I just finished a new video tutorial called Wavy Pearl Necklace. I used Swarovski pearls and silver lined seed beads.
It’s a pretty easy pattern to weave if you have some basic bead weaving experience.
Here’s a picture of the ring:
Here’s a link to a preview of the tutorial:
Wavy Pearl Ring Video Tutorial
The Puffy Heart was one of the first bead weaving projects I tried when I began jewelry making. It was a very hot trend in Japan and one of my friends showed me a magazine with the pattern for how to make it.
I thought it was really cool to be able to weave beads into a heart shape.
Now that Valentine’s Day is upon us I figure the puffy heart is perfect for the occasion.
I made a video you can download showing how to weave a puffy heart. It is not a beginner’s level project so I recommend that you have some bead weaving experience before you give this a try.
Go here to have a look: How to Make Puffy Heart Video
I have always wanted to find a way to get jewelry making videos into student’s hands at a lower cost than DVDs.
I think I have found a way to do it.
As you probably know by now, video on the internet is one of the “next big things.” The technology to transmit video over the internet at an affordable cost gets better all the time.
I now have found a way to offer my latest jewelry making video in a “video on demand” format. What I really like about it versus DVD is that 1) it costs my customers much less to get the same content, and 2) they can start watching the video only minutes after they order.
Usually, you have to pay extra for instant gratification, but this kind of turns that rule on its head. You get to pay less for instant gratification!
This beading video shows how to make a twist twist necklace using swarovski crystal beads. It’s a fairly basic bead stringing project.
Here’s a link for more information: Twist Twist Necklace
Jewelry Making & Beading for Dummies is probably the most popular book available for teaching beginners (dummies!) about jewelry making and beading.
I had already been making jewelry for quite awhile when when the book was published a few years back so I didn’t get it when it came out.
But now that I am always on the look out for jewelry making information that can help people, especially beginners, I decided to get the book and review it.
The book is divided into five parts: Part 1: Creating Irresistible Jewelry, Part 2: Discovering Simple Jewelry-Making Techniques, Part 3: Implementing Design Ideas, Trends, and More, Part 4: Building on Your Jewelry Making Hobby, and Part 5: The Part of Tens.
The first part, Creating Irresistible Jewelry, is very comprehensive and covers from A to Z everything a beginner needs to know about the different strings, chords, and wire options available. There is also a complete explanation of the basic jewelry making tools and the different kinds of connectors (head pins, eye pins, jump rings, etc.) and clasps.
There is also a very complete explanation of bead types, crystal beads, pearls, and stones. A small section is also dedicated to explaining the options of where to find your jewelry making materials both online and offline.
The section finishes with a chapter dedicated to explaining how to set up your workspace.
So Part 1 of the book is basically a description of “what” whereas Part 2, Discovering Simple Jewelry-Making Techniques, gets into the “how.”
Not surprisingly, it starts with stringing and knotting and how to use crimps. The next chapter is dedicated to Bead Weaving and focuses primarily on weaving with seed beads. I thought this was a little unusual as there are many beautiful pieces you can make weaving with beads other than seed beads. So I think this chapter could be greatly improved, but still it does cover basic weaving patterns.
Part 2 ends with a chapter on wire wrapping which includes how to choose wire, basic wire wrapping techniques, and a nice section on how to use a wire jig.
So Parts 1 and 2 take up about half of the book and really cover everything you need to know as a beginner, and I should also mention that there are simple projects spread throughout both sections so that you can practice what you are learning.
Looking at this from the perspective of a complete beginner, I think Parts 1 and 2 of the book are all you really need.
Part 3 of the book consists primarily of beading projects, and while they are all very nice pieces of jewelry, there are very few graphics showing step by step how to make the pieces. In my experience working with beginners I think many would find it difficult to make these pieces without detailed instructions or hands-on help like a class or video.
So if I were a beginner, I would learn everything in Parts 1 and 2, and put the book on the shelf for a while, and then maybe revisit Part 3 later after I had gained more experience.
Part 4, in my opinion, goes off on a tangent that I don’t think has much to do with learning beading and jewelry making.
Things are covered like how to decorate other objects with beads, making jewelry with kids, hosting a jewelry party, and tips for what to do if you want to turn your jewelry making hobby into a business.
I will say that the part about turning your jewelry making hobby into a business has some very good tips, especially on how to correctly price your jewelry. They show you how to make sure that you include a cost for how long it takes you to make a jewelry piece. Most jewelry makers forget to do this and it leads them to significantly underpricing their jewelry.
The final section, Part 5: The Part of Tens is so named because it gives you three chapters of Top Tens. The first top 10 is jewelry suppliers. It is good but a little dated. New suppliers have emerged since the book was published that are better than some listed in the book.
The second top 10 is common jewelry making mistakes to avoid and has very good tips for avoiding mistakes that beginners commonly make.
The third top 10 is ideas for making money selling your jewelry. There are some very good ideas in this section.
Overall, I would recommend this book to beginners as a good resource to get started. But keep in mind that if you’re learning style is more suited to learning by seeing things in action then you may have trouble actually learning beading by looking at this book simply because there are not a lot of “how to” graphics.
The book is available at many bookstores and also at Amazon.com.
There a number of different types of necklaces you can make and changing the lengths of necklaces can give you some very different looks.
In bead jewelry making you will commonly find these different types of necklaces: Collar, Choker, Princess, Matinee, Opera, and Rope.
QVC has a nice web page which gives you the length of each type of necklace. For each necklace type that also provide a nice graphic of a woman wearing each necklace. This helps you get a better feel for how the necklaces will appear when worn. Click on the link below to check out QVC’s guide.
But what do you do if you see the lengths of these necklace types but you are used to working in millimeters and centimeters? I’m from Japan so I have trouble converting centimeters and millimeters into inches and vice versa.
Fortunately, Fire Mountain Gems has a great set of charts that make conversions for you for both millimeters and centimeters.
I have found both of these very useful and refer to them often. You can find them at the links below:
Fire Mountain Gems Inches to Centimeters Chart
Fire Mountain Gems Inches to Millimeters Chart
When you make a new bead necklace or bracelet, it can be difficult to estimate how many beads you need.
To help you out Fire Mountain Gems has a very handy “Beads per Inch” chart that tells you by bead size exactly how many beads you will need.
For example, the chart tells you that if your beads are 3mm and you are making a 16 inch necklace, then you will need 136 beads.
You can also use the chart in another way. If you buy a pack of beads of a certain quantity and size, then you can use the chart to tell you the total length of jewelry you can produce from that pack.
For example, if I buy a pack of 144 beads that are size 4mm the chart tells me that amount of beads should enable me to create around 22 inches of jewelry (for example, an 18 inch necklace with matching earrings).
So when you shop for beads I recommend printing out this chart and keeping it with you as a handy guide. Click on the link below to see the chart.
Fire Mountain Gems Beads Per Inch Chart
There has been a lot written on how to correctly price jewelry using formulas.
This is a good starting point, but I have learned there is something else you need to consider.
I learned this from my husband before a craft show a few years back. I was organizing the jewelry pieces I planned to sell at the show when he started looking at my jewelry pieces and asking about prices.
When I told him the price of one of the jewelry pieces, he gave me a very strange look and I responded, “Is that too much?”
Then he said something that really caught me off guard. He said, “No, I would have guessed twice that much.”
I learned a great lesson that day. Formulas like 3X material cost, etc. are good starting points for pricing your jewelry.
However, you then need to ask yourself, “What does this piece look like it’s worth?” Since you will probably have trouble giving an objective opinion about your own work, get an opinion from someone else.
This is extremely important because if you price your jewelry too low you can actually decrease your sales.
Why?
If a customer likes one of your pieces and feels it is worth $50, and then they look at the price and see you have it priced at $20, they may feel that the jewelry piece isn’t worthy of them.
I know this sounds completely illogical. However, there are a number of case studies where sales of a perfume brand dramatically improved after the price of the perfume was increased.
So when you price your jewelry, don’t only rely on formulas. Make sure you use the “how much would someone pay for this?” test as well.
You can use stretch cord for basic beading projects. Jewelry made with stretch cord “stretch” is very easy to put on and take off.
If you can run a string through beads and tie a simple knot, then you have all the skills you need to make some very nice looking bead bracelets.
You don’t even need beading tools. The only tool you need is a pair of scissors.
When you buy stretch cord make sure the size of the stretch cord matches the size of the bead. Use thin cord with small beads, use thick cord with large beads.
You can find many kinds of stretch cord at local craft stores or on the internet. Artbeads.com has a good selection of the most common stretch cord. They offer thicknesses of 0.5mm, 0.7mm, 1.0mm, 1.5mm, and 1.8mm.
Normally, stretch cord comes in clear and black colors, but you can find many more colors on eBay. If you go to the eBay Many Beads Superstore and do a search on Stretch Cord you will see all kinds of different colors available. Find Stretch Cord at Many Beads Superstore
I reviewed Ruth Kleinman’s Beading Basics Volume 1 DVD and decided to add it to the Jewelry Making Professor product line up.
Ruth’s video DVD covers the basic techniques of bead jewelry making. It’s about 50 minutes long and Ruth teaches you basic skills of Tools and Materials, Wire Work, Stringing, Design and Inspiration.
Ruth also has an excellent section called Troubleshooting where she shows you how to solve common problems that beginners ofter face. This is an important section because many beginners get frustrated too quickly when they can’t complete a technique exactly like the instructor shows.
Like all things, practice makes perfect, and it’s nice that Ruth shows you how to correct some of the mistakes that you are likely to make early on as you begin learning.
Ruth also covers basic wires types, jewelry making tools, and techniques. Her explanation of the different gauges of pins and wires is excellent. She shows a visual graphic that makes it very easy to remember how to tell the differences between sizes.
She also does an excellent job of zooming in so you can see clearly when she explains important points.
Overall, Beading Basics Volume 1 is a very good instructional tool for beginning jewelry making. It is particularly suited for those who are already creative types, for example, if you are already involved in some other kind of craft making.
If you are interested in purchasing the DVD please click on this link: Beading Basics Volume 1
I gave you my top 10 things to look for in a bead jewelry supply website, but there are other important things to consider.
Check this link to see my next 10 important things that make a great bead jewelry supply site: Click Here