I’m interested in reviewing more self-published books and ebooks this year. Yvette Doss sent me a review copy of Crunchy Granola Charm, the first title from her new indie publishing company, Blooming Editions.

The title refers not to breakfast cereal, but to a moniker some people give to the 1960s cultural scene. The ebook contains seven jewelry projects based on natural materials and a chunky, 60s design sensibility.

An excerpt from the introduction:

“If you’re one of those who finds ways to incorporate modern interpretations of the styles of the hippie era into your life, if you prefer the natural look to being overly made up, if you’re a little bohemian and a little gypsy, then you’re there – you’re crunchy too.”

Design-wise, Crunchy Granola Charm is interesting because it’s put together a lot like a print book. The pages are square in format, which reads very pretty on the computer screen. I found it was best to print the book on 8 1/2″ x 14″ paper, because on standard paper, the type came out a bit too small for comfortable reading.

The project set is very simple, pretty, and non-fussy, harkening to hippie style, but with a nice modernism mixed in. These are projects a beginning to intermediate beader could easily tackle, and Yvette does a great job documenting all her sources for beads and components, so you can locate the same (or, very nearly the same) materials as she’s used.

The project instructions are all expressed in text form. I’ve written about how I feel about text-only instructions in craft books, so I can’t help but comment here. I’m a big fan of crafty ebooks because they can afford to include loads of process photos or diagrams. I think the project set in Crunchy Granola Charm is simple enough that the text instructions can be followed easily. But I find myself hoping that future editions of this ebook will take a bit more advantage of the educational possibilities in a digital publishing format.

I love the way Yvette has rounded out the overall flavor of this book by including a “Music to Bead By” soundtrack of 60s albums. Overall, this is a fun niche concept book – just the thing digital self-publishing can deliver beautifully. This would be a nice gift for someone who embodies this design sensibility and wants to dive into jewelry-making.

You can order your copy over at Blooming Editions.

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

Yup. I’m still messing around with fabric stiffener. Here’s the latest result – a cool little dimensional fabric flower brooch. Suitable for crocheted hats, handbags, lapels, and scarves!

…And they’re pretty easy to make.

If you like, you can download my template for the flower shapes here. Or you can design your own.

Then, use my templates or yours to cut flowers from three different fabrics.

Cut another set of three, so you can place them back to back. If you’re using my templates, keep in mind that I made them a little off-center and casual. So you’ll want to flip them over when you cut out the second set of flowers, so they match up.

Now, we need some forms. We’ll be draping the moist fabric over these, so they dry in a more flowerlike shape. I’m using a measuring cup and two plastic containers. Raid your kitchen for bowls and mugs and things you can invert, and see what has the best size and shape.

You’ll need to cover these forms with plastic wrap, so the fabric stiffener won’t stick to them.

…And you may want to tape the edges of the plastic wrap down with some masking tape. You don’t have to get the plastic wrap perfectly smooth, but it should be mostly smooth.

So, to stiffen, place the first fabric flower over the form, face down. (Was that a world record for most occurrences of the letter “F” in a sentence?)

Pour a little fabric stiffener into a dish. Use your fingers to spread a light coat over the fabric, making sure you cover every bit of it.

Then, place the second fabric flower on top of the first, face up, matching the edges as best you can.

And lastly, use your fingers again to spread another light coat of stiffener all over.

This might seem a little complicated – why don’t you just dip the pieces into the stiffener and be done with it?

Well, after much testing, this method proved to stiffen the fabric nicely and add just a little sheen. It’s important not to get too much stiffener on the fabric, as it tends to gum up when it dries.

I have a veritable wasteland of failed prototypes over here, if you’d ever like to discuss alternate methods and why they don’t work as well. I could go on for days. :-)

Anyway. Leave your flowers to dry overnight. In the morning, carefully peel them away from the plastic.

Now for the fun part: use a round (not ridged) pencil to give the tips of the petals a nice curl.

Then you can glue the flowers together…

…And add a nice button center.

Glue a pin back to the back, and glue a little square of fabric over it, like this.

And you’re all set! These would look nice and elegant made from all the same fabric. And you could easily to a beaded center instead of a button.

Happy Flower-Making!

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

I’m still noodling with buttons and wire over here… and this is the latest result. I like how the design can take on a “shooting star” effect, or resemble a little flower vase.

This isn’t a complicated project – please don’t let the number of photos here fool you! I was just trying to be thorough.

You’ll need some 24 gauge craft wire and some assorted buttons. One of them should be a large shank button. The others should be smaller sew-through buttons. Oh – and, wire cutters and needle-nose pliers are useful.

So, begin with one of the sew-through buttons. Poke the end of the wire up through one of the holes in the button, from back to front. Leave the wire attached to the spool for now.

Pull the button along until you have about 8″ of wire sticking up through it. Then, take the end of the wire and poke it back down through the opposite hole.

Pull this little wire “stitch” as snug as you can.

Next, take the end of the wire and poke it back up through the next hole, as shown. Pull the wire through snugly, leaving another little “stitch” on the back of the button.

Poke that wire back down through the last hole in the button, creating another “stitch” on the front, as shown. Pull this stitch as snug as you can.

Now, place the two strands of wire coming from the back of the button side by side, as shown.

…And then gently twist the wires together. Try to keep the part of the wire that’s stitched through the button really snug at this stage – if it gets loose, your button will kind of flop around on its wire stem.

There are worse fates, but still…

If things have gotten a little loosey-goosey, you can often correct it by mashing the wire a bit with your pliers.

You can now cut the wire away from its spool. Cut the strand so it’s about 30″ in length. And then, feed the next button onto the end you just cut.

Pull this button along until it’s placed where you’ll want it in the finished piece. Then, repeat the wiring process to stitch this button into place and twist up a stem.

When you’ve finished the second button, you’ll have something that looks like this, with a small space between the two stems.

Incidentally, if you want to create a little “leaf” in your stem, it’s really easy. Just twist to the place where you want that leaf to be…

…And then make a little loop in one of the wires, like this.

Twist that little loop once or twice, and then continue twisting the stem.

Add as many button-stems as you like. When you’re done adding buttons, you can cut away any excess wire, leaving two tails of about 4″ , as shown.

Take a moment to gather the button stems closer together, or fan them out, or bend them a little – whatever you want them to do.

Pass the two ends of the wire through the button shank.

Wrap the ends of the wire around the button shank a few times, and then cut away any excess.

Then, use a nice, strong glue, like E6000 or Amazing GOOP, to glue a felt circle over the back of the button.

A little note on shanks, by the way: my blue button has a fairly shallow shank, which doesn’t stick up from the back of the button too much, so I was able to glue the felt right over it. That red button, on the other hand, as a much deeper shank, so I cut a tiny slit in the felt so it would lay flatter.

…And now you can glue on a pin back. Your brooch might be a little top-heavy, especially if it has buttons sticking out from the top, so make sure you place your pin back near the top of the brooch to help balance it.

I hope you like! I could totally see these as little holiday gifty-things.

…Too early to use the “H” word?

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

This project is a real example of crafty serendipity. I’ve been noodling with this stiffened-fabric idea since June, but with one thing and another and another, haven’t gotten around to posting it.

When I finally went to photograph this tutorial, I realized the season was changing, and I’d need to switch from the summery fabrics I’d been using to something more Fall-appropriate. And that fabric switch totally transformed the project.

Anyway, here’s how it’s done…

To begin, you’ll need a number of things handy:

• A bunch of woven-cotton fabric squares (I’m using 2″ and 1 1/2″ ones here, but – experiment!)
• Some fabric stiffener (I like Stiffy, and there’s also Aleene’s.)
• A work surface (wrap a piece of cardboard tightly with plastic wrap, and tape it to the back.)

Pour some stiffener into a shallow dish. Have some paper towels at the ready – things will get messy!

Saturate a square of fabric in the stiffener, and lightly wipe away the excess. There should be a film of stiffener over the surface, but you should be able to see the pattern through that.

Place the square face down on that plastic-wrapped surface. Gently fold the four corners in to meet at the center, as shown. You’ll have plenty of time to adjust them so the resulting shape is nice and square.

Some fabrics will fray a little during this process, and leave little threads sticking out at the corners, Don’t worry about this right now – we’ll deal with it later.

Stiffer fabrics have a tendency to pop up in the center. If this is happening, just dip your finger in the stiffener and place a dot of it over those four corners, as shown. It’ll vanish when it dries.

I like to let the pieces sit a few minutes, and then gently plump up the squares by pinching them on the sides a bit. I think they’re prettier if they aren’t totally flat.

Make as many pieces as you need, and leave the whole thing to dry completely. This will probably take overnight.

When it’s all dry, you can gently peel the squares off the plastic wrap. Sometimes it helps to slide a thumbnail under the edge to get it started.

…And now, we’ll trim off those bits of frayed thread! Now that the fabric is stiffened, you won’t see any more fraying.

If you find a little ridge of dried stiffener at the edges of your square, just scrape it away with your thumbnail.

So now you have all these design elements to mix and match. You can combine different sizes, fabrics, and configurations to make all kinds of pretty things.

I’m arranging these fabric tiles with the four folded-in corners facing up, by the way.

…And then we’ll add some buttons, which makes things even more interesting.

So, to assemble these tiles into jewelry, we’ll sew them. The stiffened fabric is still stitch-able, but I’d recommend keeping a thimble and a pair of needle-nose pliers handy – they help push and pull your needle if it gets stuck.

First, we’ll sew a button to this tile. Let’s hide the knot in our thread under the button. Just pass the needle down through the center of the tile. These tiles are quite stiff now, but still, handle them carefully. Try not to bend or crush them.

If you wiggle your needle a bit as you press it into the stiff fabric, it’ll go through more easily.

From here, sew on your button as you normally would. Once you’ve made the first set of needle holes, you can keep using them for the rest of the stitches.

(Incidentally, I love using a contrasting thread with the button. I’m working with doubled thread here, but that can be fiddly. Single thread works great, too.)

To finish the thread, pass it under your stitches on the back of the tile, and then knot it.

Here are a couple variations on this idea. When I want to stack up several tiles into one piece as you see here, I’ll follow the same steps to hide the knot under my button, but then I’ll also take a couple stitches through all the tiles. That helps hold them in place while I sew on the button.

And also, I prefer sew-through buttons for this project overall, because they’ll stay flatter against the fabric. However, I found this shank button in my stash – it has a really shallow shank, so it worked well.

I like using simple methods to convert these pieces into jewelry. You can easily sew on a jump ring, as seen here, and then add it to a chain or neckwire.

Or, you can pass a needle through the top edge of back tile, as shown here. This allows you to suspend the piece from waxed thread, narrow ribbon, or (in this case) pearl cotton.

You can totally use these tiles in clusters. In fact, you can make a whole lot of other things besides jewelry! Consider these ideas:

• They’d make a cool garland.
• You could make some interesting holiday ornaments.
• They’d make pretty package toppers or gift tags.
• They’d also be cool card embellishments.
• They’d be an interesting dimensional embellishment on a curtain
• Ditto for a lampshade.

What other ideas do you come up with?

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

Here’s something I’ve been noodling around with lately – embroidered metal discs!

Wait – what?

I bought a bag of these perforated beading discs a while back, intending to make some beaded pieces a la Miriam Haskell.

Only I never quite got around to those, and eventually a different light bulb went on over my head. I could use the holes as embroidery guides!

The resulting discs are so cute and easy to make, and lend themselves beautifully to lots of crafts.

Like this simple cuff bracelet!

The stitchery part is dead simple. I like pearl cotton thread better than stranded floss for this – the stranded stuff tends to split and get messy.

Just leave a few inches of thread hanging from the back when you start stitching.

Then you just follow the holes, making stitches in different colors and patterns. The possibilities are pretty endless, and it’s really fun to see what emerges, kaleidoscope-like, from your fingers.

At the end of the strand, tie the ends of the floss into a double knot. (This method is way easier than making a traditional embroidery knot, by the way, since the back of the disc is bowl-shaped and harder to navigate a needle into.)

The only thing to watch out for as you stitch is the fact that, for some reason, the outermost row of holes in the disc is not in a symmetrical pattern. But you can work around this pretty easily.

The back of your stitching, then, forms a nice, porous surface, which you can easily glue to things. I recommend a nice, thick glue like Aleene’s Tacky, which won’t ooze through the holes and damage your stitches.

Here, I glued a row of them to a paint-chip card. Love those color names!

They’d also make cool little scrapbook elements…

I used some E6000 to glue two discs together back-to-back, making a little two-sided pendant.

Cute, eh? Imagine these as earrings! Or dangly charms on a bracelet. Maybe a zipper pull? They’re very lightweight and easy to wear.

(Before I glued the discs together, I attached a jump ring to the edge of one of the discs by sewing it in place. See the next photo…)

You can use that outermost row of holes to sew a disc to fabric – or sew on that aforementioned jump ring. Just match your thread color to the embroidery, and your stitches will be invisible.

(Another possibility: you could glue a felt backing to these, and add a little thread shank, and you’d have some awfully cool buttons.)

And incidentally, those metal discs are super inexpensive, and come in different sizes. Happy Stitching!

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

I circle back to wire crafting pretty regularly. Wire is such an intriguing medium for jewelry, and doesn’t require any special soldering or cutting skills. And, thanks to The Complete Guide to Wire & Beaded Jewelry, I can see just how many cool possibilities it has.

Clearly, Linda Jones knows her wirework backwards and forwards, and she’s created an awesome book for beginners and advanced students alike. (Follow that link to her website to see even more pretties.)

The book is organized into several categories of projects, working from beginning to advanced.

I especially loved how the beginner projects were vastly more innovative than beginning wirework projects I’ve seen all over other books. Like these rings, which are made from a single strand of wire. You can add beads, or not.

This brooch is a great beginning project, too – and I could see the same concept incorporated into a pendant.

I have to give Linda props for her absolutely clear step-by-step photography. I learned a ton of new wire techniques just browsing her photos.

I also learned that I really, really need a steel block and hammer! Here’s why:

…So I can make things like this!

And this!

I should say that there are plenty of projects in the book that incorporate beads – some are elaborately bead-y, and some are simpler. But I was most attracted to the purely wire pieces.

With more than 50 projects, there’s room for lots of variety. I should say that there’s no way for me to represent the wide diversity of these projects here.

There’s a whole section of wire link projects, which I adore. Isn’t this a gorgeous dimensional chain?

And this is just charming. Like the pieces on the cover.

There’s a great Tools and Techniques chapter to help beginners with basic looping and such. And again, it’s expressed in fabulous photography as well as clear text.

This one’s a keeper! Mom, I know you’re adding it to your wish list right now….

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

I was teaching a button pendant class at a wonderful local shop called All My Favorite Things over the weekend. And in chatting with the shop’s owner, Melanie, I stumbled onto this fun little idea.

You’ve likely seen this style of button necklace. Well, this project replicates that kind of stringing, only with wire.

Wanna play? Get yourself a pile of small buttons (say, 3/8″ or smaller) and some 24 gauge craft wire. It helps to have some wire cutters and needle-nose pliers handy, too.

Getting Started

I like to begin by laying my letter out in buttons first. This helps me decide on the size and shape, and figure out whether I have enough buttons. (Incidentally, I like two-hole buttons for this project, but four-holes would also work.)

Then, cut about 18″ of wire. Bring one end of it up through the back of your first button, leaving a 4″ – 5″ tail.

Stitch the other end of the wire – the longer end – down through the other hole in the button, and pull it snug, like this.

From here, you’ll be working with the longer end of the wire. Pass it through the back side of the next button (either hole).

Slide this new button along the wire until it rests against the back of the first button. Then, stitch the wire back down through the other hole again, and pull the wire snug.

Repeat this process to add more buttons. (Of course, you can use buttons that are all the same color if you like – I like the contrast of two colors.)

Careful of kinks!

…But I would like to give you a little wire tip: as you’re pulling these wire stitches through, this thin wire will often try to twist itself, like this.

Be careful of these twists! They can cause your wire to form kinks, and kinks will cause the wire to break.

So, any time you see the wire twisting, stop and gently un-twist it. In fact, as you’re pulling these wire stitches through, you’ll probably fall into a pattern of pull, untwist, pull, untwist, pull. It becomes very easy after the first few buttons.

Finishing

Soon, you’ll have a strand of buttons as long as you need.

Here’s an important note: if your letter will be made of one open strand, like an “S” or a “C,” then your button strand should begin and end with top-facing buttons, like the blue ones in this photo.

But if your letter involves connecting the ends of the strand, like an “O,” then you’ll need one end to be top-facing and the other end to be bottom-facing, so they can be wired together.

If that’s confusing, jump to the “Letter Assembly” section below.

Now we need to secure the ends of the wire. Take the excess wire at one end of your button strand, and work it into the space between the two rows of buttons. (You can always bend the buttons around a little if you need to.)

Pull the wire taut so you can’t see it anymore – and pliers really help with this. Then, feed the end of the wire back between the rows of buttons and through some of the wiring between them as well.

There’s no exact science here – you just need to wind the loose end of the wire firmly between the buttons a couple times. You want to get it a little entangled in the wiring you’ve already done while stringing the buttons. And most importantly, you want to pull it tight enough that it disappears between the buttons.

When you’re done with that, cut the end of the wire close to the buttons. Use the pliers to bend the tiny cut end out of sight.

Repeat this process to finish off the other end.

Then you can bend your strand into a letter shape!

Incidentally, if the buttons at the ends of the strand are a little floppy, you can fix that by giving them a little mash across the wire-stitch with your pliers.

If you want to turn your monogram into jewelry, you can use two large (8-10mm) jump rings. Wiggle one into place around the internal wiring of your strand, and then close it.

…Then add a second ring to accommodate a chain or cord.

Or, you can do like I did here – these doll buttons were way too tiny to manouver a jump ring into. So, after wiring the ends of the strand together in an “O,” I just made a tiny wrapped loop from one end of the excess wire.

(Incidentally, these tiny buttons are awesome looking, but rather fiddly. I’d recommend making your first monogram from larger buttons.)

Letter Assembly

If you’re making a letter that has two pieces, like this “D,” you can string them up separately.

As you string, you’ll want to pay attention to how the buttons will fit together. For example: here, I know I’ll need those pink buttons at the ends of the back of my “D” to tuck into place over the purple buttons in the curve.

Here and there, you may find that you have to remove a button from the end of a strand so the pieces will fit together.

…See how they fit here? And then you can wrap the excess wire at the ends around between the buttons, like we did earlier when we finished the blue strand.

What will you make?

I think these little guys have lots of possibilities! In addition to pendants, they’d be really cute as a dangle on a handbag. Or, as a package tie-on. Or, imagine a curtain for a child’s room, with a fringe of button letters.

(Okay, okay, that last one might be crazy-talk. But it would be really cool.) If you make some of these, I’d love to see what you do with them!

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

This coming weekend, I’ll be at Maker Faire! I’ll be at the Provo Craft booth, helping to demo some of their products, and doing lots of podcast recording. Yes, super excited, thank you!

Provo was kind enough to send me some machines to play with in advance. Here I’m using a Cricut Expression, which precision-cuts letters and shapes. It’s designed, of course, for paper crafting, but I quickly started feeding all kinds of other stuff into it, just to see what would happen. I’ll show you some results throughout the week.

(Oh – and also some results with a Cuttlebug, which embosses stuff.)

Let’s start this series off with a simple project. A quick trip to the office supply store yielded some pretty plastic-coated file folders, from which I cut a bunch of shapes in three sizes…

…Then I glued them together back to back, punched them with a 1/8″ hole punch, and painted a little Diamond Glaze around the edges to seal them. Then I joined them with jump rings.

With a little bit of chain, these turned into a cute, graphic necklace, which, as it turns out…

…Is reversible!

I also found some cool plastic folders that were different colors on each side. This stuff cuts beautifully with the Cricut, and makes impressive-looking pieces with almost zero effort.

Voila! Tomorrow, I’ll show you a Crucit-hacked sewing project.

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

Ever since I did the fabric postcard tutorial for CraftStylish last week, I’ve been obsessing over this pendant idea. Seemed to me that if you just shrunk the postcard project a little, it would make a really cool pendant. I like the result!

Here’s how I made it:

Just as with the postcards, I’m using Friendly Felt as the basis for this project. It’s a recycled-fiber felt that’s stiff, so you can do all kinds of dimensional things with it. Me likey.

So you’ll need two pieces of Friendly Felt, cut to the size you’d like your pendant to be. You’ll also need one wonderful scrap of woven fabric, cut to the same size. (This cool little castle print comes from a vintage napkin.)

In addition, cut a scrap of regular felt that’s about 1/4″ smaller on all sides than the other three pieces. This felt is the internal padding of your pendant.

You’ll also need two pieces of fusible web, cut to the same size at that felt padding. And then we sandwich all this together: a piece of Friendly Felt on the bottom, fusible web on top of that, and the padding felt on top of that.

Place the other piece of fusible web on top of the felt. Then place the fabric on top of the fusible web. Match the edges of the fabric and Friendly Felt as best you can.

Follow the package directions for the fusible web to iron all these layers together. And by the way, I’d recommend putting a pressing cloth over your pendant before you press it. It’s just that pressing cloths aren’t so photogenic.

After fusing, your layers may have shifted a little. Take a moment and trim them so all the edges meet.

Next, we do two steps on the sewing machine: first, we’ll quilt the pendant. This quilting can take any form you like. You might stitch around the design on your fabric, like I’ve done here, or you might quilt over the entire pendant in some kind of pattern. Or you might quilt all free-form-like.

You can use any color thread you like for the quilting, by the way. If would also be fun to see the quilting done in several colors of thread. Oh, boy are there possibilities!

The next machine step is to make a tight zig zag around all sides of the pendant. I’m using a buttonhole stitch here, which works nicely. I like to stitch twice around all four edges so they’re well-covered with stitching.

From here, you can do a bit of embellishing. I’m embroidering my pendant, but you could also sew on some small beads or buttons. You could paint it with fabric paints. You could glitter it. You could do all kinds of stuff.

With the embellishments done, you can trim away any little frays around the edges and apply some Fray Check.

Take the other piece of Friendly Felt now and apply a generous amount of glue. Keep the glue about 1/4″ away from all sides so it won’t ooze out later.

Place an eye pin into the glue, placing it so the little loop a the top sits at the center top of the pendant.

(I’m using Gem Tac here. You could also use good old E6000, or any glue that adheres trims to fabric.)

Sandwich the two layers together. Place your pendant under something heavy for a few hours until the glue dries. Check on it a couple times to make sure the eye pin hasn’t shifted position.

And voila! I like these – they’re lightweight, but the layering and fusing gives them a nice little “heft.” And I love the way they showcase precious bits of fabric.

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

Wow, the mail folks have been bringing wonderful things of late. Mandi and I are doing another swap, and her box arrived over the weekend. Isn’t this piece lovely? She made the lampworked beads. (She also made my beaded Crafty pen, which I’m still using to this day.)

And, Mandi makes hand-bound journals. I love this giraffe print so much! The binding, she tells me, is a “secret Belgian binding.” And it’s a super-cool binding – this book has no stiffness, and as you can see…

…Lays perfectly flat when it’s open. Awesome!

Oh – and she sent this cable sweater mug, which was the source of the swap. She posted about it on Twitter, and we got to chatting. So many good things happen as a result of Twitter.

Lain also sent me a copy of her book, Snippets. I reviewed it a while back, and was delighted by the cute design of the hard copy. Perfect little size! And I may begin lobbying for more craft books to have their own matching attached ribbon bookmark and elastic closure.

And, in an unrelated note, I had to share the fact that I finished a crochet project for once! This bear (which comes from Mr. Funky’s Super Crochet Wonderful) was for my favorite baby girl’s first birthday.

The pink yarn was reclaimed from a bag project that I now will officially never finish. :-)

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

You might remember Margot Potter from the recent podcast about branding. This is her latest book, which uses mixed media techniques in jewelry projects. And I’m digging it on many levels.

First, I don’t dip into mixed media very often. I think the techniques make beautiful things, but I just don’t make many purely “art” pieces, which is where these techniques often seem to shine. In Beyond the Bead, I get nice bite-sized chunks of mixed media, presented in a form I can enjoy using.

(This pendant is made from a little candy tin – painted, collaged, and embellished. How cool is that?)

I also think Margot’s instruction is fantastic. Every technique, right down to the basic wire loop, is illustrated with clear step-by-step photos. I’m always so happy to see that in any craft book.

Because mixed media techniques often require specialized supplies, Margot has smartly included the manufacturers’ names for most of the supplies in the project materials lists. That’s so much nicer than having to flip to a Resources section at the back of the book.

It’s also impressive how many different techniques are covered in these 127 pages. The book is divided into sections for glass, plastic, digital images, ephemera, scrapbooking supplies, clay, and metal – and each section contains something I’d never seen before.

(This is UTEE, by the way – a melt-and-pour resin that molds into shapes. I hadn’t heard of this stuff, but I’m now dang intrigued.)

I love this stained glass treatment, which involves embossed stamping and colored inks.

Margot sets off her crafted components with a fun variety of unusual beads and findings. I like the way the bead dangles here complement these collaged disks.

…And I’m terribly excited about this technique for creating faux enamel on ordinary chipboard.

Seriously, there’s about a hundred cool things to show you. My brain was totally mixing and matching techniques as I flipped through. If mixed media intimidates you, this is a great introduction. And if you’re a jewelry-maker, Beyond the Bead will give you a whole slew of new ideas.

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

Hey! Check it out!

I have a new tutorial up on the CRAFT blog. I made three jewelry pieces using wood inlay strips, which you can get at woodworking stores or online. They’re intricate and beautiful, and best of all, they cut with a utility knife, so they’re easy to use for all kinds of crafty applications.

Go take a look at the how-to. Believe me, this is woodworking at its simplest – even I can do it.

And seriously, look at all these amazing inlay strips! (These are from Inlays.com.) Aren’t they pretty? Imagine the possibilities….

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

Hey, Locals -

If you need some crafty fun this weekend, please join me at Twisted, where I’ll be teaching two classes:

On Saturday, I’m teaching Wire Crochet Flower Pendants. This class is designed for folks who’ve had at least a little crochet experience. The flowers are simple to make once you’ve mastered the technique, and you can turn out all kinds of wonderful colors and combinations for Spring-y jewelry projects.

And then on Sunday, I’m teaching Temari, which is a Japanese craft involving embroidery on thread-wrapped spheres. So. Very. Addictive, this one.

You can get full deets on both classes over here, and contact Twisted to register.

I would so love to see you there!

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

(Before I begin, I want to thank you all for your great feedback on craft book reviews! I’m working on some new ideas based on your comments, which I’ll implement in the coming weeks. You have such excellent brains.)

In most bead stores, glass beads are pretty ubiquitous. So I wasn’t sure what to expect when I opened Create Jewelry: Glass – what’s so special, I thought, about glass beads?

Well, plenty, as it turns out. This book is a nice celebration that made me look at everyday beads in a new light.

Create Jewelry: Glass begins with a nice primer on how various types are made: lampworked, blown, drawn, pressed, and others. Then, there are three categories of projects: Classic, Special Occasion, and Fashion-Forward.

As with their book on semiprecious stone jewelry, authors Marlene Blessing and Jamie Hogsett present a collection of projects that incorporates a lot of different beading techniques, and does so in innovative ways. I like this in a beading book, because let’s face it, you may not be able to find the exact focal beads a project uses locally, but you can certainly duplicate the assembly idea with similar beads.

Seed beads play a significant role in many of the projects. There are very clear diagrams for the various bead-weaving stitches, but I might recommend, based on my own beadweaving experiences, that you’ve at least practiced some basic peyote before attempting these. For beginning beaders, there are simpler stringing projects.

I should point out that, when I went back to my photographs to pull this post together, I realized that I had highlighted some of the most delicate-looking projects. That’s just my taste. Many of the projects are actually much bolder than what you see here – using large focal beads and bright colors. So, to get a sense of those bolder designs, visit this nice preview slideshow (scroll down) at the publisher’s website.

Given my penchant for simpler jewelry, I found myself filing away specific ideas from the projects to incorporate into my own designs. There are lots of good concepts to think about, but I probably wouldn’t duplicate a lot of these designs myself.

(I’m crazy, though, about the way these bead dangles are strung into floral shapes. So pretty.)

One feature I really liked about the book was this series of essays scattered throughout. They detail various people, places, and ideas significant in the history of glass. Miriam Haskell, by the way, was a costume jewelry designer from the 1920’s – 1940’s. Beautiful stuff.

Another thing I really enjoyed was the authors’ use of color. Every project is a stunning blend of hues. The indie crowd may find the designs a little polished for their tastes, but I think serious jewelry designers will find a lot of food for thought here.

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

This is an intriguing book – I’m always attracted to the idea of deconstructing and reconstructing jewelry components, but get intimidated. So I’m digging all the great ideas in Vintage Redux: Remake Classic and Collectible Jewelry.

Brenda Schweder not only has a great collection of reconstructed jewelry designs, she’s also written the book around the fact that you may not be able to find the same components in your local thrift stores. So the project instructions are flexible enough to accommodate whatever components you end up working with.

In each project, she shows the “Before” pieces, which are often the sort of costumey things you’re used to seeing in thrift stores. The transformations are pretty incredible – and there’s a whole slew of techniques at work: some drilling, some image transfer, some stringing, some wirework, a little sewing . . . .

I think this ring bracelet is an ingenious idea. Kind of a new take on the charm bracelet. And it could easily be expanded into a cool choker.

This book definitely makes me look differently at brooches! Don’t you love these bracelets?

The book has a good guide, by the way, to cleaning old jewelry pieces, and a very nice set of photo how-tos for basic jewelry-making techniques. I’d say there are definitely projects here for a first-time jewelry-maker, as well as more advanced stuff (i.e, that drill.)

Lots and lots of innovative designs involving mixing various kinds of chain. I love the asymmetry here, and the cameos.

I’m probably showing you some of the simplest designs in Vintage Redux – which is just my taste. There are chunkier, wilder projects as well. One thing that struck me as I was reading was that, even when a project wasn’t something I’d personally wear, if I dug into the instructions, I’d pick up at least one great technique or design idea.

This just about makes me weep – it’s a vintage bag, dressed up with a mix of silk flowers and earrings. Fab-u-lous.

Dang! I forgot to photograph the thimble pendant! It’s lovely – take a look next time you’re in the bookstore.

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.