One of our book contributors, Tracy Statler is hosting a Wrapped, Stacked and Layered Bracelet Challenge over on her blog, Make Bracelets! Head on over to to Tracy's blog post for all the details and to enter. Tracy shares some great bracelet ideas and video tutorials on her Make Bracelets blog. Check out her video tutorial page to get you started on creating some chic bracelets to stack and layer!
In case you missed it, I created a fun tutorial recently over on the Art Bead Scene blog on how to make an adjustable sliding knot bracelet. A few of these babies would make a great addition to your "arm candy" collection!
Waxed linen is a strong, consistent material that works great for knotting. The wax coating on these cords makes well defined, crisp knots and holds the knots well in place. It comes in a wide variety of colors and thicknesses referred to as "ply". I use a 4-ply in most of my jewelry and that seems to be the standard medium size. A single strand of 4-ply will fit most beads. I tend to use multiple strands of it in my designs if I'm using larger beads. Plus, more strands gives me more design options when I'm beading and I also like the texture and fullness of the multiple cords.
Irish waxed linen cord is the best you can buy. You can find Irish waxed linen online at Bello Modo, Ornamentea and Royalwood, Ltd. Also, please visit our contributor, Tracy Statler's blog for more information about using Irish waxed linen cord. She also has some great jewelry ideas and tutorials! Check her out!
Tracy has been creating jewelry for over 7 years, and enjoys using cordings of all types in her jewelry designs. I find myself attracted to the simple, bohemian feel to her designs and can imagine myself wearing any one of them! I look forward to Tracy writing posts for the blog with cool tutorials, she's a great teacher! Check out her blog for recent tutes on jewelry making techniques!
Tracy Statler is a self taught jewelry artist. After taking a few basic stringing classes, jewelry making started as a casual hobby then became a passion over 7 years ago. Her creative drive comes from being raised participating in the arts. Choir, madrigal, piano, dance, musicals, she did them all. Her mother was an art teacher so Tracy's kitchen table was always "Mom's Studio" full of all kinds of artistic mediums. Tracy naturally finds beauty in unusual things and loves to use small unexpected elements to make a piece of jewelry stand out.
After her second child was born, she left the corporate world to pursue her creative interests full time. She is a wife and a mother of two great kids. Other than quiet moments with her family and maybe after a good yoga or pilates class, she is the happiest when making jewelry and teaching and sharing her interest with others. For more about Tracy and her creations you can visit her blog at http://www.makebraceletsblog.com or contact her at tjstatler@comcast.net
When we asked Tracy what her favorite material was to work with, she claimed "My favorite material to work with is a tough call. I love working with Waxed Irish Linen because of the maleable quality it has - almost like clay. There are so many colors to choose from. It knots well and really stays put. I love working with leather lace because of it's beautiful feel and it's ability to soften the look of any piece of jewelry. I am drawn to a variety of different cording materials because they lend an element of the unexpected to any design."
I am definitely looking forward to seeing Tracy's projects for the Jewelry Accord book! I think we will all learn some really cool things from her design process!
We would like to start off by saying thank you to all of you who put together your fabulous designs and submitted them to the Flickr group. There were some really fantastic pieces submitted, and it was hard to pick only 2 out of over 65 designers!
We've decided to start a new blog for this little adventure- a place to talk about techniques using cordings, occasional giveaways, maybe some tutorials, and guest posts from our 3 other contributors of the book! I hope you decide to start Following the blog, you can click the Follow Me link in the sidebar!
Last weekend when we got together, we thought it would be fun to do a video to announce the contributors, but finding the best spot to do it after we quickly ran out of time, was challenging. In the end we picked Barnes & Noble... You may need to turn your volume up, we were talking softly because we didn't want to cause too much ruckus while filming.
The talented women we chose, both submitted several designs with a wide range of materials- linen, leather, suede lace, ribbons, silk, and did a great job pairing them with beads, and artisan made components. The answers they gave to the survey were thoughtful, and positive, their goals right in line with our goals for this book.
Without further ado.....
In case your video doesn't work, you can also see it at my YouTube channel.
Denise Yezbak Moore:
Denise Yezbak Moore, is a self-taught artisan who incorporates romantic, sophisticated and even whimsical overtones into her pieces. One of Denise’s favorite mediums to work with is Vintaj Natural Brass. She enjoys dabbling in Art Clay Silver, resin and wirework.
Her designs have appeared in a wide variety of publications including Bead Trends, Stringing, Best of Stringing, Bead Star, Bead Unique, Bead Style, Jewelry Affaire and Belle Armoire Jewelry.She will also be featured in an upcoming issue of Australian Beading Magazine.
Over the years, she’s explored many hobbies and obsessions--heirloom sewing and quilting, antiques, floral designing, painting, creating porcelain dolls and crafting dollhouses. Each of these guilty pleasures provided another step along Denise’s path to becoming a jewelry designer. Denise nurtured her long-time fascination with antique jewelry, by becoming a certified antique appraiser. She also holds a B.A. in Psychology.
Tracy Statler is a self taught jewelry artist. After taking a few basic stringing classes, jewelry making started as a casual hobby then became a passion over 7 years ago. Her creative drive comes from being raised participating in the arts. Choir, madrigal, piano, dance, musicals, she did them all. Her mother was an art teacher so Tracy's kitchen table was always "Mom's Studio" full of all kinds of artistic mediums. Tracy naturally finds beauty in unusual things and loves to use small unexpected elements to make a piece of jewelry stand out. After her second child was born, she left the corporate world to pursue her creative interests full time. She is a wife and a mother of two great kids. Other than quiet moments with her family and maybe after a good yoga or pilates class, she is the happiest when making jewelry and teaching and sharing her interest with others. For more about Tracy and her creations you can visit her blog at http://www.makebraceletsblog.com or contact her at tjstatler@comcast.net
Mary Jane Dodd:
mary jane's first mixed media project was completed at the age of 4... being born and raised at the jersey shore, it naturally included sand, shells, driftwood & paint... while her cerebral life has called art history home since she was a teenager, her hands on life has been spent dabbling in this and that... more than ten years ago she challenged herself to the design and creation of jewelry... and now it is just one fabulous journey of pushing personal limits by learning as much as possible in order to make her imaginings manifest...
mary jane's work has been seen in belle armoire jewelry & step by step wire... she is currently the featured designer in bead trends dec. 2010 issue... this past summer, 'funny things are everywhere', a mixed media piece, was included in the 100th new jersey craft arts annual at the newark museum... for more information about mary jane you can visit her blog at www.mairedodd.blogspot.com... feel free to contact her at mairedodd@gmail.com...
