Jewelry and Beading » jewelry_making

Some Recent Jewelry Books Reviews

Tammy Powley — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 12:13:59 +0000

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)

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Almost Forgot to Brag!

Christina Jones — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 10:41:27 +0000

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.

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Rose Quartz Pendant Project

Tammy Powley — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 14:13:41 +0000

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.

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New Jewelry Book Query

Tammy Powley — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 14:13:50 +0000

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 this is why I did it via email), get it down in writing some how. Blabbing over the phone about a vague jewelry book idea is just not the same thing because you may not be able to get your ideas explained thoroughly enough, and you don’t have the added benefit of including visuals, in this case images of finished jewelry pieces. Also, you never know down the line when it might come up again, and you can forward the email you previously sent.

So, I’m sitting on pins and needles waiting to hear back. It will probably be a few days, but I feel sort of lost now not having another jewelry book in the works. It’s not like I need something else to do, but I miss it still.

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The 11th Annual Tucson Orchid Dinner

Christina Jones — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 15:01:30 +0000

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.

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Jewelry and Copyright

Tammy Powley — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 12:59:53 +0000

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 newbies into the world of jewelry making probably also don’t understand the worms and can when it comes to beadwork or other forms of jewelry making. This is especially true if you’ve done any kind of web surfing and seen jewelry makers posts things like “These are copyrighted designs! Don’t steal them!”

So, here are my thoughts on the issue of copyright and beading and jewelry, and of course, I’m not a lawyer or copyright expert, just a jewelry designer:

When in doubt, ask. If you want to copy a design and aren’t sure if it’s okay, ask the designer before you do it. In some cases, it may be okay depending on your purpose and the project. For example, obviously I write about how to make jewelry so that others can make jewelry, and I do expect them to copy my projects for their own personal use. Otherwise, why would I post “how-to” projects?
Remember the web is a form of media, like a magazine, so when it’s posted on the Internet it is “published,” and therefore, it should be treated the same as something you saw in a hardcopy magazine. Just because you get to view it for free doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want with it.
Most designs have been done, redone, rehashed, whatever you want to call it. I am very sceptical of anyone who claims he or she as “invented” a totally, never done before, one of a kind, 100% original jewelry design. So, get over yourself already.
On that note, don’t freak if you suspect someone has “borrowed” a design. First of all, if they really did take it, then it’s obvious they have no design skills and while you’ll go off and design tons more jewelry pieces, they’ll still be out there copying others’ work. Plus, really, how much money is someone going to make from your brilliance?
Give recognition when it’s due. For example, say you are part of a bead group and you want to teach them a project you found off of my About.com Jewelry Making site. Mary, Beth, and Gail aren’t web savvy, so you need to print up instructions for them and others in the group. Be honest about where the project came from. Don’t copy and paste the text into a Word file and had it out as if it’s your own work. Print it off so the URL is visible and explain where the project came from.

I’m going to stop there – for now – as I think about this some more. But, now the can is wide open! The worms are squirming around my beads. So, go ahead let it rip (in a very nice, mature, open-minded way).

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First Metal E-Course Complete

Tammy Powley — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 08:09:35 +0000

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 metal and simple hand tools, no torch required either. You can sign up for it here: Metal Jewelry Fabrication.

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Felt and Chain Mixing It Up

Tammy Powley — Sun, 13 Aug 2006 08:44:29 +0000

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.

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The “V” Earring Controversy

Tammy Powley — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 08:29:48 +0000

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. So, those who just want to make a few pair or even a few dozen pair were left out.

So, I wrote to John asking for retail sources because people were begging me for them, and not only did he give me some, he eventually set up a little etsy.com page for us.

Then, now this is where it gets weird, I started receiving comments from people about how they could make these. Why should they buy them? Why was I so into this guy selling his “V” earrings? If I’m such a great jewelry maker, why don’t I show how to make these?

The saga gets weirder and weirder, and at first, I thought, “Sure, maybe I’ll do a project on how to make these.” But, then as people got nastier about this whole issue, I’ve decided against it.

In fact, if you held me down and stuck an open can of beets up to my nose and forced me to inhale (I hate beets…they smell like sticky old socks) I would still not make these, and there are 2 reasons for this.

First, they cost something like a buck a piece, and believe it or not, the time I’d put in making a pair would cost more than that.

Second, I don’t like getting bullied, and I’m sorry but that’s what it’s beginning to feel like to me when people practically demand that I put together a project.

So make them youself, buy them, do whatever, but this jewelry maker has zero plans to make the Vs! So, get over it already.

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Jewelry Makers Podcasting

Tammy Powley — Sat, 17 Jun 2006 16:12:47 +0000

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

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