I have a list of metal bead suppliers that has links to many fine companies, but I notice that most of them specialize in silver and gold.  Vintaj is listed, a wholesaler of brass beads and findings, and also Green Girl Studios, which has pewter delights as well as silver.

Here are some additional sources of copper, pewter, and brass:

Rings & Things
Fire Mountain Gems
HHH Enterprises
Auntie’s Beads

And for metal clays, including the new BronzClay and CopprClay, don’t forget about Rio Grande!

Jean Campbell, at Beading Daily, has provided a wonderful chart which gives you the low down on copper, brass, and pewter, including how to care for them.

Post from: Jewelry and Beading

Artist: Linda Kaye-Moses

Linda Kaye-Moses has been creating jewels since 1976 and in 1996 she became a Certified Precious Metal Clay artisan. She has shown her work in galleries and shows across the country including the Smithsonian Craft Show, ACC Craft Fairs, and The Paradise City Arts Festivals. Linda’s art has also been published in Art Jewelry Today and Art Jewelry Today I, Creative Metal Clay Jewelry, Fabulous Jewelry from Found Objects, PMC Decade, and Making Metal Beads. She is currently writing a book on metal clay, tentatively titled: Jewelry Arts Workshop: Making Pure Silver Beads with Metal Clay (Creative Publishing international, Spring 2009).

Of her art and inspirations, Linda states,

“My jewels concern themselves not simply with function but also with the implicit and explicit narrative capacity of adornment. They are an extension of my intention to build fully-realized objects by constructing jewels within environments of protective dwellings, like “nesting cases”, which often incorporate an original textual element such as a poem, song, or prose. I want each jewel to merge with its ‘nesting case’ to become a singular unit.

The inspirations for my work are varied; ancient artifacts, Fabergé constructions, the architectural fantasies of Brodsky and Utkin, the mediaeval reliquary, the complex and complicated structures that speak on many levels of human experience-especially humanity’s delight in the body-embellished. The ‘enclosure’, the vessel, the chest that contain carefully selected and assembled elements, and that reflect intimate symbology, are both my inspiration and my art form.”

Post from: Jewelry and Beading

This is an astounding book! Like all Lark Publications, it is filled with beautiful photographs, in this case close-ups of lovely fabricated metal beads and the steps to create them.

Warning: this is not a book on metal clay. Pauline’s book covers traditional metalsmithing techniques, so it’s not for everyone. But if you’ve ever thought that you’d like to try your hand at making metal beads from scratch (or in this case, from sheet metal!), this is the book for you. She has a brief section on doctoring up premade metal beads, giving them texture and more personality, but most of the book covers creating from the raw materials.

After covering the basics of sawing, filing, drilling, soldering, forming, and more, Pauline puts all these skills together to show you step by step how to make 40 different gorgeous beads. Some beads start with tubing, some with sheet metal, and some with wire mesh. All are stunning!

Post from: Jewelry and Beading