Thanks so much for your kind words on the preceding Dakota Stones post. The random number generator chose rhealeanne as the lucky winner. But you know what? Since I had nine more nice folks commenting, and since I have some nice beads to share, I am going to send each of my commentors a little giftie.
If you commented on the last post, send me an email through the "contact me" link on this blog with your mailing address and I'll send it out to you when I get back from my gift show trip after January 20th.
Have a great week everyone! And just a quick reminder, if you are going to the Tucson Gem Shows, I'll be teaching some great classes at JOGS at JewelryTools' Education
Center. Check them all out here: http://www.jewelrytools.com/classes/kate-richbourg/ and use the following coupon codes to save when you enroll!
Buy 1 class, get $20 off: KR1420
Buy 3 classes, get $75 off: KR1475
Buy 6 classes, get $175 off: KR14175
Congrats to my commentors and hope to see some of my blog readers in Tucson. More info on other classes that I am teaching this year is coming up soon.
Comments are closed! Check the next post for the winner!
What an honor! The lovely bead purveyor Dakota Stones contacted me a couple of months ago and asked if I would be a featured designer for their monthly blog series. Would I? A chance to design some jewelry using stones from one of my favorite suppliers? Sign me up.
It was a really fun project to do. Stringing beads is my first love. (I know I wrote the book on how to solder, but beads were my gateway drug.) So I grabbed my Soft Flex beading wire and went to work. (Okay, there is SOME metal and soldering in there, but mostly it's BEADS!!)
Like I mentioned before, I love to string beads! If you have not beaded for a while, I urge you to jump in and string up a quick project. Soft Flex beading wire (.019 original silver color is my favorite) makes it fast and easy. Brush up on your stringing skills with my FREE class from Beaducation.com.
It has a running time of 50 minutes and shows you all of the basic skills you need to string a sturdy necklace. Plus I am wearing a sassy red dress in the video.
I also have a little kit of treasures to give away to one lucky reader. I have a lovely centerpiece (like the one I used in one of my blog designs) a variety of semi-precious beads and a mini-spool of Soft Flex. Just add a few beads from your stash to round things out, and voila! You'll be on your way to stringing. Comments will be open through this Sunday, January 12. I'll pick a winner on Monday and send your packet out after I get back from my adventures on the 20th (more about what I am doing coming up this week!)
I am a woman who wears a lot of hats. While I do have several hat boxes in my closet filled with stylish vintage chapeaux that I like to wear on occasion this post chats about the many hats I wear in my work-day world.
Most of you know me as a "Jewelry Educator." A teacher of all things jewelry-related. I love teaching others to make jewelry and many of those students have become successful jewelry designers in their own right, designing and selling their own jewelry line.
I love that. LOVE IT!
Now it's my turn.
Yep. I have a new hat. It's called "jewelry designer." I have always designed and sold jewelry during my career, but on a really small scale. Home parties, trunk shows, the occasional craft fair. I have always designed pieces with my student or a class in mind. But now things are changing. Don't worry! I am not taking off my teaching hat. I have A LOT of cool teaching gigs coming up in 2014 (more on that soon.) This is just an addition to the hat collection.
Some of you may know my longtime friend Jess Gaston of Jess Imports. She sells beautiful jewelry components at trade shows. Earlier this year we were at a show together and were checking out the finished jewelry that was offered for sale. That lead to a discussion about trend and business and the people we know in the industry and why didn't we see anything that we really liked and why can't it be made in the USA and what if someone produced a cool, affordable, trendy but not too trendy line don't you think that might sell and that naturally led to..."Hey, wait a minute! Why aren't WE doing that?"
So we are.
Meet the Gaston Collective. Her idea is to bring together American suppliers and artists, supporting them with a living wage and work that they enjoy and feels meaningful. Things have been ramping up this past year with a few trade shows (with a favorable reception) and the addition of artists Cynthia Thornton and Bob Burkett to the mix. It's been so so so fun to create and collaborate and design. This is just the beginning. Jessica's dream is actually starting to come true. I am so excited and proud to be a part of that.
This January is the big debut of the line at three big trade shows in Atlanta, Dallas and Las Vegas. We are moving full steam ahead. And we are asking for a bit of help. Enter crowd funding and really cool contributor perks. We have created an Indiegogo campaign (Indiegogo campagin link is here.) to help gather the funds we need to get things kicked into high gear for January.
So if you can contribute, that would be awesome! You will have our sincere thanks and get a really cool gift in return. If you can’t contribute, that doesn’t mean you can’t help. We'd really appreciate if you would help pass on the word via social media, word of mouth, or in your holiday newsletter (okay, just kidding on that one.)
