Unfortunately, we are facing tough economic times these days and everyone has to be very careful about how they spend their money.

Even if you’re a beadaholique you may have to cut back or at least make more of an effort to find cheap beads.

Whether you are in a position of needing to sell beads to generate some needed cash, or you are in buying mode but looking for the best deal you can get, you should take a look at using eBay.

If you haven’t used it before it’s very easy to sign up and then you can bid on items of about every thing you can imagine.

Of course, that includes beads too, and sometimes you can find bargains at a much lower cost than you can buying beads from a vendor, even from a wholesale vendor.

However, you have to be careful not to get caught up in the hype of a bidding war. I’m always amazed to see people sometimes paying more for an item on eBay than they could have paid at a standard retail store. That misses the whole point! They just became victims of bid hype.

I have to admit that it can be addicting to stay glued to your computer screen as the time for the ending of bidding nears. It’s usually in the last seconds that a fierce bidding war can take place and people sometimes lose their common sense.

To prevent that what you want to do before you bid is research the lowest cost of the items you want to bid on to see at what price you can get them from standard online retailers.

Then set a price limit above which you tell yourself you will not go when it comes to bidding on eBay. After all, you’re here to find a better deal than is available anywhere else.

If you stay disciplined in that approach you will definitely not win some of the auctions you bid on, but on the auctions that you do win you will save yourself a lot of money. And that can really add up over time.

I use eBay A LOT and it seems to me these days that there are a lot more auctions on beads than there usually are. Could be because people need to get rid of some of their excess inventory.

That’s your opportunity to try to grab some great deals!

I use eBay so much that I actually had a software tool developed that only searches for bead and jewelry making related auctions on eBay. It’s not a very sexy tool, but it’s very handy.

All you have to do is enter the name of the beads or bead related items you are looking for in the search term box and click enter and the software goes and finds what auctions are available.

I put the software up on a webpage so that you can try it out yourself. Please feel free to use it anytime.

Here’s the link: Find Cheap Beads on eBay

Good luck in your eBay quest for finding beads on sale!

Learning how to string beads is the easiest way to get started learning how to bead handmade jewelry.

When you’re just starting out you want some quick and easy successes to help you build your confidence toward learning how to make more complex jewelry designs.

I think learning how to string a necklace is the perfect way to start.

And the wonderful thing about learning this simple technique is that once you have mastered the basics you can literally create an almost infinite number of different bead necklace looks simply by using different types, colors, and ordering of the beads.

To see what I mean, just do a google search on bead necklace and you’ll be amazed at the variety of designs you will find.

I know some jewelry artists who are perfectly content just doing stringing projects because there’s no end to the different style of jewelry pieces you can create.

To help beginners get started I put together a free Quick Start Video Guide which takes you through the basics of stringing a necklace.

There are two video classes in the guide. The first one goes over the basic tools and materials you need, and the second shows you how to string a swarovski crystal bead necklace.

To download the guide please click on this link: Bead Stringing Quick Start Guide

I found an article today which talks about how one woman slowly built her home-based jewelry business and some of the lessons she learned along the way about how to sell jewelry.

Her approach is typical for many successful jewelry artists:

1) Start Small

2) Differntiate your Offering

3) Use Professional Displays and Packaging

4) Give Customers an Additional Value Added Service

5) Accept Credit Cards, not just Cash and Checks

6) Create an online Presence on the Web

7) Create Events to Promote your Products

This is a blue-print that I have seen work well for many jewelry artists.

Here is a link to the article: Home-based Jewelry Business Tips

As the holiday season nears, if you are thinking about taking the leap to turn your jewelry hobby into your own jewelry business then I recommend you follow the steps recommended in the article.

It may be hard to be patient but if you persist and follow these steps you will have more and more success over time.

If you live in an area that has a relatively large population, you have probably noticed how popular jewelry making and beading have become.

You can find a face-to-face jewelry making class just about anywhere.

There are more and more bead shops popping up all the time, and many of the major craft stores also offer jewelry classes.

But if you live in a rural area, or you are the type that prefers to learn on your own in the comfort of your own home, face-to-face instruction may not be an option for you.

Fortunately, in the past few years there has been a rapid increase in the number of jewelry or bead jewelry patterns available at various sites on the world wide web. These printed patterns offer you step-by-step directions for how to make jewelry.

However, patterns on printed paper can be difficult to follow for beginners, and even advanced jewelry makers who, like me, just aren’t very good at translating 2 dimensional instructions into our 3 dimensional world.

But now there is even a solution for these types.

Every day there are more and more courses and classes being captured on video that you can watch in the comfort of your own home.

These home-study jewelry making courses have been available on DVD for some time, but recently more and more are finding their way on to the internet.

The increased data download speeds of broadband internet through cable, DSL, or fibre are enabling people to watch instructional videos right on their computers using their internet connection.

Not only does this provide you with a higher level of convenience and a greater number of options to choose from when it comes to what type of video classes you want to watch, it also is much more affordable than taking face-to-face classes.

Even if you are as addicted to jewelry making as many of us are, in these difficult economic times you can save a lot of money by choosing DVD or online instruction over face-to-face classes.

As a matter of fact, you can become a very accomplished jewelry maker without ever having to leave the house! As long as you have your jewelry making tools and materials which you can get from a host of online jewelry making suppliers, you can create just about anything given all the instructional videos now available online.

And other nice things about video instruction are that you can play a video anytime, anywhere; you can play it over and over again to help you remember parts that you have forgotten; you can learn at whatever pace you’re comfortable with; and you can find classes for more complex patterns that beading shops won’t teach because they are too complex or take too long.

All in all, I think the investment cost comparison is much more favorable toward video home-study courses than face-to-face classes.

I encourage you to look around the internet for video home-study courses. I would also like to invite you to take a look at the beginning jewelry making home-study course and the advanced jewelry making home-study courses that we offer here at Jewelry Making Professor.

Happy Hunting!

I love making jewelry with crystal beads. It seem like the possibilities are endless for all the different types of creations you can make.

If you have experience making beaded jewelry you already know there are all kinds of sizes, shapes, and colors of beads you can use to create a variety of different jewelry pieces.

But there is another type of crystal that I encourage you to give a try: the crystal pearl.

These beautiful beads are make by Swarovski®.

How do they make them?

They start with a crystal sphere and then cover it evenly layer by layer with an iridescent pearlescence coating that gives it a unique beautiful “glow.”

The crystal at the core of the pearl gives it an ideal weight, very much like real pearls.

You can take a look here to see the beautiful colors they make:

http://www.firemountaingems.com/swarovski_crystal_pearls.asp

They update the colors quite often so you should check back with them on occasion to see what’s new.

You can string these pearls by themselves to create a simple pearl necklace, or combine them with other beads to make very beautiful combination pieces.

There is one thing you need to be careful about when you use these.

When the coating is being applied during the manufacturing process, some of it will dry and remain in the holes of the beads.

If you try to string the pearls without first clearing out the excess coating in the hole, your string can get blocked.

There are a couple of easy ways to clean the holes of the pearls before you start stringing them.

In the video below, I show you how to do that.

How to Clean Swarovski Pearls using a Bead Reamer

One of the most simple and beautiful bead jewellery creations is the beaded ball.

You can make a basic beads ball using just crystal beads, but you can add seed beads to add a little spice to it.

Bead weaving this together with the seed beads makes it a little more complex but the result is very beautiful.

I created one using 4mm 5301 bicone beads and size 11 seed beads. The core of the pattern is repeating a weave of five crystal beads around five seed beads and tying them all together in a ball shape.

Here’s a short video preview of a new video class I produced showing how to make this piece:

Fancy Bead Ball Video Preview

Recently I was at a bead jewelry show in Philadelphia.

I love to go to these shows and see all the new things that are happening in the beading world.

As I was walking around looking at the different booths, a company that was offering gold leaves caught my eye.

That’s right. They take actual leaves of different types and dip them in gold.

The result is that each gold leaf is absolutely unique, unlike any other! And they are very beautiful.

So, of course, I had to buy some.

I didn’t really put much thought into what types of jewelry I was going to create with my newly acquired leaves, but when I got home and laid them out it seemed to me that a gold leaf necklace or a gold leaf pendant would be the way to go.

So, I decided to put together something nice and simple.

I captured all my efforts here on video for you to enjoy!

Now that I have the final jewelry put together, I think it will look very nice to wear during the fall.

I looked around the web and it looks like there are several places where you can purchase these from.

This is the company I bought from at the show: http://www.golddippedleaves.com

You will notice that they also have silver leaves and iridescent leaves, and of course, I bought some of those as well so I may make something in with them in the near future. I’ll be sure to share them with you when I do.

So if you are looking for a new piece of unique jewelry to wear this fall I recommend making a few gold leaf pieces for yourself. They will definitely be conversation starters!

If you’ve been beading for a while, you’ve probably heard of the crystal puffy
heart pattern.

It has been around for a few years and remains very popular because it’s, well,
beautiful!

It’s also very versatile. By using different size beads and colors you can
create beautiful necklace pendants and charms.

I think the best beads to use for this pattern are Swarovski crystal 5301 bicone
beads. These beads have the ideal shape for this pattern. I prefer to use 4mm
beads and sometimes even 3mm beads, but I recommend that you start with larger
size beads like 5mm or even 6mm beads. This is because the smaller the beads,
the more challenging it is to weave the pattern.

The beaded puffy heart is a fairly advanced pattern so I wouldn’t recommend
it for those who don’t already have some experience at bead weaving with monofilament
string.

The pattern is difficult because it requires you to weave the beads into a
3-dimensional shape. Unlike easy weave patterns where you can see the weaving
quickly taking the form of the final shape, with this 3D shape it is not obvious
how the shape will turn out even in the middle of weaving the pattern and it
can make you feel like you aren’t doing it correctly, even if you are.

Making this design doesn’t require much in the way of materials and tools.
All you need is the following:

73 Swarovski 5301 bicone beads

55 inches of Size 0.25mm monofilament string (when using 5mm beads)

Flush Cutter

Once you have the hang of making the heart, you should be able to complete
it in about 30 minutes.

If you have a business selling your jewelry, of course, this motif is a favorite
on Valentine’s Day, but the heart never goes out of style year round.

For setting a sales price, I have seen a puffy heart necklace selling at Macy’s
for $75! And it wasn’t even that well made because I could see a lot of gaps
between the crystal beads.

If you sell your jewelry directly to customers, you probably won’t be able
to get that kind of price, but still you can make a nice profit with this piece.

If you are looking for instructions, there are some written patterns available
on the internet, but I have heard from some of my students that the written
patterns for this weave are difficult to follow. This weave doesn’t lend itself
very well to the world of 2-dimensional paper.

I have found that video instruction works better for this pattern. Below is
a preview of the video class that I offer for this design. The class is 35 minutes
long, and includes an additional 8 minutes bonus video showing two different
ways to make a necklace with your motif.

Jewelry Making Video: Puffy Heart