Blog for Beaders

Two autumn designs created by Artbeads.com owner Cynthia Kimura are featured in The Best of Stringing 2009.  Late Harvest is a simply elegant necklace featuring silk ribbon, swarovski crystals and a stunning LillyPilly pendant.    You’ll also find the bracelet Tahitian Path which was made using Swarovski Tahitian pearls and our popular sterling silver stick spacers.

For similiar jewelry designs visit our Learning Center.

While the holidays are a time for family and celebrating, they can also be incredibly stressful. This year, instead of trying to narrow down the perfect gift idea and then fighting the crowds to purchase it, head over to Artbeads.com and pick up a high quality gift bundle. These fun gift bundles are great as last minute gift ideas, stocking stuffers, teacher’s gifts or even party favors at your annual holiday party.

Each bundle combines essential jewelry making supplies along with a $25 gift card and a beautiful calendar full of jewelry design ideas, all for under $50! Gift bundles make the perfect gift for all the beaders in your life, and they show that you support their creative outlet. Whether you’re buying a gift for someone who designs jewelry for a living or for someone who merely dabbles, you can be sure they’ll love getting high quality products from Artbeads.com.

This Handy Tip video will show you how to use Glue-In Bails and Caps to create a fun Christmas tree ornament and a beautiful necklace with a Murano glass bead. Creating beautiful jewelry has never been so easy and fun!

For more Handy Tip Videos visit our Learning Center.

Sometimes finding great jewelry products for a low price seems nearly impossible. That’s not the case now that Artbeads.com carries Metallite™ products. Metallite™ by ZambaPro™ is a brand new line of high-quality jewelry components that are extremely lightweight and inexpensive. This means you can use them for projects you may not have normally considered, such as children’s jewelry designs and craft projects. Beginning jewelry designers can use these fun beads without worrying about making a costly mistake. These products come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. From alphabet beads and animal-shaped charms to intricately designed beads and links, these products are of the highest quality and look much more expensive than they actually are.

Metallite™ is a unique new line of products made of metalized plastic. Each component is created by pouring plastic into a mold and then electroplating it with a metallic finish. Each Metallite™ component goes through an extra plating process for added durability. The result is a high-quality bead that looks exactly like more expensive metal beads for a fraction of the cost.

Getting hooked on these new components is easy! What’s not to love about these light-as-a-feather beads? Use just one or two in your new jewelry designs, and you’ll be a lifelong fan.

When it comes to the holidays, the best gifts come from the heart. Show everyone on your gift list that you care by creating a handmade piece of jewelry. Artbeads.com has simple jewelry design ideas to help you create beautiful gifts for your loved ones, or make one for yourself and wear it to all of those fun holiday parties this winter season!

The piece I created resulted from several different things. The biggest thing is that my sister, Cynthia Thornton, just released a book called Enchanted Adornments: Creating Mixed-Media Jewelry with Metal Clay, Wire, Resin & More from Interweave Press. To celebrate the release of the book, we became sponsors of the prize for Art Bead Scene’s November challenge. The prompt for this month is Richard Dadd’s The Fairy Fellers’ Master-Stroke. I just moved and unearthed a box from Artbeads.com during the unpacking process. To pass the time while unpacking, I’ve been listening to Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell on book on tape. As soon as I saw the Russian pendant, I was instantly inspired and the fairy theme came together. It took a couple of tries and some patience, but I finally figured out how to put the piece together seamlessly.

To learn more about the necklace and its inspiration, visit my blog post.

- By Artbeads.com Customer Andrew

Artbeads.com is happy to introduce Style Lab: Jewelry Design, a brand new Nintendo DS game from Ubisoft®. This entertaining game lets you design beautiful virtual jewelry using over 400 beads, pendants and charms based on products actually sold at Artbeads.com. When you’ve finished your designs, you can choose to make them public for friends and family to see, and you can purchase them. That’s where we come in! The talented jewelry designers at Artbeads.com will bring your creations to life using components similar to those you chose within the game. A perfect gift idea this holiday season, Style Lab: Jewelry Design will help spread the joy of jewelry making to young and old alike!

For more information about this exciting venture, read our official Style Lab Jewelry Design Press Release.

Here at Artbeads.com we understand that keeping in touch with friends and family is an important part of the holiday season. So this year, instead of sending a store-bought holiday card, we suggest creating a handmade treasure using supplies from Artbeads.com. Imagine the smile on your loved ones faces when they open up the mailbox and see the card you created especially for them. Our talented designers created this beautiful card to send to vendors and other special friends of our website. In addition to a fun paper background, the card features beautiful Swarovski flatback rhinestones, Venetian glass beads, cubic zirconia and even a charming bird link. Feel free to use our design for inspiration, or get really creative and come up with a design of your own. No matter the inspiration, Artbeads.com has a wide selection of holiday beads and craft supplies to help you create a card your loved ones are sure to treasure.

Hi! My name is Teri, I work in the shipping department of Artbeads.com.
We never like to see Summer come to an end. That was the inspiration for my “I’ll remember Summer” charm bracelet. The warmth of antiqued copper in symbols of plants and trees growing my garden along with some animal visitors. From the four foot Ginkgo Biloba tree, I planted for future generations, the giant maple, to the grape arbors. The gemstone dangles are Moonstone and Sunstone with hammered bead caps and 3mm copper beads. Chain by the foot for the bracelet, a simple toggle and a handful of jump rings. The TierraCast pewter charms make it so much fun to put a bracelet together…the hard part is deciding which ones to use!

I hope you’ll be inspired to express yourself with a new charm bracelet!
Thanks for your interest,
- By Artbeads.com employee Teri McCamish