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!

Just wanted to mention that my first two technique videos from Bead Simple are up if you’d like to check them out! I filmed one for making Solo Earrings (or any other simple bead embellishment like a pendant or bracelet dangle) and one for wire looping the Vintagesque Necklace (on the book cover). Thanks for posting about them, Diane and Jenny!

solo earrings:

vintagesque necklace:

They’re both posted on the on the technique videos + patterns page, and I’ll have another bunch of videos joining them there in the next little while after a short personal break — kind of a mini-maternity leave! See you in a few days…

I was so excited to get my copy of CRAFT: 07, which is out this week… along with tons of great crafty tutorials and features, they were kind enough to spotlight my Cute as a Button Bracelet as a Quick Craft in the new issue!

Arwen O’Reilly also wrote a super nice review of Bead Simple — I especially love the last line.

Don’t forget about Maker Faire this weekend, too! I wish I could go (teaching and running around last year was so much fun) — but at nine months and counting, I’m just going to have to look forward to 2009. But on a happier note, I am really pleased to announce that CRAFT: will be debuting my new Bead Simple kits at Maker Faire and in the Maker Store, though, so I will get to be part of it after all! More on that shortly…

You can grab the new issue at newsstands or subscribe online. Thanks so much, CRAFT:!

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’m so excited that the book will be out this Tuesday! March 25 sounded so far away for so long and now it’s coming right up… so now that things are getting so close, I wanted to link over to a few lovely previews, and a very generous giveaway from one of my amazing guest designers, too.

First, Nancy Flynn, designer of the Beachy Duo Earrings from Bead Simple, has made a gorgeous new pink-and-white variation of her own design and is offering them up to one of her readers to celebrate the book’s release on Tuesday! Just stop by her lovely blog and leave a comment on the post and you’re automatically entered to win them — she will draw a winner on the 25th.

The new ones are just gorgeous — and so spring-y, too… Thanks so much, Nancy! I can’t wait to see who wins next week.

Tricia Royal, who designed the Pop Organic Low and Swingy Earrings, wrote up a fantastic preview on her Bits and Bobbins blog… she picked some of her favorite designs, including Jennifer Perkins‘ Bric-A-Brac Charming Bracelet and Vintage Button Brooches by me and by Laura Stokes.

And Jenny Ryan, creator of the Candy Shoppe One-Strand Bracelet, wrote up the book too with such nice things to say about the range of projects and their creators: “What’s especially cool is that Susan enlisted nearly 40 crafty pals (familiar names like Jennifer Perkins, Cathy of California, Faythe Levine and yep, yours truly) to put their own spin on her projects. It’s great seeing how different folks put their stamp on things and I’m so proud of Susan for putting together such an inventive and beautiful book.”

Linda Augsburg also let me know about this great review on the Make It Mine site this morning… after a really nice overview of the techniques and projects, Tea Benduhn finishes: “The choice quote from the introduction pretty much sums it all up: ‘Here’s to making jewelry that makes you feel gorgeous.’ And that’s really what it’s all about. So go ahead, gorgeous, and treat yourself to Bead Simple.”

Thank you so much to Nancy, Tricia, Jenny, Tea and Linda for the generous support! I really appreciate it.

p.s. If you make something inspired by the book, I’d love it if you’d add a photo of your project to the Bead Simple flickr pool! Seeing what everyone makes is definitely the most exciting part of the whole thing.

I also wanted to mention that I started an author blog over at Amazon, if you are into that kind of thing…

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’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!

Thanks so much for the nice comments and emails about the book — I can hardly wait until March! I just got the Taunton catalog in the mail, with a pretty photo-filled listing for Bead Simple, which was fun to see:

Left to right, the projects they featured are my Duo Earrings, Sparkle Band, Wineglass Charms by Emilie and Jessica Zanger, Sparkle Rings, and Charming Bracelet.

I’ll also be at Felt Club in Los Angeles in a few weeks, teaching a free Bead Simple jewelry-making workshop like the one I taught at Maker Faire in May. I’ll post again when the time is set in stone, but if you’re in town, please mark your calendar for November 18! It should be a fantastic event.

Thanks so much to Megan Reardon who interviewed me about Bead Simple and other assorted craftiness for her amazing Design*Sponge crafty business series, and then posted about the book again on her own blog, the lovely not martha.

And a huge thank you to my wonderful guest designers who’ve posted about Bead Simple this week: Jennifer Perkins, Kathy Cano Murillo, Diane Gilleland, Faythe Levine, Christy Petterson, and Stacy Elaine Dacheux. I really appreciate the support!

I’m so pleased to announce my new jewelry-making book, Bead Simple, coming out in March 2008!

It includes 150 projects, 111 from me and 39 of them created by some of my favorite designers — everything from necklaces and bracelets to embellishments and ornaments. It’s published by the Taunton Press. The photographs are by Burcu Avsar and Zach DeSart, and it was illustrated by Alexis Hartman.

It’s available for pre-order on Amazon now, and will be in stores on March 28, 2008.

I’ll have resources, links, projects, and technique videos up at beadsimple.com in the next few months. I hope you’ll stay tuned!