Upcycled necklaces for charity...

We love teaching classes and think it's really fun when people come back into the store to show us what else they have created since taking a jewelry making class with us.  Late last week, Jessica came in and gave me an update on what she has been up to since she took our Upcycled Necklace class.  She teaches at Woodrow Wilson Academy in Westminster and taught her students how to make the upcycled flower necklaces!   

She emailed me a couple of pictures and this little note - 

"They were made to earn money for the Wright Cause Walk which is an organization our school created to help people in need at our school that are affected by cancer.  They are featured on the Tour de Fashion truck too."  The Tour De Fashion truck is giving all of the monies from the sales of the necklaces directly back to the students to donate.  

While I was at the Santa Fe Art Walk on Friday evening, I hopped onto the Tour De Fashion truck to see the super cute necklaces that Jessica's students had been creating.  How completely adorable!  I totally forgot to grab a picture, sorry!  The necklaces were really cute, it's really exciting to see the things that people learned how to do here at The Colorado Bead Company in the WILD!  You all are just so impressive, and so sweet.

Picture from here

Jessica also mentioned that her students would be selling their finished necklaces and earrings to raise money for their school trips this year as well, I'll keep you updated with where they're going to be.   This is so awesome and I was so touched and impressed with all that the students are doing that we're going to donate a bunch of supplies to them this year to support them in their efforts.  :)  

<3anne.

Weekly wrap up - Sunday, June 2nd

I love reusing and repurposing stuff into new stuff.  Our Upcycled Flower Necklace class is a perfect solution for soda cans (or beer cans).  You can also make earrings with the same technique.  :)  Check out Chris' necklace from this weekend - you'll never look at cans the same again!  (Are you friends following us on Instagram?)  We teach this class frequently for Girl Scouts... it's a perfect way for them to get their jewelry badge. 

We also had our maiden voyage of the Minneapolis bracelet class.  I had no idea how much I would LOVE teaching this class and the pieces that come from it.  I started one in class and didn't finish it, so Sarah finished it for me yesterday.  She's awesome, and the bracelet looks good, but I don't think she got bit by the "seed bead" bug... 

On the bead store front, we're very sad to say that our friend Megan at the Peacock shop is in her last week with a brick and mortar store front.  Stop over and check out her goodies before she goes exclusively online, she's off of 8th and Santa Fe, across from Fabric Bliss.  Here's a link to her sassy Etsy page, if you're looking to shop online.  

We have some classes this week with space:

Macramazing!

We have an amazing update on a retro classic, creating crazy stylish bracelet, perfect for girls and guys. Learn how (or get a refresher) to work with satin cord to make these trendy bracelets that are great for layering and rich with texture. Experiment with different colors and findings to see what suits you best. Come macrame with us!  (We have some ABBA already loaded on the iPod!)  Level: Beginner. Mon, June 3rd at 6p

Foundations

Learn the essentials to get started making your own beautiful beaded creations. Our wonderful instructors will show you how to work with tools and use basic beading supplies. During class, you will finish a necklace and a pair of earrings, and you'll gain the confidence to become a jewelry artist! Not sure what kind of necklace you want?  Any of our team will be happy to help you pick something else out.  Level: Beginner.  Tuesday, June 4th at 6pm.

Earring Party

Join the party--whether you are a new beader or an experienced earring enthusiast, you will love the Earring Party for May and June. This party will make the three pairs of earrings pictured. Learn different techniques incorporating head pins, wire, briolettes, and more. With the new format of our earring class, every session will offer a fresh collection of earrings so you can stay in fashion as the seasons change. Don’t worry about shopping—we’ve already found all of the coolest parts for you!  Level: Beginner.  Thursday, June 6th at 6pm.

We've been hard at work on classes for July and August.  We have some great things to show for it too!  A lot of our classes are getting reboots, so they'll be similar... and yet different.  :)  Don't worry, they'll still be awesome.  We also have some new classes for you - Ice resin and a class on how to make your own findings?!  Sign us up!  

This little hot thing will be on the schedule too - Hey, hey Ombre!

 Have a great week this week friends, it's supposed to be gorgeous!

- anne.

Sending your husband to the bead store? Make a list! Weekly wrap up May 19th

Sending your husband to the bead store to get supplies? Make him a list! Chris just came in with this list that Sarah made. :)

Sarah has taken a few classes with us and makes the cutest jewelry for kids!  It's completely envious!  She's going to be at the Sweet William Market in Stapleton on Saturday, May 25th with a bunch of our other friends.  :)  Go say hey!  Check out their incredible goodies.  

We have a few classes this week that still have space!

Knotty Knots pearl knotting on Tuesday, May 21st
Pearl knotting is a great skill to have in your arsenal, and we'll will teach you everything you need to know to get started. Indulge in Swarovski pearls to make this modern update to a classic style. Learn the trick to knotting pearls using silk thread, creating a knot in between each bead. See how to finish your new bracelet using clamshells and a classy toggle clasp. Your bracelet will make the perfect addition to every outfit.  Register here.

Oh Deer! Bracelet on Thursday, May 23rd at 6pm (one space left)
Have you herd the news? People just FAWN all over this little bracelet!  It's so cute and so practical for practicing your jewelry making on!  This class is designed to cover so many different techniques for you. We'll cover beading wire, crimp beads and covers, attaching chain, connecting beads with eyepins, using headpins to make charms, and properly opening and closing jump-rings.  Register here.

There's also space in Saturday's Wire Wrapped Bracelet class and Tuesday, May 28th Caged Stone pendant class.

On Monday was the most amazing Macramazing class!  Have you seen the shamballa style bracelets pretty much everywhere the last few months?  Us too! 

You can see the full album from this class on our Facebook page.   

We've had a slew of the under 10 crowd this weekend.  I love these little necklaces that Scarlett and Stella made in the Foundations Intro to Beading class on Saturday. 

We had a few birthday parties this weekend too!  Birthdays and jewelry/beading party?  SO FUN!  Huge thanks to everyone who joined us this weekend!  

Have a great week friends... and remember... 

See you soon.  <3 anne.

 

New pendants from Singing Cat Studio

We just got in a special delivery of beautiful polymer pendants from our friend Kim with Singing Cat Studio out of Philadelphia.  These lovely little pendants are decorated with fun mixed media pieces - metal or ribbon with bails for stringing.  They're wonderful on beaded creations but they're also very nice on a simple ribbon necklace.

Stop in and decide which one you can't live without!

You can visit Kim's Facebook page and see more of her beautiful creations! 

A wedding necklace - a keepsake memory

Is it almost wedding season already?!  Apparently!  We've started getting a sprinkling of brides, bridesmaids, and jewelry designers looking for inspiration and supplies to create their own beaded wedding jewelry.  

This afternoon a wonderful woman named Allison came in.  She brought with her quite the ziplock bag of her grandmother's old jewelry.  Some the pieces were costume pieces, very glitzy and sparkly, and others were her grandmother's old pearls, a treasured piece of jewelry in most families.  I know mine are, anyways.  

Allison is getting married in August and is planning to transform her grandmother's necklaces into a beautiful, large necklace and bracelet to wear down the aisle.  She also wanted to add in new beads to tie it all together.  Her bridesmaid's dresses are kind of a blue/teal/turquoise color.  She told me that she's done a little bit of crafting and necklace stringing, however not in a while and nothing too labor intensive.  I love projects like this!  I'm so excited for her.  As we talked, I got to know her a bit more and found out a little more about what she's looking for in a necklace.  

One of the things she mentioned was wanting a large, show stopping piece for the wedding but not knowing what to do with it after the wedding.  Solution: use a spacer bar and lobster clasps with split rings.  Each necklace will basically be an individual necklace that will be "temporarily" attached to the final piece with the spacer bars.  After the wedding, she'll just remove each necklace from the spacer bar and will have several pieces she can wear, one, two, three at a time.

Supplies needed to do this:

• spacer bars
• lobster clasps (for attaching individual necklaces to the spacer bars
• lobster clasp (for the spacers bars to actually put the necklace on for her wedding day)
• crimp tubes - she went with 2mm x 2mm sterling silver crimps
• beading wire - a medium weight wire is best for the mixed media project
• bead board - because she's making several pieces, she'll want to make sure they all measure out correctly
• and her beads, of course

I'm so excited for her updates on this project.  I { love } the idea of re-purposing her gram's old stuff.  :)  I bet she's going to do an incredible job!  (Allison, if you're reading this, don't forget to come back in and give us updates!)

{ love } + beads,
Anne.

A dainty little bracelet

The prettiest, dainty little bracelet came in this morning for a bit of lengthening.  It was given as a gift for Christmas this year, from a daughter to her mother, and was just a smidge too short.  I found it to be just beautiful though and I fell in love.

What would I need to make something similar?  I wanted a necklace though, I NEED a new necklace.  :)  NEED.

Supplies:

Chain - you'll want fairly thin chain, if you're planning to stay with the delicate feel (1mm or so), I think the original was a 1.2mm, I used a 1mm on mine.
Jump rings - you'll need 5 jump rings, 4 4mm rings and an 8mm ring.  The original had a twisted jump ring, which I don't have, so I just went with a regular one.
Clasp - this bracelet uses a spring ring clasp; I put a lobster on my necklace, just because it was what I had laying around.
Briolettes - however many you'd like, this one uses two of different sizes (there is garnet and citrine in the bracelet; I used a chalcedony briolette that Sarah got me when she was in Austin for Christmas and an aquamarine briolette that we had here on the single bead table)
Charm - the charm on the bracelet is hand stamped and has the initial of the owner; I went with a little feather though.  I love feathers.
Wire - it should fit through your briolette holes, sometimes they can be very tiny, I'd guess you'll need a 24 or 26ga.  For my briolettes, I needed 26ga for the chalcedony and 24ga for the aquamarine.


Steps:

1 - wrap your briolettes
2 - attach your briolettes and charm to your 8mm jump ring
3 - cut your length of chain, you'll need two pieces of equal length; I wanted a fairly short necklace so I went with 8.5"
4 - attach 4mm jump rings to each end
5 - connect one jump ring to your clasp

and you have yourself a beautiful little piece of jewelry.

Here's mine.  I LOVE it.  I'm very happy with how it turned out!  In fact, I'm wearing it right now.



Anne.

I love when customers come in and bring the things they've made. It's so inspiring to see what they've done. Linda brought in three necklaces that she's made in the last few months.

She sure does love her agate beads! She got the beads on the right and left sides from us and the ones in the middle came from a Denver bead show last fall. Such lovely work!