Beadalon Blog

Check out all of the newest Beadalon products, including more than 2000+ SKU's of Artistic Wire! Catalog 30 boasts more exclusive products than ever before, plus, tons of inspiration, techniques and tips to take your jewelry making to the next level. Browse new products on the website or click here to download Catalog 30 . The Design Team is especially excited about all of the exciting things you can do with Artistic Wire – check out our new projects in the Design Gallery. That's Fernando's Technicolour Bracelet on the cover of the new catalog! Fernando specializes in unique color combinations and lots and lots of texture. He used a Wire Twister to create his own twisted Artistic Wire strands, then he used the twisted wire to make jump rings. By layering several rings together on each section, his bracelet looks great and is more durable, too. -Beadalon Blog Team

Your Beadalon Blog Team is spending some quality time together at the Craft & Hobby Association Winter Show in Anaheim, California this week. Stay tuned for pictures from the show! In the meantime, check out this slideshow of pix from other shows and watch our Facebook page for updates.

Catalog 30 has some exciting surprises in store, including my new line of co-branded products with Beadalon! I invented these specially engineered Katiedids™ Creative Components to make it easy for people to add a customized, hand-beaded look to their findings. Each of the seven different pieces provides a channel-set effect for beads, flatbacks, fibers, polymer clay, resin, and more. The donuts, sticks and pendants can be filled in a simple manner, allowing beginners to easily add a high fashion look to their hand beaded jewelry. Or, designers can use more advanced techniques to personalize and set their work apart. The channels in the components provide a framework, but you make them your own. I can't wait to see all of the amazing jewelry you make with Katiedids Creative Components! -Katie Hacker www.KatieHacker.com

Catalog 30 is coming soon…here's a sneak peek at some of our latest designs: All of these designs and more will soon be available in the Design Workshop. Prepare to be inspired! - Beadalon Blog Team

Have you checked out the Beadalon videos on YouTube lately? That’s product manager Wyatt White demonstrating a variety of techniques, from working with wire to creating the perfect, knotted strand. Wyatt has spent years in the jewelry industry and, although he prefers to be behind the scenes, he is an accomplished jewelry maker. Watch and learn from the only man we know who has knotted pearls while driving a car and lived to tell the tale! -Beadalon Design Team

We’re pleased to announce that Beadalon Design Team Members Fernando DaSilva and Margot Potter have several designs in the stunning new DRG book Four Seasons of Beading edited by Barb Switzer http://www.beadswitzer.com/ . This book is filled to the brim with gorgeous jewelry thematically related to each of the four seasons. The projects are easy to recreate and the vast array of ideas will definitely inspire your creativity throughout the coming year. If you’re looking for some fresh and fashion forward concepts, you’ll find them here. With over 45 pieces created by a bevy of top bead industry designers, this book is a must have for any beader’s collection. Look for the Beadalon products featured in many of the designs throughout the book! -Margot Potter www.margotpotter.com

I’m back on the sound stage this week as we tape new episodes for the 12 th season of Beads, Baubles & Jewels. In this series, I’ll cover lots of fun wire working techniques along with introductions to new findings and tons of ideas for your next jewelry project. Did you know that you can watch all of my Beading Lessons segments in the Design Workshop Or, find Beads, Baubles & Jewels on your local public television station . Stay tuned for pictures and sneak peeks! -Katie Hacker www.KatieHacker.com

Caption: Beadalon Design Team in Cincinnati This week, Beadalon Design Team Member Fernando Dasilva is in Cincinnati for the photo shoot for his forthcoming book, Modern Expressions . As Margot Potter wrote in a September blog post about her recent experience, “These shoots typically last a week with full eight-hour days of photographing the individual steps that go into creating the jewelry pieces. My job is to figure out how to break down the steps so that we can shoot them without having to reconstruct the entire design in real time.” (Margot’s book, Bead Chic , comes out next summer.) When the three of us did the photo shoot for our book, Bead & Wire Jewelry Exposed , we spent several days in the photo studio, setting up our step-outs for each project. Since we split the projects for the books three ways and worked on them individually, it was the first time we’d gotten together to work on the book. Fernando was in charge of music, I brought the lattes, and Margot kep...