What is going on re Jean’s new Etsy store. Pull charms for Blythe dolls are the main attraction.

What is going on re Jean’s new Etsy store. Pull charms for Blythe dolls are the main attraction..

What is going on re Jean’s new Etsy store. Pull charms for Blythe dolls are the main attraction.

What is selling in my Etsy shop?

Blythe Pull charms! These are called “Tequila Sunrise”, after on of my favorite Eagles Songs.

As I recall it was a good drink too and very pretty to look at, until you couldn’t SEE anymore and you were under the table. I had a lot of fun in my thirties and now I have my memories. Not a bad trade,

I made these at the request of  my friend and her color choices are so on target for what is happening right now I had a ball picking out beads! I got to use Swarovski astral pink and sunflower, and Indian pink and fuchsia, and Swarovski glass pearls in Neon Yellow and Hot pink. Wow!  What fun!

PS:  If you don’t know what Blythe Pull charms are, they are attached to the backs of Blythe dolls and sometimes they are plain, other times they are duded up like this. 🙂

Often a customized Blythe will have two sets of pull charms because customizers  will male sleep eyes for Blythes which require a second string. Otherwise, you can just get on pull charm. That is what a stock Blythe doll comes with! I sell single pull charms too. Some of my beads I order, and some I already have, and it is so fun to make these  I can barely express how much I enjoy this.

I love it when people order them!

I make regular jewelry too, but the doll jewelry has been greatly entertaining for me.

–jean

Review by Jean Yates: Wonderful Reading, Beautiful Book: Showcase 500 beaded jewelry with Ray Hemachandra as author and juror

review by jean yates:
Showcase 500 beaded jewelry
Ray Hemachandra, author and juror
I believe that the moment you get your hands on this incredibly beautiful book you won’t be able to  stop looking at it until you have seen everything at least once. Possibly twice! It is remarkable how gorgeous this collection of jewelry is. Each picture has been carefully selected by the  author and juror, Ray Hemachandra. It is a dance across the pages as the reader follows the beauty, remarkably stunning technique, and, occasionally, the wry wit which is on display from the 360 modern jewelry artisans who contributed.
The reader will be familiar with many of their names if he or she knows and loves jewelry.
For example, I immediately recognized the amazing Laura McCabe when I saw her “Ostrich Cuff”.

It is outstanding; proud and fierce looking. This sort of jewelry is very modern, yet extremely and passionately timeless. We have adorned ourselves with beautiful treasures which we have made since the earliest days. Now that we have come to this millennium, a philosopher/anthropologist could teach a course on human history by observing jewelry design.
There is also a celebration of color in this stunning book which cannot be denied.
The eye delights in Marcia DeCoster’s neon right angle weave “Party Girl” necklace, with glass by Heather Trimlett. It beckons you to come out and play!
Another colorful necklace I liked was Sandy Lent’s “Bevy of Butterflies”, made of seed beads with acid-etched lampworked butterflies. It is flat out pretty!
As well, I admired the architecturally oriented Maggie Meister’s glorious “Castellani Necklace”.  She is apt to take her inspiration from past buildings, sites, or geometrics. This beautiful creation uses the loveliest carved scarabs. You could look at the shapes and the colors which she has combined in her seedbeading pattern for hours. Lapis, ruby,gold, emerald. Seed beads which speak of  ancient civilisations and their love of stones and minerals which are precious and rare. However, this necklace is anything but old fashioned. It is as chic as can be.
One of my favorite pieces which I loved seeing and thinking about was the witty “Necklace/Crown” by Juan Riusech De Haro.It says below the photo: “hair beads;tension set”. The photo shows a beautiful long haired model wearing a wreath on her neck. The following photo shows the same model with the wreath on her head. The wreath of  “hair beads” is actually pink medium sized plastic hair rollers stuck through with white roller hair pins. The reason I like this design is that it says so many things. The model’s hair is long and uncurled. It is as if she does not perceive what the rollers were initially intended for. I believe this shows our more modern thinking — instead of the uptight nine-fifties, women can be beautiful today in any way they choose. In effect, they can let their hair down and play. The effect is of a Gauguin painting or a really hip magazine shoot.
I was delighted to see Stephanie Sersich’s “Juicy Color Necklace” as she is an amazing lampwork artist and famous for her knotting as well. I believe she is one of the main instigators of the popular knotting trend.  Knotting is so fascinating and worth studying.Her necklace is full of different shapes, sizes and colors of beads.
What can be said about Carol Wilcox Wells’ “Full Bloom” necklace? It is exquisitely lush and lovely. It has a pearl flower focal which goes through a loop of right angle weave. It is made of seed beads, magatma beads, pearls, and cubic zirconia. The colors are of soft gold, greens, and pearl, giving a feeling of the middle of summer or the height of beauty.
There are many seed bead jewelry designs, but there are also pieces made of felt, rubber and steel wire, porcelain and wood.
As was stated, 360 artists contributed to this remarkable book. Showcase 500 beaded jewelry is packed with designs to love. The reader also gets close up views so he or she may see the techniques being used at times. This is a great addition and very inspirational if the reader is a true jewelry lover. One’s creativity soars, looking at the wonderful designs in this book.
One of this reviewer’s favorites is Sabine Lippert’s “Crownie Pendant”. There is a closeup of the focal on this, and one can see the amazing colorplay which the artist is so famous for. Here is a photo which I took: The “Crownie Pendant” is fashioned of chatons, crystal beads, pearls, and seed beads.

I apologize for not showing it in all its glory: the book depicts it far better!
In fact, all the photos give the reader the feeling that the pieces could be picked up and selected right off of the pages.
There is so much to love here I cannot say enough about this amazing book, Showcase 500 beaded jewelry, with Ray Hemachandra,  as both juror and author.
It has so much insight into why we love jewelry. The colors you will see, the shapes and textures, the pure fabulousness of this gallery of designer pieces will have you swooning.
This is a book to cherish. This is also a book to give to your beloved friends and family.
It has been mindfully put together to create a seamless sort of brilliance. It is the kind of  brilliance which celebrates what creativity we hold in our hearts and our minds as members of the human race. This book, Showcase 500 beaded jewelry, is a must have for your library, if you love jewelry. And who doesn’t love jewelry?Labels: a book review by jean yates, Beautiful Book: Showcase 500 beaded jewelry with Ray Hemachandra as author and juror, Wonderful Reading

I was interviewed on Music is My Life

I was interviewed by the great Spider Monkey , on his site, Music is My Life, here ! I am so happy about this!  Thank you very much for this honour!  I hope you all read this interview and enjoy it as much as I enjoyed responding to Spider Monkey’s excellent questions!
🙂
jean

an announcement about a giveaway by Tammy Powley, Sunday BeadBloggers, and a Blythe doll photo by Jean Yates

 

      first, some cool news from the Great One, Tammy Powley!

“Hi everyone,

I have a book giveaway on my personal weblog for the month of July — see here!

http://tammypowley.com/2012/07/01/jewelry-books-big-give-away/

Thanks!”

~ Tammy Powley Check out the Crafty Princess  Diaries weblog!

Wow!  How cool is that??? –jean

next here is my dear BLYTHE girl for today:

Hope in an old fashioned Barmaid outfit . Hope is a mohair custom by Cindy Sowers and her outfit is by Cindy too! Link to Cindy’s store: http://www.etsy.com/shop/cindysowers

I drew the picture when I was ten and my mother  framed it. It was in the family kitchen for years. It has good memories for me.

BeadBloggers for today!

Beading Arts Cyndi is finishing up Mixed Media Jewelry month with lists and lists of tutorials!
Art  Bead Scene Heather picks out a treasury of  cool and woodsy white colored beads and components for summer  inspiration.
Beads  & Books Michelle shares some red,  white, and blue inspiration for the Fourth of July.
Earthenwood  Studio Chronicles Melanie joins along in  the Bohemian Inspired Jewelry blog hop with a necklace inspired by projects in  the book.
Resin  Crafts! A one week complex resin project  featuring bezel wire and resin begins with the first of five posts.
Snap  out of it, Jean! There’s beading to be done! It is food for thought…Or maybe it’s just food, when Jean wonders  “Who am I Today?”
About.com  Jewelry Making Cool off, kick off your  shoes, and make some jewelry for your tootsies.

Who am I today– a reflection by Jean Yates

Who am I today– a reflection by Jean Yates

Our project/book is coming along, and I can’t drag my heels! My specific part on our “team girl” is expected to begin shortly . Yes, I am working on jewelry and accesssories for Team Pink. This book to which I am referring is the one called For the Love of Blythe. I am writing it with the creator of this whole idea, Cindy Sowers, who lives North from me, and with Fanny Zara, who lives North from me. I live in the East. Where the sun rises slowly….. but not lately! I don’t have enough time because I have decided to load myself up with a ton of  misunderstood (because I have never done it before)  mixed media stuff involving her accessories for some sort of challenge! BUT: Why now???  Why did I do this to myself??? It is something crazed which appeared in me as soon as the project appeared, ages ago. Some little voice said to me, “Jean, don’t just make jewelry!  You  already know how to make doll jewelry! Go whole hog and learn how to “decoupatch”,  how to transfer pictures using liquid gel transfer medium when you don’t even have a laser jet ink printer which is required for that, how to distress a box, and change its color,  how to stencil and stamp, how to make your handwriting look cool in a  journal by downloading a tutorial by Interweave on Art Lettering,  AND how to do all this WHILE YOU HAVE YOUR MOUTH STUFFED WITH VANILLA CREAM WAFERS.
Oh, and while you are at it, join the Bead Soup Blog Party because you do know that is always fun.
What am I, nuts?  I need June Houck to come visit. She knows words like “Crikett”, and “grunge board”. I don’t know words like “Crikett”, and “grunge board”. I just know words like “ear wire”.
I am also trying to teach myself the ancient language of  the Romanis, although they had four versions, depending upon the area from which they originally came. Oh! Then I have to polish up our girl’s story.  I wrote it. I think it is OK  for the most part,  but I need  around 500 more cookies to decide.

burp-excuse me
Dear Great Whobody (as Kim Miles says) — was this your plan for how Jean spends her summer?
Nice one.
I feel like Sisyphus pushing that rock up the mountain  or  that other guy, Hercules, cleaning out the Augean stables. Or maybe, like Icaraus, I just tried to fly too closely to the sun…even as it set slowly in the West. I would do that. I can just see me doing a belly flop, feathers and wax flying all over their patio,  in our neighbor’s pool as they fire up the grill. We have never even met them!

Man, look at Icarus goin down in flames! who hoooo!!!
–jean

More about my super Bead Soup Partner, Dana Hickey

Dana Hickey !

my partner for the Bead Soup Blog Party run by Lori Anderson,
seems like such a nice, intelligent and artistic person. I love and want everything in her Etsy store,

for example, as she describes it: Gold Lacey Hoops “These 14kt gf earrings are glamorous, just right for a night out! They swing and  sparkle, adding just the right amount of glitz!
The lace on these  earrings is made up of many feet of fine 14kt gold filled wire, and is attached  to the hand forged 20ga 14kt gold filled frames by yards of hair fine 14 kt gold  filled wire. Each earring was then embellished with teeny tiny 15/0 Miyuki Gold  Luster Amethyst seed beads, using even more yards of 14kt gold filled  wire.
Dangling from the center of the lacey hoops is a Rose Quartz  briolette, adorned with Rose Quartz and Crystal Quartz beads. Another Rose  Quartz briolette dangles from the center of the bottom in a gemmy fringe,  adorned with more Rose and Crystal Quartz beads. Flanking the Rose Quartz in the  fringe are Pink Amethysts and Purple Amethysts, both topped with Miyuki Gold  Luster Amethyst seed beads.
These earrings are what I would call shoulder  dusters, measuring 3.5″ from the top of the hand formed 20ga 14kt gold filled  ear wires to the bottom of the center Rose Quartz in the fringe, and measuring  just 1″ at their widest point.
I would like to tell you that all gems are  A grade or better, but the Rose Quartz is a B grade. I just liked the coloring  better than the A grade what can I say?!
*MagPie Approved and Dana  approved too – I love these earrings :o)
These will ship in a cotton  filled gift box.”
They are fantastic!!! –jean

and I have joined the list of her blog readers I urge you to do so, as well. Here is her blog: Magpie Approved
I especially liked what she wrote about taking other people’s ideas, and what the difference is between learning from other artists, and selling their ideas as your own work. This has long been a complicated concept for many sellers to understand –and it is SO simply explained by Dana, via the original piece, as written by Jessica Hische…Dana found a lettered sign on Pinterest, it seems, by Jessica, addressing the issue of copyright and art.
At any rate, Dana is a mindful creator with an elegant yet non busy style. I  really like that. I find that many people who do not know what they are doing “gew-gaw” it up and add unecessary odds and ends to their jewelry, which just confuses the point of what they are making.  Dana never does this! I love her brilliant yet unstrained creations.
Dana told me that she likes gem colors or earthy colors. When I make her Bead Soup, I will keep that in mind.
I would like to send Dana, whom I already respect, something she will really enjoy working with which will challenge her a bit!  I don’t know about the challenging part, however, frankly. Dana certainly seems to know her way around wire wrapping! In my opinion, if you can wire wrap, you can do almost anything! I had  better get going as our reveal is the first one! 7/28 is a month an a day from now! WOW!
and…OH! PS: Dana and I are both earth signs!  How cool is that?  Well it is cool if you enjoy astrology, as I do! 🙂 Thank you, Lori, for giving me another earth sign to  work with! FUN!
–-jean

Wow–I got Dana Hickey as my Bead Soup Blog Partner for the Bead Soup Blog Party by Lori Anderson

Wow–I got Dana Hickey as my Bead Soup Blog Partner for the Bead Soup Blog Party by Lori Anderson.

jean yates review of Live Wire Jewelry by Katie Hacker

liveWIRE

Jewelry

Make Colorful Designs That Shine

by Katie Hacker

What a fitting title for this wonderful, stylish yet approachable book by Katie Hacker, the TV host of the popular program, Beads, Baubles & Jewels!

It is all about wire designs that sizzle , it’s all about great color combinations you might never have thought of but which are beautiful, and, indeed, it is also all about shine!

I love the fantastic color in this book. It is all are very up to the minute and yet, to my mind, will make a lasting impression as it is absorbed by the reader. The book, LiveWire Jewelry, will teach each of us so much concerning how to create our own palettes without us even realizing that we are learning, it is so enjoyable. I predict that long after this book has been read and loved by all for years to come, it shall remain a staple in our libraries.

Additionally, this reviewer is completely intrigued by the design ingenuity of the author. She never seems to quit seeing jewelry as elementally pretty (some jewelry is kind of ugly, have you noticed?) , and yet she always manages to offer a new viewpoint in addition to this simple prettiness. This is is a special talent which Katie Hacker possesses. She is able to go beyond pretty to REALLY pretty AND memorable. This invariably incites the reader’s desire to make any or all of the projects from her new book, LiveWire Jewelry!

One cannot help but grow creatively just paging through this book.

Wire in all incarnations is very, very popular right now. To my mind a guide such as this book, LiveWire Jewelry, is a super introduction (or continuation, if the reader is a more experienced wire wrapper), to the myriad ways in which wire can be employed in design. For this reason alone I would consider Katie Hacker’s new book indispensable to an ardent jewelry designer’s collection.

One thing the author points out in her introduction is that the title of the book can be read two ways. As she states, “It’s live as in colorful and alive” (which was the way I interpreted it), “but it is also jewelry for the way you live.” One of the things which this comment points out is that the reader is freed from following the projects exactly, and also freed from the concept that colored wire, used in jewelry has been getting a bit of a bad rap, as Katie says, from purists. I am willing to see it both ways and I suggest you read this book with an open mind and embrace what you love from it and leave what you don’t!

In the initial pages, the reader sees the supplies which will be used in the book. They range from beads and pendants to stinged materials to rubber tubing, memory wire, leather, cording and more. The findings are quite extensive as well, and include Katie’s own Katiedids Creative Components, which rocked the nation several years ago and continue to be ragingly popular. There is a great selection of tools as well.

There is also a section called “playing with color” which is a great introduction to how the author sees the world around her. There are compilations of beads and wire, along with chain and other components, which are hot, cool, glowing, metallic, frosty and more. All of it invites the reader to join in the fun!

Chapter 1 is titled shiny Bright. The subheading is, “Color inspires your creative spirit”. I totally adore the first project, which is called “gumball bracelet” . It combines fabulous tones of colored artistic wire in ball shapes, with lovely crystal marguerites and 12 mm rounds. This is my next project, for sure! I also found the necklace which used a Katidids component to be really appealing in blues. That one is called “Favorite blue jeans necklace”. It is a joyous celebration of one of every one’s most loved colors, blue!

Chapter 2 is titled “cool as crystal” with a subheading of “Vintage jewelry provides endless inspiration”. How true is that. I adored the “MERLOT HOOP earrings” in this section and also was really drawn to the “TWISTED COIL bracelet” which is all burnished antique golden hues, with some bronze nugget pearl beads and some crystals. It is a triple strand of fabulous. Great clasp as well!

Charter 3 is “sparkly and sweet” and you can get the idea from the book’s cover of what is within this chapter. The comment below the chapter is “Crystals are a beader’s best friend.” I must admit I agree with this and am entranced by the beauty which light glancing off of crystals brings to my eyes.

I took my own photo of a section of one of Katie’s designs from this chapter. it is called “Fairytale filigree necklace”. I enjoyed everything about it. The colors, the links, the off-center crystal wraps on some of the links which keep your eye moving to the next station, you name it. It is a great design.

[photo excerpt by jean of necklace]

Love that “COSMO ring” too! it is a charmer in orange artistic wire with hyacinth orange crystals and big padparadscha rounds as well as several other colors of crystals. It will make you giddy with joy!

Chapter 4 is titled “one OF A KIND” and reminds you to make a statement with jewelry as unique as you. This chapter is so appealing and fascinating to look through. I took a photo of my favorite piece from the selection, but there were many others which were equally as elegant and glorious. Jet-setter bangles really got me going however as the brilliant of the crystals coupled with the black artistic wire and the chic black bangles had me at hello. I guarantee that will be among my top three projects I try from this book, to start with. I must use Katidids within that top three as they are just so cool, so I am going to go with “Twisted Treasure necklace” a symphony of aqua, teal, silver and crystal as my other favorite project. It is incredibly dramatic yet wearable and easy! The focal is a double circle Katiedids component and it is so beautifully done! Love love love this necklace!

[photo excerpt by jean of “Jet-Set bangles”]

I guarantee that these will be among my top three projects I try from this book, to start with. I must use Katidids within that top three as they are just so cool, so I am going to go with “Twisted Treasure necklace” a symphony of aqua, teal, silver and crystal as my other favorite project. It is incredibly dramatic yet wearable and easy! The focal is a double circle Katiedids component and it is so beautifully done! Love love love this necklace!

How many ways can I tell you how much I love this book? I hope that you get as much enjoyment and pleasure from it as I do, because you have a treasure in your hands with LiveWire Jewelry by the fabulous Katie Hacker.

This super enjoyable and informative book gets jean’s five star stamp of approval!

This book was a gift.

Some thoughts on my past history as a jewelry designer, as Lori Anderson’s 6th Bead Soup Blog Party revs up

Some thoughts on my past history as a jewelry designer, as Lori Anderson’s 6th Bead Soup Blog Party revs up.