Time Flies

Time Flies...doesn't it? I will be back in the studio from my break on Monday and I will start shipping orders right away.

Thanks for being patient while I enjoy my time off.
Happy Summer,
Jennifer

The Time to Be Happy is Now

I just wanted to say hey to my friend Dori...she has a great blog and she does some really cool art. If you like my beads you will like her things too. They are bright and fun mixed media and painted pieces. Dori and I met a long long time ago at the Chicago Gift Mart when we were both exhibitors. The Time to Be Happy is Now is her blog. You should go check it out....

Free Project-Flower Pendant

Supplies:

• 1 Large red ceramic flower
• 1 small orange ceramic flower
• 1 small yellow ceramic flower
• 2 small ceramic leaves
• 1 ceramic leaf charm
• 4 red 6mm faceted Czech beads
• 10 silver 4mm balls
• 132 seed beads, two greens
• 5 inches 18 gauge sterling silver wire
• Silver clasp and beading wire

Instructions: Before stringing the necklace, you will need to make the pendant. Assembling the pendant:

1. Take your piece of silver wire and make a simple wire loop at one end. Before closing off the loop string on the leaf charm.
2. String 12 green seed beads onto the wire alternating colors.
3. Next slide on a silver ball, the large flower, and another silver ball.
4. Just above the top of the last silver ball make another simple wire loop. This one can be small, because it just needs to slide onto the beading wire.
5. Trim the excess wire. You are ready to assemble the necklace.

Stringing Instructions:

Start by crimping one end of the 24" of beading wire to the silver clasp.

String 20 seed beads, alternating colors. Add a Czech bead and continue with ten more seed beads.

String a silver ball, a small flower, and another silver ball onto the wire. Continue by stringing ten seed beads, a Czech bead, and ten more seed beads.

Next, string a silver ball, a leaf bead, a second silver ball and ten more seed beads. Now you have half of the necklace strung.

String on the pendant that you made and continue with the second half of the necklace.

To finish, crimp the second half of the silver wire to the end of the wire. Trim the excess wire.

Jangles Inspiration

Hop on over to Katie's Blog and check out the post she has about creating this necklace....
Have a great day!
Jennifer

Free Project-Three Ring Necklace

Three Ring Instructions

The Rings in this necklace have denim blues, avacado, a cobblestone brown, and a chocolate brown. I can see this necklace worn woth blue jeans or a brown work suit.

What you will need;
• 1 large Seaside Ceramic Pendant
• 1 pair of Seaside Ceramic Hoops
• 9 brown wood 10-12mm discs
• 18 Montana blue 6mm crystals
• 132 Ecru size 6 seed beads
• 8 silver size one crimps
• 36" of beading wire
Tools Needed:
• Chain nose pliers
• Wire cutters
Instructions:
1. Start by crimping one end of the beading wire to one of the loops on the ceramic pendant. Onto the wire add two seed beads, a crystal, a seed bead, and a wooden disc. Next add another seed bead, a crystal, and two seed beads. Crimp this to one of the wire loops on one of the hoop beads. Trim the excess wire.
2. Crimp the beading wire to the remaining loop on the hoop.
3. Start by stringing ten seed beads, a crystal, a seed bead, a wood disc, a seed beads, a crystal. Repeat this sequence two more times.
4. Next string 5 seed beads and a crystal. String another ten seed beads and then slide on a crimp bead. After the crimp add another 17 seed beads, slide the end of the beading wire back through the crimp and pull snug. This should create a loop. Before crimping the bead, test to see if the loop sis big enough for the wooden disc to pass through. If it is go ahead and crimp the bead.
5. Now that you have one side of your necklace complete, it is time to start the second half. Repeat steps 1-3 to start the second side.
6. Once you have those steps finished, finish the necklace by stringing 5 seed beads, a crystal, and another ten seed beads. Follow those seed beads with a wood bead, a crimp, and another seed bead. Bring the beading wire back through the crimp and pull snug. The last seed bead should hold the wood bead in place. Trim the excess wire.

Check this Out!

You need to hop on over to Lorelei's Blog to see this really cool necklace she made using some of my beads. I am in love with it...

4th of July

I hope everyone has a great 4th of July!
Jennifer

Last Day for Etsy Orders and New Beads!

Hey, Hey...
I am just finishing up some last minute things before I take a studio break...I just got these new beads out of the kiln and I couldn't wait to show them off. I am super excited how they turned out.

Etsy Buy Handmade Jangles

As you know Jangles is taking a summer break for a couple of weeks. I just wanted to remind you that if you need something soon from the Etsy store today(until midnight) is the last day to order and still have it shipped. I will be back to the studio on July 20th. Keep checking the blog while I am away, I will still have posts regularly.

New Beads

Just in case you missed my last newsletter, I have added some new disc beads to my website. You can find them here. These are the same beads that I use to make the beads charm bracelet I showed in yesterday's post.

Ceramic Bead Making Class

I will be teaching a ceramic bead making class at The Beaded Frog in Greenville, SC!

I have just added a two day class at The Beaded Frog in Greenville, SC. The first class is August 9th and that Sunday we will make a wide variety of beads, including the components that are in the charm bracelet shown above. Students will learn to hand form and cut out beads from the wet clay. We will make basic beads as well as toggles, links, charms, and more. I will include information regarding firing beads and loading kilns. I will bring back the beads(bisque fired) to the second Sunday class, which is August 16th. The students will spend the class glazing their beads.

Happy Birthday!

My oldest tured eight this weekend and I can't believe it. We had a good time celebrating his birthday. We visited the Georgia Aquarium, which is super cool. I want to go back already. I could sit in front of their big tank all day and watch the fish swim by. Here are a few of the one hundred pictures I took there....

Studio Saturday with Jangles

Happy Saturday!

It's my Studio Saturday over at the Art Bead Scene, check it out....

Jennifer

It's Hot!

Etsy Buy Handmade Jangles

I am slowly but surely adding things to my Etsy shop. I have posted before about how I photograph my beads. It's outside in the sun at noon. It's going to be 100 degrees here today and it's been pretty close to that all week plus if you add in the humidity, uck, it's awful. Therefore, I am doing my best to get new beads photographed but I can only manage to get a handful done everyday. So keep checking the Etsy store...

Have a great day,
Jennifer

New Kit added to the Jangles Website

I just added this kit to the Jangles Website. I introduced it at the Bead and Button show and it was really popular. I personally really like this necklace and wear mine quite a bit. The beads shown in the picture are the exact ones that come in the kit.

Have a good one,
Jennifer

Ceramic Bead Making Class

Good morning!

I thought I would share some photos from my Bead and Button Classes. Here are a few of my students working hard on their vessels. There is a picture of my studio couch, it is full of beads. These are all the beads from my classes. They are hot out of the kiln and ready to be shipped. If you were in one of my classes you can expect to have your beads in just a few days. They turned out really great. I think everyone will be really happy with how they turned out.

If you're thinking, boy that looks like fun, I should have taken that class. Well guess what? I just added a class to my schedule yesterday. I will be teaching at the Beaded Frog in Greenville South Carolina in August. I'm not sure if they have the information up yet, so here are the dates.

Sunday August 9th 1-5
Sunday August 16th 1-5

You can sign up for my e-mail newsletter for more info coming soon or call the Beaded Frog.

Hope to see you there...

Jennifer

Finally, I am back!

Whew! We took a detour through Indiana on the way home from Bead and Button. We stopped and stayed with family and took a few days to relax. It was lots of fun but now I am so happy to be home and back to normal. Well as normal as things can be. My boys are at day camp and I am back in the studio. It feels good. It is a mess and needs some TLC after all the rushing around before I left for Bead and Button.

As for Bead and Button, it was great. I was there for nine days. I taught five c;lasses and then had a booth at the show. I was busy, but I had a ball teaching and plan to do more next year. Before I left, I was talking about changing my booth from black to white. Here are a few photos of the tables. I was really happy with the white. I think it makes the beads stand out more.

While at the show, I didn't get a couple of "complaints" from my blog readers about not blogging as much. Now that the show is over, I am back to blogging on a regular basis, so you can start checking in everyday to get your Jangles fix.

Have a great day!
Jennifer

Bead And Button

I am off to the Bead and Button show. Here's a picture of my booth last year. It will be different this year. First of all I have a whole new display and lots of new beads, but more importantly, I have moved spots. I will be on the same aisle as I have been for the past six years but I will be up towards the front. The booth number is 1113. Hope to see you at the show.....

I will do my best to blog from the road but we all know how that goes :)

Safe travels if your heading to Bead and Button!
Jennifer

Studios

Hello everyone,
This just arrived in my mailbox and I am sooooo excited! It's the summer Studios magazine. Guess who's in it? Yep, me I have four whole pages featuring my studio. It is super cool. I love seeing where people spend their time creating and I was really honored that my studio made it into the magazine. Hope you get to check it out.

Have a great day, Jennifer

Studio Saturday

Hey Hey, Saturday was mine at the Art Bead Scene Blog. I thought I would mention it because I know that some of my readers aren't aware that I am an editor there. Studio Saturdays are my favorite posts because you get to see in the studio, duh. Any who, I asked the questions about displays and if people liked to change their displays around as much as I do. The answer was a resounding "yes", Make sure you read the comments for the post, there are some really great ideas if you are looking for display inspiration.

Have a good one,
Jennifer

Beads, Beads, Beads

Beads waiting to be clear glazed

Seed Beads

Went to a bead show the other day and got some more of the great old looking seed beads that I had in my Etsy shop. These will be with some new pendants at Bead and Button.

A week has gone by?

I can't believe that I haven't posted for a week! Geez, where has the time gone? I know...I have been making beads. So I don't go so long next time without posting, I am going to do a series of really short posts with pictures. They say a picture is worth a 1000 words, right? I have to say there is not much for me to blog about right now, it's all about production. Here we go today's pictures.....

A Daisy from my flower garden


My new artwork, that my oldest drew for the second grade art show at school

Have a great day,
Jennifer

Beads, Beads, Beads

Whew... I have been making beads non stop for three days now. Only three weeks left until Bead and Button, so this is a major production time for me. You see every year I swear that this is the year I will do it different. I will start early making my stock and I will have plenty of beads for the show. Well this year is no different from the past, I am working at full speed to get beads made. But I have to say, I am super excited about some new stuff that is coming out of my head right now. I have all kinds of new ideas and the result if that will be at the show. I also, got my new sheet of stamps yesterday! Oh I love some of those too. EEk! I wish I could show you my beads but there's nothing completely finished yet. Next week is glaze week so hopefully by the end of it I can give you some sneak peeks.

Okay I am off to make my large cup of coffee and hunker down to make some more beads today......everyone have a good one, Jennifer

Vessels

Hey Hey...
I finally got these new vessels photographed. I made up some samples for my Ceramic Beads and Vessels class at Bead and Button. We made them at my Miami class last month and they were a hit. We had some really great pieces come out of the kiln. In the class we are making vessels of all types but these beads are starting blocks for many more ideas. My favorite is the top photo....I am going to make more of these for sure.

This is a rattle, it's got metal inside to make noise.

Hollow pod

Amphora with lid

Those Pants

Good morning,
Did you see those pants on John Daly yesterday? Wow I couldn't wear them but I love them. I wish I could get a hot pink glaze, I would make those pants in a bead. I love orange and pink together. Red and Pink glazes are really hard to come by, a lot have lead in them. I refuse to use them and they are just difficult colors to make any other way. Therefore, I will just admire John's pants instead.

You may ask why the beads at the top of the post? I wasn't sure if anyone would read my post if there was a picture of a golfer on top of it.



Have a great day!
Jennifer Jangles

Skewers

Hey Hey, it was skewer cleaning day at my house. If you don't know, when I glaze my beads they are placed on skewers so I can paint all sides of them. Well, I have a lot and every few months I have to clean them. I have been waiting for a warm day to do it outside so I don't clog my drain. Otis was my helper. He's the one and only Jangles employee and he's not much help.

Free Shipping this Weekend

Etsy Buy Handmade Jangles

Free Shipping this weekend in the Etsy store! I am super busy getting ready for Bead and Button but I wanted to offer one last discount before the show. Yes. it's still a month away but I have soooo much to do before then. AAAA! Let's not go there right now.

Place your order and then I will credit your Paypal account or send you an adjusted invoice, whichever you would like. Happy Shopping!
Jennifer

Sale ends Sunday at 11:59pm EST

Get Your Designs Made into Stamps

Hey Hey, if you have read other art bead blogs this week you'll notice there is a theme.... many artists have decided to post about copyrights and what is and isn't free to take. It's a fine line to walk in the bead and art world and being the always optimistic person that I am I think people just don't know the rules. Heck, I didn't know the rules until I did some research on the topic. Here is one of my favorites so far, It's by Barbe Saint John.

I don't want to repeat what everyone else is saying so I thought I would give you a source to solve some copying issues. When I started out making beads I wanted to have textures and stamps for my work. I am always striving to have something different from any one else so I, of course, didn't want to use stamps from the store. On another note it's also illegal to use someone else's stamps in your work and resell it. Hmm...did you know that? Stamps are made for the crafter who is making gifts and projects for their friends and family. I searched and searched for stamp makers and I even tried to make some of my own. Then I came across this fabulous company called Ready Stamps. They are a non-profit group who employs people with cerebral palsy. You send in a sheet of your original drawings and they send you a sheet of rubber stamps from them. It's super cool and you can read all about it here at the Polymer Clay Express website. You can even download an order form there.

I just sent off a sheet of drawings today and of course being the impatient person I am I want them now! But they are super fast and I will have them in about a week. If you have taken one of my ceramic bead making classes, yes, this is the source. It is in the handout and I always make sure to mention the place because they are great.

So go make your own stamps! Yay! You will have original artwork that no one else will have, remember if they steal your designs they are in trouble.

Be Creative, Be different, Be you,
Jennifer

Happy Earth Day

I thought since today was earth day( what a good holiday :) ) I would highlight a pretty cool company that is doing good things for the earth. It's called My Earth and it was started by one of my friends a few years ago. It's a fabulous company with a great idea behind it. My Earth sells environmentally friendly products through school fundraisers. They give, what I think, is a huge amount back to the schools.

Oh, and they do sell some of my necklaces.

You can sign up online or you can get a catalog and get started fundraising for your group that way. It's easy and earth friendly.


Happy Earth Day!

Back From Miami

Hey, Hey long time no blog. I am back from Miami. It was a wonderful time and here is a picture from class. This picture was taken on our glazing day. The students were busy painting all of their beads they made the day before. You can tell from the pictures there was lots to do.

The beads are in the kiln as we speak and I will post some photos tomorrow once they are fired.

Thanks to everyone at the South Florida Jewelry Arts Guild for such a great time and successful event. Have a great day, Jennifer