Happy Mango Beads' "Trash to Treasure" contest, and lessons learned

Greetings!

After a hiatus from blogging, I'm back with an exciting announcement: It's time for Happy Mango Beads' "Trash to Treasure" beading contest!

This is a fun one, with categories such as "Trash to Cash" (paper, plastic, bottle caps, etc.) and "Scrap Metal" (metal, old keys, chain, etc.). Prizes are gift certificates for Happy Mango Bead products.

The deadline is May 13th, so put on your thinking cap, create a new piece and enter it!

Lessons learned in a beading class. . .

Okay, I won't say that everything I ever needed to know, I learned from beading. But I did learn some valuable lessons the other evening when I taught a beading class. It was a class on making a simple strung bracelet. Simple? Not necessarily. Here's what I took away:

 - 25 people is probably too big a group for one instructor unless you have a giant projection screen up front.

 - Don't teach crimping to 25 people at once (without said giant projection screen) and expect them to be able to crimp their own bracelets just like that.

 - Do call on friends to serve as assistants who can travel around the tables and help beginning beaders.

 - Put your handouts (with instructions to follow at home, coupon code for your Etsy shop, contact info, etc.) by the exit door, not in the opposite corner.

 - Don't set up your own station in the darkest corner of the room.

 - Don't open a tube of crimp beads while standing up and then bend over to pick up something from the floor. . .

 - Repeat people's names when you are introduced; this can help you remember them later.

Working the 3 R's into Your Jewelry

I'm always on the lookout for interesting beads, components and materials to work into my jewelry. If it's something that has been recycled or an old item can be reused, all the better! A couple of summers ago, I stopped at a sidewalk bead sale in a little seaside town in Oregon. A strand of tiny red disks caught my eye, and the saleswoman told me they were made from old vinyl (or vulcanite) LP material. . . phonograph record vinyl! They'd been upcycled into shiny beads that formed a sleek, snaky strand.

I bought them and brought them home. Just the thought of reusing a material that had likely been stockpiled in warehouses for decades excited me. Eventually, when bead supplier Happy Mango Beads held a recycle-themed beading contest, I came up with an idea for those fantastic beads. I strung them (hundreds? Thousands?) on memory wire and included a few silverplated beads for additional interest. I simply formed loops at the ends to close the bracelet and added a dangle to one end. (You can also glue on end beads specifically made for use with memory wire.)

I ran out of those recycled beads quickly because people loved that bracelet design. It took me a bit of searching to find more, but lo and behold, it was Happy Mango Beads that carried them. Turns out, these beads are made in Africa. When they arrived in the mail, they were bigger than I'd expected and pretty dusty. I just rinsed them under running water and let them dry on a towel before working with them. As I cleaned them, I thought about the folks who made them in Africa and wondered what their working conditions were.

Although the beads were much wider than the ones I'd initially used, I figured I could still make the same style of bracelet with them, but it would have a different look. I played around a bit and decided to go bigger. The result was a slinky, squirmy, voluptuous bracelet that begged to be played with. I used the same simple technique for both bracelets, adding end dangles with an African flare to this bracelet. The bracelet is fabulous and incorporates material that might have gone into a landfill if someone hadn't come up with the idea of turning it into beads. Yay!

Daffodil Johnson McGee

My husband bought me mixed lots of beads from Beadaholique this year, and some nifty pendants were among the treasures I found therein. This pendant became the focal piece of a necklace I named Daffodil Johnson McGee. Along with new beads and findings, I used yellow and white beads from vintage necklaces. What do you think?