JTV Adventure

Hi Everyone! It's Kate's cousin, Zoe. I am the acting Social Media Manager for Kate during this fun trip to Knoxville!

Well, it was a long trip from the Bay Area to Knoxville (plane maintenance issues, re-routes and delayed luggage arrival), but we made it!

We arrived at the JTV studios bright-eyed and excited this morning and Kate just finished setting up her samples. She's ready for her close-up. :)

I am a huge online shopping and Jewel School fan, so you can imagine my excitement this morning. In fact, I just had the pleasure of meeting Kim Prentiss, my favorite JTV host!

One of Kate's favorite people, Katie Hacker just arrived. She is scheduled to appear on Jewel School this morning too!

Make sure to follow Kate on Facebook and Twitter.
Follow the hashtag #JTVfun on Twitter to experience the adventure. Trust me, you won't want to miss it!

Ready to Rock...

Popping in to say hello from Knoxville, TN. I am bustling around this morning, getting ready to go to the JTV for a 10AM (7AM PST) appearance on Jewel School.

Looky! That's me!

It's my favorite thing, really. I really like doing live TV and the gang at JTV is so professional and makes everything so easy and fun.

The best part is that I get to share my very favorite tools with you live on air. It's always a guessing game whenever I solder anything on camera... and soldering LIVE while the camera is rolling... well, let's just say that I always have a "What the heck do I think I am doing?" moment. But everything usually works smoothly. (I just knocked on my wooden desk!)

If you have just clicked over here after the show, let me say a big "THANKS" for watching and a "hello and nice to meet you." If you are looking for more information on soldering, check out the links on the left hand sidebar. That's the list of all of the great FREE classes that I teach online for Craftsy.com and Beaducation.com.

Okay, gotta run. I need to stumble onto some coffee before I am completely camera-ready. See you on-air!

I'm teaching at JSI in July!

Okay gang... I KNOW that I am in the midst of Bead&Button prep, but I have another upcoming exciting event to share with you.

Some of you are familiar with Jewel School On JTV. I periodically join them on-air to demonstrate my favorite soldering tools. But now they are taking educating jewelry makers one step further with classes.

Fast forward to the Jewel School Institute!

From the website... "The Jewel School Institute is the classroom learning department of Jewelry Television^® and Jewel School. It is our dream come true to extend learning opportunities to our customers beyond our live television shows. Education is an important part of JTV’s commitment to the customer. Introducing new jewelry making venues and offering the latest in jewelry making supplies are important elements in our mission of empowering women and men to stretch the boundaries of their creativity.  Jewelry Television uses the medium of live television to educate the shopper about gemstones and jewelry and the beauty they can bring into her life."

Cool, huh?

I am so excited that they asked me to do a three-day workshop for them coming up on July 19-21. Here is the class description...

"This 3-day workshop is definitely "metal-immersion".

In fast-paced day one, students will complete an instructional sampler based on the unique sampler section in my book, "Simple Soldering". You will learn to saw, solder, rivet and set stones and really hone your technique without fear of “messing up”. We’ll have plenty of 1 x 1 copper squares and materials to use and experiment with in this section. We will use a simple and portable soldering station featuring butane micro torches, which is safe and easy to replicate at home. 

Next we move to day two devoted to the wonderful world of ring making and stone setting! Taping on the skills learned in day one, students will learn how to size, shape, design, and set stones to make rings for every finger (almost!).

On day three we will put the torches away and work on cold connections and patinas. Students will explore a variety of patinas on metal and create unique pieces featuring colored metal mixed with riveting techniques. (I can’t wait to share these great techniques with you.) These three days are going to be jam-packed, but promise to be educational, interesting and most of all, fun!

Three days of all the metal techniques you can imagine! Class runs from 8-5 each day and by then end you'll have a great understanding of a variety of metal working techniques. Plus you'll leave with beautiful jewelry. This is a perfect class for students who want to get started working with metal. You will have to bring some tools, but I will have a bunch of specialty tools and the soldering stations all set up for you. Materials? No problem. They are all included in the kit fee.

Find the link to enroll here.  I hope you'll join me. I can't wait to share these techniques with you.
JTV is located in the friendly town of Knoxville, Tennessee. The folks at JTV are so nice, and accommodating. I know we will have a great time

Welcome JTV viewers!

If you have found your way here after watching my JTV appearance this morning, let me extend a warm WELCOME!

I hoped you enjoyed all of the tools and tips that I shared with you and that you will tune in on Monday morning to see more great metalsmithing tools in action.

While you are here how about bookmarking or following my blog? I write about all kinds of jewelry making and crafty things. You'll also see where (and what) I am teaching as well as lots of tips, tricks and information about my upcoming book!

You can also stay in touch by signing up for my newsletter, follow my page on Facebook, read my Twitter feed, and see what I pin on Pinterest.

Thanks for watching, And while you are here, hop on over to his post, I have a giveaway going on until tomorrow morning...join in and you might win my book.

JTV Here I Come!

Okay. So let me tell you a story.

Way back when, in like the very late '70's, my parents got cable TV. (Stick with me here, I am bringing this story back around. It's just gonna take me a while.)

It was really exciting. Cable was newfangled to me. See, at home with Gran and Grandpa we did NOT have cable. We barely had color TV. When I was little we had an antenna and rabbit ears for our 1950's B&W TV. It stood on a rickety stand and even had a remote that made a crazy ker-plunk noise when you changed the channel. We had three stations and all of them were snowy.

Our TV kinda looked like this.

Eventually we did get a massive, late '70's cabinet color TV. Still had the rabbit ears and the snowy picture was in color. But let me tell you, baseball games are best watched in B&W. The Wizard of Oz, however is not. Who knew that Oz was a different color than Kansas?

Anyway.

On the weekends my sibs and I would converge on my parents house. Modern. With an Atari. And a pool. And CABLE!!! Cable was so awesome back in the day. MTV. Early HBO when it came on at 4 PM and showed five movies for the month over-and-over-and-over. (Almost Summer, anyone? Anyone?)

Cable also had a newfangled phenom. Live on-TV shopping. Dial in now and buy all KINDS of stuff. Pots and pans and luggage and flocked hangers and dishes.

My mom and I loved it. My mom was an early adopter of home shopping. We watched it all. It was so entertaining.

The main thing we loved to watch were the jewelry segments. Diamonds and gold and designer collections. We loved it all.

Well, fast forward to current day. (Sunday, August 12 and Monday, August 13, to be exact starting at 10 AM EST 7 AM PST.) I am on Jewelry Television (JTV) presenting my favorite tools for the jewelry designer. I KNOW! Cool huh? Me on home shopping...on TV. (My mom is STOKED!)

If you check out the JTV site, you can check me out under the "Experts" page. If you do not get JTV on your cable/satellite system you can watch me LIVE streaming on your computer.

I leave tomorrow for their headquarters in Knoxville TN.  More to come on my adventures in the next few days in Tennessee. Set your DVRs, though. I'll be coming through live and in color. No rabbit ears needed.