Every year, Cathy and I design jewelry to be auctioned at Kathy's Garden Party. This year's theme: "All Dolled Up." I stayed in my comfort zone, making a charm bracelet with pink and peach gemstones.   Cathy, however, has been trying lots of new things with resin. (You'll love the necklace she's showing in the ...

I don't know how these retailers define "vintage," but the Club Monaco pieces come from antique fairs around the country and are sold in just a few stores, so I think it's possible that they are truly one-of-a-kind. I wouldn't feel comfortable buying a refurbished Rolex, though!

In last week's post, I talked about how I'm a true beginner when it comes to using resin. So I've been practicing, making lots of pieces in my molds. (By the way, I love the mold-making stage — it's much more forgiving than the mixing/pouring/curing processes.) Here are a few of my first pieces, ridden with ...

Having designed and written about jewelry for many years, I've taken for granted my ability to handle the basic steps of jewelry making. Not so with resin. I'm working on a resin project for the March issue. Up to this point, my experience had consisted of pouring Diamond Glaze into lockets. With this project, though, I've been ...

If you made the "Multifaceted multicolored multistrand" projects in the November 2009 issue, you might have a few gemstone nuggets left over. After I made mine, I had two rubies and ten amethysts left, as well as a couple of strands of pearls. So in the spirit of "less is more," I decided to make a superlong necklace with my ...

Target has been offering limited-edition jewelry by big-name designers, but now there's a new twist in mass-market jewelry retailing: Club Monaco will be selling vintage jewelry at their Beverly Hills and New York stores. Interesting concept, given that most of the masses won't be able to obtain these one-of-a-kind pieces. Last year, J. ...

Anytime is a good time for crystals, but you'll have more options than usual right now as a BeadStyle reader.  It's your last chance to pick up a copy of our September issue on newsstands (or you can order one here). In this issue, Theresa Drake Abelew spotlights new crystal palettes in her "Seasonal color ...

Customer service is something that I tend to notice when it's lacking — I think we've all had bad experiences with airlines, restaurants, and medical billing, to name but a few. Good service (which one of my friends defines as "having a little faith in the customer") is a less common occurrence. That said, I think I'm ...

Every year, my friend Ron sends out elaborate invitations to the pig roast that he hosts. This year's invite: Michael Jackson's Thriller 25 album, renamed — aptly — Griller. The album is great. It's got the Thriller classics as well as a remix of "The Girl Is Mine" (in which Will.i.am keeps saying, "She mine. She ...

Jane, if you and I each made a crane every day, it would take less than a year and a half. Is that too long?