Beadalon Blog

You still have time to enter the first-ever Katiedids™ Design Contest! Showcase your creativity using any Katiedids Creative Components! Submit a picture of each of your designs separately to KatiedidsStudio@yahoo.com by midnight EST May 1 for your chance to win one of these prize packages: Grand Prize: Your design will be displayed in Beadalon's booth at the Bead &Button Show 2011 Beads, Baubles and Jewels DVD set of series 1300 Signed copy of Katie's Beading Secrets Katiedids Pendant Collection (4 styles) Variety pack of Beadalon 19 stringing wire "Buy the Dozen" Artistic Wire pack 2 Honorable Mentions: Signed copy of Katie's Beading Secrets 3 Katiedids 35mm Pendants "Buy the Dozen" Artistic Wire pack Contest Rules All entries must be original designs created by the entrant. Multiple entries are encouraged and welcome but they must be submitted separately. Entries must be emailed to KatiedidsStudio@yahoo.com between m...

There's no escaping having your thread show when you do bead stitching, and it will show more in some stitches than others. Whether your thread matches or contrasts with your bead colors is a design choice to use to your advantage. Here are a few examples of choices I made: In this circular brick stitched piece, the thread is very visible, but the green WildFire® color is quite camouflaged in the beadwork – even at close inspection. Right angle weave uses multiple thread passes, so choose a matching color and keep your stitches neat. The shape of your beads reveals more or less thread, too. You can see a lot of thread between the bicone SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS used here, but the green WildFire acts as a neutral hue and recedes nicely. Thread shows along the edges of peyote-stitched beadwork. The WildFire frost color is almost invisible against the clear seed beads in this ring. Black WildFire was used in flat herringbone with size 8 Delica beads, so even though t...

Tri-Mobius Chainmaille Earrings in Artistic Wire ® These cute little earrings are lightweight and so easy to make!  With a few jump rings and a pair of ear wires you can make these this afternoon to wear tonight. Who knew chainmaille could be so easy? Materials: 18 (9 per earring) 18 gauge 15/64” AW Chainmaille Jump Rings in Non-Tarnish Brass 12 (6 per earring) 18 gauge 9/64” AW Chainmaille Jump Rings in Non-Tarnish Silver 2 (1 per earring) 20 gauge 3/32” AW Chainmaille Jump Rings in Non-Tarnish Brass 1 pair of ear wires 1. With an open 20g 3/32” brass ring add two pre-closed silver rings and the ear wire, close the small brass ring. 2. With an open 18g 15/64” brass ring scoop up the two silver rings added in step 1, close the brass ring. 3. With an open 18g 15/64” brass ring scoop up the two silver rings added in step 1 then weave the large brass ring through the large brass ring added in step 2, close brass ring. 4. With an open 18g 15/64” brass ring scoop up the two sil...

Do you love wire wrapped jewelry? So does Beadalon product manager and education director Wyatt White. He has been traveling across the US and Canada for the past couple of years, teaching people how to make wire wrapped jewelry. Although he doesn't consider himself a designer, he is constantly creating innovative jewelry components with wire. Check out these rings and bracelets! You can see Wyatt 's wire wrapping techniques in action on Beadalon's YouTube channel and on series 1300 of the public television program Beads, Baubles & Jewels .  Wyatt demonstrates wire wrapping at events across the US and Canada

Southern Women's Show – Nashville, TN Thursday, April 14 - Sunday April, 17 2011 Nashville Convention Center Looking for a girlfriends getaway? Visit us this weekend in Nashville, Tennessee, for the Southern Women's Conference! Ask Beadalon Design Team Members Margot Potter and Katie Hacker your burning beading questions in JTV's Jewel School booth and stock up on JTV-exclusive Beadalon kits while you're there.

8 Tips for a Tough Economy I believe in having whatever I need to bead my best. It's so frustrating to portion out components or scrimp on materials.   I can't sit down to make a new design based on having only 5 bicones when I want 50, or 500. It's so contrary to being creative.   Limit my style? Never! And I am way past doing things as an "exercise" or a "challenge" so forget that admonishment. Don’t get me wrong, I am frugal and don’t make purchases I can't afford. These are tough economic times. And, I use my stash as wisely as possible. Who can afford to be wasteful?   So while I don’t base design solely on what I have on hand, or scrimp by trying to adhere to an exact measured snip of working wire, I do have some tips for saving and making the most of what you have. 1. Save pieces of WildFire longer than 8 inches. Keep 'em in a baggie on hand. Those pieces will be more than enough when you run out of thread just a few rows...

During the month of April, Katie Hacker is partnering with Beadalon to launch the first-ever Katiedids™ Design Contest. Showcase your creativity using any Katiedids Creative Components! Submit a picture of each of your designs separately to KatiedidsStudio@yahoo.com between midnight EST April 6 and midnight EST May 1 for your chance to win one of these prize packages: Grand Prize: Your design will be displayed in Beadalon's booth at the Bead & Button Show 2011 Beads, Baubles and Jewels DVD set of series 1300 Signed copy of Katie's Beading Secrets Katiedids Pendant Collection (4 styles) Variety pack of Beadalon 19 stringing wire "Buy the Dozen" Artistic Wire pack 2 Honorable Mentions: Signed copy of Katie's Beading Secrets 3 Katiedids 35mm Pendants "Buy the Dozen" Artistic Wire pack Contest Rules All entries must be original designs created by the entrant. Multiple entries are encouraged and welcome but they must be submitted se...

  I'm getting ready to demonstrate Katiedids™ Creative Components on the SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS cruise next week and I've been making some samples to show. At first, I didn't know what to do with these components but now I think they're fabulous! You can really get creative. I am filling them with Beadalon rubber tubing, SWAROVKSI ELEMENTS rivolis and flatbacks, and am surrounding them with TierraCast charms. Enjoy! The artist hard at work Fernando Dasilva Beadalon Design Team Member www.modern-expressions.blogspot.com