Shameless Self-Promo

I just received my author copy of the magazine in the mail today - it was a fun trip down memory lane. The bulk of the projects I wrote for Creative Jewelry are reproduced here, as are many of my favorites by friends and colleagues (one of my absolute favorite designs by Lorelei Eurto, "The Kiss", is on page 61). It's on the stands now, so please check it out when you have the chance!

Shameless You-Know-What

It took me ages to track them down in the U.S., but I did finally manage to get copies of Issues 27 and 28 of Bead Magazine - with full coverage of the 2010 British Bead Awards. With the winners split between the two issues, I had one piece in each magazine.

The photography of the winners is really spectacular, and I enjoyed seeing all of the pieces from the various categories. Vanessa Walilka's garment (which she calls a "first scale mail armor piece"), in particular, is incredible - kind of a female-warrior-industrial-age-of-dragons jacket. If you can't find a copy of the magazine, you can see the piece on her website, here - and I strongly encourage you to check it out.

Thank you, Bead Magazine, for making my work look so good - I loved the photo of "Geology"! (You can see my much less impressive entry photo here.)

Shameless Self-Promo: Creative Jewelry 2010

Creative Jewelry 2010 is now on the stands. I personally really like this issue - there are a ton of interesting designs from some of my favorite designers in here (and a truly monumental showing of beautiful ceramic beads and components from Earthenwood Studio - yay, Melanie!).

As for myself, I have four necklaces in this issue, all a little unusual for me in that they are slightly more ornate than I tend toward. One of them uses a tube of 4-color peppercorns for adornment and another uses a strand of very delicate, fan-shaped sapphires that I purchased at Bead & Button.

Anyway, I hope you'll check out the issue - it's worth it!

Cover Girl - The Best of Step by Step Beads

I just received my advance copy of The Best of Step by Step Beads. That's my necklace on the cover, I'm so very pleased to report. Although I came up with the concept of "Java Jive" first, the actual necklace was largely designed around the festive set of lampworked beads by Jenn Kelly of CaliGirl Art Glass. This was my second attempt to use these beads. Want to see the first? Here you go:


Pretty horrible, eh? Especially given the high quality of the components (the pendant in this necklace is by the fab Alicia Abla, even). I had been designing jewelry for about 4 months at the time I strung this piece back in 2007. I made it originally to enter in Art Bead Scene's Monthly Challenge.

Even at the outset, I was pretty dissatisfied with this design and stuffed it into my beading drawer (I only had a few small drawers of beads back then - oh, those were the days) then promptly forgot it. When I started sketching the concept necklace "Java Jive", I remembered Jenn's beads, unceremoniously cut the original necklace apart and ended up combining them with my own simple fine silver components and the super-cute lampworked coffee bean beads by Kristine Dery of Krissy Beads. Ultimately, I came up with a new design that I liked so much I actually wore it myself (and still do). The project appeared originally in the January 2009 edition of Step by Step Beads and was my first placement in an Interweave Press publication. I can still remember how exciting it was to receive copies of that issue in the mail. (I know, I know, it wasn't actually all that long ago, but it seems like a long time now...)

Anyway, I think this is a decent example of the rewards of going back to the drawing board when you're not happy with your work. While we may enjoy believing that great designs spring fully formed from a designer's head like the goddess Athena, fully armed and ready to do battle, in practice (for me, at least), this often doesn't happen. As I've said before, everyone has their bad design moments - some more than others, sigh. It's important to recognize them, think about them and strive to move beyond them - which, of course, everyone does, eventually. Please don't let these times get you down - they are, like everything else, part of the process and a learning experience.

As for me, I couldn't be happier with the end result of my struggle to showcase these lovely beads. It's also nice to be able to raise my glass one last time to the excellent Step by Step Beads. My editor told me that they refer to the cover shot artists as their "cover girls", and I'm so happy to be joining the ranks of them here.

Thanks for visiting.

Shameless Self-Promo - Easy Beading Vol. 6

I just received my advance copy of Easy Beading Vol. 6: Fast. Fashionable. Fun. in the mail today. My project, "Branch Out for Fall", appeared originally in BeadStyle magazine in November 2008. The necklace incorporates one of my Autumn Tree pendants:




This design was one of the first I ever made in metal clay and the project was the first one I ever sold to a magazine, so it remains a favorite.

If you are a longtime reader of this blog, you probably already know this, but for anyone else - it was the positive reception to my early work by the editors of BeadStyle magazine that really encouraged me to continue designing and working with metal clay. So, as you can imagine, I am so pleased that they selected this project to include in their sixth "best of BeadStyle" volume.

This is a hefty tome, full of beautiful projects - many by names you will already know. I tried to pick out a few favorites to highlight here, but there are too many - Jean Yates' "Linked Barcelets", Jane Konkel's "Fashionista Frida", a ton of beautiful pieces by Rupa Balanchandar, including one of my personal favorites, "Tibetan Prayer Wheel Pendant", work by Lorlei Eurto, Heather Powers, Susan Kennedy, Nina Cooper, and on and on!

It's a good book. Really.

Shameless You-Know-What

I love this magazine. It's bad for my budget, but I do love perusing the wonderful new products profiled here each year. I haven't had a chance to sit down and read it cover-to-cover yet, but I'm really drooling over a number of the ceramic artist beads in this issue (you can see several of them on the cover).

My Stone and Shore box pendant (the one with a tides design on one side and small pebbles from Lake Michigan on the reverse) is on page 25 of the magazine. The photographs of the piece really knock me out. As usual, many thanks to the editors for making my work look so good.

Last Dance

I received my advance copies of the January/February 2010 issue of Step by Step Beads in the mail yesterday. This is the last issue of the magazine that will be published. It makes me sad - the magazine was beautifully produced, and I always enjoyed reading it. It was one of the first magazines to which I ever submitted projects, and the editors there always treated my work well.

I'm pleased to be a part of the magazine's "last dance" - I have a necklace project in the issue using one of my double-sided box pendants (see the prototype here).

Thank you, Step by Step Beads - we'll miss you.

Four Seasons of Beading (Shameless Self-Promo)

I received my advance copy of Barb Switzer's new book, Four Seasons of Beading, a couple days ago. I have two projects in it: a necklace (which also appears on the back cover) and a Christmas tree earring project. Here's the photo of the necklace:


(Incidentally, the necklace was created around a strand of mixed seed pods which I discussed earlier in the year here.)

Anyway, as is usual with the projects that Barb helms, the book is quite beautiful. The projects in the book are organized around, yes, the four seasons, and they range across a satisfying spectrum of styles from cute to sophisticated, elegant to over-the-top - something for every occasion and mood. If you would like to view photos of some of the other projects in the book, trot on over to Annie's Attic and click on the "See More Photos" link.

Thanks!

Shameless You-Know-What: Bead Trends

I just received the November 2009 issue of Bead Trends. I have a necklace in here using my tree pendant, some really stunning rough citrine chunks I found at Enbeadia and beautiful faceted lemon quartz from Ayla's Originals (one of my local go-to places for nice stone). The photography in this issue is, as usual, wonderful. I was afraid it would be difficult to capture the incandescent quality of the stone, due to its paleness, but the photographer did an excellent job, with nice close-ups of the stone and clasp. Thank you, Bead Trends!

Stringing Magazine - Shameless Self-Promotion

I have a new necklace project in the Fall 2009 issue of Stringing Magazine, using my Autumn Tree Pendant. It's available on newsstands October 6th.

On other fronts, while the Short One was at pre-school, I spent some time cleaning out my workspace in the garage (I have annexed about 60% of H's bench space over the past couple years - I am aiming for 80%, but don't tell him that), for the first time in about a year. Definitely painful. However, I can now see the (fireproof) surface of the counter. Hip-hip-hooray, as the SO would say.

Okay, I started writing this post around 3pm and it is now 8pm - and I've written maybe half a sentence in the past 2 hours. I think it's time to surrender. I have new work, a goodie bag from Rings & Things and Friendly Plastic in cool colors (there's a great design challenge going on for that material) in my pile of interesting stuff, but right now I think I have to obey the laws of physics and be hauled off by the little hand that's been tugging at my sleeve for the past ten minutes. Good night all. Thanks for visiting.

Shameless Self-Promotion: Creative Jewelry

I just received my advance copies of Creative Jewelry, Interweave's big annual publication, in the mail today. I have two necklace and two bracelet projects in this issue. The magazine looks great! I'm particularly pleased with the photos of a bracelet I made with Sarah Moran's lampworked beads. My other projects include, well, my own Dragon Heart pendant and Stop Traffic charms, a mermaid button from Green Girl Studios and a porcelain shell bead by Joan Miller. On newsstands now!

Shameless Self-Promotion - earrings, earrings, earrings!!

My friend Alexa Westerfield (see her cool earrings on the cover - they are second from the top on the right - the cool blue ones with the peach background color) alerted me to the fact the above book, earrings, earrings, earrings! (Softcover version) by Barb Switzer, is now available in bookstores. As you can probably guess from the title, this book is full of very lovely (and very clever - I kept muttering "darn, why didn't I think of that?" while I was reading it - a sure sign of designer envy if there ever was one, eh?) earring designs.

I put together three sets for this book - two earring and necklace sets and one earring and bracelet set. One uses my mischief charms, one uses my binary code Geek Love charms and pendants and the final one uses my koi. Here's a pic of the final one, entitled "Summer Festival":


(This is the photo I used to submit the project - the actual photos in the book are completely stunning.) If you are interested in earrings, please do give it a look!

Thanks for stopping by.

Shameless Self-Promotion - March/April Step by Step Beads

I'm back again with more shameless self-promo. This time it's the March/April 2009 issue of Step by Step Beads. The piece I have in here is a special one - it was the necklace I created for a Collaboration Exploration I was invited to participate in with Melanie Brooks of Earthenwood Studio and Heather Powers of Humblebeads a while back. In addition to the beautiful beads provided by these artists, I also added some really gorgeous faceted ceramic beads by Diane Hawkey to my design. Many thanks to both Melanie and Heather, as well as to, of course, the lovely people at Step by Step Beads.

On other fronts, the Short One and I have been busy painting snow. Earlier this week, his teachers at Mom's Morning Away took all of the kids out and let them "paint" the snow with spray bottles filled with food-coloring and water. The SO went completely wild over this innovative way to play with snow, so wild that we ended up making a special trip to the store to pick up spray bottles of our own. The SO got completely worked up about our new bottles, woke up the next day, bouncing up and down about them - and it rained buckets the whole day (and night).

We watched forlornly as a ton of lovely, lovely white snow got washed away bit by bit. Fortunately for me (ie, for my sanity, as the SO was quite vocal about his disappointment), when we woke up this morning, we discovered that there was still a teenie patch of snow left in the back yard. We kitted up and marched off with grim determination with our bottles. I can now safely say that there is considerably more blue and red in our yard than there was heretofore. And the SO's creative spirit seems to have been satisfied, at least for the moment.

Have a great day.

Shameless Self-Promotion - Spring Stringing

Even more shameless promo from me - I have a cheerful necklace entitled "Heart to Heart" incorporating some of Michele Goldstein's wonderful beads (along with one of my graphic heart pendants) and a turquoise bracelet project in the Spring 2009 issue of Stringing. My heart charms and pendants are also part of the heart bead profile. Check out Lorelei Eurto's and Heather Power's great pieces on the cover, among others. (It took me a couple days to realize this, but my piece is actually on the cover, too - it's just that you can only see the clasp - big beaded, sterling silver toggle ring smack in between Heather's and Lorelei's necklaces - and the strands of button pearls. Oh, well!)

I was going to show off that new pendant today (really - no, really), but the Short One took a shorter nap than usual, and I didn't have time to photograph it. Will do my best to try again tomorrow...

Yee-haw

Well, I had a nice surprise today: I received an inquiry about my pony print pendants. Given that I haven't had these pendants listed on Etsy or otherwise advertised them for the past six months, I knew this meant that the February issue of Simply Beads - in which I have two projects, including one using my pony print pendants - must now be available. I haven't yet received my advance copies, so I surfed over to the Simply Beads website this afternoon...and discovered that my pony print pendant earrings have made the cover! This is the first time my finished jewelry (as opposed to beads - my koi and fortune cookie pendants were on the cover of BEADS 2008) has made the cover of a magazine, so I am Very Excited. Thanks to all at Simply Beads magazine - I can't wait to see the issue, which looks to include a great selection of projects by many of the designers I love, including Katie Hacker, Candie Cooper, Rupa Balachandar and Margot Potter. (In fact, I'm trying to sneak a trip to Barnes & Noble in among our errands tomorrow to see if I can hunt down a copy.)

On other fronts, I have been reminded that one of the people in this house has a birthday looming imminently (actually, two people do, but only one of them has been making a big fuss about balloons and cake). Last year, I rabbited on and on about this birthday for almost week until I'm sure anyone who was still reading the blog at that point was sick of it - and, frankly, I'll probably do it again this year. So don't say you weren't warned. However, I'm also going to be holding a nice giveaway, probably starting at the end of this coming week. I came up with a game plan while giving the SO his bath tonight (let's hear it for multitasking) which should work out nicely, if I can get my act together in the next couple days. This is usually a debatable issue, but I will try to make an effort in light of the special occasion.

Thanks for visiting!

Shameless Self Promotion: Step by Step Beads

Well, I actually haven't received my copies for this yet, but I was in my local bead shop yesterday, and the Jan/Feb 2009 issue of Step by Step Beads was already on the stands. My necklace, "Java Jive", is in this issue, and it's one of my favorite pieces. It's been at the publisher's office for almost a year, and I am really looking forward to getting it back. It incorporates my silver and fabulous beads by Jenn Kelly of CaliGirl Art Glass and Kristine Dery of Krissy Beads.

On other fronts, I've recently discovered my alter-ego. Mild-mannered mommy by day, once the Short One is in bed I turn into...the Cookie Monster! We've been decorating Danish butter cookies in the house, and I'm afraid I've found them irresistible. The SO took out the cookie tin today, looked in and said "Cookies gone!!" My mother, who is here for the holiday, tsks, tsks and says I should be ashamed of myself (making nooo mention of the fact that she kept eating the candy for the gingerbread house before we could use it, of course). I don't know what the SO and I will do once the holiday is over. Or, at least, I don't know what the SO will do. I'll be going on a diet...

Two more days! Everyone ready? I must confess that I'm still working on my Christmas cards for the year...

Shameless Self Promotion: Stringing

This is both a beginning and an end for me - my first appearance in Stringing and my last appearance in print for 2008. The Winter 2008 Stringing goes on sale December 30th and contains my Dragon Hearted necklace project. Thank you so much to the editors of Stringing!

I've said this so many times already, but I have to say it once more - this was my first year in print, and I'm really grateful to everyone with whom I worked for taking a chance on my freshman work. I have certainly enjoyed designing for the magazines. Maybe the time will come when I feel so blase about the process that I will no longer even mention it on the blog, but I must (embarrassingly) admit that I still get as excited as a kid in a candy store whenever I have a new piece coming out. Professionalism, shmufessionalism.

And now that I'm through (for the moment) being shameless, I'll return you to your regularly-scheduled programming. Thanks for dropping in.

Simply Beads - Even More Shameless Self-Promotion

Would you believe I have another published project this month? It's my first (but not last) with Simply Beads (the December 2008 issue). I will be appearing in one final issue (Stringing, Winter 2008) before the year is out and then that will be it for 2008. Once again, the photography and layout are gorgeous in this issue. I have a secret obsession with Christmas-themed craft magazines, so I was bound to like this one. Plus, the issue contains great projects from designers I admire, like Melanie Lukacs of Earthenwood Studio, Jennifer Heynen of Jangles, Impatient Crafter Margot Potter, Savvy Crafter Candie Cooper, Katie Hacker and Barb Switzer. Please check it out if you get the chance!

Thanks for visiting!

Australian Beading Magazine - Even More Shameless Self-Promotion

Yep, two straight days of shameless self-promotion. I hope you will excuse the excess on my part. This one is special to me, as it's my first appearance in a non-U.S.-based magazine. The lovely Jean Yates writes a column for Australian Beading Magazine (I was not able to find a website for the magazine - does anyone know if there is one?), and she asked me if I would be willing to be featured one month. Being of (mostly) sound mind, I said "YES!" The article is out this month, and it is lovely. Jean is such a wonderful writer, and she makes anyone about whom she writes look so, so good. Thank you so much, Jean - I feel like a rock star!

Jean also wrote a wonderful review of Jennifer Heynen's new book Ceramic Bead Jewelry: 30 Fired & Inspired Projects, and I just found out that my friend Mary Harding is also profiled in the issue! Australian Beading Magazine is unfortunately not yet available in the United States (although I believe that will change shortly). For any readers who live in a country where it is available, please do check out the issue. I would love to hear what you think.

Thanks for visiting!

Step by Step Beads - More Shameless Self-Promotion

Greetings. I'm here to say that I have new work out in the Nov/Dec 2008 issue of Step by Step Beads. (Check out the beautiful necklace by Carter Seibels on the cover - is that not eye-popping? I love it!) This issue is kind of interesting, as it features work inspired by the art and traditions of countries from around the world. My necklace is called "Chinese Lantern" and features two beautiful coldworked, lampworked beads by Sarah Moran as focals - bet you can't guess what country I was inspired by, eh? It also showcases the 2008 Bead Arts Award winners - and there is some incredible work here. (You may not be surprised to learn that I favor the piece with the koi and lotus.) I think this is a great issue, and I'm proud to be a part of it. Thank you to everyone at Step by Step Beads!

On other fronts, the SO had a Halloween party at his Mom's Morning Away class today. I get the impression that there aren't a huge number of moms in my area that make costumes any more, judging from the reactions the SO received - anywhere from "I wish I had time to knit these days" (from a mother of three) to "You made that? Really?!? Do you do this for a living?" Since I hang out with a crafty crowd (all of you!), I was a little taken aback, since I don't think it's all that elaborate of a costume. Sometimes it's hard to remember that enjoying working with ones hands is not necessarily the norm. I'll be curious to see at what age the SO becomes embarrassed to wear something that his mother made - hopefully, that will be a few years off. In the meantime, I get to enjoy having a little pirate around the house.

Speaking of hand-made costumes, though, you SIMPLY MUST visit Kathleen Dougherty's blog and see the fabulous Marie-Therese costume she gave away last week (yes, I'm sorry that the contest has already closed, but it is definitely worth your while to give this one a look - over 1,000 people left comments, and it's not hard to see why). I discovered Kathleen's blog yesterday via Amy Locurto's blog (who has many wonderful costumes of her own on her blog - her family costumes, such as this one, are hilarious - scroll down to previous entries to see more). I made Amy's acquaintance recently through participating in Terrorific Tuesday this month. It's all six degrees of separation in the blogosphere, that's for sure.

Thanks for visiting!