Submitting to Magazines

You'll have to check out the May issue of BeadStyle magazine to see the cutest woodland charm necklace by designer Jamie Hogsett!  She combines Green Girl Studio connectors and a clasp with my little hedgies and disk beads.  They also show a sweet alternative featuring my gnome.  Guess what I'm making more of today!

Remember, if you have work published in a magazine send me an email and I will send you a $25 gift certificate to my website. 

Here are some links to magazine submission guides.

  

Stringing - Currently accepting for Winter 2011, deadline is June 17th.  Submitting bracelets & earrings to this publication is a great way to get your feet wet in the world of magazines.  You don't have to write the step by step directions for bracelets or earrings - just design something amazing.

Bead Trends - They are currently accepting work for their October issue, deadline is April 25th.

Bead Unique Magazine - Currently accepting submissions for October 2011, deadline is April 15th.

Jewelry Affaire - Next deadline is May 15th.

Belle Armoire Jewelry - Next deadline is April 15th.

Step by Step Wire

Beadwork

Bead & Button Magazine

BeadStyle

Lori Anderson wrote a great article on Tips of Getting Published in Magazines.  And Lorelei Eurto also shares some tips on her blog for getting your work in magazines.  Tips on submitting to Stringing Magazine from Editor Danielle Fox.

Basically:

1. Design something you love and want to share with the whole world.

2. Decide which magazine it would best fit in - each magazine has it's own slant.

3. Follow the submission guidelines and send it in!

Rights & Compensation - Read the contract carefully - some magazines ask for all rights and may publish your design again and again without further compensation.  And make sure you ask if you can still teach a design if you publish it in a magazine, for some all-rights contracts the answer is surprisingly no.  If you are a beadmaker and publish as an advertiser you can retain all rights to your project, but you also most likely won't be compensated.  Some magazines will ask that you not have a piece online until after it's published. In general, magazines can pay anywhere from $0 - $300 for a project.  It depends on the magazine and the rights you are giving away.  For magazines that don't pay, ask if you can have a copy of the high resolution photos to use for your promotions and website.  Sometimes having your work professionally photographed and being able to use those photos on your website is worth more than you would get paid for a project. 

You won't get rich submitting your work to magazines - but if you are building a career in the bead world it is a great stepping stone.  It can increase your clout as an instructor, it will impress your customers and it can lead to new sales. 

Spring Stringing

I'd like to thank a few designers who used my beads in the current issue of Stringing magazine.  Stringing is my all time favorite magazine and I never miss an issue.  It's a great resource for finding new bead artists, seeing what's on trend, there are always design articles and of course, the beautiful jewelry creations for inspiration.

In his featured article on Stringing Shortcuts, Andrew Thornton used one of my nest pendants in a clever design.  Andrew paired it with another ceramic art bead and silk ribbon, so simple and so lovely.  I'm always honored when Andrew does his design magic with one of my beads.  You all have Andrew's blog on your reading list, right?  If not, check it out here.  And he also has a shop that you should see.  And like I need to tell you, but he is part of the Green Girl Studios family so I will include them here too.  Andrew has paired up to teach Capturing the Moment Workshops with Kate McKinnon, what an experience that would be!  You can read more about their event here.

Jamie Hogsett created a bracelet with my teal egg and disk beads.  They were paired up with a bird clasp from Green Girl Studios and an Earthenwood Studio nest charm - such a sweet combination.  She also has a pair of earrings using my disk beads as the accents for Heather Wynn's Chit Chat bird charms - I love them.  Jamie is the education coordinator for Soft Flex.  Her work has been seen in countless issues of Stringing & Beadwork magazine along with several Interweave books.  You can learn more about Jamie's work on her website. 


Beads featured in the magazine are available on my website: Nest Pendant, Teal Eggs, Teal Disk Beads.

Be sure to pick up the spring issue of Stringing for a shot of creative inspiration!

Humblebeads Affiliate Program:
Starting this month if you have a design published in a magazine or book I will send a $25 gift certificate per publication.  Simply contact me after the publication is released to let me know what issue or book it's in and I will send you over a gift certificate code to use on my website. 

The Ghost of Christmas Future

We are about to say goodbye to 2010 and I'm looking forward to a very exciting 2011!  Big changes and new adventures are coming my way in the next 12 months.  Did you know you can get a calendar with a year's worth of my art work?  Check it out here.

And speaking of the future - I'd like to introduce you to the bead magazine of tomorrow.  Handcrafted Jewelry Studio eMag is a new online publication from Interweave.  I didn't get past the 4th page before my socks were blown off!  It's so not like a pdf that you would download, it's completely interactive with videos, projects to download, clickable features and you can click right to products on the web that are shown in the issue.  I think that's one of my favorite parts.  I wrote a polymer clay beadmaking project for this issue - you can see a sneak peek above.  I even picked up some tips for tools that I have been using for years.  It's filled with good stuff - I promise!

What's your favorite adaptation of the Dickens' classic?  I think mine is Scrooged with Bill Murray - it's so funny and how many times around here do we say, "like Niagara Falls baby!" I did enjoy the latest one that is out, The Christmas Carol with Jim Carrey.  We watched it in 3-d and it was unexpectedly good!

God bless us, every one!

Shiny!

Yep, a shiny gold star for me!  It kills me to not be able to spill the beans for months, but finally I can say I'm a Bead Star once again!

This little gem is 3rd place in the stone category.  I like to think of it as winning the bronze, go team Humblebeads!  

And now let me give some props:
Focal bead is from Heather Wynn
Pewter coral is Green Girl Studio
Little seaside pewter charm is Mamacita Beadworks
The other shell is mine.  Should I make some for my Etsy shop?  Seems so out of season.  Hmm, what do you think? 
And all those gorgeous stones, why hello Rings & Things trunk show!

Congrats to all the winners, there work is amazing!  I think the magazine will be on newsstands on the 8th, so keep an eye out for that one. 

(And the first person who can tell me what movie/tv series my title is from, I'll send them a signed copy of Bead Star. Leave the answer in the comments.  And no, it's not the Shining!  Hint: It's a little catch phrase, not a title.)

Bead Trends Giveaway!

When the editor of Bead Trends asked me to be the Featured Designer for the October issue I knew right away that I wanted to create a series of jewelry that reflected the seasons, my love of nature and incorporated art beads from some of my favorite artists. The 11 designs featured in the issue are some of my favorite pieces that I've ever created. Tomorrow I will share more about the art beads used in the projects.

Projects In the issue:

1. Water & Seed Necklace and Bracelet

(Pictured above, photo courtesy of Bead Trends Magazine)

A woodsy combination of seeds, wood and water inspired beads.

2. Blue Skies Calling Bracelet, Necklace and Earrings

Nests and birds take center stage amid blue lace agate, yellow opal nuggets and copper.

3. Seek Wisdom Necklace and Earrings

A wintery blue set with branches, kyanite and ceramic beads in frosty hues.

4. Tiger Lily Necklace and Earrings

One of my favorite flowers of summer, this tiger lily set features a mix of copper disks, keishe pearls, rutilated quartz and gunmetal chain.

5. Letting Go Necklace and Bracelet

A seed of knowledge: letting go of our worries will help us get closer to our dreams. This is the theme of this set with harvest inspired beads, trees, leaves, acorns and wood.

Did you know you can purchase a digital copy of the magazine? I did this the other day and it's awesome! You subscribe to one issue for $4.99. You pick which issue you want, uh go for Oct. 2009 to see my goodies, and it's instantly available online. You can download the issue to your computer. You can make notes, there are direct links to the suppliers, it pretty much rocks. Although I still like to hold a magazine in my hand, this is a budget-friendly alternative! Click here for more details.

To celebrate being the featured designer in the October issue of Bead Trends I am hosting a giveaway on my blog this week.

The prizes: Bead Trends has donated one 6 month subscription to their magazine (a $49.95 value) and I am giving away a $30 gift certificate to Humblebeads.com!

To Enter: Make a comment to this post. If you don't have a blog, please make sure to include your email so that I can contact you if you are the winner!

To Win: One random winner will be drawn from all of the comments on Monday, October 12th.
One entry per person.   This drawing is now closed, thank you!

Let's give you something to comment on other than kudos, although I do appreciate those:

From the 5 themes/projects mentioned above which one appeals to you the most?

Harvest Time

Sometimes when you are toiling away making jewelry for the magazines, it's a little like planting seeds. You know it will be months before you see the fruit of your labor and your work in print.

Today was harvest day my friends! Bead Trends sent my advanced copy for their October issue. I'm the featured designer and have 12 pages and 11 projects! They did such a beautiful job of the photography, I just keep looking at over and over again. What a joy.

I'm happy to say that I incorporated beads from some of my favorite beadmakers and will highlight them in a future blog post. I just had to share, I'm too excited tonight!

Above is my Harvest bead, one of the many in the magazine.

Beadwork Interview

Hello dear readers!

So, officially the new Beadwork is now on the newsstands. Within the pages you'll run across an interview with someone who seems awfully familiar. Oh yeah, that would be me. Marlene Blessing interviewed me early this summer and I'm thrilled to see it in print.

It is strange though to see the history of how Humblebeads came to be, spelled out in such a succinct chronicle of events. It doesn't seem like it happened so easily. There is so much of progression that isn't a highlight. The day to day muddle of not quite knowing which path to take. Working and adjusting plans as we went along. Unexpected doors that opened and some that closed. Some days I feel tossed by the wind, others I am the captain at the helm commanding the sea. I guess that is just life. Sometimes you end up in a great place and you can't really say for sure how you got so lucky!

This little guy is the star of the article.

Cover Girl - Again!

" Beads on film, da da da da, beads on film..." That was my best Duran Duran impersonation in case you didn't catch that. You'll have to look closely but you can see my two manuscript beads there above the word "project'. Hot dog, another cover! I have 7 beads featured inside. You'll find my sea urchins, a whole host of woodland creatures and a beautiful project featuring my Twilight Lily bead. They are back in my etsy shop once again. I will also add them to my website this week as they have all made the transition from limited edition to regular line. Ah, it's like a bead promotion!

I have a really fun contest lined up for tomorrow, come back to see what it's all about.

Bead Star Revisited

My brain is still on vacation today, my head is rockin' along to imaginary waves. So I thought I'd share a little tidbit with you today while I regroup. Did you know that you can own my urchin necklace from the Bead Star contest? It's up on eBay right now in a charity auction for the American Heart Association. Bidding ends March 16th, so stop on by to see my necklace and the whole collection of items in the online auction. Bid now!

Night Cap?

I picked up the latest edition of Beadwork magazine, packed to the gills with inspiration. I love the direction the magazine is headed, thanks to the new editor and very talented designer, Melinda Barta. If her name sounds familiar she is the author of Custom Cool Jewelry, one of my favorite bead books from last year! Interviews with Kate McKinnon and Lisa Peters are great reads along with a ton of creative projects. I love how they have been using smaller beaded components in the designs, very beginner friendly!

Katie Hacker has a new column in Beadwork, "Katie's Bead Secrets." This month she offers alternative uses for bead caps. You'll have to pick up the article for the scoop. She interviewed a few designers and I happen to be one of them. Here is an example that I gave for the feature.

You can just barely see the bead caps at either end of this long tube bead. They have the small end pointed toward the bead. The top holds a nice big smoky quartz bead, the bottom has a bead and loop for an extravagant tassel.

Here are a few other ideas I scrounged up where I used the bead caps upside down.

A bead cap becomes a water lily in these Lotus Lantern earrings

A bead cap is a crown for this little prince of the forest.

Back to the bead table for me. Not a very romantic Valentine's day, but having my partner's support for my creative pursuits is the best gift!

Catch of the Day

This necklace is currently featured in Bead Style magazine. That is a Mamacita Beadworks button, one of my all time favorite beadmakers!

I've been so swamped with Van Gogh bead orders, I am just now getting these lovely little ones up in my etsy shop. I leave for the Bead Cruise in 16 days, these beads have me in the mood for a day of seashell hunting, snorkeling and soaking in the sun.

Ocean inspired wafers

OMG!

Look who is on the cover of the next issue of Stringing! That is my Cinderella necklace right smack in the middle. I also have a bracelet and a few pairs of earrings in this issue. The best part though is the Show & Tell interview, featuring little ol' moi.

I'm beside myself. I may have to get a hold of some octopus DNA and become a multi-armed mutant beadmaker! You guys are keeping me busy.

It's an embarrassment of riches over here with the current press. Hard work and determination do pay off. Now I must steal away back to my bead table to get more beads done before another round of shipping tomorrow.

Did you know Lorelei is on the cover too! She is such an amazing designer. Don't forget to check out the sale she is having this week in her etsy shop.

This is a bracelet from her shop featuring a small Humblebead lentil in copper and sage along with lampwork glass beads and a stamped copper band that reads, "By letting go it all gets done." I need to keep telling myself that!

Home Again

For those junior detectives out there, you may have already pieced together the clues that I have been in Michigan for the last two weeks. How can two weeks pass so quickly? I enjoyed every minute of it. The picture perfect snowy Christmas, the time with family, all my adorable nieces and nephews, beading with my mom and aunt, even better - bead shopping with them! And giving my brain a rest for two weeks - just what I needed to recharge.

And charge it is, full steam ahead to start off 2009. I have about 8 weeks until the Bead Cruise. At least I keep thinking in my state of denial that I have 8 weeks left. I have many things to finish up this week. This event takes a year of planning and now is the time to bring all that work into fruition. Hardly seems right that I have another vacation in 2 months, but it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make. Although I have to admit the Bead Cruise is a ton of work on board too, but I love every minute of it.

While I was at the grocery store stocking up on provisions last night, I spied the latest issue of Stringing. And who should appear before my eyes, why my little Hoot in a feature on owl beads. Be sure to check it out the next time you are at the book store or if you have a snazzy little grocery store like mine!

Now, I'm dusting the virtual shelves of Humblebeads.com. I flipped the store sign over to say, "Yes, We're Open." I'm looking forward to making beads again, I've missed my daily squish of clay and color.

I'm a Bead Star Winner

Big news! Two of my designs won in the Bead Star competition from Interweave Press! Thank you for voting this summer. It was so hard to keep it a secret all these months. If I hadn't been so busy this week making beads I would have done my horn tootin' a little earlier!

My "Key to Heart Necklace" won 2nd place in the Hearts Category. Which came with a nice big ol' $500 gift certificate to Shipwreck Beads. It's like Christmas arrived two weeks early!

And my "Sea Urchin" necklace took home an honorable mention in the pearls category, which means I was able to pick the Interweave bead magazine of my choice for a year's subscription. Lucky! And it gets even better, both of these designs are in the Bead Star magazine which hits newsstands next week.

While you wait for the magazine to arrive, you can find my sea urchins in my etsy shop or on my website. Ah, I feel all shiny!

Winner and New Winter Beads

The winner from list week's Funny Caption contest is LavenderLizard. Liz won a Dove Ornament that was featured in this week's contest. On a side note, I highly recommend LavnderLizard's crocheted goodies. We have quite the collection of face scrubbies and love them.

So where the heck have I been? Buried under a pile of beads, in a faint voice crying out, "help, I've fallen and I can't get up..." Okay, it's not that bad. But I have been a beadmaking fiend this week. Plowing through orders, stocking up on ornaments and best sellers and working on some new jewelry. Along with that I have also updated my website to include more of the Kiss beads, like the disks and a few of the cuff beads. Along with those I've added the Branch Lentil and Disk Beads in copper, lime and purple to my Humblebeads site.

I'm having a sale this week on my website only, 20% off all orders. Use discount code Thanks08, sale ends this Wednesday.

In other Humblebeads news, you can see my beads in the December issue of Simply Beads. Melanie from Earthenwood Studio created an awesome scarf pin using our beads together. Above is my version with one of my limited edition Frost beads. You can find the pin and the beads in my etsy shop.

Have a great night. I'm going to go dig into my fabric stash and start working on some gifts, more on this tomorrow!

Humblebeads Jewelry

(Updated Van Gogh Beads)

Hey there blog readers! I hope you had a fun weekend. We did! But now it's back to business. And what a great day, I'm finally caught up on all my orders, trades and packages to publishers. Ah, did you feel that? The weight of the world just lifted off my shoulders!

This weekend I spent some time making jewelry, I have a few designs that I wanted to put in my etsy shop. I'm leaving for vacation on Monday, but I will take along my Etsy inventory with me and ship items while I'm away.

My Humblebeads.com shop will be closed during that time and orders placed after Friday will be shipped out on August 5th.

One last piece of news, check out my latest article in Simply Beads, "The New Face of Polymer Clay." It offers an overview on using polymer clay beads in your jewelry designs and what to look for as a bead shopper. I have a few beads showcased in the article and I'm offering a special edition set of them in my etsy shop.

Okay, on to the jewelry show and tell:
Pagoda Earrings in copper and teal with a little lucite flower.

Nesting Pendant, I have this one in 3 other colors.

Tiger Lily Necklace, art bead on a gunmetal chain. I also have dandelions in earthy summer colors. I could see these layered with the longer chain necklaces for an up-to-date look.

image removed pending publication

Remember my Garden Trellis bracelets? I made 2 for my shop. So loving the Vintaj leaf.

I have one of these that I throw on whenever I want to dress up a casual outfit. Instant 1920's flare! (This design will be coming to a popular bead magazine next spring!)

Visit my etsy shop to see the entire collection. It's a chance to own an original Humblebead design!

Fortune and Glory Dr. Jones!

Hot Dog! I've been waiting for so long to start telling everyone my good news. Do you see that? That's my Siren's Song necklace on the cover of Simply Beads for the next issue!!!! (Are there enough exclamation marks in the world for how excited I am? Probably not!)

I'm like a kid at Christmastime waiting to see the magazine in person. Along with my project they featured my Sundry bracelet kit and there is article on Bead Retreats that mentions the Bead Cruise. Yes, this issue is the Heather Powers special edition. (har, har!) The magazine will be in stores on May 6th!

Yep, it's a banner day here at the humblebeads studio! Now back to making more beads for the show this weekend. Next week you'll see a wave of new wafer beads and urchins in my etsy shop. So many beads, so little time...

Lotus Flower

This bracelet was inspired by Danielle Fox's design that is in the current issue of Stringing magazine. She combines wood beads with some of my bronze disk beads for a very earthy combination.

I'm ready for spring and new growth, so I went with purples, smoky quartz and wood beads (that I picked up at Michael's). The dangle is a lotus flower pendant from Green Girl Studios. The back is says "enlightenment", fitting for this weekend's celebrations.

Purple disk beads can be found in my bead shop.
Remember today is the last day to enter my wafer bead quiz.

Cover Girl!

My advanced copy of BeadStyle's 365 Earrings arrived yesterday. Sweet! There I am, right on the cover. Granted it's with 30 other earrings, but still, it's there on the cover!!! Well that was enough to make my day.

I taught this earring project last month at our bead society meeting. It's a fun way to show off your art beads and whip up some quick and easy holiday gifts.

Winter Frost beads on etsy.