I Heart Handmade Summer 2009

Friday is opening day for this year's I Heart Handmade virtual arts and crafts show. Chetti Designs will be there, as will lots of other jewelry and non-jewelry crafters. If you're looking for a gift or adornment to spruce up yourself or your decor - or if you'd just like to see what other artists have been up to - be sure to stop by.

 Oh, I almost forgot - FREE PRIZES will be available. Including . . . a pair of these sparkly little ear wires:

Enter a summer beading contest ~ Use the Muse II

Have you heard of the Use the Must beading contest? Well, the second one - Use the Muse II - is now underway and its founder, Scarlett Lanson, invites you to participate!

Scarlett's vision in creating Use the Muse was to offer a contest that all types of beaders could join and – importantly – would run over a shorter period of time than most of the “big” annual contests that you read about in beading magazines. At the same time, she wanted to create a real contest with valuable prizes that winners could put to good use. Somehow she got it all organized, brought in reputable supplier-sponsors to help out, and made it happen.

Here’s how it works. In order to enter, you must purchase a contest kit ($30 plus $5 shipping) that you use to create your entry. (Everyone’s kit will be the same.) You can use the beads and components in the kit along with other materials in your stash, and you don’t even need to use all of them except for the most important part of the kit, which is the “muse.” The muse is the central component of your design, and you should keep secret exactly what it is until the end of the contest. (However, everyone has a hint at what style it’s going to be, since Scarlett has disclosed that it'll be from the Lillypilly line; in fact, it's a custom design made specifically for the contest.)

The sponsors of Use the Muse II are Artbeads.com and Rainbows of Light, and the prizes are definitely valuable – you can read all about them here. If you’d like to enter, you need to order your kit by June 27, 2009, at the latest (there is a limited number of kits, and they could potentially run out before then.) The deadline for finishing your design and submitting your entry form is Saturday, July 18.

The winning entries will be posted on Scarlett’s website, and I look forward to seeing them. If you’d like enter, click here to review the official rules, and then here to order your kit. Good luck!

Multi-color beading design

Last month I reviewed this lovely hand-painted porcelain pendant from Artbeads.com. It can be challenging to work with such a popping multi-colored focal. The key is to showcase those bright colors without adding elements that compete with them.

A simple solution is to attach a basic bail and hang your pendant on a rich brown or black leather cord. But what if you're itching to do something more creative? Here's one approach. Place the pendant by itself on your work surface, and then start going through your stash. Grab some strands, containers, or tubes of beads that remind you of the pendant. Don't give it too much thought, just let yourself grab what you will. Start placing those beads next to the pendant and see how they look. Do they seem just right, or are they a bit off? You're trying to identify complementary colors - colors that neither "clash" nor are close to, but not quite the same as, the focal colors that you want to complement.

Also avoid colors that you would like to hold their own - or pop - in the focal piece. With my pendant, I avoided selecting red beads because I wanted the ladybug to really pop. Using matching red beads would soften the ladybug's effect, making it a less-noticeable element of the design. (For more about design and color, see Chapter 2, "The Art of Design," in TYV Jewelry Making & Beading or pick up a copy of Margie Deeb's popular The Beader's Color Palette.)

You can make an eye-catching necklace by simply stringing one or more strands of the beads that you select. I decided to give my design a more eclectic look by layering a strand of spiral-rope beadwork with an antiqued brass-finish chain and some basic glass pony beads in a complementary green.

To make the bail, I simply strung a ring of metallic olive green cylinder beads with two of the pony beads on beading wire, and secured the ring with a crimp that faces the back of the necklace.

Overall I'm pleased with the eclectic, layered look. There are, however, two things I would do differently. First, if you look closely below, you'll see that my spiral rope is shorter than the total length of the necklace, and I lengthened it (i.e., cheated) by attaching segments of chain. I'd prefer the spiral rope to match the full length of the other strands. (In my case, I was finishing this piece after slicing my thumb pretty badly while cutting onions, and I just couldn't get that spiral rope finished in time!)

Second, I would use a dark yellow or gold color beading thread with the spiral rope, rather than the white thread I used. Thread is more visible with spiral rope than with other stitches, and the darker thread color would help to hide it. (I use nylon beading thread for my beadwork, like Nymo and C-lon, and both have many color options.)

Here's the finished piece:

I'm curious to see what other designers have done with these pendants. If you've worked with one yourself, please comment and share. :)

A look at the Magical Crimp Forming Tool

I've been working with the Magical Crimp Forming Tool (which I call "Magical crimping pliers") for a few days now, and I'm finally ready to share my thoughts about it.

Ugly crimps are something that most beaders have to deal with. In my books I explain how to hide them using large-hole beads, crimp covers, and end cones. But all of those methods take a little extra time and require additional components. If you can secure crimps in a way that makes them less obvious, it will really simplify things.

You might be accustomed to standard crimping pliers, which create an indentation down the middle of a crimp and then fold the crimp in half. The result is a smaller-looking crimp, but one that's still pretty unattractive. The Magical crimping pliers are much different: Their jaws have smooth cups which actually form the crimp tube into a rounded, bead-like shape.

Here are the instructions for using the Magical crimping pliers, provided by the manufacturer (you can see an animation of them here):

Step 1: CENTER the crimp bead in the hole and squeeze.

Step 2: The crimp bead should look like a small ravioli (four flat corners).

Step 3: Turn the bead 90 decrees and center again. Squeeze, open tool SLIGHTLY and repeat 3-4 times until the bead is rounded.

Step 4: Now it should look like a 2mm bead!

The first time I attempted this I had a pretty good result. The ravioli appeared, and during steps 3 and 4 the crimp tube became rounded (although not perfectly circular like most 2mm round beads):

 

After stringing my beads, I found that the second end of the beading wire was more challenging to crimp than the first. Of course, that's always the case to some degree, no matter which crimping method you use. It took me a few tries (mangling crimps and carefully cutting them off) before I achieved the desired rounded-bead look.

After a little practice I was able to attach even the second crimp without much trouble. And the crimps do look nicer than if I had attached them the traditional way. I noticed that some tiny shards of metal sometimes form along the bottom edges of a crimp, but they're barely noticeable unless I use a magnifier. (Centering the crimp inside the cups in the pliers helps to minimize this.)

The only thing that concerns me about this tool is that it's more difficult to attach crimps securely than it is with more traditional methods. I find that my crimps are sometimes loose enough that the beading wire slips through them after crimping. If you think about it, you can see how this could happen because the crimp does not get completely flattened against the wire. Instead it's flattened just a little on the edges (at the "ravioli" stage) and then rounded out, which can result in a looser grip at the center of the crimp.

I strongly recommend that you test each crimp by attempting to pull the beading wire through (gently grasp the loop with pliers and pull), and if the wire slips, pull the crimp all the way off and try again with a new one. Remember: It's essential that your secured crimps do not slide.

There are some other precautions you need to take when using Magical crimping pliers. First, they are intended only for 2mm sterling silver and gold-filled crimp tubes (not rounded crimp beads, and not plated crimps). This might be because lower-quality metals can fatigue and break more easily when you bend them. Also, you need to make sure that you only use these pliers with the size of beading wire they're intended for. For example, my model is for .019" beading wire. (There is another model for .014" wire). I'm guessing that if you use them with the wrong size of wire, your crimps are less likely to hold.

Overall, I'd give this tool a B+. I plan to keep mine and use it because I really like the look of the crimps. However, I'm going to be extra-careful to check each crimp to make sure it's completely secure.

The Magical Crimp Forming Tool is made by The Beadsmith, a reputable brand owned the wholesaler Helby Import Company. You can look for it at your local bead store or pick one up online from ArtBeads.com.

And don't forget to share your experiences in the comments! :)

Update on Wednesday, May 20, 2009 at 11:02AM by beadjewelry

Well I've been talking with some other beaders about the Magical crimping pliers, and some have pointed out that they can damage beading wire. I did more experimenting, and  I can see what they mean. Sometimes the edges of crimps remain very slightly jagged and sharp, which can be enough to cut through the nylon coating on wire. Over time this might cause the wire to break. This disadvantage is in addition to the issue with the crimps not always holding securely, which I talk about in the main post.

Especially if you sell your jewelry, you should take this into consideration. Some beaders recommend only using the Magical crimper to secure beads in floating (or "illusion") designs, or in very lightweight designs like earrings - but never to secure the ends of a strand. They often recommend a more basic crimping method for ends (such as using traditional crimping pliers or simply flattening crimps with chain nose pliers) combined together with a quality crimp cover.

Thanks to everyone for their feedback. If you a question, concern, or tip, please help us out by commenting below.

Soft Flex Trios Beading Contest

The Soft Flex company, makers of Soft Flex beading wire, is holding a beading contest to promote their new line called Trios. The main qualification for entry is that you must create a design project that uses and showcases all three wire colors in any of the Trios packages. Click here to read all of the rules and entry information. The deadline to enter is September 1, 2009 (see the beadjewelry.net Google calendar for this and other entry deadlines.)

Trios are sets of three spools of flexible beading wire in bright, coordinating colors. The colors appear to come from the nylon coating (which wraps around bundles of steel cable, as I'm sure you remember from Teach Yourself Visually Jewelry Making & Beading . . . ). ;) 

Each set has a name that matches the mood of its color scheme. For example, here's the Trio called "Serenity":

I haven't seen Trios in person yet, but from what I can tell, they look gorgeous. Now, the trick to using these is that you need to leave at least some space between at least some beads in your design - to allow the beading-wire color to show through. Because these are flexible beading wires (not solid metal wire), you typically achieve this by attaching crimps before and after beads.

Can you come up with other ways to use Trios? It might be possible to braid them between beads, for example. I noticed that in one example on the Soft Flex site they're actually used to make a tassel. If you think you have a truly unique idea for Trios, you should consider entering the contest to show it off!

Update on Wednesday, May 20, 2009 at 11:32AM by beadjewelry

Tip: Try using the Magical Crimp Forming tool to make rounded crimps between beads.