Wire Wrapping Tutorials and Helpful Hints

Jules and I had a great time in Milwaukee – quite the adventure for us outside of the desert! And I wore a sweater twice LOL. Who would have ever thought one could require a SWEATER in June?

I met Judy on Jewelry Lessons and she lives near Milwaukee and was kind enough to help Jules and me in our booth – gave us some mom/daughter shopping time. Thanks Judy!!

Who would have ever thought my little girl would be a chain maille wiz? She’s “hiding” here, working on her dragon scale bracelet.

And here is my girl earning her keep LOL!

We sold loads of kits, handmade retro copper beads, buttons, tools, bottle cap pendants, and Tierra Cast. I will be loading my buttons, tools, and Tierra Cast to my Jewels By Jules website soon-don’t miss out on the great prices!

I LOVE Sara’s enameled pieces. Check out her site, C-Koop Beads – her pics are way better than mine!


My dear friend, Judy Payne of JP Designs. Love her stuff. She makes her pendants and beads with recycled material and has recently started carrying a large line of Swarovski crystal. Try not to drool on your keyboard…



And the Parawire Guys! Frank and Bill are about the nicest guys and their wire is a great product to work with. I wanted to take more pictures of their booth but the show doors opened and I had to run back to my booth.

Some goodies that I bought from Kathy of O’Gosh Buttons who is a lampworker extraordinaire! I love, love, love her beads and buy as much as I can whenever I am at shows with her. This is a new design I came up with after a February show and my friend, Hazel, bought the bracelet…hence, the name. Top of my list is to write a tutorial for this bracelet.

The bead for Autumn Leaf is made with a technique called electroforming – just stunning!

But I digress……here is what I just bought from Kathy.

I will weave something up with copper wire with these beauties!



Kabela Design was my “across the aisle” neighbor. We’ve done lots of shows together and her husband is quite the comedian! Check out her vintage filigree.



Last but not least, a few of Jules and my site seeing adventure pics on Monday before flying home to Tucson. It was freezing and I loved every second of it!

Me, pre-popsicle thinking “hurry up and take this picture so I can start walking again to warm up!”

Didn’t get the name of this museum – too cold to venture out and check it out – but what SPECTACULAR architecture. And, yeah, supposedly there is a lake out there somewhere in all that fog.

Some really tall huge yellow thing…

Totally cool building across the street from our hotel

Can’t wait to go back next year! Already signed up…..

I’m soooo excited-whenever Bead Fest sends out a class announcement in their newsletter, they always feature a teacher and I’m it today!

I am teaching three classes while in Philly Bead Fest Wire:

Jetson Cuff Thursday August 19, 2010, 9 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Garden Heart Bracelet Friday August 20, 2010, 9 a.m. – 12 p.m.

Coiled Drop Earrings Friday August 20, 2010, 1 – 4 p.m.

Off the topic of jewelry and just for fun, I wanted to post some of our pictures from our Disneyland trip.

Jules, Joey & I drove to Anaheim last Thursday and had loads of fun. I had forgotten I had taken the kids to Disney in October 2005 so Jules did remember bits and pieces of the park but Joey did not remember any of it so it was kinda like his first trip there.

And who doesn’t love Captain Jack Sparrow?
Another all-time favorite, Splash Mountain. We got fast passes for this ride, all 5 times we went on it LOL – the line wait was always at least 60 minutes.
Jules kept telling Joey, “You rock that hat, Bro”.
In line for the Matterhorn and look everyone – they are actually touching each other without hitting!! HAHAHA
On Main Street, just after a sugar fix….
A trip to Disneyland would be incomplete without a visit to the Haunted Mansion!
My future husband (don’t tell Mark!)
I had to splurge and we went to lunch at the Blue Bayou restaurant – soooo good! They were booked all nights that we were there for dinner.
New Orleans Square entertainment
And the band played on… Jules wormed her way up front of the crowd to take this picture and caught a Mardi Gras necklace to boot – ha!
We had a blast! We only went on Space Mountain one time just because the line was always crazy and there was always a huge line even to get fast passes!
Standing in line for Thunder Mountain, I met the nicest couple from England. Sorry, Abby, I don’t remember what city they were from! They had been to Vegas and San Francisco with Disney being there last adventure in the States.

My friend, Judy of JP Designs, creates a line of recycled material pendants and interchangeable bails.

She told me a couple of months ago that she would be writing a column for Bead Style Magazine “Confessions of a Beadaholic” and her first article was published online today! It is quite humorous – I am sure many of us can relate to the “bead addiction” she is talking about and get a good laugh out of the article, too, “Surviving the Binge“. I hope you enjoy it, too!

I received an email about three months ago from HandMadeNews (aka ArtFire) asking if I wanted to be a featured artisan….hhhmmm, let me THINK about that overnight LOL!

Angelica interviewed me and I sent her several pictures. I actually thought they had forgotten about me but then I received an email about a week ago telling me I was scheduled to be featured the first week in September. Totally cool.

Here is the article if you want to read it: Jodi Bombardier of Jewels By Jules.

I designed this bracelet for Kathy Hoppe of Ogosh Buttons who made the bead. She makes the most AMAZING beads! That is a real leaf in the center which she electroforms.

I am sure many of us artisans have experienced this unnerving experience but I just had to share this story with everyone.

As many of you know, I recently was a vendor at the Pasadena Bead & Design Show July 30-August 2, 2009. I purchased the band agate beads and sterling silver overlay center bead from a bead vendor at the show. After purchasing the beads, I made this bracelet that evening in my hotel room.

The next day, I proudly wore my new bracelet. Eager to get opinions, I asked my friend Becky of Becklin Bead Designs what she thought about it – she loved it – and Lis and Jules (one of my best friends and my daughter), loved it, too!

Well, then I made the mistake of showing it to another vendor who I had been chatting with during the slow times of the show. She (I will call her A) and her partner (I will call her B) also loved the bracelet and thought the combination of the beads was stunning. B asked, “Where did you purchase those beads? Did you buy them here?” And me in all my honest stupidity answered, “Yes, I got them from the vendor at the end of the hallway.” Then A said, “You know, we sell kits and we teach classes in our bead store. You should make a kit and write a tutorial and we will buy kits and tutorials from you and teach the design in our bead store. We have a wire instructor who can teach it.” I thought this sounded like a great idea! After all, they are stringers, not wire wrappers……

Reality smacked me upside the head when later during the day, I heard B say to A “I talked with him and told him to put all those beads aside for us and he said he would and he also opened a tab for us until the end of the show.” Well, there goes the kit. Maybe still hope for selling tutorials to them?

Not a chance. B actually had the nerve to come up to me the next day and ask “So this coiled part of the bracelet, can you tell me how you did this?” I was BLOWN AWAY that she had the nerve to ask me that. “No, I am sorry, I cannot. This is a technique that I developed and I am not willing to divulge the information.” Someone please tell me why I apologized to her?????

Live and learn.

The story gets worse. The next day I saw her with a sketch pad and she was drawing other designers jewelry.

And the story still gets worse. I was standing, weaving a bracelet and I looked over and her eyes were GLUED on me, sketch pad in her lap and pen in hand……….

I am sure A and B are bright enough to never post this bracelet on the internet but if you are ever at a show and see this bracelet and I’m not there, you have met the person who RIPPED ME OFF!

Have you encountered design rip off? PLEASE POST YOUR STORIES!!

This is totally cool – Open a storefront through Netcarnation Marketplace on Facebook for free!  You can completely customize your storefront with your banner, store policy, shipping, etc., and the free account allows you to load ten items.

They also have a blog that is full of information on selling products online and they have a Premium Account for $10 per month for life which is a limited time offer. Here is the info from their site:

A premium storefront is packed with features and tools to give you more visibility and generate more sales ! Here is what a premium storefront can do for you:

Promote upto 1000 products at once

A free storefront can only list a maximum of 10 products at a time. With a premium storefront, you can list upto 1000 products !
Setup once, sell everywhere !

Once you have upgraded to a premium storefront, your storefront can be made available on multiple social networks with no additional setup. The storefront can then be managed from anywhere. For example, once you choose to make your premium storefront on Facebook available on MySpace, you can add products to the storefront on either MySpace or Facebook. Add a new product to your Facebook storefront to see it magically appear on your MySpace profile !
100% Ad free storefronts

Premium storefronts come with a 100% Ad free guarantee. Spare your customers from Google Adsense and give them a better shopping experience !
Enhanced visibility

Premium storefronts are periodically highlighted in our “Featured Store” and “Featured Product” listings. These are designed to give higher visibility to your products.
Participate in our promotional activities

Products from premium storefronts are considered for periodic promotional activities that we run.
Email support

Get access to our personalized email support

For now, I have set up the free storefront and if that does well, I will be very tempted to get the Premium Account!

I know!! It has taken me forever to write about this but I have been so very busy.

I love doing shows – it is such a pleasure to meet so many wonderfully talented artisans! My good friend, Lis, went to the show with me along with my business namesake, Jules.

Lis, as always, is a blessing. She keeps me organized, which is no easy feat to accomplish, she takes inventory, and best of all, she is a dear friend to me and it is so wonderful to spend time with her.

Jules ate her way through the show, sold 4 cabachons, played a lot on her computer, and spent a lot of my money buying products from other vendors….gotta love them 11-year-old girls! She took three free classes, two from Art Clay World and one from a vendor who made beads that look like little cakes, cupcakes, and donuts. I don’t remember the name of the business but I will ask Jules. Jules is completely ADDICTED to silver clay now and is begging me to buy material and tools so she can make things here at home…….

I am the WORST about taking pictures but here is my “booth” which was one 8′ table:

Kind of hard to see but a hotel restaurant was right behind us (which worked well for Jules) and Starbucks was at the end of the hallway (which worked really well for me). On the left is a board of pendants. At another show, I had the pendants in bowls and sold 2…live and learn. With the display board we sold nearly 40 pendants! Next to the pendant board is an angel necklace holder that has a Greek leather cord with a pendant on it. Next to that are my Greek leather cord bracelets and African trade bead bracelets, then rings, then sterling silver and semi-precious stone wire wrapped bracelets.

The last angel on the right side has another Greek leather cord with a recycled pendant on it made by another artisan, Judy Payne of Cool Artwear. Judy makes reversible pendants. I met her at the Tucson To Bead True Blue show in February 2009 and she asked me if I could make a reversible bail for her pendants. But of course I can!

Judy’s pendants come in three sizes and all are two-sided, meaning that the designs on each side are different. Judy uses recycled material to imprint the pendants. Starting on the left is beehive, corncob, eel skin, and at the top is nuts. I designed the bail so that the pendants can slipped on and off and the bail is reversible also – check it out -

Most of Judy’s pendants are earth colors so the copper bail is far more popular than the sterling silver bail.

This is my good friend Becky of Becklin Bead Designs. Becky makes beautiful lampwork beads and she also makes metalsmithed jewelry. We trade – she likes my bracelets, I like her beads – works out well LOL.

Last but not least, my friend Tomas was at the show with his wife Susan. Tomas owns a wholesale bead store, ABC Direct, here in Tucson. I have known Tomas for several years and do my best to stay away from his store haha!

It was so nice to meet some of my internet friends – Stephanie and Deb from Facebook and Jeff from LinkedIn! I know I met more internet friends….old age is affecting memory….

I have signed up for next year’s show and I will be teaching, too. Lis, Jules, and I had a great time and the show was not only a success but a learning curve, too (like the pendant board after my first show)!!

I am very excited to announce that I will be participating in the Pasadena Bead and Design Show July 30-August 2, 2009, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. The show is being held at the Pasadena Hilton Hotel, 168 S. Los Robles Avenue.

I will be in a foyer entryway, booth A6. Next to me will be a dear friend of mine, Becky of Becklin Beads. Becky makes beautiful lampwork beads.

Here is just one set of lampwork beads out of hundreds that Becky makes:

At my Jewels By Jules booth, I will have both free and low cost jewelry tutorials along with loads of Greek leather cord bracelets, wire wrapped bracelets, woven wire bracelets, Greek leather cord necklaces, wire wrapped pendants, and rings, rings, rings for sale! Prices start at $5 with a huge selection of jewelry ranging from $10 to $50!

Free wire wrapping tutorials including:
1. Simple loops
2. Spiral hooks

Available online for immediate free download in PDF format are:
1. Wrapped loops
2. Finishing leather ends
3. Copper and Brass Patina
4. Metalsmithing Tools I

Low cost wire wrapping and metalsmithing tutorials including (also available online at Jewels By Jules):
1. BeJuled seafoam cuff
2. Multistrand crocheted bracelet
3. Justa twist ring
4. Wire crocheted pearl bracelet
5. Buttery wire wrapped cuff

I will have my Hilltribe line of bracelets at the show!

To view more of the items that I will have on hand at the Pasadena Bead and Design Show, please visit Jewels By Jules Artfire.

I hope to see you there! I cannot WAIT to meet some of my online jewelry friends who have already told me they will be there!!

Coaching Handmade, a new site in the works, is quickly approaching the official launch date of July 8, 2009. This dynamic site is being designed to help instruct in many aspects of the handmade world with benefits including:

Classes

Mentoring Groups

Networking with other handmade sellers

Handmade marketing resources

Learn how to use technology to gain sales

Learns ins and outs of wholesale

Joint marketing opportunities

And MORE…..

Jaelin Reece has had this idea for a long time and is finally putting her ideas for online promotion into motion. She is putting together a small group of teachers of varied mediums to help get her site started. I am very excited that Jaelin invited me to be one of her teachers for the site! We have some exciting things planned!!

Remember JULY 8, 2009 is the launch date for Coaching Handmade, a dynamic site designed to help the handmade artisan GET SEEN, GET CUSTOMERS, & GET SALES! Spread the word – hope to see you there!