Beads Baubles & Jewels

It's that time of year! After the holidays, I'm always frantically running around getting everything ready for big stuff in January and February. Last week, I spent a few days at the TV studio in Cleveland, taping segments for the 1000 series of the public television series Beads, Baubles & Jewels. (Pix coming soon.) I can't believe it's been five years already!

I taped 13 Beading Lessons about everything from making your own ear wires to designing with stamped jewelry components to stitching a beaded bezel for a cabochon. The new series will air this spring on many public television stations.

There are some terrific guests, including Vicki & Mark Lareau from The Bead Factory & Puget Sound Bead Festival in Tacoma, Washington. Vicki talks about tips for displaying and selling your jewelry designs and Mark shares a simple technique for creating a sterling silver ring. These two talented people are super creative and they couldn't be nicer - I don't know how they do it all. During the winter storms that hit the Northwest last month, Vicki actually picked some of her customers up and drove them to The Bead Factory so they could get their Christmas shopping done!

My pal Kristal Wick was also in the studio to share her unique techniques for combining fabric with jewelry making. I won't give away too much here, but resin that sets up in 5 minutes? Prepare to be wowed! Her new book, Fabulous Fabric Beads, is packed with cool ideas, too.

Mark Nelson from Rio Grande was back with more metalworking on the jeweler's bench. He makes it all look so easy! And, the crew was impressed that you can use power tools to make jewelry - I think they were under the impression that it's all about needles and seed beads. Au contraire, my friends. That flex shaft is a pretty cool tool.