One more day on sale: Miyuki Cubes

Just one day left - sale ends Wed Midnight:

Miyuki
3 mm
Cubes

 

Miyuki
4 mm
Cubes

25% off!

All our Sales start on Wed Midnight.
and run to the following Wed midnight.

November classes - a great time to learn a new skill!

Wow, November is just around the corner and, with it, you know holidays and gift-giving is coming up fast! Why not create your holiday gifts? Now is the time to learn a new jewellery-making technique and create something special for your family and friends - and yourself!

In November there are several new classes and some new instructors too! Welcome to Roxann Blazetich-Ozols who brings us new fibre classes!

Here are the November 1st - 15th classes and open sessions:

Saturday, November 2
NEW Hot Connections Bezel Set Pendant
Instructor: Iris Rogers Melamed
10:00am - 5:00pm

Sunday, November 3
Getting Started with Hadar's Clay
Instructor: Liz Reynolds
1:00 - 5:00pm

Monday, November 4
NEW Peruvian Malla Covered Pearls and Wire Bead Earrings
Instructor: Gio Paz
6:00 - 9:00pm

Wednesday,  November 6
Open Beading Night
Facilitator: Stephanie Dixon
6:00 - 8:00pm

Thursday, November 7
Afternoon Bead Tea
Facilitator: Pamela Kearns
1:00 - 3:00pm

Friday, November 8
NEW Right-Angle Weave Beaded Bead
Instructor: Sureka Sriharan
1:00 - 4:00pm

Saturday, November 9
NEW Ducette Beaded Bracelet (left)
Instructor: Roxann Blazetich-Ozols
9:30am - 12:30pm

NEW Crochet Cord Bracelet (r)
Instructor: Roxann Blazetich-Ozols
1:30 - 4:30pm

Sunday, November 10
Kumihimo Beaded Patterned Necklace
Instructor: Angela Peace
11:30am - 2:30pm

Wire Kumihimo Beaded Bracelet (left)
Instructor: Cindy Goldrick
11:30am - 1:30pm

French Knitting with Wire and Beads (right)
Instructor: Cindy Goldrick
2:30 - 4:30pm

Monday, November 11
NEW Peruvian Malla Covered Pearls Necklace
Instructor: Gio Paz
6:00 - 9:00pm


 

Thursday, November 14
Flat Spiral Bracelet
Instructor: Pamela Kearns
6:00 - 9:00pm

Friday, November 15
Open Metal Studio: Metalwork
Facilitator: Cindy Goldrick
5:30 - 8:00pm

For complete information, including costs, kits and descriptions,  about all classes and open sessions please consult our website at www.beadfx.com.

Inspiration: Skullboy Bracelet

InspirationFX
Get your creative juices flowing

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Skull Boy Bracelet
by: Pam Kearns
Here's a not-too-scary bracelet to celebrate Halloween or just your inner dark side!

Place the leather cords side-by-side and slide the Skullboy bead onto the two cords, ensuring it face "out" of the natural curve of the leather. Centre the bead on the two pieces of leather.

Slide the wire between the bead and the leather, and centre the wire.

Hold the bead and leather and half the wire in place with one hand, and start wrapping the wire in a figure 8 around the two pieces of leather, moving away from the centre and towards the end of the leather. At the end, secure the wire by wrapping it around one of the leather cords twice. Trim the wire. Make sure you leave enough room for the clasp.

Wrap the other half of the bracelet the same way, from the centre out to the ends using a figure 8 motion and secure and trim the same way.

Dry fit the clasp to both ends of the leather and trim if necessary to even up the ends an d ensure a good fit. Remove the claps and re-apply with glue on both ends.

Secure the centre bead if necessary with a dot of glue on the leather.

Editor's Note: Pam and I discussed the clasp used here, and aren't really happy with it being flush. The wire holds the bracelet in shape, so it doesn't need a strong clasp - but you might want to use a different one if you think you want a stronger connection.

Components

Go to our components list for this project and to buy what you need!
Need some help with some of the techniques? Check our tips page.

Inspiration: Mostess Ghostess

InspirationFX
Get your creative juices flowing

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Mostess Ghostess
by: Lee Metsalo

Here we have the Ghostess with the Mostess! Finger puppet - halloween decoration - or just plain fun! The glow-in-the-dark beads make this extra fun!

Use your favorite bead-stitch to make cylinder, this one is about 2 inches long by 1 inch across, fill in one end for the head and increase the other for the, er, feet? Lee used even-count peyote stitch, this ghosty is 32 beads around, decreased to fill in the top, and increased for the bottom.

There is one bead left out for a mouth, and the "mood" bead eyes show if he is in a good mood or not!

Components

Go to our components list for this project and to buy what you need!
Need some help with some of the techniques? Check our tips page.

The Business Chat - Promote yourself with a card

Done, done and checked off my list! This week I checked off creating new postcards, ordering more business cards, creating new Thank You cards for all my online orders and started the ball rolling on a spiffy brand new website. 

Promotional materials and packaging are incredibly important for keeping my business alive. They promote my brand, reinforce my message, and keep my business name alive in a customers mind. They communicate my story and my product to my customers, which is what marketing is all about.

For every one sale I make in my holiday craft show booth there will be dozens of people who walk through, admire and leave. Just because they don’t buy at this time doesn’t mean I write them off for future purchases. I make sure I have something they can take away to remind them of me later. This is where my postcards come in. Hopefully they like them enough to put it on their fridge and at some point they can order online. 

The most important thing about marketing materials is that they are consistent, they must reflect you, your product and your marketing message. If your work is small, delicate and neutral in colouring then don’t use primary colours and a splashy font. Your promotional materials must not only reflect your business, they should reflect you. YOU are the product along with your jewellery. Make sure your materials reflect your creative energy and sincerity.

Marketing dollars are limited and so is your time. It’s important to think long and hard about each piece that you produce in order not only to not waste time and money, but to avoid sending the wrong message out to the public.

You may decide to design your own materials. You may hire a graphic designer. Or you could take a middle road and commission a basic “design template” that you can apply to each piece as needed. (I use all 3 of these methods.) 

Whatever you decide run through the 5W’s for every piece you create. 

Who

Who is your audience? Designing an expensive 3 fold brochure discussing your technique may be appropriate to a high-end gallery but if you’re giving it to customers at a craft show it is probably wasted.

What 

What is the purpose of the piece? You can’t judge if something is successful if you haven’t defined what success is. Sometimes you’re trying to educate people on your work and sometimes you just want to tell them how to reach you. Know what you are trying to achieve. 

When

When do they see this? I have several pieces and each has a different version of my message. One piece is for when they open a package, one for taking away at a craft show. And the website is for oogling and shopping. Same message but different versions. Think about when your customer is getting your piece of material and what they expect to see. 

Where 

Where do they get it? If they are seeing the piece when they open a package they aren’t looking to read a lot. If they are picking this up at a booth they need contact information. If you’ve had a long discussion with them then maybe you have give them the 3-fold brochure that you have hidden from the general public in your booth. Again, same message different version. 

Why

Why do they have this? You want a customer to do something, maybe keep the this for future reference, pass it on to a friend, pick up the phone to call you or to order online. When you know why they have this you can design the piece to highlight what you want them to do. Maybe have your website in a larger font, or have an enticing photo on the front so that they keep it. 

It’s important to know in advance exactly what your budget is. Promotional materials can get pricey. Know your limit and stay within it. Also know the quantities that you need. It may be a really great bargain for those 5,000 postcards, but if you only have 200 people on your mailing list, those people are going to see the same card 20 times before you run out.

With online materials and social media, your cost may not be in actual dollars but in time. Remember time is money. If you spend 40 hours setting up a social media site that is 40 hours that you aren’t making work to sell or making money working for someone else. (plus the ongoing hours of maintaining this site). 

And most importantly, once you have your marketing message, and your spiffy new marketing materials, USE THEM! In a micro business like ours, with a staff of one, if you don’t promote yourself who will?

ps. here's a peek of the postcard I created. They will be in my booth for anyone to take. The goal is for people to remember me and know how to find me later. 

Flat Cathy Day!

As part of Kalmbach's "Shop at Your Local Bead Store" promotion, it's Flat Cathy Day!

What is Flat Cathy? It's a cartoon of Cathy Jakicic, author of Jewelry Projects from a Beading Insider.There were two versions created of Cathy and people were encouraged to print her out and take her to your local bead store today. We are HUGE fans of Cathy, and as soon as the images became available, she joined us in the store. 

Two Cathy's, one Stephanie

Cathy with Stephanie's Open Bead Night gang

Cathy is so colour coordinated with our fall theme display by Rochelle. 

Cathy welcoming you to beadFX. 

Jewelry Projects from a Beading Insider helps beaders to refine their skills and learn how to apply what they know to new, creative projects. Thirty all-new jewelry-making projects, plus alternates, set the tone for this book as fresh, colorful, and playful. These projects are organized into three categories including technique-based projects, material-based projects, and design focused projects. But more than projects, this insider’s guide covers everything that is crucial to beaders such as expert tips, time- and money-saving tricks, inspiration, design trends, techniques, innovative materials and products, and most importantly, fun. The secrets, tips, and tricks are inspirational nuggets and are desirable, must-have ideas for aspiring beaders. Jewelry makers are sure to love this light and fun book that will make them feel like they are getting a private beading lesson from a girlfriend who just happens to be an expert!

And Cathy is just like a girlfriend to me. I was thrilled that she came on the last two CREATE YOUR STYLE with Swarovski Elements cruises and that I got to spend some quality time with her. 

Cathy Jakicic, Stephanie Dixon and Val Hirata enjoying lunch on the beach in Mexico

If you want to get to know Cathy and learn some insider tips and tricks, I highly recommend you buy her book. 

Sale this week: 25% off Miyuki Cubes!

On Sale this Week

25% off!

Miyuki
3 mm
Cubes

 

Miyuki
4 mm
Cubes

25% off!

All our Sales start on Wed Midnight.
and run to the following Wed midnight.

New this week: Un-Buried Treasures ...

Come dig through our collection of Archaeology Beads – new beads with an old look. You don't have to dig up graves to find buried treasure – just dig through the choices at BeadFX. What could be more fun than that?
We have a selection of seedbeads ranging from size 11/0 to 32/0 - which is about an 8 mm "seed" bead - not so seed-like at that point - that have been aged and antiqued, and designed to look "old." I say that they look fabulous - and can inspire all sorts of tribal- and ethnic-style designs!
Limited quanitites – first come – first served! These are made in small batches and never seem to come out the same way twice, so don't waffle on these - they sell out fast!



Carol - this board's for you.

This is a macrame and knotting design and work board. Designed by Anne Dilker - this foam board is ruled in a grid pattern, you can plunge T-pins into it to secure your work, and it has regularly spaced cut grooves in the edge, for securing your cords. Some call it the perfect work surface for knotting and micro-macrame.

Price Reduction - Swarovski 4 mm Bicones

We announced this last week, but it's too good not to repeat! All our 4 mm Swarovski bicones have been slashed! The prices, that is. Drastically lower! Better sales volumes give us an opportunity to pass the savings on to you! This is NOT a sale - this is a permanent change!

On sale this week* - 25% off! Miyuki 3 mm Cubes and Miyuki 4 mm Cubes. Cubify your world!

*(Sale runs Wed midnight to Wed midnight.)

Is it really October?

Here in Toronto, the weather was a little crazy. We had a rainstorm last night and today called for thunderstorms that never appeared. The sky at times was blue with big fluffy clouds. At other times, the sky darkened as the sun hid behind black ominous clouds. The temperature was comfortable at I even went for my evening power walk at 9 pm in just a Tshirt. No jacket. Oh, ya, and pants. Lol. 

I love fall. The ever changing colour palette. Ambers. Oranges. Reds. Browns. A perfect time for a redhead to blend in with the foliage. 

I thought I'd share with you some inspiring photos of autumn colour ways. I'll start with a picture of the Pantone Colours for Fall 2013. 

And now for some fall fashion:

What's your favourite season? Which of these colour palettes talks to you? 

Please let us know!