byZarah.comBooks | byZarah.com

Make Money Online with John Chow Book

Zarah — Tue, 11 May 2010 20:35:18 +0000

I just received a new book which I have awaited for so long now! It’s John Chows Make Money Online book. It’s a treasure for anyone who has a blog and who wants to make money from it

It’s interesting to read what John Chow says on the back cover of the book: “Blogs has quickly become just as legitimate and influential as mainstream newspapers”.

John Chows blog is making more than 40,000 US dollars each month, so he knows what he is talking about.

As I’m looking through the table of contents of the book I’m thinking that this must be the perfect guide for any blogger to get started making money! After all, you use so much time and effort to write for a blog and we all need some extra encouragement!

Happy to have received the book

I thought that Make Money Online book was mostly about SEO (search engine optimization) and Johns story with making money from his blog, which is very interesting of course.

But when I spotted chapter four, called “Ten Essential Blogging Tips” I just had to check it out at once!

I love that kind of things… Good advice from experts on the field

Having your own blog is so much fun and the communication with people is great.

Getting comments and responding to them is my favorite activity when I get up in the morning. I always do that in my green sofa with a cup of tea in my hand and the laptop on my lap

This first sneak peak of the book was great, so now I’m looking forward reading it and receiving all the tasty blogging tips!

This is me unboxing the Make Money Online book! Geeky huh?

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Making Beaded Earrings Earrings Earrings! Book Review

Zarah — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 11:41:41 +0000

Found this fantastic book about making beaded earrings. The designs in this book are so modern and yet really simple! You don’t see that a lot in beading books, many beaded designs are either complicated and boring or modern and ugly. From what I read about from reviews on “Earrings Earrings Earrings” by Barb Switzer, there is only positive feedback.

I’ve been looking for a good book on how to make beaded earrings with simple techniques, so now I’m so happy I’ve found it!

Making earrings can be so much fun, but it can also be a bit frustrating. If I have made a beaded necklace and want to make a pair of matching earrings, sometimes I’m out of ideas.

Then it is simple to think like this: Oh I can string this signature bead from the necklace on this head pin…and be done with it”. But how creative is that?

Inspiration for Beaded Earrings

It could be perfect in some cases where you have a really cool bead but having great earring making inspiration is what you really need! Those are the examples where you can see different ways how to make beaded designs for your earrings! The “Earrings, Earrings, Earrings” book will help you to be creative in your earring making.

Speaking of inspiration. I’ve found so many good ideas by studying earring designs wherever I can. Sometimes in books, magazines, shop windows or right on the persons wearing the earrings But be careful not to stare at people if you check out their jewelry!

Make Earrings with Wig-Jig & Thing-a-ma-jig

Make Earrings with Thing-A-Ma-Jig or WigJig

Another good place to find earring inspiration is WigJigs gallery of earrings, you can find it here. To make the designs you find there you need a Thing-A-Ma-Jig or WigJig tool.

I have used the Thing-A-Ma-Jig tool a lot in my earring making and here my review.

With the help of those tools you can wrap and bend wire to make the most beautiful earring chandeliers and components.

Many designs you can see out on the street is very inspiring! But some are just crazy and reminds me of the Super Mario mushroom pattern from the other day.

Now, bring forth your beads and enjoy your beaded earring making!

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Indian Feather Earrings

Zarah — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:51:32 +0000

I was so incredibly impressed by some old photos I saw of indians wearing so much beautiful feather jewelry. Couldn’t resist making a pair of feather earrings! There are lots of feathers to choose from and playing with colored feathers is fun too. My feather earrings are layered with brown feathers in the bottom and then I added a more colorful patterned feather on top.

It just hit me how the design of a dreamcatcher could make great earrings or focal in a necklace… Hey find your space and get your earthy gemstones, beads, leather cords and feathers and let the inspiration do the rest!

Indian Jewelry is much more than feathers

Speaking of feather earrings, I found a sweet books about Indian jewelry making: “A Guide to Indian Jewelry of the Southwest.” There is so much inspiration to find from Indian jewelry. Lots of beautiful metal work, feathers and gemstones. The colors schemes are often earthy, which is very appealing.

It’s cool that indians used earrings, both men and women, I like that. The most part of what I know about indians is what I have read and seen on TV or movies. I bet you have some great ideas of your own. There must be many cool exhibitions to see about indians and their history, a great way to get ideas!

I once saw an indian exhibition, I think I was 7 or 8 years old. I was amazed, it was very interesting! We bought some postcards of old indians in black and white. They were so cool.. I wish I had them now, would like to use them to decorate something nice. Guess they’re at my parents house now or something.

Anyway here are my Indian Feather Earrings. Enjoy! I hope this gave you some new ideas for making some Indian jewelry!

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Cinnabar Beads from London

Zarah — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 18:18:32 +0000

When I visited London, I finally found my cinnabar beads! I’ve been looking for the right ones and here they were! Cinnabar beads means something special to me. They are the color grand slam in the world of “natural” beads. No wonder the mineral cinnabar really is poisonous! Apparently cinnabar has always been the worlds number one supplier of mercury during the centuries.

Ancient Cinnabar Beads

The most common use of cinnabar is in Chinese carved lacquer work. This technique originated from the Song Dynasty. The danger of mercury poisoning was reduced in ancient lacquerware by entraining the powdered pigment in lacquer, but if the pieces were accidentally destroyed the poison was released.

Nowdays the toxic pigment is replaced by a resin-based polymer that approximates the appearance of pigmented lacquer, which is totally safe!

Make your own Cinnabar beads with "Faux Surfaces in Polymer Clay"

Make Faux Cinnabar Beads

You can also make you own cinnabar beads and pendants with mixing the right colors of polymer clay. This is so fun!

I found a great cinnabar recipe on page 81 in Faux Surfaces In Polymer Clay. It truly looks like any cinnabar bead you bought in a shop. Anyway this book has some incredible polymer clay recipes for faux stones and other surfaces.

With the cinnabar beads I bought I will make some kind of necklace, the idea is not finished yet but in the process to be…

I’ve seen some really sweet cinnabar and turquoise bead combinations… And what about cinnabar and lava beads, that’s gotta be something! I’ll think about it…

Meanwhile here are some more photos of my bead shopping in London!

Coffe break with pies is a must when bead shopping...

...and of course we need a little bit of hugs!

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

5 Minute Precious Metal Clay Silver Earrings

Zarah — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 13:32:25 +0000

I found this great video on how you can make a pair of silver earrings in only 5 minutes made from precious metal clay! It’s incredible, and the video tutorial has great quality too. When you follow this tutorial you will end up with a pair of great looking silver earrings.

Take this perfect opportunity to try out precious metal clay! If you have already have, check this out and learn that it doesn’t have to take hours to make precious metal clay silver earrings like these.

With the time it takes to dry the clay it might take a bit longer than 5 minutes, but still it is very fast.

Make a pair of silver precious metal clay earrings for your self or as a gift. Metal clay silver earrings like these can be used at any occasion you want, very versatile. The triangle shaped precious metal clay silver earrings above I made with the same simple technique used in the video tutorial.

Supplies for 5 Minute Precious Metal Clay Silver Earrings

Metal clay start kit
Kiln or Butane torch. If you work with low fire silver metal clays like precious metal clay 3 (PMC3) or Art Clay 650 you only need a butane torch to make pieces weighing less than 25 grams.
Texture sheets or clear stamps.
Basic tools like nail file, non-sticky working surface and acrylic rod.

Great book tutorials

Its’s amazing how many great silver earrings you can make with only texture sheets or clear stamps and your precious silver metal clay. There are more stunning silver earring and jewelry projects in these books. Doing metal clay jewelry is the best thing I ever did, it’s so fun!

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

How To Make Macrame Bracelets!

Zarah — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 20:51:48 +0000

It’s time to make macrame bracelets, and I’ve just finished the first one. Wow that was so fun! Macramé bracelets are such great accessories, if you make a few you can combine them together with different looks. Making macramé bracelets is pretty simple and there are many kind of knots to chose from. But if you begin with the basic macramé knots and then move on to the more difficult ones, you will do just fine.

When you make a macramé bracelet like the one I just made, you usually need beads with bigger holes in them when the cord is thick… So how does that work simply? First of all you need macrame thread or cord according to the size of holes in the beads you want to use for your bracelet.

Good examples of different cords you can use when making macramé bracelets are: hemp, cotton and rattail satin cord.

Chinese Porcelain Animal Beads used in my bracelet

Supples for Making Macrame Bracelets

There are so many different beads you can use to make macrame bracelets! Here are just a few examples:

For my bracelet I have used green rattail satin cord, chinese porcelain beads and a big eye needle to get the cord through some of the smaller holes in the beads. I also used a wooden macramé tool, but a macramé project board works just as well when you make macramé bracelets and necklaces.

Something which is good to remember is that you should chose beads matching your macrame cord. So if you have small beads it’s best to use a thin thread, and for big beads thick cord. This gives balance to your macramé bracelets.

How to make macrame bracelets?

The easiest way is to get a book, you can see exactly how to knot and see inspirational designs. I found two great books on how to make macramé bracelets and jewelry. The first one is Decorative Knot Craft: Over 20 Innovative Knotting And Macrame Accessories. This book has all you need to know about how to make beautiful chinese knotted macrame jewelry!

Then there is this one: Micro-Macrame: 30 Beaded Designs for Jewelry Using Crystals and Cords. Which is full of pretty and cool projects with beads and crystals. It has so many well made designs.

Here is a picture of my working space with the wooden macramé tool, a bracelet is in the making! I’m at the beginning of making the macramé bracelet, as you can see…

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Amber Beads Jewelry

Zarah — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 13:55:27 +0000

In this Amber Beads Jewelry I have combined rich amber bicone beads with black disk beads. To add bit of glamour and that little extra I’ve used a few golden stardust beads to it. The pendant is made with molded black polymer clay, and the impression on top of it is made with clear stamps. (The best stamps in the whole world!) The polymer clay pendant is simple to make, and it could be a wonderfully quick make for when you’re in a hurry creating a beaded jewelry as a gift or something.

I read somewhere that yellow is the color of this year, and you know what? I don’t mind, I don’t mind at all… I love yellow! One of my favorite color combinations are yellow and violet, you can make one of the most amazing jewelry pieces with beads in those color combinations. Yellow or amber works wonderfully with black.

The rich yellows like amber I find the most versatile, and it’s usually the best nuance for both the violet and the black color combinations. Otherwise some yellow nuances will look very “bee” like together with black. And who wants to walk around like a bee?

For me amber is a confident color with style and wits. Something that looks real tasty is yellow amber beads together with medium dark grey beads or silver chains. I have to make something with those colors!

Ginnifer Goodwin Amber beads Jewelry

Looking for inspiration I found this cute bead jewelry on celebrity Ginnifer-Goodwin. It’s made of big fabulous beaded amber flowers. It looks fantastic on her, and the dress is perfect for it!

I’m telling you, big jewelry looks great with the right outfit! We’re also just right on time now making amber beads jewelry, since autumn is here soon. I will make my autumn jewelry just in time to be ready to wear them when the trees turn yellow and orange.

Also, I was thinking about what is the best way to wear my long or medium long amber necklace in the autumn? But then it hit me, of course! Se: It’s getting colder so you might want to wear your scarf around your neck, but with one end of the scarf hanging down on your back your necklace will be perfectly visible beneath it anyway!

Make beaded flowers with "The Beaded Garden"

Found this superb book on how to make our own beaded flowers: The Beaded Garden: Creating Flowers with Beads and Thread by Diane Fitzgerald. With this one you can create the most amazing flowers only with a needle, thread and seed beads. That’s impressive!

Down here are some more photos of my Amber Beads Necklace, enjoy!

Amber Beads Necklace with golden beads

Amber beads jewelry necklace

The black polymer clay pendant

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

How To Make Polymer Clay Beads, Book Review

Zarah — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 11:11:32 +0000

This is such a lovely book, I’m always excited when I read it because the projects are so inspiring and useful. You can make beautiful jewelry with the ideas from this book! Me, I love to make colorful beads to match new outfits like dresses or tops.

It’s very inspiring to make your own custom made beads. The beads and pendants in “How To Make Polymer Clay Beads” are suitable for both both special occasions like parties as well as for every day clothing.

The chapter on how to make simulated gemstone beads is very good. You learn how to make faux gemstones like jade, amber and turquoise.

The projects are less complicated compared to some other polymer clay books, but you can make the most adorable beads in no time with these techniques. This will give you the time and opportunity you need to create all the polymer clay beads you want!

Polymer clay pendant simulating a gemstone

In this book you will learn all this:

Simulating Stone effect
Mokume’ Gane’ Technique
Image Transfer Technique
Faux Cloisonne Technique
Sculpting Beads
Millefiori Caning
Skinner blend

Faux gemstone project from the book

When I began making beads the “How To Make Polymer Clay Beads” book helped me a lot to make my first skinner blend That was so fun, couldn’t believe I actually did it, and I definitely recommend to get a pasta machine if you do polymer clay. Without a pasta machine, just mixing the clay is a struggle, also when you do skinner blends, a pasta machine is always required.

To design your own polymer clay beads is a true pleasure in life!

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Oprah’s Jewelry: Beaded African Bracelets

Zarah — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:31:17 +0000

Oprah’s wonderful jewelry, the african bracelets, took me by surprise because they’re such good beadwork! They are a bit pricey, but if you have the money I strongly encourage you to buy them since they are made by women in Rwanda so the money supports a good cause. What was my first Beader reaction? The urge of finding out how I can make bracelets just like these myself!

Oprah’s jewelry bracelets are sewn with metallic delicas and round seed beads. You can see what they look like here. I did some research and I found two perfect beading books for this! They are both very helpful when you want to create Oprah’s jewelry.

Supplies to get started making Oprah’s Jewelry: Beaded African Bracelets

Books for Oprah’s Jewelry: Beaded African Bracelets

First one is Zulu African Jewelry, it has some really cool ideas for projects and the colors are fantastic! I also got my hands on the perfect seed bead mix for the projects in this Zulu Beadwork book. Theme books are so uplifting, you always get new inspiration and ideas for your jewelry making.

Another great book is Mastering Beadwork: A Comprehensive Guide to Off-loom Techniques. In this one you get all the basic stitching techniques, it’s perfect if you want to begin sewing bracelets or necklaces! The book covers pretty much everything you need to know about beadwork.

When it comes to the individual projects in the book, they’re very good. You will be able to make stylish jewelry you really want to wear and the color ideas are marvelous for practically any clothes.

I have to say that I’m loving Oprah’s african style jewelry more and more, they’re down to earth but yet so cool! The simplicity of the designs they makes them great gifts too

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Pantone color chart in Jewelry making

Zarah — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 19:33:44 +0000

To work well with colors when your making jewelry is essential, but not always easy. Luckily there are many tools out there which are very helpful. One brilliant idea is to use a pantone color chart! Also it’s a very fun way to do it. By getting a Pantone color chart and a book you get giant leaps closer to becoming the accomplished jewelry designer you want to be.

About Pantone colors

The Pantone Color charts has numbered colors, originally devised to help printers and designers specify and control colors for print projects. It is also widely used in the making of fabrics and clothes in the fashion industry.

How to use the Pantone color charts in Jewelry designing

Seek colors in your Pantone chart to see how they work together.
Let your customers chose their own colors from the Pantone charts.
Always have color suggestions on hand by the chart and save time.
Find new inspiring colors you haven’t used before.

Communication through Pantone color chart

Pantone color chart books

There are many great books on how to use and understand colors. To pay attention to what sort feelings a specific color gives can push you further in becoming a good designer. The more you learn about communicating with colors the more powerful your jewelry till become. That’s why Pantone Guide to Communicating with Color is one of my favorite books. It will change the way you see colors every day!

Take advantage of your new knowledge by using your Pantone color chart whenever you’re looking for inspiration, trying out a new technique or making a jewelry for a friend. Who doesn’t want to receive a secret color message from someone dear!

I’m so looking forward to using the Pantone technique in all my new jewelry designs.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.