BeadStyle : Source information

Earring cage from Fusion Beads

Erin Dolan — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 15:28:00 GMT

We announced our newest reader challenge in the July 2009 issue of BeadStyle. The "animal instincts" challenge asks you to take a walk on the wild side and design jewelry with an animal theme.

The page showed a plethora of fun animal beads to get your creative juices flowing, and also displayed Cathy's own animal project: earrings using a mouse bead (from JP Imported, jpimported.com) and a wire earring cage.

Many of you have called or emailed us asking about that earring cage. The cage is from Fusion Beads, 888.781.3559. The earring cage is directly available on their website, fusionbeads.com.

Want to participate in this reader challenge? Send a JPEG of your animal-inspired piece to editor@beadstylemag.com by August 20. Tell us your inspiration in the body of the email (inspiration can be literal, like an animal bead, or something more symbolic). Finalists will be published in the January 2010 issue, and you can vote for your favorite on our website!

Remember, voting for the jewelry box challenge runs through July 9, 2009. Have you voted yet?

Have you seen this bead?

Cathy Jakicic — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 20:31:00 GMT

I'm currently working on a cool project by designer Ute Bernsen of Silk Painting Is Fun that uses silk cord (naturally), a beautiful Clay River pendant, a number of Vintaj accents, and some random small beads, including the one that's currently giving me fits - a copper knot. I was sure we had one like it in our stash, but I can't find it. Any ideas where I can get one?

Finding the loops

Cathy Jakicic — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 20:11:00 GMT

In the May issue of BeadStyle we featured a pair of earring (as a design alternative) with a lovely "Creative curves" necklace by Monica Lueder. We added the instructions in our latest free-earrings newsletter; we included the instructions to the earrings, which used connected loops from The Earth Bazaar. Normally, we give a vendor a heads up when we use something they sell, but because it was originally a design alternative (without instructions) that little detail fell through the cracks.

So our apologies to those who called couldn't find the loops at earthbazaar.com and to the people at The Earth Bazaar that have been answering the phones. The good news: They say they'll have the loops back in stock in a month.

In the meantime, I received a very helpful e-mail from Batel Libes of Beads of Marin who carries similar items and has plenty of stock on hand. They don’t look like they have the pre-drilled hole in one of the loops, but a small jump ring would take care of that.

Thanks Batel.

What's New Wednesday 3.26.08

Jane Konkel — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 20:30:00 GMT

TierraCast has launched its Solutions for Large Hole Beads line of jewelry findings. This new line is designed to work with handmade glass beads and other large hole beads. The findings are made of lead-free pewter plated with precious metals.

Bead bars are designed for lampworked beads and come in four lengths, which allows for mix and match assembly of earrings, drops, and pendants.

Large hole spacers and caps can be used to string over thick materials like leather, ribbon, or cord.

The glue-in findings have a peg that fits into large hole beads.

The BeadAligners align and hold large hole beads on standard stringing material.

Look for TierraCast findings at your local bead store, or for store locations, visit http://tierracast.com/pages/orderinfo.html

Where can I find . . . bar-and-link chain?

Lindsay Haedt — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 20:44:00 GMT

Since the March '08 issue went on sale February 5, I've received a couple of e-mails asking about the bar-and-link chain used in "Subtle & classic" (p. 70–73). Jackie Boettcher purchased her chain from Michaels (see michaels.com for store locations). I purchased my chain from House of Gems, which no longer carries the exact style I used but still has a good selection. Other places that carry bar-and-link chain include OhioBeads.com, Beadaholique, and Fusion Beads.

If you're having trouble finding anything else from the March issue, please let me know.

Happy beading!

Lindsay
lhaedt@beadstylemag.com

365 Earrings: Spook-tacular

Lindsay Haedt — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 22:24:00 GMT

I received a question this week about one of the earrings from Jane's "Spook-tacular" article in 365 Earrings. For those of you who have been wondering where you can find the cat and bow-tie beads, here is the information:

Cat face
Halstead Bead
A452JG
$6.75/100

The bow tie consists of two triangle beads
Embroidered Soul
$3.00/25

I'm always willing to help readers find beads that they're having trouble locating — that's my job! So please feel free to contact me if you ever need help finding a bead from the magazine.

— Lindsay