Bead blog recap weeks 31-32

I'm back to my normal schedule of writing on Manekis Pärlblogg since August and after these two first weeks, it's time for the first recap/review since my summer break. This time you can find everything from brooch bouquets and flower weaving to contest tips and how to attract readers to your tutorials. And of cause, mentioning the rusty black patina that you can see in the jewellery components above.




Brooch bouquets
Make wedding -- or other -- bouquets with costume jewellery brooches. Add silk flowers or do a bouquet with just brooches. Some keep to a silver-crystal-white palette while others make colourful floral arrangements.

Wedding category
I'm adding a special category for everything wedding related. For the DIY bride-to-be as well as those working with wedding designs and commissions.

Weaving with real flowers
Add flowers from your garden to these romantic woven fiber bracelets.

Leaf metal
Leaf metal, precious och base metal based, can be used in many ways in jewellery and bead making: gilding, polymer clay mokume gane, resin casting and more. Note that this is not the same thing as the thicker metal foil, which is used for keum-boo and lampwork.


Create components with a flower loom
A flower loom can be used to make pendants, charms etc for jewellery, using fibre or wire.

New finishes from B'Sue Boutiques
Rusty Black patina and Chocolate Ox are two new and exciting true designer finishes from B'Sue's. Rusty black in particular is a beautiful matt black finish with sepia speckles, which can be polished to look like black oxidized copper.


Get people to notice your tutorials and patterns
This text focus mainly on ways to attract readers to your free tuts and patterns published or your blog or website, e.g. by contacting craft blogs.

End cone bouquets
How to make pendants using flower beads and an upside-down end cone.

Converting ss and pp sizes
ss and pp are two units used to measure flatback and pointedback rhinestones. Here you find tables to convert them into millimetres.

August challenges
A list of current monthly design challenges for beaders and jewellery makers. Some include prizes.

Frame your stampings
Why not add an elegant finishing touch to your stamped blanks by soldering a wire frame for them?

Maven Melds: new contest from Bead Mavens
Bead Mavens have announced a new contest. The theme is unusual and inspiring: your should take two seperate Bead Maven tutorials/patterns and merge them into one piece of jewellery.

The blog is back on schedule...
...and a few changes have been made. The biggest one is the addition of two new categories: biz and reference. Biz is about everything business related, not just jewellery selling, while reference will gather together all posts about reference tables, glossaries, convertions etc.