This week’s featured video class shows how to make a necklace piece that I call a Picot Necklace.

The picot pattern is one of my favorites because it is relatively simple to remember, and is versatile so you can do a lot of different things with it.

For example, in this necklace I use the picot pattern to mix Swarovski pearls with Swarovski bicone beads.

Using the picot pattern I created a nice “zig zag” shape that I think is very beautiful!

The materials to make the picot necklace consist of 5mm Swarovski 5810 pearls, 5mm Swarovski crystal 5301 bicone beads, size 11 seed beads in clear and pearl colors, clam shells, spring ring, extender, monofilament string, chain nose pliers, and flush cutter.

Here’s a closeup picture of the necklace: Picot Necklace Picture

Here’s a preview of the video class:

Picot Necklace Video Preview

I am very happy to announce that I now have in place an affiliate program for my monthly membership program.

If you have a website, blog, or newsletter that is related to beading or jewelry making you can promote my monthly membership program and earn monthly recurring commissions on every sale.

For details about the program please visit this link:

Jewelry Making Professor Affilliate Program

Welcome to our Affiliate Program!

At this time, our program is run through ClickBank and only applies to our Monthly Membership program. We will be expanding our affiliate program to our other products soon.

When a new member signs up for our Monthly Membership Program through your ClickBank affiliate link, you will earn a 35% commission on their monthly membership fee ($8.95 at present) month after month for as long as they remain members.

So unlike most affiliate programs where you earn a one time commission on the sale of a product, you can earn ongoing monthly recurring revenue streams.

Sign up here to get your affiliate link:

http://jmp7165.jmap.clickbank.net/

Here are some images you can use to promote the Membership Program on your website, blog, in your newsletter, or on social networking sites like Twitter. You can upload these to post on your own website:

Here are some articles you can use to promote the Membership Program on your website, blog, in your newsletter, or on social networking sites like Twitter. You can put your affiliate link anywhere you like within the text of the article itself:

Jewelry Making Classes: The DVD and Online Video Home-Study Option 

By Eri Attebery

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!

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Jewelry Making Professor Membership Service Reviewed by The Bead Jewelry Making Blog
By Eri Attebery

I am so excited that The Bead Jewelry Making Blog posted a review of our jewlery making video on demand membership service!

I just introduced this service recently and am very excited that our new subscribers are reporting that they are very happy with the service.

Here’s a link to the review:

Review of Jewelry Making Professor Membership Service by The Bead Jewelry Making Blog

If you are intersted in learning more about this service you can get detailed information here:

Jewelry Making Professor Video on Demand Membership Service

You put a lot of love and effort into making your jewelry.

When you offer your jewelry for sale online, either through your own website or an online market like etsy.com, you want to make sure that a prospective customer can see just how important that jewelry piece is to you.

The best way to express that is through the quality of the photograph you take of each jewelry piece you offer.

It should come as no surprise to you that the higher quality the photograph, the better chance you have of getting a sale, and the better chance you have of getting a higher price for your creations.

Of course, you can invest in a good digital camera, learn about proper lighting and set up, and take the photos on your own.

That’s what I used to do, but I found that it took way too much of my time so I started looking to see if I could outsource this to a professional photographer.

Even as I started looking, to be honest I didn’t think it would be cost effective.

I found an online outsourcing service called elance.com (www.elance.com) and submitted my project to see if any photographers would bid on it.

To my surprise, there were many independent photographers who bid and the cost of their proposals varied greatly.

What I discovered is that you can get very high quality photography done by someone else in the range of $10~$20/piece, including shipping to and from the photographer.

Of course, this price is somewhat volume based meaning taking photos of 10 or more items.

Naturally, it is more cost effective for higher priced jewelry than for very low price jewelry, particularly if the jewelry piece is a one-of-a-kind piece that you plan to only make one of.

But if you are going to make many pieces of the same design, then I highly recommend that you look into outsourcing your photography because you can spread the cost of one picture across multiple sales of individual jewelry pieces.

Also keep in mind two other things when considering the cost per piece.

First, if all the time you take to photograph your own jewelry is taking away time that you could be using to work on more valuable income and profit generating activities, then you should include that consideration when evaluating whether outsourcing photography is right for you or not.

Second, remember that a very high quality photograph can help you demand a higher price for your jewelry, possibly even a price that more than covers the extra cost of the outsourced photography.

Back to my own story about outsourcing photography and what I did.

I looked at the portfolios of all the photographers that bid on my project, weighed that against the prices they offered for their services, and I settled on one photographer.

I have been very happy with the quality of her work and the value is excellent.

She took the picture of the beaded heart rings at the top of this page.

Her name is Rosie and if you would like to take a look at her work and/or contact her about your jewelry photography project you can check out her website here: Let Me Grow Studio

Good luck with your jewelry pictures!

Last night, I had the pleasure of being the guest speaker at the Main Line Bead Society’s monthly meeting.

Bead Society members come from all backgrounds of different types of jewelry making, and all different skill levels.

The one thing they have in common is a love (can I say addiction!) for making jewelry.

My presentation talked about the effectiveness of video education for learning jewelry making, and then we did a beading project called the Heart Ring.

It was great fun and I really enjoyed meeting so many wonderful jewelry artists.

I liked it so much that I became a member of the organization and I can’t wait for upcoming meetings to see my new friends again and learn about other areas of jewelry making.

If you live in the tri-state Philadelphia area I recommend that you take a look at finding out more about the Main Line Bead Society.

You can check out their website here to learn more: Main Line Bead Society