METALLIFEROUS TODAY: learned new stuff

Every time I go to Metalliferous, it seems I pick up on something new.  Today, in the bead room, they had little boxes of interesting cabochons for cheap.  That wasn’t what I was looking for, today, but I probably should have rabbed some.

I was at Metalliferous to get some silver wire, so, of course, I had to do a tour through the copper and brass holdings.  I started to get two copper cuff bracelets to embellish, but then I remembered that I wanted to make a silver ring and maybe a silver bracelet and some earrings, so I put the bracelets back and wandered over to the brass and copper chains and tried to want some off them.  Finally, I made it back to the silver and got 2 feet of 16 gauge and 2 feet of 18 gauge.  Then I had to meander some more.

Finally I asked about the “helicopter” hole punch — I bought one a few months back and broke the small hole punch the first time I used it.  I lucked into talking to one of the bosses, the one with the great red reading glasses, ad he found me a replacement hole punch to add to my “helicopter”, so I won’t have to buy a whole new helicopter.

Meanwhile, I am ultra-annoyed.  I had this idea of taking a copper cuff bracelet blank and punching holes in it and embellishing it with chains and wire and beads. I made one a while back and have been planning to make a couple more since the first one was so popular… lo and behold… similar bracelets have shown up in Lucky, Elle, and Marie Claire… so much for original ideas…. I promise! I had the idea all by myself!

RINGS N THINGS BLOG – definitely cool supplier blog

The Rings N Things blog is very interesting… it has quite a bit of useful information.  Definitely check it out.

COOL FREE TUTORIALS AT ORNAMENTEA.COM (no, they don’t pay me)

I have no brilliant ideas right now (I am still trying to get my TV converter box to work, so right now the TV by my worktable is out of order, and I am working on some new recipes for my raw food blog:  prettysmartrawfoodideas.wordpress.com )

Meanwhile, I thought I would go back to Ornamentea.com and check out what they had going  (I so enjoyed meeting the owner, Cynthia Deis at etsy.com, and I love her book BEADING WITH FILIGREE on how to use filigree elements ), and there, I found these two cool free tutorials for a necklace and a bracelet.

Cool is good!  Free is VERY goood!  Enjoy!

Metalliferous-lessness!! Oh heavens!

Starting July 4th, for one week, Metalliferous will be closed.  Oh my gosh!  I have to think about what I might could want to need in that week — it is 100% guaranteed that I will be missing something when I cannot go there!  I’m going to try to go up there this week and lay in some more wire, for during the “fast”.

Go now!  Friday is your last chance for a week! (and there are no more Saturdays!)

GOING WILD AT JEWELRYLESSONS.COM

I’ve wanted some of the tutorials at Jewelry Lessons for a while, but, since they’ve started the discount scheme, where you get points or discounts, depending on the dollar amount of tutorials you buy (a single purchase of $20 or more earns 3 points for every dollar spent, and any single purchase of $75 or more ALSO fetches an immediate 10% discount), I have been holding back.  Today, I hit $76-odd, and I got paid, and I had a balance in PayPal, so it was time to buy!  (Considering how many tutorials I have bought, it is just too bad that this new incentive program is not retroactive! Boooo!  Oh, well, at least we have it now, yes!

I was a little disappointed to see that things that I have previously bought had gone on sale, but, hey! That’s life!  Now, with my new plan of skulking around and collecting things in my shopping cart, I will hopefully hit some sales from time to time!

Here is what I got when I finally passed the $75.00 limit:

Manamana Ring
Dreamcatcher Chain Maille Bracelet
Framed Cabuchon Pendant Tutorial
Beaded Helm Chain Maille Bracelet
Robin’s Egg Bracelet
Sparkly ‘O’ Studs: Athena’s Shield, Stud Earrings
Beaded Bead Earrings
Jewel In A Little Basket Caged Bead Earrings
Wire Wrapped Bead Bangle Bracelet With Built-In Clasp
Three Square Pieces Necklace
Dodecahedron Bead
Dramatic Woven Rings

Now, please excuse me!  Yoko and I had a beading afternoon yesterday, and I must go and make some more earrings!

Just a quick note:  It seems funny to me that, up to now, all of the tutorials I have gotten used 22 gauge wire, but, suddenly, the tutorials I am looking at call for 20, 18, or even 13 gauge wire!  (I don’t have any of those in my cache! Bummer – must buy!)

EASY WAY TO MAKE HOOP STYLE EAR-WIRES

I was looking for the site for this EZ Wire earring wire maker that I bought a couple of years ago (the instructions have disappeared, and I was hoping to find them on-line), and I found this site which shows a nifty way to “mass-make” those cute “hoop-style” ear-wires I keep seeing.

For the info, please go to http://www.blogcatalog.comsearch.frame.php?term=ez+earring+maker+tutorial&id=2d7e232637021d584b4964fbe823f18f

(btw, I treid to escape the blogcatalog URL but I had no success)

Galleria J Antonio – see/buy great New York hand-made crafts

I went to Galleria J Antonio today (I mentioned it in my last post).   It was a hike — deep down in the East Village, on Ave. A between 3rd & 4th Sts.  (in that area called Loisaida by the old-timers) but it was well worth the trek.

Go there and see some beautiful jewelry pieces, fantastical crafted Judaica items, and… and… an amazing collection of reasonably priced highly-wantable watches.  Yes, the watches were what finally took my breath away (You could get jewely like that from me, but the watches…)  As I was walking out, I saw some fantastic bakelite watches… must have!

Turns out this fellow Jesse G. likes to represent local artists, and does a good job of it (on up-and-coming Avenue A — part trendy, still part seedy), his shop is a very upscale looking oasis in which you can find lovely one-of-a-kind pieces at reasonable prices.  At the same time, he is a watch person, with a long history of working in New York City watch stores (I got this from his new blog,

I will go back with cash in hand, for sure.  You should check out this wonderful resource.

BEADING TODAY

Today was a one-shop stop.  I went to Beads World, the Chinese store on Broadway between W. 37th & W. 38th Sts.  I really only wanted to get some beading wire, to finish off some commissioned beaded eyeglasses holders.  Then, I got carried away looking under those killer waist-high bead bins at the metal-coated plastic beads hidden there.  Yumm!  Actually, those beads were not so cheap as I thought they should be, but, at the same time, they were very light, and would make some nice earrings (my old ears have droopy holes, so I am restricted to studs or feather-weight dangles)

Tomorrow, I am planning to go down to the Lower East Side to check out a store I learned of  from Marla, a striking woman with a stunning necklace, at a NYC Raw Food Lecture last night.  I want to be best friends with Marla!  Standing in line with her, waiting to talk to the speaker,  I gushed over her necklace, and she actually shared with me the name and basic location of the shop where she had bought it!!!! Gosh!  Most people will only tell you the neighborhood and forget to tell you the name of the shop, leaving you to search the neighborhood (may streets and avenues) on your own!  Marla was so gracious and enthusiastic, even after she learned that I do not scour the Lower East Side!  What a jewel! I hope to see Marla and her fabulous jewelry again somewhere!

NOTE: Since this store does not have its own website, as far as I can tell, I will post the information about it after I have visited the store, and have posted a review online, so that there will be a positive review that I like, when people search Google.

ETSY TONIGHT! I meet Cynthia, the owner of Ornamentea, in Raleigh, NC!

Tonight, I went to the Etsy Open Craft Night again.  I’m becoming a regular, I think.  Open Craft Night is hard for me. I go in with an idea and then it doesn’t work out and I pout.

Interestingly, while I was working on a project that wasn’t working for me,  I overheard the two women next to me talking about something they could not find here in New York City.   Ever the curious one,  I listened in and heard one of them mention Czech glass, at which I blurted out “Margola!”   They looked at me quizzically, and I told them about Margola,  on W. 37th St. in Manhattan, which has (according to me)  the most  amazing assortment of Czech pressed glass, and other Czech glass/crystal products,  at highly reasonable prices.  When I discovered Margola, I began to think of ways that I could make beautiful pieces at lower prices.(Please understand that, in my regular line of jewelry, I have always only used natural stones/cystals/gems).

As it turned out,  Emily, who was looking for the  Czech glass, was a former employee of the other woman, Cynthia, who, as it turned out, is the owner of the Raleigh, NC store, Ornamentea.  I’ve seen ads in the bead magazines for Ornamentea, but I had never checked them out on-line.

Well, of course, I had to rush home and look up Ornamentea (pronounced Or-na-men-tee-ah)! While Ms Cynthia was off enjoying a French dinner tonight (she told me so), I was drooling over the luscious offerings on her site (I had already downed my pre-prepared dinner of raw massaged kale, raw marinated cauliflower, and marinated shiitake mushrooms– check out my raw food blog)

Lord, am I envious of those who can go to Cynthia’s  store… it must be a place where people regularly drop their entire paychecks!  Amazing stuff!)  What really interests me is the vast assortment of filigree elements — I’ve become interested in filigree recently, but have been unable to find much, outside of the few silver filigree elements I see at Metalliferous.  I am excited to find this resource.  Cynthia has even published a book,  Beading with Filigree: Beautiful Jewelry, Simple Techniques about jewelry using filigree.Tonight’s advice: All y’all in hollering distance of Etsy should get yourselves down to Etsy Craft Night on Monday nights, and all y’all close to Raleigh should get yourselves over to Ornamentea post haste!  (My parents live in Eastern North Carolina.  If I had to spend a week there, I would definitely pile my Mom in the car and make the 5-hour drive over to Raleigh to see Ornamentea, and then try to find something cool there for Mom, since we would have to spend the night –  were I alone,  I would make that 10-hour RT commute without blinking an eye,    based on what I have seen on-line.   Sorry, Cynthia, I am not going to fly into Raleigh just to visit your store – although I am fascinated by the concept that you have 27 employees – that must be one heck of a store!   I am ever so grateful that you have a website, from which I will order very soon!)

REMY HEATH TUTORIALS: The ones I have

I must say that bothering people whose work you like can work can have good results!  I glommed on to Remy Heath’s work when I was looking through some Year of Jewelry posts.  I bought several of her tutorials, and waited for more.  When I hadn’t seen any more for quite some time, I wrote to Remy and enquired after her well-being, mentioning that I was worried since her site promised more tutorials, but had not been updated.  Remy graciously replied that she was doing fine and just interested in other things, but now, tonight… I find that there are quite a few more, quite nice tutorials listed! (Save save save, to buy buy buy!)

The Remy tutorials I have:

Border Wrap Prong Pendant
Caged Bead Pendant
Wrapped Pendant
Offbeat Pendant

I want more