We Have a Winner!

I have been utterly remiss in announcing the winner of the two signed books! Egads! Yes, time slipped away with the travel and the sinus infection and some last minute deadlines that hit me fast and hard and suddenly it’s foreverandaday and I’ve still not spilled the proverbial beans. Please, please forgive!

The winner is...

Sandy of Auntie Sandy’s Art!

Congratulations! My daughter and I just got the same haircut Sandy!

Please email me at theimpatientcrafter@gmail.com to claim your prize.

Dear Margot

Dear Margot,

I just picked up your book Beyond the Bead and I LOVE IT!!!!! It has been a long time since I bought a book and have been SO inspired!!! I have been crafting for the past two days and can't stop!!!! (I don't even want to go to work tomorrow!!!) I love the fact that your projects are easy to do and don't cost a lot of money. That is my kind of crafting! Once again, THANK YOU!!! I love your work!!!!! Brainstorming my next project,

Stacy Clayton : )

Thank you Stacy! You made my day. In light of Stacy's predicament, I've created a form letter anyone can present to the boss if they need to take a day or more off for a Beyond the Bead craftsravaganza.:

Dear (insert your boss's name here)

Please excuse (insert your name here) from work today. She/he purchased my new book Beyond the Bead. I had no idea when I wrote this book the power it might have to inspire binge crafting marathons. Do forgive. (Insert your name here) is not the least bit responsible for her/his need to craft beyond the bounds of decency or the regular work week.

Please feel free to email me with any questions or concerns. Hopefully (insert your name here) will be able to return to work fully crafted out in the near future, but it make take up to three full days to experience crafty saturation.

Feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.

Warmest regards,
Margot Potter
The Impatient Crafter™
'Impatient, Imperfect and Impetuous, a craft expert for the rest of us'

I'm giving away one signed copy of each of my new books Beyond the Bead and Bead and Wire Jewelry Exposed along with some super studio swag in celebration of their most auspicious sales figures. Leave any old comment here and I'll select a winner next Tuesday.

xoxo
Madge

TastyLinks™ Saturday!

Click here to get the instructions for my Simply Lovely Bracelet at the Beadalon Website, you'll learn how to use scrimps and wire guardians! Copyright 2006 Margot Potter for Beadalon (You can find the bird charm at Ornamentea)
Join the Beadalon Fan Page on Facebook!

What a wild week! Up and down and all around and by Friday I was feeling like crawling under my covers with a pint of Ben and Jerry’s and a trashy novel. Then I got some stellar news I can share as soon as the ink is dry and that perked me up a skootch. I was still feeling kinda bleh until I got an email from my publisher. Both of my new books Beyond the Bead and Bead and Wire Jewelry Exposed have sold through their first printings! Beyond the Bead sold through within the first three months! That’s rockin’! Plus the email included a little Press Release they’d whipped up that said some awfully super nice things about me. I’m a Leo, we love compliments. In fact we eat them for breakfast every morning. Please pass the ‘pretty please with brown sugar on top’ and a side of ‘gee you’re swell’s.”

So thank you to everyone who has purchased both of the books, thank you to folks who’ve written up some great reviews and helped get some buzz going. Kudos to my fabulous co-authors Fernando DaSilva (check out Nando's great post on pricing your jewelry line) and Katie Hacker (Katie's got a great post on Bead Artists against Breast Cancer)! We popped the cork on some bubbly last night and celebrated. This just confirms my belief that folks are hungry for inspiration and for creativity in these trying times. So if you’re a creative, take heart.

I'll be riding on a horse drawn carriage in a fancy (and probably soggy due to the rain) hat this Sunday! My SIL invited us along to schmooze with the uber elite at a prestigious horsey event. As Joan Rivers would say, "Fohn, fohn, fohn...fohn." Just call me "Lovey" dahling.

Super Linky Love thank you to the gals from ScaryCraft for featuring my Mixed Media pin last week! Check out their craftalicious blog!

Ms. Jennifer Perkins did a very fun blog round up of crafty red heads this past week. She included yours truly, I'm a red head at heart no matter what color is on my locks. Thanks Jen!

A Linky Love 411: The folks from Max and Chloe emailed me a hot tip on a great giveaway! They carry some really innovative costume and fine jewelry lines. Click here to enter a sweepstakes for a 500 dollar shopping spree!

My friend Melanie Brooks of Earthenwood Studio did a gorgeous design for Rings n Things last week. She was inspired by my simple wire wrapped lava rocks to make a mind blowingly cool wrapped design integrating her beautiful keyhole pendant as a focal element. Plus I love how she showed you first hand how to be inspired by something and then make it your own. Great work, Melanie! Also check out her thoughtful post about artists’ rights and copyrights here.

Without further ado...here’s this week’s sampling of TastyLinks™ open wide and say “AH!:”

Vickie Howell Create customized cards out recycled fabric and keepsake images!

The Crochet Dude Drew talks about his latest hook/needle find in an All Boye Review!

Stefanie Girard's Sweater Surgery See how to make stitchless embroidered fabric from the cool new book: Fabricate by Susan Wasinger.

Naughty Secretary Club Jen does a little painting, searches for vintages images and boils a pair of eyeglasses all in the name of creating a necklace with a little specs appeal.

Cross Stitch at About.com Celebrate Cinco de Mayo with Connie's latest fun, fabulous, and did we mention FREE Cross Stitch pattern.

CraftyPod In her latest podcast, Sister Diane interviews Sarah Hodsdon about the future of the design profession in a global, digital economy.

Crafty Princess Diaries Go shopping in style with your own crocheted tote bag. The Crafty Princess shows off her latest finished fiber project.

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world Craftside's got a crochet pattern for a pop art roll of toilet paper cozy, a detailed tutorial on how to make a photo based painting, a free dress silhouette template from the new book: Cloth Doll Artistry, and a couple of necklaces made from some very unusual recycled elements.

Cathie Filian Cathie volunteered to make 40 centerpieces for an Awards Gala - Check out her trip to the flower district and step-by-step instructions on how to make the arrangements.

Blisstree Arts Cyndi has rounded up all of her favorite posts on making background papers and fabrics for your projects.

Aileen's Musings Aileen offer's another great Mothers or Father's day gift idea using more bottle caps!

About Family Crafts Help needed: Looking for creative graduation decorations... Ideas anyone?

The Impatient Crafter Learn how to make beaded wire circles with Madge!

Link to Free Jewelry Project Confetti Collar for Beadalon

Confetti Collar Copyright 2007 Margot Potter for Beadalon

One of my design specialties is exposed wire work. I use soft wire to create woven designs that utilize tension to suspend the beads on the wire. They’re architectural and dimensional and doing them with soft wire creates a unique set of problems to solve. I started exploring this when we had our retail shop ten years ago. In typical Impatient Beader™ path of least resistance fashion I was looking for a way to get the appearance of an illusion necklace without having to knot, crimp or glue the beads in place. I discovered that by weaving wire in and out of beads you’d get the same suspended look without the futziness of the other techniques. Since then I’ve done countless designs like these ever exploring the idea of tension and suspension.

Beadalon began buying my pieces almost ten years ago when one of their employees Yvette Rodriguez discovered them in our shop window. They’ve used them for catalogs, packages, ads and newsletters and eventually I became a Design Team Member. My challenge in that role is to constantly devise new techniques and innovations to showcase their materials. We have a really great trio of designers at Beadalon and I’m honored to be among them.



Over the past two years I’ve been playing with the soft wire circle. I’ve created a lot of variations on this theme, still seeking the perfect expression of this idea. The design above was featured on the cover of the Beadalon catalogue two years ago. I’ve been waiting for the instructions to go live so I could share them with you. If you follow this link, you can get the step by step instructions for this Confetti Collar. It’s a very simple concept, mostly a matter of repetition of pattern and variation of size. It does require some patience to create, because it takes a lot of time to make that many circles! Once you start making these wire circles, you’ll want to make more, they’re very addicting. I have a simple wire bracelet in Bead and Wire Jewelry Exposed that uses a variation on this technique.

I find this work really challenging and exciting. It’s easy to keep doing the same old thing again and again, or to use techniques that already exist, but creating new techniques is far more exciting to me. Keep looking out for more of these ideas here over the next few weeks.

Until next time...craft on with your bad selves.

xoxo,
Madge

Final Free Jewelry Project from Bead and Wire Jewelry Exposed by designer Fernando Dasilva

Here's the final free project/sneak peek into the fabulous new book Bead and Wire Jewelry Exposed by Fernando Dasilva, Katie Hacker and Margot Potter from FW Media and North Light Books! I'll be giving away one final copy of the book with a set of 2 ocean blue tear drop multi color CRYSTALLIZED-Swarovski elements pendants like the ones shown above! Leave a comment and I'll announce the winner here next Tuesday before we head off for our Jamaican getaway! Last week's winner is: Shaiha of Love Romances and More blog. Please email me at theimpatientcrafter@gmail.com with your snail mail address so I can get your prize out to you!

Design by Fernando Dasilva
Golden Glow earrings
Featured items: Satin gold cube bead bumpers, German style wire, pinch bails, modern ear posts
Copyright 2009 Bead and Wire Jewelry Exposed for North Light Books by Fernando Dasilva, Katie Hacker and Margot Potter

Fernando says, "My mother never goes out in public without at least a pair of earrings. I know there are many women like her, and that led me to envision a pair of slim and elegant drop earrings suitable for many occasions. I paired polished surfaces with rubber textures. The result, I think, is an updated version of the traditional drop earring. Incorporating the square Crystallized™-Swarovski Elements buttons with teardrop crystals and satin gold bead bumpers™ results in an edgy but wearable design."

Materials
2 14mm light Colorado topaz square crystal buttons
2 24 x 12mm Terrenum long tear drop crystal pendants
14 4mm gold plated light weight jump rings
2 gold plated modern ear post
4 gold plated pinch bails
50 1.7mm satin gold cube bead bumpers
16” 24 gauge gold plated German style wire

Tools
Beadstrom™ chain nose pliers
Beadstrom™ round nose pliers
Beadstrom™ flush cutter
Mighty crimp tool

Instructions
1. Use the outside jaw of the mighty crimper tool to attach 1 pinch bail to each hole of one square button. Be gentle using the crimper tool otherwise the edges of the button will chip.

2. Attach one pinch bail to the long tear drop; use the same techniques applied on step 1.

3. Using chain nose pliers wrap one of the tips of German style wire to the tear drop assembled on step 2; place the tip of wire into the edge of pinch bail and turning around its neck twice; trim excess wire and tuck the tip under the wrapped portion.

4. String 25 gold satin bead bumpers onto the German style wire; wrap around the tear drop on vertical position and finish the same way was done in step 3. Make sure the wire was wrapped tightly around the crystal tear drop and then trim excess wire.

5. Open 1 4mm round jump rings and slide through tear drop’s pinch bail ring and then close gently. Attach a second jump ring following same directions.

6. Open a 6mmm round jump ring and string 4 bead bumpers into it.

7. Repeat step 5 to attach 2 others 4mm round jump rings to square button pinch bail and then attach it to 6mm jump ring;

8. Attach the portion finished on step 7 to 2 round jump rings and then attached to a single jump ring previously attached to modern ear post;

9. Repeat all steps for second earring.

Fernando's Tips
* Use the tip of chain nose pliers to create a subtle kink to the side of the German style wire adding an extra interesting feature around the tear drop crystal. It will end up with a sort of a lightening shaped design.
* Space bead bumpers strung onto the 6mm jump ring to add enhanced texture.
* You are welcome to replace button shape (e.g. round or oval) and also to create a different color contrast.

There are detailed step by step photos in the book!