New design!

One of my favorite designers in the whole world, Marcia DeCoster posted this picture on her blog today. I love her technique and all that she does. This is a beautiful cabochon that she encased and isen't it amazing? The thing that I love is the face that she said she put a special message behind the cab that is hidden by the beadwork! She's so clever. I took a class from her last year and she is a delight to be around. If you aren't familier with her or you want to see more of her work check out http://www.marciadecoster.com/

I have been working hard on Metal Stamping lately. I love this technque because it is amazing how you can make some really great personalized gifts. I will be teaching a beginners stamping class in August. To sign up go to www.offthebeadedpathbeadstore.com. You can now sign up online from the convenience of your own home!

New Merchandise

We have been busy this week packaging up 270 new colors and sizes of Aluminum Jump Rings and Rubber O rings. While I was at the Bead and Button show I had the privilage of meeting Susan Thomas who is the author of a great book called Link It! Link it has chainmaile projects that are made with aluminum jump rings and the o rings. Some of these projects are absolutely amazing! It is so neat how such different projects can be put together to make such a neat piece. I sat down Friday night and made one of the bracelets in the book in less than one hour! It was so much fun working with a completely new product.

I think sometimes we get ourselves in a horrible rut in our beading. If we don't look for ways to expand our beading knowledge then we will soon get sick of it and quite doing such a fun hobby. This is my problem right now. I am so sick of doing seed bead projects that it is hard for me to even make myself sit down and make anything. I have kicked myself in the rearend though and am now working on some wire working projects. Now all I want to do is sit down and bang on wire. It has been a great stress reliever because I can sit and bang and bang on the wire and the worst thing that can happen is I can break the wire. You should try it if you are stressed to the max because it really does work!

If you have never worked with jump rings or chainmaile before DO NOT BE INTIMATED by them. Susan makes everything super easy!