Custom Cool Jewelry
by Melinda Barta
Melinda Barta came up with a brilliant idea for this fun book. Instead of spreading her many talents out too thinly, she concentrated on just three areas: pendants, charms, and clasps.
It’s often hard to find exactly that perfect piece to customize your jewelry, and if you can make your own pendants, charms, and clasps, you can add them to readily available lain beads to create a masterpiece that is distinctively yours. Melinda includes over 275 quick and easy ideas for mixed media components as well as 7 full stringing projects. Once you start …read more

Betsy Baker, owner of Stonehouse Studio, creates lovely classic jewelry from polymer clay.   The combination of polymer with beautiful metal frames and findings makes gives it timeless style.  Betsy writes:
I love the contrast between metal and polymer clay.  Metal is bullied and cajoled into doing what you want by hammering, sawing and torching.  Polymer, on the other hand, is the most cooperative, versatile and forgiving of mediums.  As is so often true of opposites, the two work beautifully together.

My work is inspired by nature, which may seem strange since my primary medium is a synthetic plastic.  But the chameleon-like qualities …read more

Lauren Abrams, owner of LaBeana, makes eye-catching polymer clay jewelry.  I love the tribal/ethnic/bohemian feel to her pieces.  Lauren writes:
I love polymer clay because of the immediacy of it as a medium. It is endlessly challenging yet among the simples of mediums to us. There are new techniques being developed daily and the excitement of trying new ones keeps it fresh and enticing. It’s great to be learning from other polymer clay artists(who are among the most generous of artists when it comes to sharing information) and a day does not go by when I don’t see something …read more

Tina Farthing, owner of Chicki and ChickiBeads, sent some lovely pictures of her work.   When you visit her bead shop, I think you’ll be immediately struck by the endless possibilities of jewelry you could make using her beads!  Tina wrote:
I handcraft polymer clay jewelry. I create my own polymer clay beads and pendants and fashion them into unique jewelry. A lot of my items are one-of-a-kind and cannot be recreated.

I have always been a crafter. I can thank both my grandmothers for this as they are very crafty. I first picked up clay around 5 years ago. I took a …read more