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Thursday, August 28, 2008

A New Studio, Again

Well, I think I am in the process of moving studio spaces again. Do you ever say things before thinking? I do it all of the time, sometimes the results are good other times, not so much. Today I think it is good.

As I was Bead Surfin' on Sunday, I came across Jennifer Perkins, of The Naughty Secretary Club's post. She had just moved her studio from a bedroom to a fabulous new remodeled garage studio. I thought to myself, I want one, but really who doesn't? So for some reason I told Nik, my husband we should move my studio, which is scattered throughout the basement and garage into the one big room we have in our basement. That room is the guest room/play room/ Nik's office. He, being a fast talker like me, said okay. Wait a minute, he said okay. I never ever expected that out of his mouth. We then really started talking about things and logistics and it actually makes since. It seems like it will work better than it is now. Plus, he gets to have a workshop in the garage where I now have my packing station.

It's all very exciting to me but on the other hand I don't want to move a dang thing. So I am really thinking this one through. If I am going to do it I am going ot do it up right. I am going to make it my dream studio, because ask any artist and they will tell you, that's what we want. A cool studio beats fame and fortune out any day, well at least for me it does. I'm talking big here, but, hee hee, it's going to be my dream studio on a really small budget. I can do it and like it or not you'll be hearing about it along the way. Today, it's paint colors.....I am thinking all of them shown above....seriously all of them.

Have a great day,
Jennifer

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Bugs

I am just about freaking out today. Bugs have been the problem around here. I don't really like them. I think they are super cool to look at and I actually like to make them in clay and other medias, but the real ones that can hurt you.... I don't like. At the same time, I don't like killing things. If it won't hurt a person I catch them and take them outside and let them go. But lately, we have been finding ticks on our pooch and yesterday, I found one on myself. AAAA! I have never had one stuck to me, so scary. My son, Fletcher has seen three black widows at school in the last week. The last straw I saw a palmetto bug, (a.k.a. roach) crawl across my living room today. Thankfully my dog was chasing it and he got it. Bugs were the one thing I feared about moving to Georgia, they are huge here, but because of the drought last year I think we didn't see the normal amount. EEk! I know, I gotta get over it.

This bug in the picture is my friend Joyce Fritz, her studio name is Yipes! She makes these like life bugs put of polymer clay. They are pins, aren't they super cool?

Have a great day,
Jennifer

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Bead Surfin'

Good Sunday morning to you....Here's your weekly installment of Bead Surfin links....



About.com Jewelry Making
Art shows and sites like Ebay and Etsy are packed full of jewelry makers. When is enough enough or too much? Are there too many of us?

Art Bead Scene
The Art Bead Scene editors are a busy bunch! Read what they've been up to.

Art Jewelry Magazine
Robert Dancik's work is featured in the September 2008 issue of Art Jewelry magazine. Check out his project in the magazine, then watch the video on the Art Jewelry web site.

Barbe Saint John
Barbe talks about the new Naughty Secretary Club book.

Carmi's Art/Life World
Carmi turns an embroidered hankerchief into a bracelet.

Carter Seibels for Divali Glass Jewelry
Carter shares some of the inspiration behind her creativity, and invites you to do the same.

Jennifer Jangles Blog
Jennifer's been felting for fun, see what she came up with

Jewelry & Beading
Whip up a simple square stitch bail for that stone donut you want to wear. In fact, whip up a whole batch of them!

Naughty Secretary Club
Take a tour of the Naughty Secretary Club studios to see where the magic happens.

Strands of Beads
Melissa reviews Tammy Powley's new book, Picture Yourself Creating Metal Clay Jewelry

Friday, August 22, 2008

New Beads



Good afternoon....what has happened to this day? I guess I did a lot but it was just one of those days when before I knew it I was eating lunch and it was 2:30. A few weeks ago when the boys started school I thought I would never be able to fill a whole 8 hour day again, now I am needing more time. I have found myself working after they go to bed at night. I am never satisfied.....

I promised you more new beads pictures, I did get a couple photographed today. It's misting outside and there's no sun, so photography was hard. Here is a picture of a couple necklaces, both using my new pinwheel pendants. For right now, I am only going to be selling these on Etsy. I am having fun making them all different. I will manage to get a few up today and I will keep adding more new beads as they come out of the kiln.

Happy Friday!
Jennifer

Thursday, August 21, 2008


Good morning,
How is everyone? I am still waking up and having coffee but I thought I should post now. Today I am finishing up a very exciting order, after I get back from my morning walk. Fusion Beads is going to carry my new beads on their site. I am super excited about this opportunity because they are really great people and they have really great beads. I have been working on these new beads for quite awhile and today the last load goes in the kiln. And.... I figured out that I can watch movies on my laptop(I know, I am slow) so I have a bunch of documentaries lined up and ready to go. I subscribed to one of those online movie rental places and I can watch movies online. I am looking forward to my day of glazing and learning interesting things.

Okay, so back to my beads....that's what we're here for, right? I have posted a picture of some of my new pieces. I will post more tomorrow and hopefully I will even have some on Etsy tomorrow. We will see how things go.

I would love to hear what you think about the new stuff......
Jennifer

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Felt Beads

Hey there, I had some fun making felt beads this weekend. I have a stash of wool and the supplies for needle felting and I seem to get it out every few months and make a thing or two. This time I decide to make some beads. I wanted to do the technique where you make a big cane and then slice the felt with a knife when it's finished. I also wanted to make a lariat that I could embellish. I was happy with the way the cane beads came out. It was a lot of fun and I set up a little TV tray work station so I could watch some Olympics while I was felting. The lariat didn't turn out so well, but I have seen dogs toys made out of felt so I tied it up in a knot and let Otis have at it. It was hours of enjoyment, as you can see. I think next time I will make more dog toys.

Monday, August 18, 2008

Good Morning, I just have two quick things for you today. First of all I want to know what's going on. It's mid August and look what I collected from my yard this morning. They are beautiful but isn't it a little early?

And my second photo is of my elbow. Yep, just wanted to show you another side of the glamorous side of an artist. I was going to cook dinner the other night and I had already washed up from a day of glazing. I started to wash my tomatoes and found my elbow full of glaze. It made me laugh because I missed so much glaze, but really this happens everyday.


Have you every tried to take a photo of your elbow? That's why the photo is at such a weird angle.

Have a great Monday!
Jennifer

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Bead Surfin


About.com Jewelry Making
Tammy gives you some tips and jewelry project ideas for designing and making jewelry you can wear to work, even if your job's atmosphere is super up-tight.

Art Bead Scene Let your jewelry do the talking! Enter the Art Bead Scene's creative challenge!

BeadStyle Magazine
The staff shows off some of their favorite jewelry from the pages of BeadStyle magazine.

Carter Seibels for Divali Glass Jewelry
Carter ponders the organization of beads in the Bead Trust booth, and shares some new projects!

Jennifer Jangles Blog
Make Jennifer's Long, Dangle-y, and Jangle-y Earring Project

Jewelry & Beading Make a cigar box handbag...featuring beads, of course!

Katie's Beading Blog
Download one of Katie's projects over at Beading Daily. It's an icy confection of dichroic glass and matte seed beads.

Naughty Secretary Club The Naughty Secretary Club book is finally here. If you love your jewelry kitschy proceed immediately to Jen's blog.

Salt Shaker Bead
Carmi turns an odd collectible into something wearable.

Strands of Beads
Melissa finds that it's still easy to be green in August.







Friday, August 15, 2008

Big Sale on Etsy

Thank you, Thank you to everyone who has shopped my big Etsy sale. If you haven't taken a look I have lots of beads in my store right now. Everything is at least 25% off. Sale ends Sunday.

Happy Weekend!


Etsy: Your place to buy & sell all things handmade
Jangles.etsy.com

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Good News

Good News! I learned how to put new beads up on my website. It was not that bad. I think I built up my computer fears to be way bigger than they should have been. See the bead above? I added it to my website all by myself. Woohoo!

That bead will be featured in a project that is going to be going out on Thursday in my newsletter. If you read my earlier post, here, you will see that you could win my "Lucky" charm bracelet if you sign up. A free project and a chance to win jewelry....sign up I say. Go here and put your e-mail address in the newsletter sign up box and click submit. And I promise, I will quit telling people to sign up for my newsletter at the end of the month once I give the "Lucky" bracelet away.

So the really good news is.....I have an interview on the Craft Gossip blog today. It was a nice surprise, I had no idea it was coming today. Click here, if you want to go to the Craft Gossip Blog to check it out. While you're there check out all the other good projects and interviews they have. I spent some time on their blog this afternoon.

Jennifer

Wish Me Luck

Okay, so I am doing something really big today. Most people probably wouldn't get so worked up about this, but that's just the way I am. I am learning how to do html today. I don't think much, but my web designer is going to show me how to add beads to my website. Jenny Bublitz, of Bublitz Creative, has been my in charge of my site since I have had it. She is great. I send her pictures and she puts them up. I send her drawings and she makes my site look like my drawings. Anywho, you get it. I have a vision but can't get to where I am going without her. There are sometimes though when I would just like to be able to add a bead here or there. I am really freaked about learning this. Computers make me nervous. I get worked up. I cut and pasted my catalog for years and then I would take the cut and pasted version to a copy store and have it copied. I had people telling me, "you know it would be real easy to do this one the computer". Ha Ha, I still wouldn't take the plunge. Finally my mom bough me print shop and made me try it. She and everyone else was right. It was easy. Of course I loved Print Shop and still use it for somethings today. The only problem is that it's not compatible with anything. Therefore, I couldn't design ads or send things to printers with my Print Shop files. I did graduate to Photoshop Elements, which I had to learn also. I have figured it out over the last three years. I know there is still more I can do on that version but I would need someone to sit down with me. so I know by now all you computery people out there are probably cracking up about my apprehension, yah, you can. I know I am probably being ridiculous, but either way, wish me luck.

Monday, August 11, 2008

The Weekend Report

The weekend is over and most of us are up and back to work. I am busily making beads this morning but wanted to show you what I was up to this weekend. I have discovered that my new favorite thing might be painting furniture. I have done a lot of it in the past, but it was usually just one color. I have now discovered decorative painting. I love it and it's so much fun. So here is a buffet for my dining room that I working on. We have a great flea market here , I found this cabinet for 70.00 and it was wood! Woohoo! It still need a coat or polyurethane and a top. I am thinking about pouring a concrete counter top. That might be next weekends project. But however it ends up, I will be sure to post pictures.
This was my other handy work, a big pot of spaghetti sauce. If you have a garden you know that the tomatoes are overflowing this time of year. This is my second big batch of sauce this month. We are freezing it for winter but I think I will sneak some for lunch before we pack it up.

Have a great Day!
Jennifer

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Bead Surfin, Did You Know, and A Big Sale

Here's a craft idea for you. Did you know that you can take a clay flowerpot, glaze it and out it in your kiln? I know there are a lot of beadmakers out there with small kilns. These flower pots come in all sizes, you can even find saucers that could be converted into plates too. Follow the instructions on your low fire glaze jars and put them in the kiln. Terracotta is a low fire clay so I would fire more than cone 06(1828 degreesF). I painted this flowerpot and fired it in my kiln. I am working on some more for my porch too. Let me know if you try it, I would love to hear about it.
It's that time again...here are some great links to check out this week. Have a happy Sunday!

Strands of Beads : Melissa cracks some geodes to add to her jewelry making stash.

Jewelry & Beading: Wendy Van Camp has written a wonderful tutorial for J&B on how to make adorable earrings!

Jennifer Jangles Blog: Jennifer shows off her very loved tools.

Carter Seibels for Divali Glass Jewelry: Who says the grass is always greener on the other side? Stop by Carter's blog for a sneak peek at her green and grassy new bead display.

BeadStyle Magazine: New video interview at BeadStyleMag.com: Meet Melissa Cable whose necklace is featured in the September 2008 issue.

About.com Jewelry Making: Tammy's collected a load of links featuring jewelry related news and events.


Last thing....There is a big sale on Etsy this week in the Jangles store. I am at the end of my show season and I thought what the heck, I will have a sale. It's this week only, the beads are all first quality, and I will ship them right away. Doesn't get much better than that, does it?

Friday, August 8, 2008

More Storage

You know I went to a bead show a few weeks ago and bought a bunch of beads. I got home and started to put them away and realized my pegboard was full of beads. I was running out of room! So I put up a wood shelf that was a board and a couple of brackets I bought at the hardware store. After I got it up I realized I could indeed get more beads on it. I bought some cup hooks and started screwing them into the bottom of the shelf. I can now hang beads underneath too. I will eventually add more rows of cup hooks but one is enough for now to hold my beads. Just thought I would share my idea with you. I did a post previously about the rest of my bead storage, you can see it here.

Oh and by the way...New things on Etsy today.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

My Very Loved Tools

I have been meaning to show you these for awhile. These are my very favorite and well used tools. The two brushes have seen better days but they do such a great job of making the glaze go where I want it to. The first brush on the left, I have had forever, at least 3 years maybe more. It makes the perfect little circles in the middle of my flower beads. It used to be a big brush but I paint with these babies so much it has been worn down to a stub, it's perfect how it is right now.

The middle brush is the brush I use to paint the spirals, circles, and lines on most of my beads. This brush is starting to get too worn. I have to get a new one of these every year. When I notice it's getting worn, I start "training a new brush" It takes a while to get the brush to have the correct point and feel. I have some others that are about the same size but they just don't flow like this one does. Soon it will be retired, but I haven't gotten my other detail brush how I want it yet.

Third in line is a hole poker, a.k.a. skinny dowel rod. This tool has been with me since the beginning. I rarely make a hole with anything else. It has been used so much that the wood is really smooth. I broke it this year, it was longer. I traveled with it, I knew when I was packing it I Should leave it at home but I took a chance and it broke. It still works, but I think I will make a handle for it because it's a little short.

When I look at these sometimes I laugh because they are so worn, I love my tools and now I have to get back to using them.
Have a great day,
Jennifer

Monday, August 4, 2008

Winter Wonderland

I know, it's 100 degrees out today, it's August, and I am thinking about the holidays.

I am so excited about this years 10 holiday projects that I am working on them already. These are the supplies I bought today from the local craft store that is selling holiday decorations. I have to make a tree for my ornament projects and I just need some holiday backdrops. Plus, I just love this kind of stuff. I just pulled out some great Christmas beads from the kiln. New ones, but they can't be unveiled yet. It does need to be a little closer, but not much longer. So I said this before and I will say it again, make sure your signed up to receive my e-mail newsletters. See the post below for more persuasion.

Have a great day, I will let you know how things turn out.
Jennifer

Friday, August 1, 2008

Lucky

Hey everyone!
Exciting news here.....its a giveaway. The other day I was mentioning my ten weeks of holiday projects, they will be starting soon. You need to sign up for the newsletter if you want to receive them. Anyone who signs up in the next month (August to be exact) will be enter to win my Lucky charm bracelet.

Let me explain why you need to sign up......

1. I will be sending out a plethora of projects. At least ten, maybe more. Sometimes, I just get carried away.

2. Giveaways, contests, discounts oh my! How fun is that?

3. Last year the projects were available on the blog. This year, they will only be available via newsletter.

4. You get a shot at winning the Lucky charm bracelet.

Wanna get an idea of what you're in for? Check out last years ten projects in the 2007 blog archives. Oh, and by the way, just in case you're worried, I am the only one who gets your e-mail. It will go no where else. Besides the holidays, you will only receive about one e-mail a month from me. So don't worry your inbox won't be filling up with Jangles e-mails.

So what are you waiting for? Here click here or here or here. The sign up is at the bottom of the page.


It's that time of the week again, bead surfin time. Here's what you should check out this week. We've got some new members to keep things fresh and fun.

About.com Jewelry Making
Back to the de-stashing jewelry supply topic - Selling your supplies is not the only option for de-stashing. Don’t forget the many charity groups out there.

Art Bead Scene
Art Bead Scene throws away the key!

Bead Style Magazine
Check out the notebook pages in the latest issue of BeadStyle magazine; subscribers can get extra pages online.

Carter Seibels for Divali Glass Jewelry
Carter shares her full bead box, new marketing efforts, and a visual taste of blueberry icrecream cake!

Jennifer Jangles Blog
A look ahead

Jewelry & Beading
Cinch a stone using right angle weave!

Strands of Beads
Melissa and her son share their passion for beads


Happy Sunday!

Stones

A new book is out and I really like this one. Marlene Blessing and Jamie Hogsett wrote and designed the project for Stones.

I have to say the best part of the book for me is the section on types of semi-precious stones. There are photos of the different types of stones and descriptions. I really need something like this, because I have to admit I don't know my stone types very well. Even though I don't know my semi precious stone names I do like to design with them. This book gives some great ideas as well as some really nice color combination ideas. To be exact there are 23 projects, a stones glossary, a techniques section, and resources, so you just can't go wrong with this book.

Congratulations Jamie and Marlene!