keep in mind that I keep it in a storage closet!

Notice that in the photos there is a tripod for my camera.  I tend to shake and move the camera about when I take photos without my tripod!  I don't think that the brand of light box nor lights make that much of a difference.  I feel that one must use the settings on the camera to take better photos.

The settings I use on my camera are WB (white balance), macro, and +/-.  I set my WB to the sun symbol for bright light.  I use the macro "on" setting (flower symbol)...sometimes I even use the super macro setting.  These help, but I have found that the +/- (I think its called the aperature.) is the most imortant.  On my camera I can display a bar graph of the lighting and I know to keep the red next to the right side of the graph.  I take several photos at the +/- on 0.0 then move up to +0.3, +0.7, and/or +1.0.  I download the photos to my computer and choose the best looking one as the one I save.  If I happen to use a black background, I tend to move the +/- into the negative numbers and do the same thing.

I know that a lot of people use a photo editing program on the computer to enhance their photos.  I saved my Microsoft Office Picture Manager from 2003 and still use it if I need to crop or brighten.  I like that I can change the light, medium, and dark areas with this program.  Plus it is easy to use!

These are the things I do to take photos of my jewelry.  I hope it will help some others out there!  Remember I am not a photographer and all my learnings have occurred from trial and error!  And a lot of errors!!!

Creating a New Design

For those of you who do not know me personally, you may find it hard to believe that I have a very hard time following other designers instructions!  No, it's not because their instructions are bad (usually they are better than mine)!  It's because I can't shut off my mind.  I am always thinking...Why do it this way?... What if I did it that way?  I usually screw up the beadwork!  In doing this, new designs are developed! (One must always have a positive side to any undesirable attribute!)

I came up with this X pattern when playing around with my beads and thought, "Aah-ha, this will be great!

So I put several Xs together and there it was...a beautiful bracelet!  However, when I put this bracelet on, it collapsed in upon itself.  So I moped around for a day and dreamed about how to "fix" it.  Hey sometimes it works!  Don't laugh!  It definitely worked this time.  With the addition of several 3 bead bridges stragetically placed between the motifs, no longer did the bracelet collapse!  So now I have a new design!

Look carefully between the center motif and the end motifs.  Notice there are no connecting bridge beads.  This bracelet collasped!

Compare this photo to the one above and notice the connecting bridge beads that keep this bracelet from collapsing!

But did I stop there....NO!  I had to see what would happen if I changed the direction of the Xs, and another design was developed!

Notice that now the connecting bridge beads are in a different place.  Yes, I had to add them here to keep this bracelet's structure!

I am in the process of writing an instruction packet for this new design.  I call it Morning Dew.  There are 3 bracelet possiblities and a pair of earrings included!  

One bracelet design not pictured is just a straight line of motifs connected together for those beaders who like a simple design!  Happy beading!!!
Norma Jean