Smokin' Manager Specials

as in - what is that manager smokin'?
Deals to bring squeals.

Hearts!
Copper!
Brass!
Gunmetal!
Pendants

Clasps

Pearls

Green!

Hot Fix

Sterling!

Swarovski

Earrings
Books
Tools

Bezels

This week is buttoned up!

Cute as a button - that's what these are - we have just two of these - semi-vintage Minaudiere clutches. We've had a few of these in the past - and they never made it to the website or the store, because the staff here keeps snapping them up for their own use!

These are blank metal purses. They are not lined, and they are undecorated. A pursa rasa - so to speak. These are similar to the kind that Judith Leiber uses to make her fabulous multi-thousand dollar purses, encrusted with rhinestones and coloured stones. (These may, in fact, have come from her studio - they were with others that were labeled Judith Lieber, but we can't prove the provenance on these particular ones.)
They are not large - designed to be held in the hand (for instance - you can't stash a cell phone in one unless you have an old flip phone), but they have two fold-out loops for attaching a chain for a handle. You can stash your lipstick and a few credit cards - for those exclusive nights out on the town.

All in all - they are delightful and whether you make a purse, a presentation box, a memory box or a gift box from them, they are a well-made and enchanting little item. Rectangle with Gold Trim. Rectangle with Scoop.


Speaking of buttons - how about these Crystaletts! A few new selections in the tiny, tiny button world of Crystaletts - adding pearl buttons, turquoise buttons, and Micro Spikes!





But what really buttons up our theme for this week is - Stone Buttons! Rectangles and Ovals - from Jade to Rose Quartz to Amethyst and beyond!








Now that I think about it - this week is bursting it's buttons with goodies.
We have some other fun and funky stuff - not your regular run of the mill items - such as these old Natural Bone cubes and bar links, and these fun Heart Leaf Jade cabochons. Can't figure out how you would use a cabochon? We have these as tiny pendants/charms as well.






How about these jade rounds on a short chain? Dangly earrings anyone?
And - for those of you who have been asking for the 4 mm Etched firepolish - here it is!








And for the Tool Junkies - you know who you are! - a steel riveting block that has preformed places for holding and shaping rivets in various sizes. Make your own rivets, with no more guesswork on the length of wire to be cut. Use the holes at the top to pre-cut the perfect length of wire for your projects. The holes in the middle are about 1.8 mm deep, so every cut is just the right amount of wire needed to create "head" on both sides. The dimples on the left side are used for support when riveting in order to hold the shape of the rounded rivet head. The circles on the right side are for riveting eyelets in 3 different sizes without flattening the rounded rims. Dimples on the side of the block are for rivets and on the opposite side are circles for eyelets. One tool does so much!

And for finishing - assortment packs of sandpaper and sanding sponges.



New shapes and sizes of Cloisonne,

and in time for Valentines Day - a new selection of dazzling hearts.

There's more, but I'll shut up now and let you check out all the new items here or click on a link above! Go forth and create and be happy!



 

Let's talk texture!

Texture is one of those things that we seem to take for granted. It's all around us, but how often do we make a conscious effort to notice it? Raindrops on a lake, cracks in cement, rusty metal, peeling paint and rippling grasses, are all examples of textures in the great outdoors. Now let's examine some ways to include texture in your work!

Pair the creamy texture of pearls, with the soft sheen of silk. Match semi-precious stones, with fibre, wire, leather, buttons or metal. Create a collage of textured elements, and then add a smooth coat of resin. Or how about heavily texturing your polymer, epoxy or metal clays, before including them in a cutting edge piece of mixed media jewellery?

Adding texture to your work should be as natural as breathing! I suggest that you start with a simple pair of earrings, and then branch out to bracelets and necklaces? Pair the smoothness of a lamp work (or ceramic) bead, with wire, pearls and/or faceted crystal. Or how about adding knotted cords, leather dangles, or even feathers? You might also be interested in taking a look at the "Earrings Everyday" blog, for a daily dose of inspiration.

Experimentation is what it's all about! When you're wrapping a component, does it always need to be neat? Sometimes a purposely-messy wrap is all that's needed to turn the ordinary, into the extrordinary! Of course, that particular example might not fit your personal style, but I'm sure that we can all take small steps to add more texture to our work.

Books, magazines, workshops and the intenet, are full of examples of highly textured jewellery. My favourite magazines, such as Jewelry Affaire and Belle Armoire Jewelry, are packed full of exciting eye candy! Inspiration is always there, if you look closely enough! Why don't you give it a try?

Getting to Know...Jen Rosen

Many wire enthusiasts have already met Jen Rosen through her wire-wrapping classes. If you aren't a wire enthusiast (yet!), here is some information about this wonderful wire artist.

Jen has always been a creative person. "I started with school projects, then oil painting before moving into jewellery," says Jen.

Eye of Medusa Ring

"My mother-in-law showed me one of the beaded bracelet designs she took in a class and taught me. Afterwards, I found a local small bead shop that taught some beginner classes. I took a course at the New York Institute of Art and Design and looked through some YouTube videos. Some things I learned on my own."

Eye of the Dragon Ring

Waves and swirls inspire Jen and it shows in many of her wire pieces. "Sometimes I draw them out, but most of the time I just start weaving and see what it ends up as," explains Jen. "Sometimes I put something that really inspires me into a computer folder to look at on a future date."

Jen is a stay-at-home mother of 4 children ("Five if you count the husband," say Jen) ages 2 through 14. "When I am not cleaning or taking care of all of them and get a chance to relax, I like to read, make more jewellery or watch a movie," she says.

"I love helping students learn a new style of jewellery making," says Jen. "I do wish though, that students who need help with a technique would ask for or accept help. It's what I'm there for!"

Jen's advice to others who create? "Practice, have patience and ask questions!" says Jen. "And possibly keep jewellery that you just made out of reach of 2-year-olds - it goes missing!"

Upcoming classes with Jen Rosen:
Sunday, January 24
Wire Wrapping: Lover's Embrace Pendant
12:30 - 3:30pm

Saturday, February 13
Wire Wrapping: Dragon's Eye Bracelet
10:00am - 3:00pm

Sunday, February 21
Wire Wrapping: Arrowhead Pendant
12:00 - 3:00pm

Sunday, March 6
Wire Wrapping: Simple Bangle
12:00 - 3:00pm

Periscope up! Videos to get you informed, inspired and involved all year long

More and more often we turn to the Internet as a learning tool and I can only see this trend growing in the coming year. 

Online classes and videos:

fit into your busy schedule and can be watched anywhere

are typically focussed on one technique

can be watched over and over again

are great refreshers for any technique you might have drifted away from for a while, and

best of all are also low- to no-cost learning options.

You Tube is a great resource for online learning. It can be overwhelming, though, to sort through and know which videos are useful and which ones are just too hard to watch or understand. That's why many of your favourite designers and suppliers have set up their own You Tube channels. You can subscribe to them and get notifications when they add new videos to their channel - just search channels by topic. Many channels hold weekly contests for their devoted followers. I subscribe to the following channels because they have great/trusted content and thousands of followers: Jill Wiseman (who has almost 65,000 subscribers and about 100 videos); beadaholique; Rio Grande; Fire Mountain Gems; Kate Richbourg; KS Productions (Beads Baubles and Jewels); Artbeads; SLK Ice Resin.

There are also free and pay content on sites such as beaducation.com, Craftsy, beadingdaily.com and many others. Download instruction sheets, download videos or follow along with taped content. 

Periscope is a great app that offers you the opportunity to interact, in real time, with a teacher or expert. For instance, I follow Kate Richbourg on Periscope and every Friday I hear a little ship whistle on my phone letting me know she's broadcasting live. If I'm free, I open Periscope and click on her broadcast. I can type in questions and comments as she does things like demo tools, open shipments from suppliers, tour the studio, offer tips and tricks or discuss trends. If you have a Twitter account it's easy to sign in. I can tweet out to my network and invite them to attend the session too. 

Carrie Story, who works with Prometheus Clay, also launched last week on Periscope and she expects to broadcast monthly. At Kate's suggestion I also follow Francesca Watson, but have yet to catch one of her broadcasts. Hopefully, later this year, once I've launched my own web site, I'll also launch regular Periscope broadcasts. Oh, and don't worry if you miss the live broadcast - Kate archives hers on her You Tube channel. 

Let me know your favourite online resources in the comments section and tell me why you prefer one over another, perhaps? Let's ride the wave of learning on your time in combination with live classes and keep growing on our creative journey! 

InspirationFX: Gaultier Hip

InspirationFX
Get your creative juices flowing

---

Gaultier Hip
 
by: Kelly Garland

As soon as BeadFx received the new Swarovski Gaultier crystals, it was love at first sight. I've always been a fan of Jean' Paul Gaultier and his collaboration with Swarovski has produced some very hip and modernist pieces in a fantastic scarabaeus finish. I wanted to make something more casual that could be worn with jeans, while still possessing that Swarovski glam. This is a simple, quick project that can be dressed up if desired with a bit more sparkle by adding some crystal donuts or large hole sterling beads. This piece also looks great layered with other jewellery.

Directions:

1. Cut leather cord to your desired length. Keep in mind that the knots will use about an inch of leather.
2. Slide the 40 mm Kaputt Swarovski onto the leather, centering carefully. Tie a knot and tighten above the crystal. Not too tight or the crystal will hang at an odd angle.
3. Now slide the 14mm Becharmed Pearl onto the leather and tie another knot.
4. Add the magnetic clasp. You'll find the insert on this clasp is a bit larger than the leather. There's a trick to this. Manipulate the leather with some flat nose pliers. This will fray the leather and make it malleable. Add one drop of Super New Glue and shove the leather into the hole with some pressure. This will force the softened end to fill the void. Repeat for the other side. Let sit for a couple hours.

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.

Please - Not more metal ...

Well - this week isn't ALL metal ... . Not all of it, anyway.

As a matter of fact - let's start out with these seedbead mixes - mixes of Toho beads. You get an assortment of delicious mixes such as Kintaro, Tenin, Hasu, Kokoro, and Kimono.







Books - too - a few new books - perfect for tucking yourself away in your crafty space with on a cold winter's night. Jewel Loom Inspirations, Fast Peyote Stitch and Sensational Soutache! Or the newest Beadwork, Step by Step Wire Jewelry, and Bead & Button magazine.










Or seedbeads - but here we are dancing the line between metal and not-metal - because we have some Gold Plated Farfalle - also in Matte - and Silver - and Matte Silver. And if you want smaller - 15/0 Charlottes, in Antique Copper, (Also matte). And 8/0 drops in Gold plated, and Silver Plated. So glass - but metal.








But yes - there really is some more metal findings and links and stuff in this week's update. Quite a bit of it is our Tierracast black finish - which we call Metal Noir. Metal Noir is a shiny, not-quite-black-but-definitely-darker-than-gunmetal colour. Like gunmetal, it works very well in Goth and Steampunk themes, pairs beautifully with deep reds and matte finishes. Check out all the Metal Noir, new and old, here. We added links, rings, and even chain.


And for that matter - we've added more chains in other colours, Brass Ox and rhodium and copper.
So metal, not-metal, or looks like metal - your choice!




Check out all the new items here or click on a link above! Go forth and create and be happy!

There's nothing wrong with your beady status quo!

But it might be time to evaluate, just where you're going, in 2016.  If you're anything like me, you rarely make resolutions, but when I do, they are quite unstructured.  I do make plans, but most of them evolve and expand, naturally over time.  Ideas committed to paper, make me feel anxious and guilty, and no one needs that type of negativity in their life.  No guilt allowed, as it's sure to mess with your creativity!  Loose plans, can always be adapted, to the changing nature of art, work and life.  Planning is a positive thing, and combined with goals, should always be realistic and attainable.  But don't forget to build in some 'stretch' room, because growth is never really supposed to be easy.

Now it's time to jump off my soapbox!  My plans for this year, involve a new awareness, of where I would like to take my work.  I'll continue to expand my mixed media base, but also want to reach back into the past, and include more fibre (of the textile variety) in my life.  My plans involve the development of more bead embroidery, freeform peyote, and mixed media workshops, but I also feel the pull, to feed my soul with more personal artwork.  Where it fits with the business plan, I will share (via workshops), but if not, I promise that I'll still blog about it.

To evolve, and expand my technique addiction, I recognize that I'll need to participate in more workshops.  Fire, metal and enamel all fascinate me, but I'm certainly not ready to completely abandon my old favourites, for these new temptations!  So instead, I will take a few classes, and tentatively follow this new path.  These new tools, will be welcome additions, to an overflowing artistic toolbox!

I firmly believe that 2016 will be a growth phase for me, because if you're not evolving, you're standing still, and that can't be good!  I want to focus more on freeform peyote, bead embroidery, 3-D, and sculptural techniques.  Mixing beads, with fibre, paper, resin, wire, metal and found objects, continues to fascinate me, so I'll be sure to play with these in 2016!  Are some over-the-top statement necklaces in my future?  Of course, but keep in mind that I don't wear all that much jewellery.   I might like to submit something to a magazine, but that's what I would call a soft committment, so no promises!

 Now how about you?  Is your year already planned out in detail, or do you have room for something new?  Did you leave space for creativity, serendipity and growth?  Don't worry if you don't have big plans because small steps are often all you need.  Plan to learn something new, and expand your own creative toolbox!  I've said it before, and I'll say it again, the BeadFX website, is full of workshops and "Inspirations".  Not local, no problem, as books and the Internet are available 24/7,  Just promise to keep us in mind, if you ever visit Toronto.  Enjoy a happy, healthy and creative 2016!

Keep your Creative Resolutions with a January Class

Woo hoo, we made through the holidays! Depending where in Canada (or the rest of the world) you are, the winter snows are blowing and we don't want to go out unless we really have to. Let's do something about that cabin fever and come on out for a class or two at BeadFX!

Our imaginative and inspirational instructors have created a wide and varied palette of jewellery projects and techniques to share with you. Bonni Poch has a new wire wrapped pendant and a new cubic right-angle weave pendant! Christine Woollacott will be teaching how to add a gem stone setting to an enamelled piece. Anne Marie Desaulniers will be leading our first new Tuesday Taster mini-class! Metal enthusiasts will love Kelly Garland's new project using Labradorite. Cindy Goldrick is bringing us two projects using resin. You'll also love the projects that are coming back and being taught by Jen Rosen, Amy Waldman, Maria Rypan, Pamela Kearns and many more!

Here are the classes scheduled January 16 - 31:

Saturday, January 16
Intuitive Bead Embroidery
Instructor: Anne Marie Desaulniers
11:30am - 2:30pm
(continues Sunday, January 23; 10:00am - 5:00pm)

Sunday, January 17
NEW Lotus Flower Pendant with Labradorite
Instructor: Kelly Garland
10:00am - 5:00pm

Wire Wrapped Pendant

Instructor: Bonni Poch

12:00 - 3:00pm

Tuesday, January 19
NEW Tuesday Taster Mini-Class: Fanfare Pendant 
Instructor: Anne Marie Desaulniers
2:00 - 3:00pm









Wednesday, January 20
Lampwork: Just a Taste!
Instructor: Deb Muss
6:30 - 8:30pm







Thursday, January 21
Spiral It Up Bracelet
Instructor: Pamela Kearns
6:00 - 9:00pm

Open Studio: Mixed Media Evening

Facilitator: Anne Marie Desaulniers

6:00 - 8:00pm

Friday, January 22
Open Metal Studio: Metalwork
Facilitator: Cindy Goldrick
5:00 - 8:00pm

Wire Weaving Collar or Bracelet

Instructor: Jane Doidge

6:00 - 9:00pm

Saturday, January 23
NEW Pretty Paper Pendants
Instructor: Cindy Goldrick
10:00am - 1:00pm

Intro Weekend to Lampworking

Instructor: Amy Waldman

10:00am - 2:30pm

(continues Sunday, January 24; 11:30am - 4:00pm)

NEW Bronze Your Resin: Peek-a-Boo Pendants
Instructor: Cindy Goldrick
2:00 - 5:00pm

Sunday, January 24
Jewellery Making 101
Instructor: Pamela Kearns
12:00 - 4:00pm

Wire Wrapping: Lover's Embrace Pendant

Instructor: Jen Rosen

12:30 - 3:30pm

Tuesday, January 26
Czech It Out! Bracelet
Instructor: Maria Rypan
2:00 - 5:00pm

Thursday, January 28
NEW 3-in-1 Cubic Right Angle Weave Pendant
Instructor: Bonni Poch
6:00 - 9:00pm

Friday, January 29
NEW Adding Gemstone Accents to Enamel
Instructor: Christine Woollacott
5:00 - 8:00pm
(continues Saturday, January 30, 10:00am - 6:00pm; and Sunday, January 31, 10:00am - 5:00pm)

Complete information about each class or session, including class and kit fees, is on the website. Click on 'Classes' and follow the links to the January calendar.

Bring your projects and join us at our FREE open bead opportunities: 

Wednesday, January 20
Wednesday, January 27   
Open Bead Night 
Facilitator: BeadFX staff members Bonnie Cottingham, Pamela Kearns or Malliga Nathan
6:00 - 8:00pm

Thursday, January 21

Thursday, January 28

Afternoon Bead Tea

Facilitator: Pamela Kearns

1:00 - 3:00pm

BeadFX is proud to offer these FREE open sessions; however please use our merchandise in our facility. Thank you.