I’ve been piled high with books lately. When it rains it pours. If you missed some of my recent jewelry making book reviews, here’s  a short “catch up” for you.
Sparkletastic: Dazzling Jewelry and Fashion Projects for the Discriminating Diva by Margot Potter
 Create Jewelry: Pearls written by Marlene Blessing and Jamie Hogsett
The Art of Metal Clay by Sherri Haab (a book and DVD combo)

This is so not like me….I almost forgot to blog about my latest reason to brag…For the month of April, I am the featured jewelry designer over at the Soft-Flex Company’s web site! This is a great company to work with, and of course, I’m sure you all are already very familiar with their top quality jewelry making products.

Oriental Trading is has started selling beads and jewelry making supplies in a big way, and along with supplies, they now have free projects posted on their site like this Gemstone Pendant Necklace. The offer instructions in printable .pdf format along with a list of supplies which you can purchase (of course) from their site.
This looks like a pretty good beginner’s project to me. Obviously, you could also adapt the techniques they use to other types of beads and gemstone pieces to make an alternative form of this same pendant.

I finally got my act together yesterday and sent a fairly detailed email to my editor at Quarry about another book I’d like to write for them. While I think my book idea as merit and even if I get an initial “not interested” I plan to continue working on putting together a final proposal, it is helpful to run ideas by editors if you have the chance to do so. They really know what the publisher may or may not be looking for and usually have a pretty good instinct about what the market as well.
One tip, though (and …read more

The next annual Orchid Dinner in Tucson is coming up next month. Here are the details from its website:
When:
Friday, Feb. 2, 2007
7:00pm Cocktails
8:00pm Dinner
Where:
The Savoy Opera House
6541 East Tanque Verde
Tucson, AZ 85715
How Much
The price of the dinner is $35.00.
Walk-ins will be accepted at $45.00 Per Person.

I may be opening a can of worms here, but I had someone ask me the other day to create a specific type of jewelry project for this blog, and she mentioned that she’d prefer it to be copyright free. As someone who is not normally a jewelry maker, she had no clue about the can and worms of which I speak. Her thoughts were that she wanted to be able to replicate the design for her own needs and maybe as a gift since the holidays are coming up.
I realized after emailing her back and forth about this that many …read more

 Finally! I have finished creating my first, of what I hope will at least be a few, metal jewelry making e-course at my About.com site. This is a 14 week class, so you’ll get one lesson emailed to you every week. I will promo it in my Nov. 1st Jewelry Making newsletter, but I wanted my blog buddies over here to get first crack at it.
Here’s the scoop – like I said 14 classes, 14 weeks – and I cover all kinds of metal information in relation to metal fabrication. You’d be amazed at the jewelry you can make with …read more

I have a new felt and chain necklace project posted on my About.com site. The felt is actually rope felt that I got from Ornamentea.com – Very unusual stuff. The large linked chain used in this project also came from their web site.
It’s pretty hot outside, so it’s kind of hard to imgine wearing felt right now, but come winter time (especially up north) I think we’ll be seeing a good deal of felt jewelry this season.

It’s funny how little things can turn into major issues in the jewelry world. Take this “V” shaped ear component for example. I was sent a few of these as samples from John M. who works with APAC Tools. I thought they were totally cool, and I put together a project with them for my About.com Jewelry Making site because I thought other jewelry folks would like them as well.
And I was right. People went crazy over these things. I got tons of emails…where can I get these? The thing is that APAC Tools sells them, but only in large quantities. …read more

There’s a new wave hitting the Internet – Podcasting – and jewelry makers, beaders, and crafters in general are starting to join the podcast phenomenon.
To find out what the heck a podcast is and what it could possible have to do with jewelry maker, click on the link below.
Click Here for Podcast to Play
Here are a few other links you might find interesting in your podcast explorations.
How-Tos on Podcasting:
Podcasting and Audio Blogging
GarageBand.com
How To Create Your Own Podcast
Podcast Crafters:
CraftSanity
The Candie Cast
CraftyPod