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 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’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 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.