Inspired Beader: Catinalife Creations

One of the best ways to find inspiration and encouragement is to admire the work of our fellow artists. When we can see what others have learned to do, it can give us motivation to keep learning and trying new things.

It’s interesting to admire work that is so different from our own. Whenever I see the wire jewelry designs of Catinalife Creations, I am in awe of the quality and beauty in each piece. I can’t even imagine the skill and time it must take to mold metals into such delicate shapes.

Today, the artist behind these beauties, Joy, shares some of her inspirations.

Inspirational Beading: How did you first get into jewelry making?

Joy: I've been making jewelry of some type since I was about 8 years old, I received a Creepy Crawler set for Christmas that year, was making bug pins and selling them at school when I went back. Then went on to macramé jewelry as a teen. It has definitely evolved and improved over the years.

Inspirational Beading: Do you have a favorite material or color to work with?

Joy: Gemstones and wire, and usually anything with blue, green or pink. I notice a definite preference to blue jewelry.

Inspirational Beading: Where do you find the most inspiration?

Joy: Mother Nature always inspires me, gemstone hold such beauty to me, I've always enjoyed collecting rocks, shells, fossils, and love being able to turn them into wearable art.

Inspirational Beading: If you could master any new technique, what would it be?

Joy: Polymer clay. I have dabbled in it a bit, and would love to make my own beads.

Inspirational Beading: Do you remember your first jewelry project? Where is it today?

Joy: I made a beautiful cotton bib macramé necklace with wood beads, perfect fashion for then "back in the day", as my grown daughter would say. Lost over the years, I still have a fond memory of that accomplishment. I was surprised by my own result.

Inspirational Beading: Who do you hope to inspire with your work?

Joy: First bringing a bit more beauty into this world through jewelry, I would hope my work would inspire any one who wants to make jewelry to follow that desire.

More about Joy:

I am a BA/RFH, beadaholic, rock, fossil hound. I love the beauty that can be found in Mother Nature, always inspiring. Loving the ancient jewelry arts and techniques I'm finding and scratching my little niche in this big world of silver, gold, glass and stone. I've made this my full time occupation, coming out of the busy corporate world and finding my own passion for making beautiful jewelry and being able to let my creative self act out. I've found my inner child and she loves to play with anything sparkly and shiny.

I really do want to keep the ancient arts alive of Viking knit, chain maille and Egyptian coil techniques, used for thousands of years since the first simple stone or shell necklace was worn. I am always striving to incorporate these techniques with a modern day twist.

You can see more gorgeous jewelry designs like these at Catinalife Creations on ArtFire, and stay up to date with Joy’s newest works on Twitter.

Copyright 2011 Inspirational Beading
and Catinalife Creations
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Captured Bead Earring Tutorial

You’ve probably heard the expression, “Those that can’t do, teach...”. While I sometimes agree with the other part about teaching gym, I’m not fond of the phrase. I think that people should only teach what they can do, especially if they do it well. This is why we’ve never had an earring tutorial here on Inspirational Beading. Until today!

Our good friends at Beads Direct have shared a really fun earring project that you can make in minutes, using some simple chain mail techniques and your favorite seed bead color. This project is a great way to get started with using jump rings in your work. It’s also a great instant gratification project that you could do with crafty friends.

To make one pair of earrings, you will need:

2 silver plated ear wires
4 8mm jump rings
16 6mm jump rings
6 size 6/o seed beads
4 eye pins
Pliers and snips

1. Create a captured seed bead by threading one bead on to an eye pin and making an eye to either side. Thread one eye onto a large jump ring and bring it to the bottom of the jump ring. Thread the other eye on and close the ring, so the bead is captured inside it.

2. Link two small rings to the captured bead, placing one to either side of the eye pin. Use one small ring to catch these two small rings and attach it to the ear wire. Close the ring.

3. Make a second captured bead, and link it to the first one, using 2 small rings to either side of the eye pin.

4. Place a bead on a small ring and close it. Link this beaded ring to the bottom captured bead with two small rings, to either side of the eye pin.

5. Repeat to make second earring.

The simple design offers lots of great color possibilities. You could make a whole set with seasonal palettes, like pastels for spring and earth tones for fall.

Happy beading!

Copyright 2011 Inspirational Beading and Beads Direct UK
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Inspired Beader: Samantha Hutchinson-Cloud

Seed beaders are so fortunate to have so many millions of possible bead and technique combinations available for designing amazing jewelry. But the realm of beading and jewelry design holds so much more than just thread and beads. One of the most versatile art jewelry techniques is chainmaille. By combining tiny rings with other materials such as glass, leather and stone, one can create interesting and beautiful works of art.

Samantha Hutchinson-Cloud of Silver Lined Designs uses her passion for chainmaille to create a wide variety of necklaces and bracelets to appeal to the medieval princess in all of us. Hailing from Austin, Texas, she channels her natural creativity into amazing jewelry.

Inspirational Beading: How did you first discover chainmaille?

Samantha: I first discovered chainmaille a while ago. In fact, I'm not sure I even remember a specific incident. I have always been fascinated by metal, circles, and jewelry, and one of my friends was really into doing chainmaille. It all just clicked! I also enjoy other forms of jewelry making, such as leather work, wire work, and even simple bead work. But chainmaille is really my passion.

Inspirational Beading: What are your favorite sources for inspiration?

Samantha: I am inspired by many things. Nature is full of patterns, and finding these patterns to incorporate into my work is very important. When I think of nature inspirations though, I guess I mainly think of trees. Trees have so many shapes, and they all come together to form a beautiful, natural piece of art. It is these shapes and what they can do when they are combined that really inspires me. Trees incorporate shapes from circles, ovals, triangles, squares, etc, and they all fit together perfectly. In my pieces, I try to emulate those combinations in order to create a complicated and visually interesting jewelry piece.

I am also inspired by other people's artwork. I love looking at other chainmaille pieces and learning how to create the patterns in other works of art. The more you know, the better your own art gets!

Inspirational Beading: What's your favorite material to combine with chainmaille?

Samantha: I love working with leather, and chainmaille and leather create a particularly bad-ass combination. I also enjoy beads, stone and glass. Stones are always interesting, and I find that natural elements such as stones and leather help ground the piece and make it more earthy. I am not as much into really modern all metal pieces. Plus, since nature is such a big part of my inspiration, I find it important to add an element of nature to my pieces.

Inspirational Beading: Is jewelry design your main passion?

Samantha: Definitely. My goal in life is actually to own a combination vintage\jewelry shop where I can create my pieces and sell beautiful vintage garments to go with them!

Whenever I am sad or bored, chainmaille always cheers me up. When I'm happy, it makes me happier, and when I'm feeling crazy it calms me down. I am planning on majoring in art in college, and I'm hoping that taking art and sculpture classes will improve my work and add new skills that I can use to create all different kinds of jewelry. I would really love to learn how to do glass work!

I also love photography. I have a wonderful camera, and macro photography is my favorite! I just need a good macro lens.

Inspirational Beading: Who do you hope to inspire with your work?

Samantha: I hope to inspire the people who wear my work. My goal is to make the people who purchase my pieces happy. I want them to feel like they have bought something they can show off and enjoy wearing! I would love for people to see that chainmaille doesn't just have to be huge and clunky like vests and armor, it can be delicate and beautiful. There is always an occasion for chainmaille, you just have to find the right piece. I want people to realize that something as simple as a small metal ring can be made into something intricate and exciting!

Samantha will be majoring in art and Chinese at Hendrix College in 2009. You can see her designs in her Etsy shop, SilverLinedDesigns, or catch up with her on Facebook.

Copyright 2009 Inspirational Beading, SilverLinedDesigns

Roped In

After experimenting with seed bead chain maille, I wanted to take the idea a little further. This necklace was made by connecting rings of seed beads, created by zipping up strips of right angle weave. It was extremely fun to make, and opens up all kinds of design possibilities using chain maille techniques.

Before trying out more complex designs, I wanted to work more with the tubular RAW.

The Inspiration:

The small right angle weave tubes in the chain maille necklace had a rounded shape, but I wanted to see if I could create a square rope for a simple necklace. I hoped that working with larger beads would help the four sided tube take a more angular shape.

The Beads:

To help with my goal of a square rope, I started with 3mm Toho cubes. The smooth edges are ideal for stitching without fraying thread. I paired the green/blue cubes with the olive shade “Green Picasso” in 8/o Toho seed beads. The combination is somewhat reptilian, which fits nicely with a beaded rope.

The Beadwork:

Using larger beads made stitching up this necklace incredibly fast. By using cube beads in two rows opposite each other, I was able to get the angled shape I wanted for the rope.

I finished it off with a beaded loop and lime green lampwork bead for a clasp. At 16 inches it rests just over the collar bone. I can see it paired with just about any top or dress.