Bead Simple

Hi, just wanted to check back in after a few weeks… I had my adorable baby girl, Pearl, on May 6 and have had such a great time getting to hang out with her! So I’ve been a bit distracted lately, but wanted to mention a few cool things going on in the jewelry-making realm:

I was recently interviewed about beading for Seventeen magazine and the article (with lots of tips and resources) is up on their site if you want to check it out. I started making jewelry in high school so I was really pleased to pass on some ideas for getting started beading and re-styling your own stuff. Thank you to Neha Gandhi for the great piece!

I’m doing a short segment on AM Northwest this morning (on KATU 2) showing how to make jewelry from Bead Simple! If you are in Portland or anywhere nearby and want to tune in, I’ll be on at 9:40 am making the Pink Floral Ribbon Choker and showing some other projects and techniques from the book, too. Hope to have a video segment to share soon — I’ll keep you posted!

photo by Burcu Avsar and Zach DeSart

And I’m also looking forward to the CRAFT: magazine release party Diane and I are hosting this upcoming Sunday, June 1 for my official re-entry into the crafty world! If you are in Portland, I hope you can make it by to say hello and make a jewelry project with us. It is at the marvelous Twisted again (like last time), and we’ll have some fun door prizes, a fully stocked project table, discounted magazine subscriptions, snacks, and free crafty giveaways, too.

The project we’re teaching this time will be my Cute as a Button Bracelet from Bead Simple, which CRAFT: was kind enough to excerpt in this issue! We’ll have all the supplies for you to make your own bracelet to wear home, and Diane and I will be handing out prizes every hour on the hour, too. More on those later — but we’ll be giving away books from Chronicle and Taunton (including Bead Simple) and some of my new jewelry kits plus some fun surprises.

photo by Burcu Avsar and Zach DeSart

Hope to see you!

I had such a great time at Powell’s on Monday — thank you so much for the good-luck wishes, and to everyone who came out to make earrings with me. It was such a fun night! I loved seeing all the sparkly things that people made and it was fantastic to meet so many new crafty people.

First, I chatted a little bit about beading and jewelry design and showed a few pieces from the book from the forty or so I had out on display.

I have such a goofy expression on my face here, but what can I say, I was showing off one of my favorite designs ever, created by my nephew Julian! He was five when he made this necklace and I absolutely love it.

Then I asked my lovely Portland guest designers to come up so I could introduce them and show their gorgeous designs too… left to right are Bethe Mack, Tanja Alger, Caitlin Troutman, Diane Gilleland, and Torie Nguyen. Thank you, ladies!

I did a quick earrings how-to, and then everyone got to choose their vintage beads and pick up their jewelry kits…

…and people jumped right into making their pieces. My friend Ryan even created a fancy sparkly necklace using pipe cleaners and 24mm pink faceted beads!

I got to chat with so many people, admire lots of new designs, and even sign some books. I think this is one of the few moments I was sitting down all night… that was nice, I have to admit.

There are a good handful of photos from the event in the Bead Simple flickr pool… thank you so much to Lee and Andrew for snapping these great ones. And for another review of the whole thing, be sure to check out the guest blogger over at paperdollygirl, who created an especially gorgeous pair of earrings himself!

A heartfelt thank you to everyone who came out to get crafty with me and to Powell’s — it was so much fun to get to celebrate the book together. I’m so looking forward to doing it again at Church of Craft, Crafty Wonderland, and Twisted! Just give me a couple of months to have this baby in the meantime, and I’ll see you later in the summer for sure.

Now that it’s right around the corner, I wanted to post again about my upcoming Bead Simple book event at the downtown Powell’s Books here in Portland next Monday night — if you’re in town, I hope you can make it over!

I’ll do a short reading and show a bunch of the 150 jewelry projects from the book, and my Portland guest designers will be there with their work, too. Plus everyone who comes is invited to make a pair of Solo Earrings to bring home as part of a little jewelry 101 demo! I’ll bring pliers, supplies, and a big stash of vintage beads from my collection (like these sparklers) for you to choose from…

Please pass the word on to friends and I hope to see you next week!

Bead Simple event at Powell’s (upstairs in the Basil Hayward Gallery)
1005 W. Burnside St., downtown Portland
Monday, April 7 at 7:30 pm

I’m also planning some book events later in the year (with husband and baby in tow) in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Raleigh, and Chapel Hill, North Carolina, so stay tuned for updates on those…

I am so excited that Bead Simple is out in the world today! Yay!

I’m so happy that after two years of designing, writing, obsessive Excel-sheet-updating, proofreading, and waiting, March 25 is finally here and the book is out. I hope that if you buy it, borrow it, or see it at your library or local bookstore you’ll enjoy it thoroughly, and I’d absolutely love to hear what you think!

I’m really looking forward to doing some fun events, starting next month when I dip into my crazy collection of vintage beads to start hosting a few free jewelry-making parties. Here’s a sneak peek at one of my favorite beginner-friendly projects — sparkly Solo Earrings, as modeled by one of Moxie’s delightful monsters!

I’m working on the details for my Powells event (Monday, April 7 at 7:30, more info to come very soon!), and really looking forward to doing book events at Twisted, Crafty Wonderland, and Church of Craft later in the year. I’m also planning some fun out-of-town stuff in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Raleigh, and I hope a few other places too!

Last, a couple of quick things… if you make anything inspired by the book, I would really love to see it — please add it to the Bead Simple flickr group I set up!

And if you are looking for a copy, you can find it at your local bookstore, any Michaels location, or on Amazon. You can find signed copies at the Taunton website or directly from me via my Etsy shop, too. And hopefully it will be on the shelf at your library branch!

Huge thanks for the support from my family, all my lovely friends and guest designers… and to everyone who reads my blog, thank you for putting up with my shameless self-promotion in between spotlighting other people’s cool crafty stuff.

ps: a special thank-you to my in-laws, Paul and Nancy, for surprising me with these beautiful flowers to celebrate the book release, and to Andrew for bringing me breakfast in bed today!

I just started a Bead Simple flickr pool for photos of any craft and jewelry projects inspired by the book, and I’m so pleased that there are already some fun things in the mix! Here are three of my favorites so far:

Left to right are Candy Shoppe Bracelets made by Jenny Ryan, Sarah Minshall’s Circles in the Square Tote (made by Jessica Aframe), and the Triple Tier Filigree Necklace made by Linda Permann. If you’d like to join the group, or send me photos, I would love to see what you make!

I can hardly believe that the book release date is two weeks away (!) — March 25. So if you’ve pre-ordered it from Amazon or Taunton, it should be delivered by then, and it will be in bookstores (and Michaels) that week too.

And just a reminder if you are in (or near) Portland: I’m doing my first book event on Monday, April 7 at 7:30 at the downtown Powells location (1005 W. Burnside). I’ll have a bunch of the book projects to show, and my six Portland guest designers will be in attendance, too! I’m also bringing tools, findings, and vintage beads along, so everyone who stops by can make a pair of earrings. Hope to see you then!

I’ll be doing more free Bead Simple jewelry-making classes over the next few months at Church of Craft, Crafty Wonderland, and Twisted. More on those soon…

Andrew and I are also filming a little series of jewelry-making tutorials this weekend, which I’m excited about — everything from working with jump rings and forming loops to briolette wrapping and making clasps. I’ll be posting them here and on youtube and I hope they’re handy, especially if you’re just getting started. Meanwhile, my web designer is working on a new book site with lots more features — it will always live here at beadsimple.com. I’ll keep you posted!

I went to the winter Craft and Hobby Association show in Anaheim last weekend, which was amazing (I’m going to write up lots more about my favorites at the show itself over at West Coast Crafty), but exhausting! I walked the show for three days, and had lots of meetings and get-togethers throughout. The best part of CHA is definitely getting to see crafty friends there, and it was so much fun to hang out with Natalie Zee Drieu and Kathy Cano Murillo — both of them are Bead Simple guest designers, and I got to show them their gorgeous designs on the page for the first time!

Here we are at Kathy’s craft table at the Duncan booth, where her beautiful new Crafty Chica line of craft supplies made its debut. It is an absolutely fantastic collection — look for it in stores and online in early summer. I’ll be posting more about it (and using it for tons of projects!) for sure.

I also did my first Bead Simple event as part of a party for CraftStylish, a new crafts website and magazine from Taunton (my book publisher), which will launch next month. I’ll keep you posted — I’ll be the contributing editor for the beading and jewelry-making section, which I am very excited about! Meeting the other CraftStylish contributors (Khris Cochran, Tina Hilton, Jennifer Stern, and Mary Ray) was especially nice. I can’t wait until the site is up and running, just a few more weeks…

Did I mention over here yet that I’m seven months pregnant? I guess it is getting pretty obvious!

Here’s my jewelry table with lots of projects from both the book and the last few issues of CraftStylish. The CS team put together some nice promo instruction sheets for guests for making the Vintagesque Necklace, and even sent a box of books for me to sign!

It was so cool to show people the advance copies of the book now that it’s (almost) out in the world. I’m getting really excited for the end of March when it’s in stores — so soon! If you are in Portland, please save the date for April 7 — I’ll be doing a book event at the big downtown Powell’s and would love to see you there.

I’m so excited — I just got my advance copy of Bead Simple this morning! I had a B+W galley to look over before, which was great, but the glossy, colorful, real version is just so amazing to see. I’m so happy to hold it in my hands and flip through the pages… I love how it turned out.

Here are a few sneak peeks at it…

The cover has been final, and out, for awhile, but it is pretty cool to see the real thing!

This is one of my favorite things in the book: a lush arrangement of vintage and new beads compiled by Burcu Avsar and Zach DeSart, to accompany all the front-section info about jewelry-making materials. I just want to look at that picture all day.

And here is a project spread — I liked how the earrings photos and the text are such a lovely mix. These are two of my favorite earrings projects, I am always drawn to circles and symmetry and negative space.

I’ll be updating the Bead Simple site soon — I have my first two events planned, which is exciting! I can’t wait. More on these soon, but I will be doing a Southern California event at the CHA show in February and a Portland event in early April.

The book is out on March 28 but if you are interested, you can pre-order it now on Amazon. And I have asked Multnomah County Library and the Los Angeles Public Library to order it, so it will be check-out-able. If you are also a library person, and have a minute to make the request, I would love it if you asked your local branch to carry it too. Thanks!

I went to Los Angeles to teach a Bead Simple demo — my very first book event — at Felt Club XL Holiday last week, which was so much fun! Thanks to Jenny for organizing such a fabulous event. I got to teach alongside my lovely guest designer Laura Stokes as well as Jamie Marie Chan, Meg Mateo Ilasco and KB Van Horn.

I made up little kits for the demo: super simple drop earrings (bottom row), which were free to anyone who signed up, and more involved necklaces (top row) with either brown or blue beads, wire, seed beads, a clasp, and full instructions to create the Vintagesque Necklace on the book cover. The necklace kits were designed on the fly by my amazing illustrator/guest designer Alexis Hartman. Thank you, Alexis!

I’m planning to have the necklace kits for sale soon either here or in my Etsy shop, so more on that later…

My Bead Simple class officially filled up with 20 students well before 1:00, and then an extra 15 or 20 people came on top of that! The response was overwhelming, and I really appreciated how patient everyone was as I taught basic beading techniques to such a big crowd. People shared pliers with each other and helped each other with next steps while I was on the other side of the mega-table, showing students on that side the earrings and necklace how-tos. People who just came to make earrings finished theirs more quickly, and my necklace-makers had a chance to hang out longer to craft. Here’s an in-progress photo of the blue Vintagesque Necklace, after the class had emptied out a bit:

Everyone made a pair of earrings with the little free kit — here is one of my lovely students modeling hers, with me on the right!

A good handful of students also bought a necklace kit and made their own Vintagesque Necklaces. Here are two of my wonderful students (with me on the right again), all of us wearing our necklaces…

Thanks again to everyone who came to my demo, and I hope you enjoyed it amid the amazing crafty chaos of Felt Club! A huge thank-you to all my students for being so patient since the class was so big.

The other exciting thing was that my first box of promo book postcards arrived! A card went into each goodie bag (given to the first 250 shoppers) and then I got to hand them out to my students, friends, and guest designers who were selling. I love how they turned out…