Posts tagged with 'wire'

  • Hunting Wholesale Jewelry Shows?

    POSTED BY TAMMY POWLEY, OCTOBER 23 2007 08:00 AM | PERMALINK

    If you are serious about the jewelry biz, then wholesale is the only way to go when purchasing all the supplies you need to make your jewelry creations. Luckily, when I first started selling jewelry back in the late 90s, I stumbled upon a wonderful wholesale resource, and I've been a fan ever since of the G&LW Shows, aka Gem and Lapidary Wholesalers Inc.

    While I will say that these shows every year seem to have more and more finished jewelry than jewelry components, you'll still find plenty of...

  • Metal Metallics Beading Wires

    POSTED BY TAMMY POWLEY, OCTOBER 17 2007 08:00 AM | PERMALINK

     

     

    Even if you don't normally feel like a metal chik, maybe you are more of a bead-a-cious babe, you can still get your metallics on with metallic beading wire. All the three big beading wire giants now make some very cool metallic colored beading wire, so you can match up your copper or brass beads with stringing medium to match. Pictured is Metallics by the Soft-Flex Company.

     

     

    Then there's Beadalon's answer to metal wire with their silver colored wire pictured here. Beadalon does not sell...

  • Metal Chik #8: Very Vintage

    POSTED BY MICHAEL GLENN, OCTOBER 15 2007 12:00 PM | PERMALINK

    The vintage look is hot right now. This week we're going to take a look at a fabulous art nouveau collection and get some ideas on how to accessorize - vintage style!

  • Metal Chik #9: Hot Glass and Cold Enamel

    POSTED BY MICHAEL GLENN, OCTOBER 11 2007 12:00 PM | PERMALINK

    It’s all about enamel! This week we’re going to take another look at Peggy’s fabulous collection, this time focusing on enamel. Then we’re going to show you a way of recreating this look that’s simple, modern and a lot of fun.

  • Get Wired on DVDs

    POSTED BY TAMMY POWLEY, OCTOBER 10 2007 08:00 AM | PERMALINK

     

     

    Sharilyn Miller has some excellent new wire jewelry DVDs out: Rings of Beauty and Tribal Treasures. You can pretty much guess what you'll learn to make on the first DVD, rings - lots and lots of different rings using wire and also some beads here and there. The other DVD shows how to make a wonderful "tribal" style bracelet.

     

     

    Sharilyn, who you probably know from her jewelry books and time spent as an editor over at Somerset Studios, shows how to make a bracelet that looks more like an...

  • Little Jewelry Tools for Big Jobs

    POSTED BY TAMMY POWLEY, SEPTEMBER 18 2007 09:00 AM | PERMALINK

     

     

    Beadalon may be known mainly for its beading wire, but it also manufactures a kinds of other jewelry making goodies, such as tools. The company recently came out with this handy little tool kit, which includes 4 pairs of Beadstrom pliers (semi-flush cutter, round-nosed pliers, flat-nosed pliers, and chain-nosed pleirs). While they have the same pliers sold individually as well as with longer handles, for me, I prefer smaller handles with most of my tools because they fit my hands better.

    If...

  • All Bling, No Rings

    POSTED BY TAMMY POWLEY, SEPTEMBER 12 2007 08:00 AM | PERMALINK

    I've been making a lot of sparklies lately. Something about crystals just seem to attract me more and more these days. One set, in particular, I am still ga-ga over. I call it "More is Better," and it includes the earrings (pictured above), a bracelet loaded with Venetian glass beads, and a 40 inch necklace combining chain, wire, and yes, lots and lots of beads.

    So, because I tend to spend way more time writing about jewelry than making it these days, I was very jazzed when I finally...

  • Inside Scoop on Wire Projects

    POSTED BY TAMMY POWLEY, SEPTEMBER 10 2007 08:00 AM | PERMALINK

    I think the saying "it's not what you know - it's who you know" fits in here some how because I recently got the inside scoop about some free new Colourcraft wire projects created by Margot Potter for the Beadalon website, which is being updated as we speak. Casual browsers of the site would not find these that easily because of the under construction stuff going on, but I have some direct links for you, thanks to Margot, to some fast and fun wire project:

  • Favorite Wire Gauge

    POSTED BY TAMMY POWLEY, SEPTEMBER 07 2007 11:37 AM | PERMALINK

     

     

    During a wire wrapping classes I took a few years ago at my local rock and gem club, I remember hearing one of the students mention how much she preferred using 21-gauge wire over just about any other size. At the time, I thought, "What's the diff? Can 20 and 22 be that different than 21-gauge wire?"

    Eventually, curious about her wire rantings, I bought some 21-gauge, and I saw the light. Here's was so great about this odd sized wire:

    • It fits through most holes in most beads (except for...

  • Jewelry Then & Now

    POSTED BY TAMMY POWLEY, SEPTEMBER 04 2007 10:17 AM | PERMALINK

     

     

    I totally stole this idea from some fellow jewelry bloggers I know who have been looking back at some of their original "creations," and taking stock in how their techniques and design skills have grown over the years.

    Pictured above are a pair of earrings I made way, way back when, probably late 80s/early 90s. This is before I discovered round-nosed pliers. In fact, this is before I ever saw a pair, and yes, I actually sold earrings like this with these horrible loops! Yikes!

     

     

    I...