susanstars
Portland, OR, UScontributor
I'm the author of Bead Simple: Essential Techniques for Making Just the Jewelry You Want and the co-author of Super Crafty: Over 75 Amazing How-To Projects with Cathy Pitters, Torie Nguyen, and Rachel O’Rourke. I also write a daily craft blog, westcoastcrafty.com, and contribute to CRAFT, BUST, ReadyMade, Venus, whipup.net, supernaturale.com, and burdastyle.com. You can find my handmade work and kits to make jewelry and skirts at susanstars.com and more of my crafty projects and writing at susanbeal.com.
craft interests: embroidery, fashion, gifts, home decorating, jewelry making, paper crafts, quilting, restyle, sewing
my etsy page:
http://susanstars.etsy.com
Member Since: 03/24/2008
How to Make a Simple Bead-on-a-Wire Necklace
I made this simple, streamlined necklace to spotlight a single pink pearl and finished it with coordinating chain on both sides. You can make your own version to show off any favorite bead!
Beadaholics on Flickr
Get inspired or just marvel at the more than 26,000 photos of beaded jewelry in the Beadaholics flickr pool.
Lee Meredith's DIY Jewelry Frame and Knitting Needle Accessories
Crafter extraordinaire Lee Meredith of Leethal.net recently posted this quick project idea: a jewelry rack made with fishnet stockings stretched over an old frame! Don't miss her recycled knitting-needle jewelry, too.
How to Embellish a Picture Frame with Buttons
I found an old picture frame at a thrift store and covered it with an assortment of buttons, plus a flower charm, for a quick, easy project.
Urban Fauna Grand Opening in San Francisco
Jamie Marie Chan of Mary Jane's Attic has a new crafty endeavor: the Urban Fauna Studio. She's throwing a party to celebrate with all kinds of cool giveaways!
Tips for Applying to a Craft Fair
I asked Jenny Ryan of Felt Club and Torie Nguyen of Crafty Wonderland for their advice on applying for a craft fair—especially a big event like a holiday show! Here are their tips for helping your work shine through an endless sea of applications.
Beautiful Handmade Findings for Sale on Etsy!
Finishing your jewelry with a unique, gorgeous clasp or set of earring wires is such a nice touch. I spotted these beautifully detailed handmade findings on Etsy—so inspiring!
How to Embellish Kneesocks
I love wearing kneesocks, so I thought I'd embellish a couple of my favorite pairs for fall. Here are a few ideas for fancying them up with button rosettes.
How to Organize Your Necklaces, Earrings, and Hair Clips
Keeping your beads and crafty supplies organized and accessible is challenging enough, but once you've made yourself a handful of necklaces, earrings, and hair clips, how do you keep those neat and tangle-free? I've finally found the perfect jewelry organizer to display my collection, and here's a great idea on how to make your own, too.
Beadalicious Review and Interview
I had a chance to catch up with Sonya Nimri, the author of Beadalicious, and ask about her favorite tips for beading and how she got started.
Beaducation Online Classes
Beaducation has a whole array of cool online classes for making all kinds of jewelry projects... from (free!) basic tutorials to intricate, gorgeous chainmail, crochet, and wirework pieces, there's something for every skill level.
How to Organize Your Brooches and Pins
Once you've collected or made yourself a handful of brooches and buttons, how do you keep them organized and off your dresser or nightstand? I've come up with a simple solution to display my favorites.
Jeaneology Accessories and Jewelry
Crafter extraordinaire Nancy Flynn has put together some really fun ideas for making jewelry and accessories in her book, Jeaneology... but the twist is that they're created with recycled denim! Here are a couple of my favorite projects from her collection.
Craft In America: Jewelry Extraordinaire
Craft In America is a documentary, traveling museum exhibition, and gorgeous, vividly photographed book all in one. The collection features craft designers and artists in every medium, but of course some of my favorites are the jewelers and beaders...
Craft Blog Week: Bloglines and Beyond
If you are reading craft blogs regularly, it's super handy to keep your collection of favorites in one convenient place. I use Bloglines myself, but Google Reader has plenty of fans too. Here's a little how-to along with a list of 25 of my favorites you might like to browse through
Craft Blog Week: CRAFTzine
CRAFT: magazine has a simply amazing daily blog, featuring an incredible array of projects to make, cool sites to check out, or handmade pieces to browse and buy. And best of all, they even have an entire category of posts on jewelry!
How to Start a Craft or Beading Group
Starting up your own beading or crafty circle and sharing ideas, techniques, and supplies with friends can be a lot of fun! Craft maven Diane Gilleland was kind enough to share plenty of tips for getting a jewelry-making group off the ground.
Amy Karol's fantastic 5-minute skirt
This simple, gorgeous a-line skirt is a five-minute project... just whip up a pattern from your measurements and go!
Ponoko: Make Your Designs on Demand
New craft-design site Ponoko offers a very innovative service: submit your original ideas and the company will turn them into fabricated pieces for customers to snap up -- perfect for jewelry and beyond.
How To: Organize Your Buttons
I love vintage and new buttons, but as I've accumulated more and more of them, my collection has been getting a bit out of control. So I came up with a few ideas for keeping them streamlined instead of letting them take over my whole craft room.
Gorgeous finds at the Vintage Bead Boutique
Annie Chau's Vintage Bead Boutique on Etsy showcases an array of charms, beads, and cabs from her enviable collection. Browse her shop to find just the thing for your next jewelry project!
Notecard Necklaces by Jill Bliss
I love these hand-illustrated underwater-scene necklace notecard sets from artist Jill Bliss -- the perfect intersection of jewelry and paper crafts!
Fantastic craft books and a summer sale
I love craft books by Chronicle, and they're all on sale this week - 30% off plus free shipping!
How To: Make an S-Clasp
If you're interested in making a simple handmade clasp for your jewelry, the S-clasp is a great one to get started with. Here's how to do it!
Enameled Pendants How-To
Indie Fixx offers a new craft tutorial every Tuesday, and the enameled imagery how-to contributed by Dreams and Jewelry is particularly outstanding. Don't miss it!
Lovely bits and pieces at Lulu's Vintage Bonanza!
If you're looking for glass or Lucite vintage cabochons, or other fun jewelry bits to design with, don't miss Lulu's Etsy shop.
How To: Organizing Tools
Here are a few ideas for keeping your beading and other crafty tools organized and easy to access while you're working.
Tips for Selling at a Craft Fair
If you're interested in selling your handmade work at craft fairs and events, check out these helpful resources from Sarah Neuberger of The Small Object.
Hip to Bead Interview and Giveaway!
Beading designer and writer Katie Hacker is offering a copy of her book, Hip to Bead, to one lucky CraftStylish reader! I interviewed her about jewelry-making, her tips for beginners, and lots more.
How To: Organizing Findings and Supplies
If you do much jewelry-making and beading, you probably have a million things to keep track of—jump rings, wire, clasps... Here's how I keep mine organized and easy to grab when I'm working on a project.
Live Crafty How-Tos at Etsy All Month!
Check out these great how-tos at Etsy: screenprinting, glass etching, sewing, and of course some amazing jewelry-making and beading projects.
The Amazing Rose Bowl Flea Market
Flea markets are fantastic sources for crafty and jewelry-making supplies, and my favorite one of all is the magnificent Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California—don't miss it!
Jewelry and Decor Projects with Cathie and Steve
I love Cathie Filian and Steve Piacenza's craft show, Creative Juice. They have a ton of great jewelry, beading, and embellishment projects online to check out, too!
How To: Simple Drop Earrings!
Choose two of your favorite beads and turn them into a quick, simple pair of earrings or embellishments...all you'll need are pliers, wire or eyepins, and a few minutes!
Video: Make a Basic Bead Dangle
I made this video to show my favorite technique for creating embellishments, earrings, or pendants using wire and beads.
Bead Expo Recap!
I had the chance to check out the Bead Expo when it came to Portland—I highly recommend going when it visits your city! Here are a few of my favorite vendors and teachers from the event.
Spotlight on SoftFlex
I have been using SoftFlex beading wire for years, but I spotted a few other cool products—not to mention some great free resources for beaders—while I was at the Bead Expo.
Interweave Craft Books to Check Out
I saw these titles at the Beadwork Bead Expo recently and thought they looked amazing. These new jewelry-making books are fantastic, whether you're into glass beads, metalwork, or bead-stringing.
Make It: Ridiculously Easy Wineglass Charms
Seattle crafter and blogger Megan Reardon shares this gorgeous, simple project to make: a set of wineglass charms to give as a hostess gift or keep for yourself.
Gorgeous Beads and Unusual Pieces to Check Out
Whether you're looking for vintage Lucite, trade beads, or semiprecious beads, Dava Bead and Trade has a very cool selection of unusual pieces to browse online or in person at their shop in Portland, Oregon.
Try a Vintage Beading Project: Tri-Bead Fun
I love vintage beading pamphlets and magazines. Here is one of my favorites from 1972.
Find Amazing Handmade Jewelry and Accessories at Renegade Brooklyn!
The Renegade Craft Fair is coming to Brooklyn on June 14th and 15th. If you're in New York, don't miss it -- there are great handmade treasures to shop for!
How to Make a Basic Bead Dangle
Here is an easy to follow video tutorial based on a wrapped loop technique from my book Bead Simple. I used this simple step for the Wedding Ring Pendant.
Make a Pendant out of Your Wedding Ring
Here's how to turn a wedding ring (or any ring) into a pretty pendant. I've made an easy-to-follow video tutorial in the companion post so that you can learn how to make the center-bead dangle, using a wrapped-loop technique.
Organize Your Beads and Charms
Once you've been collecting jewelry-making treasures for a while, storing and organizing them can become an overwhelming endeavor! I have a pretty huge collection at this point, so I've done my share of endlessly arranging and rearranging ... but here are a few things have worked well for me.
Beaders Adore Toho Shoji
Toho Shoji is one of my favorite bead stores, and every time I’m in New York, I go there to browse everything and pick up new bits and pieces to work with. If you should ever find yourself in the Big Apple, be sure to stop in. Give yourself plenty of time because there is a lot to see.
Untangle that Mess and Organize Your Handmade Jewelry
If you're a jewelry maker, sooner or later, you're likely to end up with a dilemma: how to keep your work organized, i.e., untangled and nicely arranged, and how to store all of your finished pieces. Once I realized that I had a problem on my hands, I came up with some solutions that have worked out well.
Beadage.net is a Fantastic Resource for Jewelry Making
Yes, my great passion is beading, and every time I visit Emma McCreary’s incredible Beadage.net, my passion is fueled, inspired, and ready to take on new things. The site also has a very fun blog.
DIY Bride Interview and Giveaway!
I recently had a chance to catch up with DIY Bride author Khris Cochran to ask about the inspiration for her book and her current crafty idea favorites.
Etsy Selling: How to Raise Your Profile Profitably
Selling your jewelry on Etsy is easy. What requires a bit of skill is learning how to draw attention to your shop on a site that has more than 400,000 listings. Here are some great tips on how to get your work the attention it deserves.
Vintage Bead Book Spotlight: The Family Creative Workshop Series
I love all things vintage, and some of my favorite sources for vintage jewelry-making inspiration come from the craft books and magazines of the past. You can find these treasures online and in thrift stores. Here are some great places to hunt for true vintage crafting magic.
California Designer Creates a Paradise of Jewelry
Meet the inspired jewelry-making world of Laura Stokes. From her own line of unique jewelry creations to her amazing hand-crafted supplies available via her Web site, this California-based designer does it all. Here is a jewelry resource that you won’t want to miss.
Shopping for Jewelry Supplies on Etsy
If you’ve never been to Etsy, I highly recommend that you go to their site. It is an incredible resource for all things crafty: great supplies, handmade items, and of course brilliant inspiration. The site is super-easy to navigate and is one of my favorite places to go looking for awesome jewelry-making finds. Here are some tips to help you find what you’re looking for.
Tips for Buying Beads and Jewelry Supplies Secondhand
Finding a vintage trinket, charm, or bauble at a yard sale or a favorite thrift store can feel like you've struck jewelry-making gold! Here are some of my best tips for spotting treasures among castaways.
Craftypod Jewelry Projects
Craftypod is the blogging home of Portland crafter, Diane Gilleland, aka, Sister Diane, leader of the Portland Church of Craft. This extremely talented lady has a new project that I'd like to share with you.
Bead Bloggers
Meet this talented group of jewelry designers. These ladies have banded together to share their favorite resources and links, and promote all kinds of exciting work, too! Super inspiring.
Hot Deals on Beautiful Baubles!
Here is one of my all-time favorite sources for beading basics and beyond, especially since they're so affordable.
Katie Hacker and Beads, Baubles and Jewels
If you've got just three minutes then Katie Hacker can change your whole approach to jewelry-making. Her beading tutorials are great!
Wire 101
Whether you’re a beginning beader or you’ve been making jewelry for quite awhile, you probably have plenty of favorites in terms of wire—both materials and gauges. But if you’re wondering what the best choice for a project might be, or whether craft wire or sterling is the better bet, here are my recommendations for what to use in your jewelry-making projects.
The Art of Jewelry
If you're in the Pacific Northwest, you have to check out this spectacular exhibition at Portland's Museum of Contemporary Craft, Framing: The Art of Jewelry.
My Favorite Los Angeles Bead Store
If you're ever in L.A. and on the lookout for jewelry-making supplies, you must plan a trip to Berger Beads. And now that they have a Web site and expanded mail-order services, you can check them out no matter where you are!
Susan Beal, Author of Bead Simple
I'm so excited to see the CraftStylish site come together and to share my favorite crafty resources and projects with everyone. Thanks so much for checking out my jewelry-making and beading posts, and I'd love to hear what you think of it all!
How to Make Scrap Paper Mosaics
Jeff_Rudell | September 8th, 2008
Howdy There
FriendyWendy | September 7th, 2008
Sheet music flower power assemblage piece
giab | September 7th, 2008
Re: How to Make a Super-Simple Roll-Up for Organizing Your Crochet Hooks
Such a great idea, Linda! So simple and gorgeous.
posted: 12:38 pm on August 28thRe: How to Crochet a Bead and Wire Bracelet
Great tutorial and such a pretty project!
posted: 4:40 pm on August 1stRe: Crafte's Inferno
Yay, Michaela! Your pillows look amazing (and nice pajamas, Jen!)
posted: 3:50 pm on July 31stI just made something for fun for the first time in six months yesterday. So exciting. I must be on your Crafte Inferno parallel... :)
Here's my sewing project, at last:
http://westcoastcrafty.wordpress.com/2008/07/31/sewing-for-fun/
Re: Depth Charge: How to Make a Splash and Get Paid for it.
those projects are incredible! thank you for posting them!
posted: 12:20 pm on July 28thRe: You're a Fabric Designer!
I am so excited for Spoonflower! Can't wait to get my invite...
posted: 12:46 pm on July 25thGreat interview :)
Re: My Summer of Hand-Sewn Dresses
lovely!
posted: 8:35 pm on July 15thRe: How to Make Cold Porcelain
what a cool idea - looks amazing!
posted: 8:10 pm on July 12thRe: Crafters Catch Bangle Bracelet Fever at the Indie Craft Experience
that looks so fun, Jessica!
posted: 1:21 pm on June 10thRe: Twisted Gives a Shout out to Craft Magazine
It was so great to see you, Michaela! Thanks so much for coming down to visit with us :)
posted: 1:27 pm on June 4thRe: How to Reverse-Applique a Tote Bag
beautiful as always, Diane!!
posted: 1:24 pm on June 4th