Craftside

How to couch bugle beads with embroidery stitches from the book The Complete Photo Guide to Needlework

I just made the switch in my closet to putting away the winter clothes and bringing out the summer stuff. A few pieces look to me like they could use some bling, and these bead embroidering techniques from the book The Complete Photo Guide to Needlework look like just the thing to spiff them up!

Click on this page from The Complete Photo Guide to Needlework to enlarge and read how to couch bugle beads and do a bead running stitch.

More about the CPi book:

The Complete Photo Guide to Needlework

by

Linda Wyszynski

Here is the ultimate reference for all styles of artistic hand stitching! No matter what design style you favor, this book gives you the tools to express yourself with needle and thread. Detailed technique instructions with clear charts and photos teach hundreds of stitches for embellishing clothes, gifts, accessories, or home decor. Simple projects let you try your hand at each method and inspire you to create your own designs.

Needlework methods include:

• Creative embroidery
• Crewel
• Silk ribbon embroidery
• Bead embroidery
• Cross-stitch
• Needlepoint

Linda Wyszynski of Hearthside Creations, LLC, is a professional needle arts designer who has 20 years experience as a freelance artist creating needlework projects. Linda specializes in embroidery, silk ribbon embroidery, fabric beading, needle point, and cross-stitch designs and enjoys using embellishments along with stamps and stencils to highlight needlework. She teaches needlework correspondence classes for the Embroiderers' Guild of America's Education Department. She lives in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.

 

Bead and chain bracelet inspiration from the book Bead Jewelry 101

Joyeux Mardi Gras! And in honor of the tradition of "throwing beads" I thought I'd share this cool bracelet of beads and chain featured in the book Bead Jewelry 101.

 Want lots more great beading, wire work and more? Then grab a copy of the CPi book:

Bead Jewelry 101

by
Karen Mitchell and Ann Mitchell

In the style of Sewing 101, Quilting 101, and Home Décor Sewing 101, this workshop-style book teaches all the popular craft techniques used to make jewelry. Techniques are learned by doing projects, and the projects are organized beginning with the easier techniques and progressing to the more difficult to build skills cumulatively.

Karen and Ann Mitchell (Altadena, CA) are a dynamic sister team with a costume jewelry company called AnKara Designs. They make and sell jewelry, teach classes nationwide, and have appeared regularly on the Carol Duvall Show. They publish articles in Jewelry Crafts and other magazines and participate in 18 large arts and crafts shows annually.

 

Trapping felt and fabric technique from the book Jewelry Lab: 52 Experiments, Investigations, and Explorations in Metal by Melissa Manley

Here's our Wednesday giveaway question that gets you in the running for a copy of Jewelry Lab: 52 Experiments, Investigations, and Explorations in Metal:

What are the two craziest materials you have combined or have seen used together?

Answer this question by Midnight ET on November 23, 2011 and you could be the proud new owner of a copy of Jewelry Lab: 52 Experiments, Investigations, and Explorations in Metal. And for all of you who like to mix felt, fabric and wire jewelry making (or are looking to try), check out this tutorial on how to trap felt and fabric in wire.

Click on these pages from the Quarry book Jewelry Lab: 52 Experiments, Investigations, and Explorations in Metal to enlarge and read how to make fabric, felt and metal jewelry.

More about the book:

Jewelry Lab: 52 Experiments, Investigations, and Explorations in Metal

by

Melissa Manley

Jewelry Lab uses brevity to ignite a passion for working the metals processes and learning about all the ways metal can be used. It provides aspiring metalsmiths and jewelry makers a way to learn fundamental techniques that is quick and fun. In addition to the basic skills such as sawing, drilling, soldering, and finishing, the book covers texturing, etching, rolling, coloring, patinas, forming, connections, findings, solders, bezels, rivets, and other experimental techniques.

 

This is not a project book; rather, it is an approachable, unintimidating workbook that breaks metals processes down into very specific experiments, such as texturing or plastic deformation of metal, with no goal in mind other than to experience how metal moves. Readers learn to understand more about metal, how to master it, and gain a deep, thoughtful underlying appreciation for process and method, becoming entranced with finely crafting objects with great care.

Melissa Manley lives and works in southeastern North Carolina a few miles from Wrightsville beach. She received her BA in studio arts from University of North Carolina at Wilmington. Years later, she went back to grad school. While there she studied with enameling master Linda Darty and the godfather of found object Robert Ebendorf. She earned her MFA in Metal Design at East Carolina University in 2006. Melissa now teaches metals at Cape Fear Community College in Wilmington. Melissa has also taught workshops around the country in collage, book altering, watercolor and jewelry making for the past 7 years. Her work has appeared in Somerset Studio magazine, Crafting Personal Shrines by Carol Owen, The Fine Art of Enameling by Linda Darty, Making Connections by Susan Lenart Kazmer, and 500 Enameled Objects by Lark books. Teaching, making in a variety of mediums, keeping up with her teenage musician daughter Meredith, and her professional kayak guru and partner Robert Smith all keep her very busy! For more visit her blog: http://melissamanleystudios.blogspot.com/

How to identify torch flames from the book The Glass Artist's Studio Handbook by Cecilia Cohen

Today's "hot" craft tip is from the Quarry book The Glass Artist's Studio Handbook: Traditional and Contemporary Techniques for Working with Glass .

More about the all-inclusive crafting-with-glass book:

The Glass Artist's Studio Handbook:
Traditional and Contemporary Techniques for Working with Glass

Author:

Cecilia Cohen

Photographer:

Nataly Cohen Kadosh

Master the craft of glass art in your own home studio! The Glass Artist's Studio Handbook is a robust review of three popular glass art styles—stained glass, fusing, and lampworking—that brings learning new skills and making glass art within everyone’s reach. With the right tools, classic techniques, and several “teaching projects,” you will soon be making beautiful glass art at home.

Artist Cecilia Cohen walks you through planning your work space, selecting tools and materials, mastering basic glasswork techniques, and applying your new skills to original pieces. In addition,
The Glass Artist's Studio Handbook encourages good organization, unique and inspired design, and eco-friendly practices, ensuring it will remain an invaluable resource for artists.

The Glass Artist's Studio Handbook:

• Invites you into the studios of 18 glass artists from around the world
• Teaches fundamental glass-art techniques—cutting glass, soldering, flameworking, kilnwork, and more—in full-color photographs
• Illustrates the steps for crafting beautiful pieces of glass art, including suncatchers, jewelry, boxes, beads, and a kaleidoscope

Whether you are new to the art and want to set up your first studio and learn the basics, or an experienced artist looking to expand your repertoire and stimulate your creativity with advanced projects, The Glass Artist's Studio Handbook is for you.

Cecilia Cohen of Glass & Light, Israel, is an experienced glass artist and instructor. She has infused The Glass Artist’s Studio Handbook with her experience and her love of glass, creating a book rich with clear instructions, unique projects, eco-friendly tips, and an international outlook. She welcomes visitors to her studio and website, www.glassandlight.blogspot.com. 

Author's Etsy shop for stained glass: http://www.glassandlight.etsy.com

Author's Etsy shop for lampwork: http://www.stringythingy.etsy.com

Nataly Cohen Kadosh graduated from Sapir College of the Negev in 1997 with a degree in television and film. She polished her photography skills as a photojournalist until 2002, when she opened her own business as a freelance photographer. Her love of image, texture, and color brings a process of discovery into the art of studio photography. Nataly resides with her family in the desert town of Metar in southern Israel. 

 

Maker Faire 2011 here we come!!!! Plus, how to make tape measure and button bracelets, part 2

Yup! It's almost here! Maker Faire Bay Area 2011: May 21st & 22nd, 2011. And Craftside will be there too! We will have a booth #258 in Expo Hall filled with the hottest new books on all sorts of amazing creative topics, as well as a most fabulous free Dritz tape measure bracelet make and take (see how to make one below). You can also hook up some crochet kitten mittens with us, modeled by our illustrious Amineko pack!

We will have many more freebies and fun! So come and sit in our smiley face inflatables and get your craft on with us.

2 Sets of Tickets Giveaway!!!!!!!

We have 2 sets of tickets to Maker Faire that you, our fabulous Craftside readers, can get yourself in the running for just by leaving a comment in today's post by Midnight Wednesday May 18th, 2011. The winner will be chosen Thursday - be sure to check your e-mail! The 2 winners will then get the tickets e-mailed to them.

So if you are going to be in the Bay Area on the 21st or 22nd of this month and want something absolutely fabulous to do, this is the thing!

Now, onto the tutorial on how to make measuring tape bracelets.

The reason why this post is titled "part 2" is I posted a while back a version of these bracelets I made with metal tape measures. We all loved them so much we wanted to share them with all the great people at Maker Faire but the metal ones involve sparks flying and drill presses etc. so we opted for a kinder, gentler version that involves safer materials and tools but still rocks!

We used both the 3/4 inch wide quilt yellow tape measures and the 1/2 inch white ones from Dritz.

To make the tape measure bracelets, first cut a section that will fit around your wrist with about a 1 inch overlap.

Then, based on the button you are using, punch 2 or 4 holes through both overlapped ends of the tape measure where the button holes are.

Then, with a length of 24 gauge wire, "stitch" the button to the tape measure. I liked using the  "x" pattern but you could use any you like. Then I simply twisted the ends of the wire together and trimmed the ends.

Here is my collection of white tape measure bracelets. I love both sets so much. I hope you'll come by and make one with use at Maker Faire.