News Category

A day late (for the solstice) but still beautiful. May you find your light this holiday season and keep it burning throughout the new year.

Enjoy discounted prices on all jewelry in my Etsy shop now through Sunday, January 1st! Plus, free upgrade to Priority Mail Shipping on orders over $40 shipped to addresses in the USA. Prices are already marked down thanks to Etsy On Sale’s lovely application. Shop now

Save 15% off any purchase from my Etsy shop now through Monday, November 28th. I’ll be adding new pieces all weekend.

Rings & Things is running a cleverly named jewelry design contest. Check out their Rock ‘N’ Rollo Challenge! Here are the details:

• You must include either some of their Rainbow Amazonite beads and/or Larvikite beads
• You must also include one or more types of their bulk rollo chain
• You can use any other components you want (handmade, store-bought, new, vintage, found objects, etc)
• Entries don’t have to be jewelry.
• Limit: 3 entries per person or design team

Prizes are $250-$75 Rings & Things gift certificates plus lots of bragging rights. And best of all, there’s plenty of time to enter. You have until January 31st, 2012 to get you design in!

It’s Beadaholics roundtable time again! The Charlotte Beadaholics are a monthly meetup group for local jewelry artists. We meet at On A String Bead Shop in Myers Park. Our roundtable meetups include a demo or discussion. This month, Nolan from On A String will be showing us how to create a knotted silk strand.

The silk knotting technique can be used to create necklaces or bracelets (or even earrings if you want to). Traditionally, most people think of knotting as a method to string pearls. One sign of a “good” strand of pearls has always been their strong, hand knotted silk. The silk knots protect the pearl nacre by preventing individual pearls from rubbing. They also give the strand a liquid or fluid feel that allows them to lay perfectly around the neckline. And should that string of pearls catch on something and break, only one pearl will roll off. Anne, at On A String, mentioned that you can experiment with the color of the silk used to knot crystals or transparent stones for unique and beautiful effects.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been seeing lots of higher end gemstone necklaces knotted lately. It’s a gorgeous, luxurious look. Hope you can make it!

I attended the Charlotte Beadaholics Meetup at Metrolina last Saturday for the American Gem Beads & Jewelry Show. I ended up purchasing these lovely gemstone beads:

They look good enough to eat, don’t they? From left to right, they are kyanite sticks, kyanite rounds, yellow jade pumpkins, a grayish moonstone, tourmaline, pink opal and amethyst. Love, love, love them all! I’m so glad I went to this show.

If you’re looking for a reason to make something, how about a contest where the top prize is valued at $5000?

Jewelry Television’s “Jewel School” is having a design contest this month. To enter, design a piece of jewelry, take photos of it, describe the design, reveal what inspired it, and list the materials you used. You are limited to one entry so choose one of your most fabulous creations. That’s the good news.

Here’s the bad news. If you are one of the 20 artists selected as finalists, you will need to mail your piece in for the last round of judging. From the way the rules are written, it sounds to me like Jewelry Television will own those 20 pieces and all rights to them.  So if you’re in the final 20, I don’t think you will receive your piece back and you’re giving away all rights to it. I can’t find clarification on that on their site or their Facebook page. It’s a risk, but it might be one worth taking. I have mixed feelings about it. I’m considering entering something that would not be expensive to produce.

The prizes are:

Grand Prize – $2,500 in Jewel School product, $2,500 in cash, and your design featured in a Jewel School DVD
2nd Prize – $1,000 in Jewel School product and $1,000 cash
3rd Prize – $500 in Jewel School product and $500 cash
4th Prize – Viewers’ Choice – $500 cash

Entries are due on September 25th by 11:59 PM.For more details, click the contest logo above or visit the Jewel School Design Contest page. Best of luck to you!