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Bead Class Links - Useful links for Nancy's students Home: greenlightwrite.com featuring |
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Bead Class Links - Useful links for Nancy's students Home: greenlightwrite.com featuring |
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2010 Diary - next year 2008 Diary - previous year About Us - Find out more about Nancy Kamp and Jane Marie Beading - Main page and Table of Contents Books about Beads, Beading and Jewelry VeryShinyObjects.com - Watch Nancy's jewelry business grow! |
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January 21, 2009: I loved Michelle Obama's fashion choices for Inauguration Day. Her jewelry was understated - bracelets and earrings. The Washington Post's Robin Givhan said her earrings for the inaugural balls, "diamond chandelier earrings by Loree Rodkin ... retail for $17,313. They were lent by the Chicago boutique Ikram." January 24, 2009: I have several bead classes coming up as well as summer school beading to plan for, so I was thrilled to look through (devour) some of the new bead books to find ideas and tips I could adapt and pass along. Of course, we all get ideas from everything, but the books, ahhh ... Chic & Easy Beading, volume 3, by Bead and Button magazine, follows the formula of great looking projects presented in a clear manner. The projects are fresh, the tips helpful. I am starting with the cover design, a very clever use of cord, and working my way though its pages. Beautiful Wire Jewelry for Beaders, by the extremely creative metal clay expert Irina Miech, has three levels of projects, so there is something in it for everyone. It certainly contains ideas I want to work with - especially the simple, but beautiful Zigzag Rings.
February 24, 2009: I don't approve of entertainment award shows. Those people have dream jobs, big bucks and tons of perks the rest of us can only dream of. And then they have the nerve to give themselves awards for doing their jobs well. Humpf. When was the last time the mechanic who changed your oil properly and efficiently or the teacher who spent extra time with a needy kid got international recognition? I don't care about about which actor won what. But I watched the Academy Awards to see the clothes and the jewelry. And the jewelry winner was ... Tariji P. Henson. Her necklace was perfect. Oh, and I'm writing a screenplay.
March 7, 2009: I've joined the Bay Area Beaders online group (now closed). Janice Parsons, the founder and owner of the late and much lamented The Bead Shop, sent out this Gemstones 101 Jewelry Television link today. It's worth a click. Thanks, Janice!
March 19, 2009: Because I'm running several years behind, I just now realized they gave the Anne Boleyn character on The Tudors (season one, episode three) the same giant letter B necklace that Betty Suarez wears on Ugly Betty. I'm sure the reason isn't historical accuracy since The Tudors takes liberties with the facts, but ...
March 21, 2009: As I get ready for Christmas (you heard me) on the site with the new jewelry and improved look for each page, I decided to add information from Dr. David Weiman to my personal tool kit. And I signed up for his affiliate program at marketingjewelry.com. He's got all kinds of useful information for those of us who want to sell our creations. I just got my hands on the latest edition of Antoinette Matlins' The Pearl Book. It's packed with pearl info including a list of names for imitation pearls that may be sold as the real thing: Atlas, Cave, Kultured, Laguna, La Tausca, Majorca (Mallorca), Nautilus, Red Sea, River, Shell, South ocean and Semi-cultured. Matlins has written all kinds of jewelry oriented definitive buying guides.
May 31, 2009: Just found an article about the jeweled teeth of some citizens of pre-Columbian Mexico. Apparently they've been improving on nature for thousands of years. Bling is beautiful, but healthy teeth are priceless, I say.
June 30, 2009: I've been teaching jewelry making at week long summer sessions for teens and tweens, and I've noticed some of the students can't get enough. They want more ideas and more techniques. I've relied on the Internet and more heavily on books to provide these. When we start classes next week, I'll be taking along Silver Clay Keepsakes by Katie Baum and Judi L. Hendricks, the perfect book because it has innovative silver clay projects teens will really want to do. And they/you can do some of them with a gas stove.
July 16, 2009: I've been so busy making jewelry and teaching classes I've neglected to chronicle the good stuff. Here goes: First, there is a small possibility the Greater Oklahoma City Bead Society will move from a corner of my mind into the bright sunshine of existence. With members. Members who love beads and jewelry making. Contact me if you are interested. Second, my summer classes are getting better and better. I've been spending the long hot days (it's Oklahoma, people) with groups of girls who were sometimes conscripted into the classes by well-meaning parents. As each week of intense jewelry making progressed, the draftees grew in enthusiasm and creativity. I have seen them innovate and build on the basic skills they've leaned to create jewelry anyone would be proud to wear. It's a wonderful thing. Finally, I know I should wait until after the fact with this, but serendipity is what it is. I've always made it a practice to take relevant bead books to jewelry class for students who arrive early or finish before their classmates. This summer, my students have been inspired by the books I brought to add projects to the curriculum. They've reveled in the best designs out there, and the results speak for themselves, so when I came home today and found two new books in the mail, well, wow! And the best part is, these books are perfect for the very last day of class. I always emphasize that jewelry making is a never ending journey with an option for everyone. There is no way I can teach every skill in 17 1/2 hours of class time. But books help me introduce possibilities like bead crochet with thread or wire. Enter Creative Beading volume 4 from the publisher of Bead and Button magazine. It contains a gorgeous wire crochet necklace by Brenda MacLellan with instructions for a beginner. My girls can aspire to this and so can I.
To top things off, there is Jewelry in a Flash from the publisher of BeadStyle magazine. This book has projects that will take 15, 30 or 60 minutes that are well within my students' skill levels. They have been asking which book to buy first, and Jewelry in a Flash has jumped to the top of the list.
August 25, 2009: I really, really want to vote on the new design for the Hope Diamond, but the site (or this dumb laptop - not all images come through - this seems to be a Dell issue) thwarted me. One of the designs is awful, the other two less so. Go to Smithsonianchannel.com and give it a try.
September 22, 2009: My recent trip to Boston (August 10 entry) yielded two very nice jewelry experiences:
New bead books are here! Kalmbach Books continues to publish the jewelry making books my students and I want to own. Big & Bold hit me in the heart - I love big, dramatic jewelry and had been fumbling for inspiration for a special piece until I saw this book. The projects are simple and stylish.
There are quite a few good books about using polymer clay these days, so I look for innovative techniques. It feels as though Gail Richey wrote Artful Polymer Clay just for me. Her ideas are creative, clever and easy to duplicate and/or expand upon. Artful Polymer Clay is also a four bear book.
September 29, 2009: As the season changes, I noticed I've been spending more time making jewelry. Although I realize this site will not be ready for the holidays, I am making both jewelry to sell as well as gifts for family and friends. And apparently, I'm not the only one, so I wasn't really surprised when yesterday's mail brought Virginia Jensen's new book, Cube Bead Stitching. Over the years, my exposure to rational beading has been limited by the lack of a local bead society filled with aficionadas of beadwork. Having a teacher or mentor on hand makes learning a new skill easier, but I have to say Kalmbach Books has done a great job of filling the gap. Each seed bead book they publish is easy to follow with excellent illustrations. Cube Bead Stitching goes the extra bead by using a slightly different medium, cube beads, to create projects we can all complete and be proud of. Turn to the section on earrings to get started and you will. Get started AND make something you can be proud of.
October 18, 2009: There's a rock show in Oklahoma City next weekend, and I'm going! For some reason, I've never been to one, but they have beads, so ... Unfortunately, my next round of bead classes begins two days after the show closes. My students, who always leave the class fired up to buy beads and make something spectacular, will have to shop elsewhere. On the other hand, Kalmbach Books just sent me A Year in Earrings, which will go to class with me. Everyone will love it as much as I do. A Year in Earrings shows how to make 365 variations! And this with the holidays looming. It is my favorite new book.
October 28, 2009: I get email newsletters from lots of jewelry sources and have listed some on these pages. One of the most interesting is from Israeli Diamond. Today, they wrote about bubble diamonds, which have visible flaws and are extremely popular because of price and edginess. Bubble diamonds are formed by either carbon bubbles or diamonds that formed inside other diamonds. Please purchase them responsibly with regard to both the environment and the dangers of blood or conflict diamonds.
November 19, 2009: Jewelry is great fun. You need something new. Forget the economy And buy a gift or two.
Beth Stone has been busy again. She's just given us More Seed Bead Stitching, which fans of creativity will enjoy. Not only does Stone showcase interesting stitches with lovely results, but she also gives us suggestions for sparking our own pattern and color ideas. I was particularly entranced with matching spotted and striped beads to stitched beadwork.
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