This morning, I received a  press release, announcing that three jewelers — this brings the total to 60 — have agreed to source precious metals responsibly, by signing the No Dirty Gold campaign's Golden Rules for responsible sourcing of precious metals. These three retailers (Sears Holding which is Sears and ...

  It's coming upon that time of year again. For me "The Holidays" stir up all kinds of feelings, and not enough of them are positive. There is hope on the horizon this season however: I'm looking forward to my honey and I celebrating ten years of togetherness, I'm celebrating my five year anniversary at BeadStyle, and ...

Lately, I've been really impressed with teenagers. My son and daughter are so much more responsible than I was at their age. They have great friends, they spend time doing volunteer work, and they do homework each night without reminders from me. Last week, Rachel, a senior in high school, set up an appointment to come in and visit us to learn ...

   Upper Echelon Shoes (UES) has just come out with shoewlery. The sneakers come with a regular pair of laces and a gold plated pair. With any purchase of Seni sneakers, you receive a free copy of DJ Nick Cohens latest mix tape. In case you're wondering who DJ Nick Cohen is.... he's not only a DJ, but also the owner of Upper ...

I love it when I run into BeadStyle readers. We are lucky ladies to have made friends through our work. Rupa's designs — as always — are beautiful.

If you are anywhere near Erie, Pennsylania this weekend (Saturday, October 17th and Sunday, October 18th), make time to swing by the Bayfront Convention Center for the 2009 American Sea Glass Festival. For questions about the festival, you may contact Megan at meganh@relishinc.com. If you have a favorite shard, bring it along and check out the ...

A few weeks back I went to the Rings & Things Wholesale Bead Tour. These are two strands that I purchased. Aren't they beautiful? I've never seen anything quite like them. I want to research a bit more about these beads from Ethiopia, and possibly feature them in a design, perhaps for a future issue of BeadStyle as a Beads of ...

I hope you've had time to look through the November issue of BeadStyle. There are great projects and the issue is loaded with inspiring ideas. One of my favorites is Holiday charm. Liisa Turunen combines Swarovski crystal twist pendants and channel charms with gold chain. It seems chain is everywhere. If you'd like more jewelry ideas using ...

This morning I was trolling around Rio Grande's site and I came across the "Sweeps for CERF" program. You may remember reading about CERF – The Craft Emergency Relief Fund in BeadStyle's July issue. This nonprofit organization provides resources and emergency relief assistance to craft artists after disasters, illness, injury, or ...

One of the coolest things about working at BeadStyle is the number of creative people who work here at Kalmbach Publishing with me. This is Theresa and her husband Brit in their booth at the West Allis Arts a'Fair on September 19th. Our friend, and talented photographer Bill Zuback, who also works for Kalmbach, invited us to attend this ...