Jewelry Blog

Singer/Songwriter Lisa Moorish at the world premiere of ‘Sex And The City’ - May 12, 2008 in London, England.

Maybe you saw last Friday’s Sundial Pendant. Today’s Nocturnal Necklace approaches time from another perspective, measuring it when you align the North Star and the Big Dipper. The pendant comes with instructions and hangs from a black nylon cord.

Nocturnal Pendant Necklace: Buy Direct

_{Photo © Gaiam}

Create Jewelry Stones: Stunning Designs to Make and Wear by Marlene Blessing and Jamie Hogsett (Interweave Press US $22.95) is part of the publisher’s “Create Jewelry” series. This one, as the title suggest, focuses on semi-precious stones. Of course, I have a weakness for stone beads since that is how I seriously got into jewelry making many years ago, and they still play an important part of my jewelry making repertoire. But, hey, who doesn’t love a good rock!?

But, for those uninitiated into the world of gemstones, this books is a good little bite of stone information as well as bead stringing techniques. Other than a couple of projects that require some bead weaving skills, the rest of the projects look very doable, even for the relative beginner. Interspersed throughout the 20+ projects are facts, legends, and history related to gemstones. So, along with some beautiful jewelry designs, you also get a little gemstone workshop as well.

One of my favorite projects was “Stone Soup,” an asymmetrical necklace that mixed carnelain, amethyst, serpentine, and glass beads. I also loved the “Sangria Dangles” earring project because it had a mixture of different shapes and different stone types dangled from textured round metal rings, very cool!

For those new to gemstone bead stringing, this is a good place to start.

Art Bead Scene

Art Bead Scene Editor Cindy Gimbrone shows her true colors.

Barbe Saint John

Forever trying to take better photos, check out the online Video tutorials I found to help.

BeadStyle Magazine

Cathy reviews books a plenty from the BeadStyle magazine library

Jewelry & Beading

The new book, 1000 Jewelry Inspirations, hits the mark!

Katie’s Beading Blog

Katie dishes on all the new beady stuff she saw at the Craft & Hobby Association tradeshow last weekend. New geometric links, new resin components, new beads, oh my!

Strands of Beads

Melissa’s making more memento mori (alliterative, eh?) in the studio this week.