ib_enigma asked:


I intend to have a sheet metal area for hammering etc but I cannot decide on the color/material for the general surface. Any ideas

Virginia

Bead ‘n Shop asked:


Lac beads are one of the rarest and most unique beads in the world. They are made from a natural and eco-friendly substance called lac. Lac is a resinous substance which is secreted by tiny lac insects (say beetle) which belong to bug family. The widely known lac insect in India is known as “kerria lac kerr”. Lac is safe to use as it is non-toxic and bio-degradable product.

Lac beads can be found in many colors and designs. They have a shiny luster which gives them an exotic look. Generally, lac beads are handmade and require an expert craftsmanship to give them an exclusive shape. These handmade beads are very famous and people prefer wearing lac worked jewelries than other jewelry as the products made up of lac are anti-allergic to skin as compared to other metal jewelry.

Lac beads can be found in varying shapes such as round beads, square beads, heart shaped beads, bell beads, and egg shaped beads and many other unusual shapes. Beaded lac beads with works of mirrors, cut-stones, metal rings, tiny small beads and other accessories give these lac beads a royal look. Many jewelries such as earrings, necklaces, bracelets, pendants can be made using lac beads. Apart from making jewelry, these lac beads can also be used to decorate homes. For example, during Christmas these beads can be used to decorate Christmas trees. Lac beads are very unique and different from other types of beads. For people who are in search of wholesale beads, lac beads can turn out to be a great choice.

Articles made up of lac beads give a graceful and tempting touch to the decor. Lac is delicately used to make beautiful lac beads which truly combine colors with superlative designs.



Joanne

Lori D asked:


I have seen one I like at a bridal shop but don’t know how it was done. Is it possible to glue it instead.

Judy

Desmo Boss asked:


Many of us probably own several different pieces of mass produced designer jewellery that we have either purchased at a jewellery mall ourselves, consisting of mass produced metal and gemstone look-alike glass jewellery, or unfortunately received as special gifts over many years from family and well wishers. However, you may not own any genuine handmade beaded jewellery consisting of unique and genuine gemstones. There are many reasons why you should purchase handmade beaded jewellery and make these special pieces a regular part of your handmade beaded jewellery collection.

Handmade beaded jewellery created with genuine semi-precious gemstones is delicately made with love and utmost care by individual jewellery artists. They do not operate automated machines that speed up, depersonalise and cheapen the jewellery process. Instead, they choose to delicately handcraft each piece of jewellery with only the help of a few expensive and expertly used specialised tools, their hands and the imaginative ideas that are instilled in their head that’s all needed to produce unique and genuine handcrafted beaded bracelets and handcrafted beaded necklaces. You will be supporting the talent and creativity of the specialised jewellery artists who make this beautiful handmade beaded jewellery. Your financial support will also help these talented individuals to continue their preciously talented work. Many artists receive relatively little financial compensation for the extended amount of hours they exact into their delicate work. Most artists create handmade jewellery to fulfil their creative passion and creativity talent, not to make money. However, they still need to earn a decent living to continue their passion and trade. Therefore, it is very important to support the arts and crafts community. If enough customers purchase their products, artists will be able to create even more amazing pieces of beautiful handcrafted beaded bracelets and handcrafted beaded necklaces, wearable and uniquely genuine beaded jewellery. Purchasing handmade beaded jewellery is a great way for you to personally contribute to the arts and crafts community and gain some beautiful and delicate pieces of jewellery in the process.

Handmade jewellery is also much higher-quality and more delicately and durably constructed than most artificially mass produced so-called jewellery items items. More care and attention goes into one tiny piece of handmade beaded jewellery than an entire factory of mechanically massed reproduced items! Mass Producing Factories are specifically designed to produce as many articles of mass produced jewellery as physically possible; their main focus is on mass volume production for the minimum of price and effort, the emphasise is on volume of sales and high quality of the jewellery items is not an issue. On the other hand, dedicated jewellery artists are only concerned with producing unique jewellery items, being creative and of very high-quality. The unique jewellery pieces take many hours, even days or weeks of labour intensive work to create just one individual piece of unique jewellery. However, the care and attention to detail is well worth the extra wait and maybe cost!

Another reason to purchase handmade beaded jewellery is because each piece is genuine and unique. No two pieces are ever exactly alike because the artists handcraft each item individually. Therefore, you never need to be concerned about showing up at your next high society or even works party or social event and discovering many other women wearing the exact the same mass produced necklace or mass produced bracelet as you are wearing. Handmade beaded jewellery allows you to express your individually creativity by choosing a unique and genuine one-of-a-kind piece of jewellery that best reflects your own personal lifestyle and personality. This option is certainly not available by perusing the jewellery department of your local shopping mall. Anyone can pick out a piece of jewellery from a selection of hundreds of mass produced jewellery pieces at your traditional store. However, if you choose to purchase handcrafted beaded jewellery at Actual Gemstone Jewellery, you will be able to proudly display your genuine and unique beaded jewellery knowing you and your heirs are the only people in the world with this exact same piece, unique, genuine beaded jewellery!

The next time you are looking for a piece of beautiful and awe inspiring jewellery, consider purchasing unique handmade beading bracelet, handcrafted beaded necklace or similar earrings. You will be showing your individual support for the talented jewellery artists who lovingly create high-quality, unique items. You will not only be helping the local arts community, but gaining some beautiful new pieces of handmade beaded jewellery to add to your existing gemstone jewellery collection.

If you have a challenging situation and need the courage to face a long-overdue speaking of your truth, a difficult request to make, a public-speaking engagement, a variety of the extremely rare type of semi-precious jewellery is considered by healing experts and believing gemmologists, a selection of the most beneficial gemstones to wear or carry especially when incorporated into handmade beaded bracelets or handmade beaded necklaces all unique silver jewellery with genuine and unique semi-precious gemstones.

Semi-precious birthstones and healing gemstones worn as handmade semi-precious jewellery is considered by healing experts and believing gemmologists, as the most beneficial healing gemstones to wear or carry, especially when incorporated into unique and genuine handmade beaded bracelets or handmade beaded necklaces all with unique sterling silver jewellery with genuine and unique semi-precious gemstones.

Visit Actual Gemstone Jewellery Website Store Now!



Deborah

Courtney84 asked:


I’ve had my prom dress packed away for 3 years and for whatever reason it ended up hanging in a garbage bag… the dress is still clean and colorful.. with the exception of half the beading on the corset. It turned yellowish. The dress is blue so it doens’t look bad, but I’d like to know if it can be cleaned. Thank you!

Sarah

Vanessa Glavac asked:


If you’re just getting into beadwork and jewelry-making, you’re bound to come across a few confusing words. Here’s a brief glossary to help you pin down the meaning of ‘Head Pins’ and find the definition of ‘Findings’.

 



Bead Cap

This is a type of metal spacer bead. It is a half-sphere shape that hugs the curve of another bead (thus “capping” the bead).



 

Bugle Beads

Long, thin, tube-shaped beads. They range from just under a millimetre to a few millimetres in diameter, and from a few millimetres to several centimetres in length.

 

Clamshell

A piece that attaches to the clasp at the end of a bracelet or necklace. Consisting of two half spheres like a clam’s shell, it is used to cover any crimp beads at the end of a piece of jewelry.

 

Clasp

The part of a necklace or bracelet that opens and closes so that the jewellery can be clipped on and off. There are several types of clasps, such as barrel clasps, lobster claw clasps, magnetic clasps, hook and eye clasps, spring clasps, and toggle clasps.



 

Crimp Bead

A small metal bead that can be “crimped” and secured in place on a piece of nylon covered wire. This is done by crushing it with a pair of pliers. Crimp beads are used to hold other beads in place on the wire.



 

Dichroic Glass Beads

A type of lampwork bead with a thin film of metal on its surface, allowing it to change colour as it reflects light.



 

Finding

This is the general name for supplies that hold the jewelry together, such as clasps, clamshells or jumprings.



 

Head Pin

A thin metal rod with a flat base. Beads may be strung onto the pin, the top of which can then be looped and attached to an earring hook, necklace, or other piece of jewelry.

 

Jumpring

A small metal ring that can be opened and closed and is used to link various elements in the jewelry.

 

Lampwork Beads

An ornate glass bead made using a gas torch. The torch is used to melt the glass, which is then wrapped onto a metal rod. Details are then added using various colours of glass.



 

Millefiori Beads

Highly patterned glass beads made by melting many canes of glass together. This bundle of glass is then sliced to produce beads with a mosaic pattern. The term “millefiori” is Italian, meaning “thousand flowers”.



 

Metal Spacer Beads

These are decorative metal beads that are usually strung between larger glass beads. They are often thin and flat, but they come in a variety of widths, diameters, and shapes. They are usually silver-coloured but they also come in gold, bronze and black.



 

Nylon Covered Wire

A bead stringing material made up of several strands of stainless steel wire covered by a thin layer of nylon. It is also known by the brand name of Tigertail. More expensive, flexible grades may be made up of as many as 49 individual strands of wire, while the basic grade is made up of 7 strands.

 

Seed Beads

Very tiny glass beads, typically measuring about 1 millimetre to a few millimetre in diameter. They may be used for detailed work in embroidery or may be simply strung onto a necklace.

 



Glen

Steve Manik asked:


The latest craze is to have jewelry made of various types of beads in different sizes, textures and colors. The more beaded the jewelry the better it is as your outfits look gets changed to causal.

You may buy beaded jewelry from local shops or you may make your own by utilizing craft beads. Local craft shops namely Michaels, AC Moore and some other have a wide selection of superb quality and economical prices for the beads they sell. It is unimportant if you are experienced or novice working with beads, you can find beads, findings, wires, threads, tools and anything else you require to make stunning jewelry and door pieces for your home.

Craft beads may be plastic pony beads, fabric beads, paper beads, pearl, glass to swarovski crystals and any other thing. Shops which sell beads generally have a large collection of thousands of various types and sizes of beads.

Some of the more popular types of craft beads include Bead Heaven, Elegance collections, crystal Innovations, Better beads, Elite better beads, Fancy Finery, Westrim, Blue Moon and Bead gallery assortments. A large selection of bead and jewelry making kits, which are just right for beginners, are also available. These kits have everything you require including an instructions book to get you started.

As with any craft you have to get proper tools. You may buy them individually or in sets. If you are unsure whether you will like to continue making things with beads and are reluctant to invest in beginning. The alternate is you may take special training class at the bead store. They will provide you tools to work with and if you get interested you can than buy your own tools for your new hobby.

The craft store can also give you many ideas for your bead projects. It has no importance whether you take classes or work independently with a pre-arranged kit, or if you buy a book, you will have unlimited ideas of you own craft bead jewelry. You may make sets which will have necklace, bracelet, earrings and pin and each set will be totally yours which is a special kind of jewelry.

You might have doubts whether you are talented enough to make your own jewelry or home décor items with craft beads, but you can know only if you try to join a class and start with small items. As your skills improve you can try more complicated projects.

Before you are aware, you will be making your own jewelry and home décor items and everyone will be asking where you have purchased your jewelry from. And you might start your own business of making jewelry for other people to purchase. The opportunities are endless and the limit is only your imagination for using craft beads. You can set up our own jewelry making business and it may turn out to be profitable venture. Since, you are well aware that there is a great demand for handmade products in United States of America.



Lillie

San Jose Mommy asked:


What book has the most beading patterns? I want to learn the peyote and whatever else there is.

Leslie

Cliffie asked:


This is actually for my wife, but I’m helping her do research.

There seemsto be a wide variety of prices for the basic beading hand tools. I can’t see them in person since we are going to mail-order, but I want to know if the cheap sets will do the trick.

Any experiences or recommendations are welcome.

Michele

medicine woman asked:


I’d like to find instructions in brick or square stitch. a white-on-white pattern would just fill the bill.

Ella