Autumn Inspirations Booklet

Color inspirations - I can't get enough when it comes to creating jewelry! I'm always on the hunt for a new beautiful color palette to incorporate into my beads and jewelry. In a rut - find a new and unexpected color palette to inspire your designs. Want to create something trendy - find a fashion forward Pantone color palette. Not confident in your color yet? Start by finding palettes that you love and go from there.

If you haven't seen the Color Canvas feature before it starts with a photo that I take, a color palette pulled from the photo and a piece of jewelry inspired by both. Oh my gosh, it's so much fun!!! My first column is in the Dec/Jan issue of Step by Step Wire Jewelry and you can download it now!

To celebrate my new gig as the Color Canvas contributor for Step by Step Wire magazine I created a free Autumn Inspirations color palette booklet.

Grab a cup of chai tea and enjoy a dose of autumn color and design inspiration! I've created a 10 page booklet with four gorgeous color palettes, design ideas, trendy tips and my favorite bead picks for each color palette featuring beads from Humblebeads and Lima Beads. 

It's a leaf collecting, pumpkin surprising, woodland walking bead romp that you won't want to miss! Print it out and use it the next time you sit down to make jewelry. 

Grab Your Gift Here

Psst...You'll need Adobe Reader to access the PDF booklet. It's free here but your computer probably already has it.

Bead Soup Blog Hop Tour

I hope you've been following along with the Bead Soup Blog hop this week, if not you can catch up here.  Tomorrow Lori is giving away her grand prize - so don't wait!

I was so honored when Lori asked me to participate in the Bead Soup book.  I always feel a bit like a loving Grandma when I see Lori's success of the blog hop and her book.  You see, it was this little post that Lori mentions in her book that sparked her idea.  Do you know my greatest thrill in life is to inspire others to be creative?  I feel like my little seed planted all those years ago grew into something pretty amazing that has inspired a whole community of beads.   Thank you Lori!

Above was the soup that I sent in, which ended up in the very talented hands of Cindy Wimmer.  You can read about her creation and see a sneak peek here.

This is the yummy helping of soup that Nan Emmett of Spirited Earth sent to me.  I'm a big fan of Nan's, so I was excited to get something so earthy and delightful.  I named my project Vegetable Garden Soup because the colors reminded me of juicy tomatoes, potatoes and zucchini.  The bee adds a nice narrative to the garden story of the design. 

I was a little worried that maybe my design was too simple, it uses a basic wire-working technique.  But just like with the recipes that are your favorite, some recipes are easy and great for everyday and some recipes are tricky like souffles and baked Alaska.  I hope this project inspires that fun and easy everyday feel that readers can borrow again and again for their inspiration.  I loved it when Sandra Young sent me a link to her blog post showing off her design inspired by my project.  Mission accomplished!

That metaphor of a recipe collection that spans from simple and everyday to elegant and decadent - that pretty much sums up the projects in the book.  The creativity of the 26 beaders that participated in the book stuns me.  I love that Lori broke down the creative process of designing that you could use when working with your bead mixes.  This book is a heaping serving of inspiration and highly recommend it!

My prize that I'm giving away this week - a $30 gift certificate to Humblebeads.com. (this is for my website only)  To enter to win leave a comment below. I'll pick a winner on Friday, October 12th.

Click here to read the details and join along!

20,000 Leagues Collection

I was so excited to spot my 20,000 Leagues Urchin Toggle in the Vintaj's Mixed Metals book earlier this year.  If you haven't picked up this booklet I highly recommend it.  It's filled with innovative ways to combine Vintaj components, altered art techniques and jewelry designs with lots of art beads sprinkled throughout projects.  The Vintaj team is so stinking creative, I don't know how they constantly come up with new brilliant designs, but they amaze me every time.

I love this bracelet by Jessica Klaaren from Beadful Things Jewelry using one of my 20,000 Leagues Urchin Connectors.

The days are getting warmer and June is getting closer - are you feeling summer yet? 

Book Fair

Head on over to the Art Bead Scene today to enter to win one of the two books we are giving away!

Speaking of books, here are a few my beads or projects are appearing in at the moment.  I've been quietly working away on updates to my website and one the new features is a press page that shows which beads are in current publications.  I still need to do an official press page, but I feel like I've sort of lost track of which magazines I've been in now.  That's a good thing, right? 

I've been working on new submissions for the magazines for next year, oh how I love to steal away time to create new jewelry!  And I'm waiting patiently to hear back about my book proposal.  But that's all I can share about that for now.

Are you ready to humble?

Okay, that title is so dorky. But hey, that's how I role, dork-a-licious Ms. Powers! Where have I been? Locked away in my studio, creating all sorts of new and wondrous things. Some things I can share with you, others are top secret. But you know what isn't a secret? That Candie Cooper's new book is utterly amazing!

Metalworking 101 for Beaders: Create Custom Findings, Pendants & Projects

And I'm not just saying that because the most awesome bracelet ever made with a Humblebead is featured in the pages! No my friends, it's awesomeness lies within it's ability to make me want to grab my tools and get crackin' immediately on at least half the projects in the book. You must pick this one up, I promise you won't be disappointed.

Okay, now the clever tie in to my title, check out Andrew's blog for the first ever Humblebeads throw-down! I love it.

New Books

The good thing about gift cards...

Links by Jean Yates

500 Handmade Dolls

Now I'm eagerly waiting for them to arrive!

Inspirations

This is a little preview of some beads that I created for the Bead Dreams competition. I entered a bracelet and a set of loose beads in the polymer clay division.

The beads above were inspired by two textile designs from William Morris. Here is an online collection of some of his beautiful designs. I found this book at the remainder table at Barnes & Nobles last weekend for $2.50. The title is International Arts & Crafts by Michael Robinson. Check it out! Very inspiring.