New Bead Weaving Pattern: Romanesque Earrings

I just created a new bead weaving video showing how to make what I call Romanesque Earrings.

I was looking at some stained glass window designs and one I saw that I really liked was Romanesque.

This beading pattern is not hard to make. I used 4mm bicone beads and seed beads.

I used the picot pattern on the edges of the design as well.

I hope you will like the result!

Here is a preview of the video course:



If you are interested in getting this pattern you can find it in the earrings section of the video library.

Please click here to take a look: Beading Patterns

Jewelry Making Videos Make Learning A Breeze!

Yesterday I received a comment that brought home to me (again!) just how powerful videos are for learning how to make jewelry.

Here’s what a beginner jewelry maker said about my beginner bead jewelry making video course:

“Hi Eri, Thank you so much for the beginner course. I am a semi retired physician and since 3 of my 4 children are married, I have been trying to find courses in jewelry making in the web. I subscribe to newsletters but wasn’t able to do even 1 piece of jewelry. I felt so unartistic. Glad to know about you and jewelry making professor in Jennifer VanBenschoten newsletter and I have done a 4 leaf clover pendant with your instruction. My son said it’s fabulous. I am trying to do some more projects after I shop for more materials. I thought I can not do a piece and now I feel I can do it. You and your videos are a great help. Thanks so much.”

As I’ve said many times before, there are some people who will have no problem learning how to make jewelry by looking at patterns and books.

However, there are many people that just will not be able to learn that way. It just depends on how your brain works.

For the people who are “2 dimensional challenged” it’s great that technology has advanced to the point where we can offer recorded jewelry making classes streamed over the internet right to the desktop or laptop of the student.

It makes it possible for so many more people to get involved and learn to enjoy the wonderful craft of jewelry making.

If you are interested in giving jewelry making a try I recommend you try my 7-part video course called “Bead Jewelry Making for the Clueless Jewelry Artist WannaBe.”

The seven videos will enable you to master the basics of bead jewelry making.

Bead Kits

Bead kits are now being offered at Jewelry Making Professor.

We have always offered an All-in-one beading starter kit for beginner beaders, but we are now going to start offering beading kits for individual lessons.

I decided to do that after getting so many questions from customers about where to buy the supplies for the video lessons available on our site.

For jewelry makers who have been accumulating beads and parts for years, there’s usually enough supply laying around, but for beginner beaders it can be a real hassle to constantly head off to the bead store, or if you don’t have a bead store nearby than to surf the internet for the required beads. jewelry making

The nice thing about the kit is that it’s all done for you.

In the near future I plan to start offering kits from other bead kit makers as well, but for now I will start with Jewelry Making Professor’s own kits.

One of the uniques aspects of our kits is that the instructions that come along with the kit will not be written instructions, but an instructional video on DVD.

This will be a real nice feature for those jewelry makers that have trouble deciphering written patterns, and also if you are buying a kit to give to your favorite beading buddy, you can be sure they will be able to follow the instructions because jewelry making videos are such an effective tool for instruction.

Where To Get Jewelry Making Ideas Online

If you want to create interesting and popular pieces of jewelry, the Internet can be one of the best places to find information and inspiration. There are many different places that have ideas that you can alter and adapt in order to make them your own. Whether it is using a different color of bead or one in a different material, making small changes to the styles you see can quickly build you a jewelry wardrobe you can be proud of.
Any clear images of jewelry can be a starting place for you to look for inspiration. You should be able to find images that offer close, clear shots of the different pieces you can choose from. It is simply the individual search term that you enter which can affect what your image results will be.

Click here for more Jewelry Making Ideas

If you want more trendy pieces, consider looking at fashion magazine websites or websites that follow celebrities and models. They are often trendsetters that may have articles on the new hot color or style. They may be able to give you ideas from the basic style (whether chokers are more in style than longer necklaces, for example) to the color or materials to use. This may give you ideas that you can use to go out and create your own patterns and styles.

There are a number of blogs dedicated to jewelry making that should have clear images of pieces that you can look at. You want to make sure that the images you are looking at are clear and that you can see the detail. This is important if you are looking at a piece and trying to copy the way it is made. There are so many different details that you may want to look at from the way the wire is wrapped at the clasp to a new way of stringing beads to make a multi-strand piece.

If you love the look of a particular era or style such as Art Deco or Victorian jewelry, you want to look at websites that have images from that era. There are very particular styles that are unique to those time periods and replicating them will be much easier if you have clear images to look at. You also want to read articles which talk about the different materials that they used. For example, jet beads were commonly used in Victorian era jewelry and so using similar beads will help you achieve an authentic looking piece.

There is also a great source of images that show ethnic jewelry which may involve specific techniques and materials as well. If you look on national websites you may be able to see examples of traditional ethnic jewelry and get an idea of the materials you should be using to recreate them. Beading websites and importers of costumes and textiles may have information that you can use to make patterns from.

Knowing where to look online means that you have a constant source of inspiration when working on your pieces and this may help if you are trying to get started or even if you have been making pieces for some time.

Making Bead Bracelets

Bead bracelets are possibly one of the easiest and most popular types of jewelry to make by hand. There are virtually limitless styles available to create which gives you as a jewelry maker the perfect opportunity to use your imagination and talents to the max. Even if you are trying jewelry making for the first time there are hundreds of projects on the internet that only require a few beads and some simple findings.

The basics of bead bracelets



In very simple terms a bead bracelet will generally consist of the following:

The base material for the bracelet – there are numerous different materials available for making bracelets, the most common of which include memory wire, elastic, cotton, embroidery thread, chain mail (made from jump rings) and leather thong. The type of material you choose will depend to a large extent on the required style of the finished piece of jewelry, and hopefully you will have some idea of the style before starting.

Some form of beads – as with the base material, there are hundreds of different types and styles of beads to choose from when making bead bracelets. The common beads used are seed beads (especially with memory wire bracelets), glass beads, plastic or acrylic beads and in some projects natural stone beads.

The beads are the central focus of the bracelet and can make it into an understated piece of art or a chunky, funky piece of jewelry that catches the eye in a flash. With this in mind it’s important to choose your beads well and never more so than if you are thinking of selling your jewelry.
A clasp or some alternative type of fastener – again the type of fastener you use will depend on the overall styling of the bead bracelet, although lobster clasps are probably most popular. Elastic bead bracelets generally don’t have a fastener while memory wire bracelets don’t need one.

A few ideas for bead bracelets



As mentioned above there are literally hundreds of projects for bead bracelets on the internet. The following couple are among our favorites though:

1. Chunky memory wire bracelet

This bead bracelet uses chunky, irregularly shaped glass or plastic beads that fill the entire memory wire. You can use any color beads you want although different shades of the same color add to the overall look. The bigger the beads the more substantial the finished bead bracelet and it is possible to create a bracelet that easily covers 3-4inches of arm above your wrist.

2. Personalized seed bead bracelet

For this type of bead bracelet you need plenty of seed beads, a seed bead loom and some strong, suitable thread. With a bit of practice you can learn to create patterns that integrate names and other significant words, so as to personalize your finished jewelry. These bracelets are very popular with children and make great gifts.

Click here How to Make Jewelry

Whether you are looking to make bead bracelets for yourself, as gifts for loved ones or to sell on the internet you can always make them unique. The range of beads and patterns available grows by the day so you’ll never run out of things to try…in fact you’re only problem will be deciding what to make first.

Bring on the Beads for 2011

It’s a new year and with that comes the excitement of seeing what the new trends in beading will be this year. I get excited about learning new techniques and I can hardly wait to see some of the new products. Then of course you can’t start out the New Year without new beads!

If you have been a beadaholic for a while now and browsed through a few beading magazines I am sure you have heard in passing about The Tucson Bead Show. Well Tucson is more then just a city in Arizona and Arizona is known for more then just great turquoise jewelry. From the end of January to the middle of February the city of Tuscon turns into the world’s largest treasure hunt known as “The Tucson Gem, Mineral and Fossil Show”.

From January 29th through February 13th the city of Tucson will host 40 different show sites located in hotels, convention centers, fair grounds and tents. Many shows are taking place at the same time so you can hit a few different locations in one day if you are feeling so ambitious. The main event is located at The Tucson Convention Center located in the heart of the city and features the most amazing display of rocks, fossils, gems, minerals, jewelry, beads, dinosaurs, and meteorites of all time. This is the 57th year for the show and the theme for 2011 will be “Minerals of California”

This is truly like the Disney Land of beads being it is the largest show of this kind in the United States.  To get around to the different show locations, there are shuttles that do run from hotels and venues. Take lots of extra cash or credit cards because there are so many rare gems and jewels that you will not see anywhere else. Plan to pack comfortable clothes and shoes. It is pretty mild and comfortable this time of year in Arizona so it is a great time to go west. Some shows get a bit crowded so be prepared and try to arrive early. You will want to bring a rolling bag or several different bags for shopping and transporting your goods. Many people end up shipping their goods home so they do not have to lug them around or bring them on the airplane. Many of these shows are retail shows and there are no admission fees. There are a few wholesale only shows so you do want to look up that information before you go to that location. If you do have a wholesale license bring several copies with you for you may have to give a copy to the seller. Also, wholesale shows do require you to register so go early to fill out any paper work.

So where does one start to shop? Try and get a good idea of what you might be looking for. As mentioned above you can go online and view a show guide and get a list of vendors and the wares they are selling. Importers come from all over the world so you will see many rare gems. I am a pearl girl myself so I love to hit the vendors from the orient to see what sort of great deals I can find and look for pearls that have great luster and finish. If you are looking for fine gems you can buy diamonds and rubies if you are so inclined at insane prices. The” J.O.G.S” show is recommended for both pearls and rare stones and other amazing treasures. You can’t come to Tuscan though without at least checking out the amazing selection of Turquoise. You can find some great Turquoise from local Arizona mines as well as imported from Mexico, China and other exotic places. Once again there are many great bargains to be had with a little bit of investigation.

Click here to Learn More Jewelry Making

I really enjoy the “To Bead True Blue” show as well as the “Whole Bead” show.  There are 500 exhibitors, workshops, and forums to choose from. You will see bead making, lapidary art, art couture, artistic glass, textile, art jewelry, embellishment, metalwork, clay art, wearable art, enameling, collectible, antiquities, and interior décor –together with wholesale artisan suppliers and direct importers to the trade. Many big companies like Swarovski, Terra Cast and Rio Grande have booths at this show and you can get a preview of there newest products before they even hit your local bead shops. There are also workshops and classes you can take but not all show locations offer them. “To Bead True Blue” dose offer a unique listing of classes offered by some great artists and instructors. No matter what your bead interest or skill levels are this is a must hit show.

As I mentioned above the main event is at The Tuscan Convention Center which is sponsored by The Tuscan Gem and Mineral Society Inc… You can see private collections of fossils, gems and dinosaurs that are rare and unusual which can give you an opportunity to make this a family event. It offers some great educational opportunities as far as history, culture and science. Plus the city of Tuscan has so many great sites to visit. I find the whole experience very inspiring and it gets me excited to do more beading, learn more and buy more beads!