Past Tips

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Offer a beading class to your friends who love your jewelry. Plan one project for a two-hour slot and set a reasonable price to cover your time and supplies. It's a great opportunity for fellowship as well as creativity and learning, not to mention income for you. You can do it!When beading with larger-holed beads that spin around on your stringing material or don't lie straight in line with the other beads, insert a seed bead or other small bead that fits snugly in the hole of the larger bead. Then, string through the smaller bead. This should hold your larger bead neatly in place.
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Making jewelry for a vegan friend or client? Avoid beeswax, silk, real pearls, shell, bone and wool!
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To create the curve in an ear wire (the part of the wire that goes through the earlobe), bend your wire around the barrel of a pen. This really works!
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One of the color trends that's big right now in home and clothing fashion is a turquoise and orange combination.
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If your jewelry sales are sluggish, put together kits for finished projects and try selling those.
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If you have pets in your work space, take care not to leave threads, wires, needles and beads out when you're not around! Our cat swallowed a threaded needle and (thank God!) horked it back up in a short time. Some animals are attracted to long threads and shiny things.
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This tip from another beader has "stuck" with me: When you get a new bobbin of beading thread, take a few minutes to thread several needles onto it. Slide them down a ways. When you're ready to bead, pull out your first length of thread with one needle already threaded. Genius!
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Never cut memory wire with regular wire cutters! I've learned this lesson the hard way, along with lots of other beaders. Use memory wire cutters or heavy-duty wire cutters from the toolbox in your garage.
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When your kids clean their toy boxes, go through the trash bag before tossing it so you can save stray Legos, game pieces, marbles, miniature figures, etc., for jewelry components.
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Stumped for ideas? Look at one of your favorite pieces of jewelry and reproduce it in another color scheme or with different beads.
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When you're sitting and beading or browsing blogs and online shops for hours, be sure to shift your eyes away from the screen every few minutes. Look around your office. Get up and walk around to help your circulation. Try to sit up straight, as this strains your back less than slouching over.
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Hold a "make and take" at your house to introduce people to your jewelry. Design a simple project and charge a low fee for supplies and instructions. Have some of your jewelry creations set up around the work space, and hand out business cards.
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Use a piece of fine beading wire, doubled and twisted, as a needle when you need to thread thicker fibers or ribbons through beads.
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The birthstone for January is garnet. Try making something featuring garnet or other dark red beads this month!
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The numbers in seed bead sizing refer to how many of that size will fit in an inch. Example: Eleven size 11 seed beads lined up will measure one inch in length.
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Take a photo of every creation when you complete it!
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Save packaging from components until you have noted their composition and origin

(no lead, silverplated, made in the Czech Republic, etc.); if you plan to give or sell your finished item, you'll want to be able to answer questions about it.
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12/30/11 If you've dropped beads or findings on the carpet, stretch one leg of some tights or stockings over the nozzle attachment on your vacuum cleaner. Vacuum where you spilled (and all around a wide radius of the area) and collect the tiny pieces from the stretched fabric over the nozzle.