Jewelry

Seed Bead Revolution is available for order through Amazon and  SoftFlexCompany.com.

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At first I wasn’t sure about pairing orange with these light sapphire blue crystal squaredelle spacer beads, but they are really pretty together. It turns out orange and blue are BFF’s!

Necklace Instructions

1. Cut 24″ of beading wire. Squeeze open a bead stopper and attach to one end of your wire.

2. String one crimp tube and one crystal bead.

3. String one squaredelle and one agate bead.

4. Repeat step 3, eight more times.

5. String one squaredelle, one crystal and one crimp tube.

6. Measure 9 inches from one end and crimp tube with regular crimping pliers to hold beads in place.

Click for crimping instructions.

7. Bend the design into the natural necklace shape as shown above and crimp the tube on the other side of the beads to hold them in place. Remove bead stopper.

(Tip: If you lay your design straight and crimp you crimp it too tight and will not be able to wear it in the natural curved shape)

8. String one crimp tube and half of the toggle clasp. Pass the wire back through the crimp tube and crimp. Repeat on the other side for the second half of the toggle clasp.

Bracelet Instructions

1. Cut 8″ of beading wire.  String one crimp tube and half of the toggle clasp. Pass the wire back through the crimp tube and crimp.

2. String one crystal bead.

3. String one squaredelle and one agate bead.

4. Repeat step 3, eight more times.

5. String one squaredelle and one crystal.

6. String one crimp tube and the other half of the toggle clasp. Pass the wire back through the crimp tube. Bend the design into the natural bracelet shape and crimp.

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Photo Credit Sara Oehler

Sara, Thomas, Lucy, Josephine, Leeann and I had fun in the Soft Flex Company booth teaching hundreds of people how to make their first pair of earrings at the Arizona Ultimate Women’s Expo in Phoenix!

Bonus, Thomas and I got to meet Carson Kressley!!! I really should have paid attention to the keynote speakers before I went because, had I known, I would have brought my (ahem, Bert’s) Queer Eye of for the Straight Guy book to sign. Sara said I was the most excited she has ever seen me. Hahaha, I’m not sure if that is true, but I was pretty excited.

If you would like to learn how to bead, visit Soft Flex Company’s School of Design online or their YouTube channel for hundred’s of tutorials.

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I finished, I Finished, I FINISHED! Woot Woot!!!

I’m sooo excited that I finished all my jewelry instructions for the book “Seed Bead Revolution” I’m working on with Sara Oehler!

A big project that has had me beading all day and night is a beading how-to book I’m co-authoring with my friend Sara. I completed my 16 beading designs and we photographed all 32 projects this Friday.

Here’s a sneak peek at one of my design sets that will appear the book – squeeeeeee! You can easily make this necklace and earring set. Seriously.

Sneak peek photo by Jennifer Lind Schutsky and I’m in awe of her photo skills! Thank you for sharing your magic Jenn! ✨

I am moving on to the tougher parts of the process – instruction writing and book design. Oh my goodness, it’s about to get really REAL!!! Can’t wait to share more – stay tuned as we get ready to launch this book this summer! #seedbeadrevolution

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Do you ever wish you could walk through life with the knowledge that you are protected? That you sense an invisible shield around you, keeping negativity at bay and amplifying more of the positive energy you want to embody? I want that too! I believe in the power of gemstones and created the gemstone shield necklace collection as a beautiful way to support you so you feel confident to walk boldly in the world. Gemstones emit vibrations that that can aid the wearer in different ways. Each stone’s unique composition infuses it with powerful energy that can be utilized for specific purposes, such as to protect, heal, release spiritual blockages, energize, provide mental clarity, and more.

Click to see the collection and the energy each necklace embodies.

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I love chunky gemstones and had been eyeing a short strand of Lapis gemstone beads. I finally bought them for myself and am so happy I did! Soft Flex Company carries a wide range of short strand beads which allowed me to grab some really high quality beads at an affordable price. They are usually one-of-a-kind so, be sure to grab them when you see them! The shorter strand also forced me to dream up a design using less beads. Since chunky gemstones can get heavy, using less beads kept the design nice and lightweight. This long bohemian necklace is light and airy and with the fun pops of color, it’s perfect for hot summer days. I made a second necklace using cherry quartz beads for the tutorial below.

Instructions

1. String five turquoise heishi beads onto a gold head pin. Using a pair of chain nose pliers, create a right angle above the last bead leaving 2mm of space between the top of the bead and the bend in the wire. Using a pair of round nose pliers, bend the wire into a loop. Cut off excess wire. Repeat 4 times so, you have 5 dangles. 

2. Cut 7″ of beading wire.Add a bead stopper on one end. String one cherry quartz beads and one spacer bead. Repeat 10 times. String one more cherry quartz bead. The length of beads is about 4″.

3. String one 2x2mm crimp tube on the wire end without the bead stopper. Loop your wire back through the crimp tube forming a small loop and crimp. Cut off excess wire. Repeat on the other side after removing the bead stopper. For step by step instructions on how to crimp with the magical crimping pliers, click here.

4. Cut one 2″ length of chain. Count the links and find the middle. My chain piece had 19 links so, I attached the middle dangle first onto link 10. Next, attach 2 dangles to the right and 2 dangles to the left of your middle dangle, skipping one link in between them. So in my 19 link chain length example, you have dangles attached to links 6, 8, 10, 12, 14.

5. Cut a long length of chain (24″-30″) depending on how long you would like your necklace to be.

6. Using chain nose pliers, open each jump ring and attach one to each end of the long chain segment. Next, slide the looped ends of the gemstone strand to each of the jump rings and lastly, add the small chain segment with the dangles to each of the jump rings and twist the jump rings closed.

The long length allows you to omit the clasp and place the necklace over your head.

Have fun making it in all sorts of color and gemstone shape combinations!

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Tutorial Tuesday is a blog series where I share a do-it-yourself jewelry tutorial.

It’s been awhile (a whole year in fact!) since, I’ve shared a Tutorial Tuesday design with you. I was inspired to create these desert vibe beauties by the “Tempting treasures wire frame earrings” designed by Bonnie Riconda in the August 2016 issue of Bead&Button Magazine.

Tutorial

1. Flush cut 5″ of 18 gauge wire, straighten and smooth the wire with nylon jaw pliers.

2. Using round nose pliers, make a look on each end, with the loops facing each other.

3. Bend the strand of the wire softly up from the middle and line up the two loops at the top. Form wire into a teardrop shape.

4. Place the wire form on a block and lightly hammer it with a nylon hammer to work harden the wire. Do not hammer the loops when they are overlapped. Separate the loops, hammer and squeeze the loops back together they are overlapped again.

5. Repeat steps 1-4 for the second wire form.

6.  Cut 36″ of 26 gauge wire and wrap it three or four times around the top left of the wire form. 

7. String the number of beads needed to reach the other side of the form and secure by making several wraps. Repeat this step with your desired beads, adjusting the number of wraps needed based on the size of your beads. I strung: 3 shell heishi, 3 citrine rondelles, 7 shell heishi, 7 turquoise heishi, 5 citrine rondelles. 

8. Trim and tuck the wire tail, pressing it close to your form.

9. Repeat steps 6-8 for the second earring.  

10. Cut 2” of 20 gauge wire strands and using Wubbers make your ear wires. Watch the video DIY Episode 7: How to make Ear Wires using Soft Flex® Craft Wire and Wubbers Pliers on our YouTube channel.

11. Open the loop of an ear wire, attach it to the two loops on the earring form and close the loop. 

12. Repeat steps 10 and 11 to complete the second earring.