Book Review: Torch Fired Enamel Jewelry

Designing your own one of a kind jewelry is so much more than just choosing the right elements and materials to put together. With the right tools, and a little inspiration, we can create pieces that are as unique as they are gorgeous. Making or decorating your own beads and components can be a rewarding creative adventure.

One technique that really stands out is enameling. By combining metal with heat and glass, designers can create stunning beads, pendants and jewelry components in nearly any shape or color they desire. In Torch-Fired Enamel Jewelry,enamel artist and expert Barbara Lewis explains everything you need to know about torch firing - a quick and relatively easy process that doesn’t require expensive kilns or lengthy firing processes.

Using the torch firing technique - or painting with fire - developed by Joseph Spencer, Barbara shows readers how to enhance ready-made metal beads with stunning color, design and shape new pieces from copper, silver, gold or iron, and even create colorful headpins to accent jewelry designs.

A detailed introduction on the basics of metals, enamels and torch use will help beginners get started in this exciting technique. Barbara also gives a list of some common torch enamel mishaps, and how to fix them. Though the book does cover some essential jewelry making basics like wrapped loops, readers with some knowledge or experience will have an easier time with some of the project techniques, like using collapsible wire needles and dapping blocks.

I wish that I could show you all of the gorgeous projects featured in Torch Fired Enamel Jewelry. There are twenty two projects in all, including necklaces, pendants, earrings, bracelets and rings. Some projects simply feature enameled beads, while others require cutting, etching and firing metals to make entirely unique designs. Readers will learn how to combine their torch fired creations with glass or gemstone beads, fabric, ribbon and chain to create colorful jewelry full of texture.

Each of the projects includes step by step photographs, tips for getting the best results the first time, and lots of guidance and encouragement. If you’ve always wanted to try making your own beads, but are nervous about the heavy-duty process and all that hardware, this book could give you the confidence to buy your first torch!

I would like to thank North Light Books and F+W Media for giving me the opportunity to preview Torch Fired Enamel Jewelry. Inspirational Beading has not received compensation or merchandise in exchange for this review. I have shared my sincere impressions of this book.

Copyright 2011 Inspirational Beading
Barbara Lewis and F+W Media
Subscribe to Inspirational Beading
Get inspired on Facebook

A Bracelet a Week: Egyptian Coils

This week I had a lot on my plate, so I needed a bracelet design that would be quick and free of surprises. I decided to make good on my pledge to remake designs using different color palettes. I chose the coil bracelet from week 26 of the challenge - simple and sweet.

If you’re following Inspirational Beading on Facebook, you may have caught my new Show and Tell video. I shared a quick look at some new bead colors that I picked up recently, including transparent dark topaz seed beads, and turquoise druks. I decided to give these new colors a try, and see if I could bring out some more of the Mediterranean qualities in the original design.

I added some lustered turquoise seed beads to the mix, and the combination of colors is really pretty. It’s tropical and rustic and ancient all at once. The addition of the black and brown bead loops really completes the look.

Copyright 2011 Inspirational Beading
Subscribe to Inspirational Beading
Get inspired on Facebook

Bead Giveaway: Faux Crystals

Just like seed beads, bicone crystals are great building blocks for beadwork designs. They are beautiful and versatile, and come in a wide variety of colors and sizes. But unlike seed beads, crystals require a lot of commitment when used in large quantities. Not only are they pricey, but creating an elaborate design that relies on crystals is an exercise in balance. It takes a lot of planning when you’re adding so much sparkle.

In my collection of unique acrylic and lucite beads, I have a little stash of crystal-like 4mm bicone beads. At first glance, it’s difficult to tell these inexpensive beauties from their more precious counterparts. I’ve always been particularly fond of a set of mixed bicones. Something about the variety of colors was instantly appealing, and I’ve held on to them just for the pleasure of their colors.

Now it’s time to find a good home for these beads. Apart from the distinctive sparkle and a vast difference in weight, they are actually a pretty good likeness of Austrian crystal bicones, and would work well in practice pieces. I think they would make an amazing sun catcher! I’m also giving away a handful of dusty blue 4mm bicones, and some purple 4mm rounds. There are about 20 grams of each type - enough to make something big, or a lot of little designs!

How to Enter

For a chance to win all of the beads shown, simply leave a comment on this post, and answer the following question:

What is your all time favorite Swarovski color?

If you do not have a Blogger account with email contact enabled, be sure to leave a contact method, such as your shop or email, so that I can get in touch with you if you win!

One lucky reader will be drawn on Tuesday, September 20th. This giveaway is open to readers in Canada and the US.

Good luck, and happy beading!

Copyright 2011 Inspirational Beading
Subscribe to Inspirational Beading
Get inspired on Facebook

Poinsettia Collar

Although the poinsettia flower wasn’t introduced to the US until 1825, it has been considered a symbol of Christmas, and a traditional holiday decoration in Mexico, since the 1500’s. The bright red flowers with their star-like shape have been carefully cultivated over the years to turn a common weed into the beautiful centerpieces we know today.

The Inspiration:

While I was touching up some Christmas beading tutorials, and getting ready for seasonal projects, I decided that it was time to revisit an old design using beaded poinsettias. One of my all time favorite Christmas projects used a variation on my beaded flower beads to make poinsettias, and I thought it was time to give it a makeover.

The Beads:

The original beaded poinsettia used a yellow bead base and bright red 15/o seed beads. Although the effect was certainly Christmasy, I wanted to try making flowers that looked a little more realistic, including the tiny circle of buds that sprout from the center of poinsettia blooms.

I started with the same base - a yellow glass cat’s eye. This time I used 11/o seed beads in red, plus yellow seed beads for a little more texture around the middle. To back up the flowers, I chose some transparent emerald seed beads. I needed one more element to complete the design, and knew that white would be a little much. Instead I used black, which adds a little sophistication, and enhances the boldness of the red flowers.

The Beadwork:

Making the flowers was my first priority, because I had so many different plans for them. I started with a new beading video featuring poinsettias, then created one for a new beading tutorial. Once I had a handful of flowers ready to go, I had to decide what to do with them, and the other bead colors I had picked.

All I really needed was a beadwork base to stitch the flowers onto, so I made a simple black and green curved chevron chain. The 6mm bead cores of the poinsettias fit perfectly into the teardrop shapes of the chevrons. Once the leaves were stitched down, everything seemed to fall into place perfectly.

It’s nice to get things done ahead of time, but now I think I need a break from red and green, at least for a few more weeks. Have you started your holiday projects yet?

Copyright 2011 Inspirational Beading
Subscribe to Inspirational Beading
Get inspired on Facebook

Bead Color Trios: Comfort Foods

The official definition of comfort food is any meal or snack that people consume to enhance their mood, which means that every person has their own idea of what makes the perfect comfort food. Many dishes that are traditionally considered comfort foods are nostalgic, soft in texture, high in starch or fat, and served warm.

During the fall and winter, comfort foods are more common, not only because of seasonal ingredients like harvest vegetables, but also because shorter days and cold weather increase our desire to eat warm and hearty foods. A bowl of buttery mashed potatoes can chase away the winter blues, while satisfying our hibernation instincts.

This month’s triple color palettes are inspired by some of the colorful foods that we enjoy when the wind is blowing outside. Acorn squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, peas, corn and zucchini provide a wonderful mealtime palette that looks as good as it tastes. The palette of orange, yellow and green ties into foods in other ways as well. These colors can remind us of big kitchens full of laughter, which brings us around again to the comfort of nostalgia.

Our first palette is the most literal, inspired by the frozen Mixed Veggies that can add nutritious filler to just about any dinnertime recipe. Peas, carrots and corn are mimicked with transparent seed beads. I used emerald 15/o’s, and 11/o seed beads in rainbow lemon AB and medium orange. This gives a whole new meaning to bead soup!

The same colors take on a different look in opaque finishes. I call this palette Tupperware, because it is so reminiscent of the dishes and utensils you might find in a stylish 1970’s kitchen. Even fixtures, appliances and furniture came in these charmingly garish hues. This trio is made with canary yellow Delicas, and 11/o seed beads in lustered coral and avocado green.

Finally, I took things down a notch with some softer hues. Though this palette is much more subtle, it still has that delicious, hearty quality. Gorgeous Gourds is made up of 11/o seed beads in white lined peridot, opaque yellow AB, and lustered dark beige in place of orange.

Do fall colors make you feel nostalgic or hungry? Which ones are your favorite?

Copyright 2011 Inspirational Beading and COLOURLovers.com
Subscribe to Inspirational Beading
Get inspired on Facebook