This contest is now closed. Thank you to everyone who participated and congratulations to our winner, Betty W! Read her story below
Do you remember the first time you sat down to create your first piece of jewelry? We’ve already shared some of our first jewelry designs, and now we want to hear from you! Enter the Artbeads My First Design Giveaway and you could win some basic jewelry making essentials so you’re always ready to create. One winner will be randomly selected to receive a prize package that includes two spools of high-quality jewelry wire from ZambaPro® (medium and heavy gauge) and one pair of German ergonomic side cutters. This makes a great gift for a budding designer or to keep an advanced jewelry maker well prepared.
To enter, fill out the short entry form and then leave a comment with the story of your first design. This contest runs from today, December 11, 2012 until Sunday, December 16, 2012 at 11:59pm. We will notify the winner and announce it the next day. Enter now and share your first design! You never know who you may inspire with your story.
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No purchase necessary, must be 18 or older to enter. Please one comment per person. Odds of winning depend on number of entries. Void where prohibited by law. Contest valid in the US and Canada only excluding Quebec.
By submitting a comment on the Blog for Beaders, you agree to its terms and conditions.
-Marissa
I love sharing on FB all of you fabulous supplies for the Art World.
My first jewelry design was a stretch bracelet! Seems so long ago!
I wanted to enter into a craft show that was being held by my Elks organization. I decided on bracelets and I must say I did much better that I expected. I now do beading for myself and for gifts.
My first project was as a teenager. My friend and I wandered into a little bead store when we were shopping. When the lady who worked there asked if she could help us find anything we said no because we didn’t know how to make jewelry. She solved the problem right then by helping us to design and make our first creations. Mine had leather with bone and wooden beads. I still have it two decades later.
Amazing, I can’t really remember my first design. I know I spent many years avoiding beading because I knew I would be hooked once I started. A couple of years ago my MIL had some old beading magazines which she gave me – oh what a bad idea! Now all I do is bead….. I expect my first design was a needlecase cover as I saw such a pretty pattern in an English magazine.
I made a pair of earrings and a strung beaded necklace. Easy Peesy! 🙂 I don’t like them anymore because it was not very interesting as I played it safe choosing beads and colors. Now that I’m more experienced I am more adventurous with color choices and bead combos.
I would love to try beading on this wire have only used fishing line in past
My first project was way back in the 60’s. I was making hippie beaded necklaces and love beads and selling them to my classmates.
My first design was inspired by all the beads I found for sale on eBay in the early 1990’s. I bought some emerald green cathedral beads and I took them to a small local bead shop. I told the owner I didn’t know how to make jewelry and she told me to pick out the rest of the beads that I wanted to use in my creation, string them and tape the ends and bring it back to learn how to finish the ends properly. I used the emerald cathedral beads, silver metal spacers and black diamond color sz 11 seed beads. She showed me how to use the crimp beads and I went home and started making more jewelry! I still have and wear that necklace!!
The first piece that I ever made was a tree of life pendant…it was rather sad looking.
My first first was a set of a necklace, earrings, and brasalet, for an office party,was the talk off the night. Pink quartz and silver.
My first necklace was using black twisted glass beads and sterling silver spacer discs with a sterling silver lobster clasp. I still wear it today and get many compliments. I also made earrings and a bracelet to match.
The first piece I ever made was a really horrible necklace — it was pretty, but I didn’t understand gemstone grading at the time. It was peridot chips with a horrible wire wrapped simple rose quartz “pendant” I made with a rose quartz bead and a head pin. Later that year, I perfected the design, just in time for the color scheme to become obsolete through fashion trends.
I wonder if I still have it, lol.
My first design was a pair of earrings with moonstone and hematite. I still have them today. My sister and I used to have a game we would play while making jewelry, we would give each other stone combinations to make jewelry pieces out of. We came up with some cool designs that way!
My first jewelry I ever made was when I was teaching myself how to use polymer clay. I was so proud I did matching beads to make a pair of earrings. I thought it look good back then, know not so much.
It was 15 years ago, still have the beads, don’t do polymer clay anymore but play with glass instead.
The first jewelry piece I ever made was a pipe cleaner ring with a crumpled-up ball of tin foil as the jewel. I sold it to a classmate for a quarter, thereby beginning a brisk if brief business in pipe cleaner jewelry. I think I was nine. Maybe ten.
My first design was using some odds and ends of jewelry I found in my Mother’s drawer. She had recently passed away and I was getting her things together. Although none of the bits and pieces had monetary value, the necklace I made form them means the world to me.
Oh my, I haven’t made that many jewelry pieces but I can’t remember the first one that I actually made myself. The first one I remember making is a wire wrapped stone.
I made a lanyard for my badge for work. It was made with black crystals, (different sizes) and sterling silver spacers. I still have it and it’s still pretty.
My first design was “love beads” and matching daisychain rings back in 1971 while I was in college. How time flies! And how designs change!! 🙂
My first designs were friendship bracelets made with embroidery floss. Later I made macrame necklaces and bracelets with some beads woven in. That was in the 70’s. Since then I have graduated to beading.
My first design was probably with Cheerios when I was very little. 🙂 I also remember finding seashells with holes in them and making “beautiful” necklaces for myself, my sister, and my mom. I was fortunate that I grew up with a mom who was a seamstress. We played with her scraps and made stuff with a needle and thread for our dolls. I cannot recollect what my first “real” design was. My mother-in-law gave me a box of beads and one day, I think I made some kind of simple necklace with seed beads. I was hooked from that day on!
My first project was jewelry for my bridesmaids for my wedding. I hated all the jewelry out there, so I decided to make earrings and necklaces. The earrings were dangle swarovski hearts and the necklaces were double strand sapphire blue swarovski crystals, with a dark blue pendant. It was perfect for the day. My girls looked beautiful and they all loved the jewelry. I’ve been hooked on making jewelry ever since.
My first project was a kit that I purchased at a large box store. It included two necklaces and a couple pairs of earrings. I chose to make the Y-necklace first and it proved to be the most difficult because I had a lot of trouble making uniform simple loops. By the time I made the second necklace I had already gone shopping for more beads and “edited” the design. I haven’t quit since!
The first piece I made was an earring, bracelet, necklace set for my Aug. 2012 wedding. Pearl and crystal clusters. It was trial and error, but I wear them frequently, and nobody believes I made them.
https://www.etsy.com/your/listings/109577143
Teresa
My first design was a wrap bracelet. I found instructions on pinterest and I haven’t stopped making jewelry after that.
I made my first pair of earrings when I was about seven years old. I used the pieces from one of my grandma’s broken necklaces and attached them to old wire that I found in our junk drawer. They probably weren’t exactly safe to wear, but I these things never matter to seven year olds!
My first design was a necklace for a friend on her birthday. I found a dragonfly pendant, and suspended it from a silver chain. Then I added a few briolette crystals to the chain in icy blue. That was two years and oh-so-many pieces of jewelry ago. She just celebrated another birthday, and wore that necklace for her party…she says it makes her feel special to know a friend created something especially for her.
My first beading project. when I was in middle school. My best friends mom (a native American) from the Acoma pueblo tribe, had us help her string liquid silver necklaces. Ever since then I have been a beadaholic. It’s my passion. 😉
My first original design has to be my marble necklaces. All of my jewelry is of my own design but when I found a jar of my Great-Uncles antique/vintage glass marbles I was truly inspired. I took different colored wire, wrapped each marble in corresponding colors and made that the focal piece of my necklace. Then I took several contrasting and corresponding colored smaller beads and strung them to make the rest of the necklace. I have since made and sold many of these. My uncle’s marbles are going to good use.
my first design was using Delica beads and making an odd count peyote stitch bracelet…i have also started to create my own designs with wire weaving and wire wrapping.
The first piece of jewelry that I remember making was a ring that I made out of wire twist-ties from the produce section at the grocery store. I was sitting in the cart, and my mom gave me a few to keep me busy while she shopped. I twisted them into curlicues and then used a second wrapped around my finger as the ring. The cashier even complimented me on it!
It has been more than 20 years but I would assume that my first piece was probably a necklace made with seed beads on fishing string taken from my dad’s toolbox.
I am so new to jewelry making. My first attempt at jewelry was using buttons and beads to make a bracelet. I used wire to secure all to the bracelet. I gave it to a family member. I was so proud of it. I am still learning. I have yet to figure out how to use crimp beads and covers and soooooo many other things. That is why I love this site, it has tutorials and great designs. Thank you.
My first jewelry designs were bracelets &necklaces strung with antique buttons from my great-grandmother’s button box as a small child. Before we were “big enough” for the button box we were given old wooden spools from thread to string!!
My first design was Christmas Ball Ornament Earrings. the lady I helped make jewelry wanted me to come up with Christmas Designs for her, she loved the Holiday.
We won’t talk about when I had gotten into her Swarovski Crystals and made a whole necklace out of her very large ones…I thought she was mesmerized by they beauty of the design…come to find out she was shocked I had used all of those expensive crystals, should have seen the look on her face. lol
I started almost 30 yrs ago with earrings for myself. I have never really sold my jewelry but way back when feather earrings first became popular I made them and sold a few pairs. But now Im more into beading for myself.
My first bracelet, not long ago, was a stretch one. I collected vintage clear swarovski beads in 12, 14, and 16mm, and I included a fabulous Bali silver rectangular bead as the focal.
my first piece I created besides simple necklaces and earrings was a handmade wire wrapped puzzle piece pendant wrapped with turquoise chips. I made this piece in honor of my niece, Olivia Paige, who is part of the 1 in 88 children affected by Autism.
I started when I was in Jr High, now I’m in my 40’s, a beaded Angel I made for my parents was the first one I made
My first piece of jewelry to make was a bracelet . I used elastic stretchy cord and really cheesy cheap plastic beads….I thought it was so cool at the time…But now I see it’s true ugliness……But I was on the path to becoming an expert we all have to start somewhere…bye for now and Happy Beading
I made a simple herringbone bracelet with transparent red and crystal 8/0 beads. I still wear it often.
My first design was a pair of earrings with rainbow Swarovski crystals that I attached to a circular frame that I bought. It reminds me of a colorful ferris wheel. Please view the image on easy and you can see which one I’m talking about.
My first occasion was to get a box of broken jewelry from e-bay and repair everything then I made rosaries for a while then started making jewelry and haven’t stopped since.
My first design was a beaded necklace using seed beads. I was maybe 12 at the time so it was string and beads and was just one strand of simple beads. I still have it to remind me of my first experience with beads.
My first design was a necklace i picked up from a thrift store as a teenager. I looked at it and saw a design for earrings and a necklace, i received many compliments and started to make more for friends and family…wow, it’s been almost 40 years!
Would you consider using daisys and their stems being woven together making jewelry. I do. As a child I would split a stem and weave them together and make daisy necklaces and bracelets. They were beautiful!
My first design was a basic stack beads on a head pin with a couple spacers earrings..
My first attemp at jewelry making was when I was in kindergarden..made a necklace out of yarn..wore it on picture day !!! I still have the picture 🙂 I was so proud 🙂
The first time I worked on a project of beading, I had just made a new friend that beaded. She was out at the airport in the middle of no where and I was mowing the fields where she was camped out with her husband (forest fire fighter). She asked if I’d mow behind her motor home so she could get back there easily, without worrying about snakes. After we struck up a conversation and talked for hours. Then she showed me how she beaded and a few days later she have me lessons. We were fast friends and though she lives across the country, we are good friends to this day. Now I’ve made beading not only a hobby but I do it for donating for different fund raisers, and I make beautiful pieces for people to enjoy. I love it! I’m disabled and can still do my beading and help my family and others by doing it. It’s a true blessing!