Friday, December 03, 2010

Handcrafted Jewelry Studio...

I was lucky enough to participate in the NEW Handcrafted Jewelry Studio eMag (and as a result got an advanced sneak peek). The eMag is a companion to the popular print magazine, Handcrafted Jewelry from Interweave Press. It's a revolutionary approach to deep tissue jewelry-making content and I LOVE IT! I LOVE IT! I really wish that this resource was available years ago when I first started making jewelry. It's loaded with helpful videos, projects, and product resources.

Check out the bracelet that I made for the eMag's reader section:

It's called Gazing Stones. I used vintage watch crystals, watch cogs and gears, gold-leaf, ICE resin, and Vintaj natural brass filigree. The filigree is nice because not only does it look nice, but it adds extra reinforcement and provides additional structure to protect the delicate watch crystals. Be sure to click on the image for a larger view.

One of the things that I love about the new edition of Handcrafted Jewelry Studio is that the videos and tutorials are taught by some of my favorite people on the planet. They are the pioneers of their mediums and really know what they're talking about. Lisa Niven Kelly gives a tour of her workbench (take notice to the prints of my sister's paintings in the background), Susan Lenart Kazmer talks about resin and found objects, Sherri Haab demonstrates ITS photo image transfer, Jess Italia Lincoln shares about hole-punching tools, Kristal Wick of Beading Daily dishes on fabulous fabric beads... it's packed with lots of useful information.

I learn from watching and doing. I'll be honest, technical manuals can sometimes become too abstract for me. They make me wish that I could just jump inside the pages of a magazine and sit down with the author and have them show me one on one. The eMag is like that.

I thought that I could just flip through it and be finished quickly. Boy was I wrong! I was totally engaged, clicking on all of the links and the videos presented in a gorgeous layout and following the Handcrafted Jewelry Studio rabbit-hole. It's quite extensive!

Don't be put off by the download time. High-speed internet makes it relatively quick and is akin to downloading an album off of iTunes. You won't be disappointed. I have ridiculously slow satellite internet and thought it was well-worth the wait.

The eMag launches on Monday, December 6th. CLICK HERE to pre-order your copy. You won't be sorry! I highly recommend this. (Did I mention that I LOVE it? Like smitten-kitten style.)

10 comments:

madamesing said...

I so very much love the Glazing Stones bracelet! The elements you used have such a complementary ambiance to them and such interesting textures of colors... the eyes really got me! LOVE IT!! Yes indeed so...Kudos!

Andrew Thornton said...

Thanks so much! I had a lot of fun making this piece. I love the eye motif and have been collecting pictures of eyes for years. I wanted to use some of them and create something really different.

LiliKrist said...

Looked very mysterious =D

Angel Whisperer said...

Fantastic bracelet !! wooow

Cristi Baxter Clothier said...

Just found out about the emag yesterday. Can't wait to check it out. Congrats on being your Bead Trends feature!

Serena Trent said...

Very nice!

Susan Marling said...

Love the braclet - it is a fun piece. Tried to go to the link and it says it's not available until 12/15.

Michelle Mach said...

Thanks for the lovely review and for letting us include your work!

Heather Sellers said...

Beautiful design!

Shai Williams said...

What a unique bracelet!

I have been eyeing that e-mag. The only thing that worries me is how long will the links be usable?