An Unexpected Find

A few weeks ago, I visited Tuesday Morning, a chain store that sells discontinued merchandise such as towels, cookware, and gardening tools.  The store was new and I'd gone in out of curiosity, not looking for anything in particular. I was surprised that they had a tiny section of craft supplies, mostly scrapbooking materials and a fair number of cheap plastic beads. Among the crafting rubble, I found the white box pictured here. It's made of a light wood and measures 9 1/4" (width) x 8" (height) x 5 1/2" (depth).  It's very lightweight.  Do you know what it's for?

The long sticks slide out and you can store spools of ribbon on them.  Or beading wire.  I was so happy to find this.  It made a huge difference in my organization.

Before I kept all my beading wire in a drawer.  Some of the wire had come off the spools.  Other things like those little plastic bags and jewelry boxes had worked their way in.  If I wasn't careful, sometimes I couldn't close this overflowing drawer.  Just looking at this photo makes me feel stressed out!

After I have all my FireLine and the colored wires on the top rung in the storage box.  The bottom is the beading wire I use frequently.  I had no idea I had this much stringing material, especially the FireLine.  (That's one of those things that I always seem to pick up at bead shows because I can never remember if I have any on hand.)  This new system makes it much easier to see when I'm running low on something.

I am excited that I freed up an entire drawer which I can now use for beads, including some new ones I picked up at Bead Fest Santa Fe.  (Photos coming later this week!) 

The best part:  it cost $5.  That's a pretty small price to pay for a little organization.

I see so many new products that it's hard to leave any sort of impression.  Occasionally, I'll see a product that makes my jaw drop.  It's usually something simple that solves an annoying problem.  This is one of those products.

The Old Way

You don't need a special tool to make cards for regular, French hook-style earrings.  You may remember that I made earring cards for my show last winter.  I punched the little holes by hand, using a 1/16" hole punch that I bought at a craft store for around $5.  Some of the holes weren't quite even, especially those I worked on the night before the show.  (I seriously underestimated the amount of time I needed to price everything.)

The New Way

The post earring punch tool would have saved me time, as I wouldn't have gone through that trial-and-error of figuring out where the punches should go and could have punched both holes at once.  But it was the lever-back earring punch tool that really caught my attention. I love the lever-back earring style.  Those are the earrings that have pieces of metal that fold up in the back, securing the earring and making it practically impossible to lose.  (See my All Abuzz earrings as an example of this earring style.)  It was agonizing trying to figure out where to punch holes on the card.  Plus, the way I did it (with two separate holes per earring) meant that the customer had to fuss with the earring to remove it from the card, rather than slipping it off easily. 

Business Cards = Earring Cards

In addition to the earring punches, the company makes pretty earring cards, mostly with nature-themed designs.  It's also easy to personalize the cards with your business name by using a stamp or label.  (Of course, you can also use these punches on your own business cards or paper.) I could see using some of the holiday ones next season.  These look much more "gift-y" than my normal earring cards. 

The Bottom Line

Currently, the punches are only sold together as a kit, along with a package of earring cards.  For the price ($58), I think these are most useful for designers who are selling their work at shows or galleries and need a professionally packaged look that's easy and fast.  If you occasionally make a pair of earrings for your friends, you'll likely get more use and enjoyment out of another jewelry-making tool (or more beads).

You can find more information about this product at Easy Earring Cards.  I'd recommend you look at the video from Bead Trends, which is linked on the website.  You'll see some clever uses for the hole punches, such as earring displays and packaging for single lampworked beads.

Required Legal Disclaimer

I won this earring card system from Bead Trends in a random drawing late last year.  I received no compensation for this review.  All thoughts expressed here are my own honest opinions.

Button Swap Update

Today's the last day to sign up!  I'll email everyone tomorrow and confirm that you're on the list.  If you don't hear from me by the 3rd, feel free to email me or post a comment and I'll make sure you're added.

I find "top 10" (or "top 5" or "top 20") lists irresistible.  Here are a few I've read recently:  5 Snowiest Places in the U.S., Top 10 YouTube Videos (can you say Justin Beiber?), Top 10 Strangest LEGO Creations, and Top 25 Best Books of 2010 (according to Amazon).

So it's no surprise that when I received "Top 20 Craft Tools" in the mail from Martha Stewart Living (along with a subscription offer for the magazine), I went through my craft collection to see how I did.

Here's what's on the list:

• white eraser
• decoupage glue (Mod Podge)*
• tacky glue*
• pinking shears
• specialty paints*
• double-sided tape*
• ink pads*
• tissue paper*
• spray mount
• permanent markers (Sharpies)*
• floral tape
• circle cutter
• wood glue
• hole punch*
• glitter*
• colored pencils*
• paint pens**
• rotary cutter
• sponge brush**
• paint brushes
  

Everything with a * next to it, I own (12 out of 20).  Sixty percent!  That's not even a passing grade.  But it gets worse—I cheated.  I'm proud that I didn't give myself credit for the pinking shears (although you may remember me writing about scissors in the past—I own at least a dozen other types of scissors).  But see those two items with ** next to them?  Technically, I do own them, but the paint pens are all dried up (I haven't used them for years) and the sponge brush is in tatters.  (Apparently if you load it down with paint and press really hard with your brush, the entire sponge part comes off and falls onto your shoe.)  So, yes, I do own those two items, but really, I shouldn't.  They should be tossed.  That gets me down to 10 out of 20.  Fifty percent! 

Crafty Tools for Jewelry Makers?

This list (besides making me feel like a totally inadequate crafter) made me realize that maybe I'm not as generally crafty as I thought.  Of course, I own a lot of tools not on this list: round-nose pliers, wire cutters, chain-nose pliers, metal hole-punch pliers, several types of hammers . . . but those I use exclusively for jewelry. Am I missing out on some great tools by not looking at ones created for other crafts?

While I'm not going to rush out and buy floral tape or spray mount, I was intrigued by the circle cutter. It looks like there's several different brands, including one by Fiskars and one by Martha Stewart.  I love using circles in projects (particularly with pendants and charms), but it's hard to cut circles out and make them perfectly round on your own.  I do own a circle punch, but it looks like the circle cutter can cut many different sizes, which means that I could own a single tool, rather than a whole bunch of individual circle-cutting tools.  It's always a plus when I can save studio space.  I did see some complaints about circle cutters being hard to use (plus, I'm not sure if they make circle cutters small enough for jewelry), so I'm going to watch the how-to videos before I decide to purchase one.  I don't want to spend money on a tool that doesn't work when I could spend that money on beads.

What's on your "must have" tool list?  How'd you do on this checklist?

I'm intrigued by Lisa's experiments with stamping on wood with metal stamps.  I've had great results with this technique—mostly.  Ever since I had a wooden bead crack on me, I've been  hesitant to try the technique again.

Lisa's post, however, has made me tempted to stamp the wooden oval on my Coffee Break Bracelet (inspired by Stephen King's On Writing).  I know better than to tempt fate and hammer near all those breakable glass beads.  What I'll do instead is stamp on another wooden bead and if I like the results, then I'll decide if I want to restring this bracelet or create something new.

Enjoy today's links!

A Bead A Day
Lisa's experimenting with alphabet stamps in wood. Please stop by to share your experiences with metal, wood or polymer clay stamping.

About.com Jewelry Making
What do you get when you combine yarn, crystals, and metal? A very cool double strand bracelet!

Beading Arts
Beaded objects don't always have to be wearable. How about some beaded postcards?

Beads & Books
If you make a mistake with a piece of jewelry, do you throw it out, start over, or try to fix it? Michelle shares a mistake she made trying to create a pendant using copper, ink, and a gloss sealant.

Carmi's Art/Life World
Carmi creates a special set of felted brooches for a Canadian company.

Cindy Gimbrone Beads
Cindy shares a surprise she received during the holidays.

Earthenwood Studio Chronicles
Ceramic pendants with cut-out holes receive a sparkly window treatment in this project using resin from Lima Studios

Katie's Beading Blog
A simple idea for keeping the inspiration flowing.

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!
Using lovely design elements from Artbeads, Jean creates an evocative pair of winter earrings which remind her of seasons long past...

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton
This week one lucky winner will take home a beaded brooch by Cenya AND score some Soft Flex flexible beading wire!

Ever heard the saying "measure twice, cut once"? It's a common handyman saying, warning that you better be sure about your measurements before you cut into your wood, metal, or other surface because you can't undo it. You'll be happy to know that I have developed a new saying for you: "cut first, ink last."

Lately I've been doing a lot of experimenting with metal, inks, and Glossy Accents.  (One of my recent successful experiments was the Winter at Home earrings.)  I love the look of the alcohol inks and am trying to figure out what options I have for protecting the surface.  I know I could use resin, but I was hoping for something that cured a little more quickly.

Ooops!

For this experiment, I used a copper base and painted layers of blue and green inks on top. Then I added several coat of Glossy Accents to coat and seal it. And that's when I realized I'd made a mistake.

Yes, there are a few bubbles and a tiny strip of the edge didn't get coated, but those are pretty minor errors.  The big mistake is that I was planning on turning this into a pendant, but I didn't punch a hole in the metal first.

That's the problem with these inks.  I love them so much and get so addicted to layering them that I forget about simple things like how is someone going to wear this on a necklace if there isn't a hole in it?

My Fix-It Attempt

I tried to punch a hole using metal hole punch pliers and on one side (the top photo) it looks pretty good. But look at the back (the second photo). Chunks of the sealant and ink broke right off, almost like bits of glass. This is exactly what I was afraid would happen.

Now What?

This is where I am now:  The ink won't all come off, so I'm trying to layer the inks and gloss again and see if I can cover the corner that's currently bare copper.  The good news is that it was a freeform ink pattern, so I don't have to worry about the design matching up. 

What Kind of Crafter Are You?

This week's little problem made me think about what kind of crafter I am.  Part of me is tempted to throw the piece away and start over.  But that little piece of pre-cut copper was expensive (about a dollar) and I hate wasting materials.  Even if I'll never be able to make a pendant out of this piece, I'm telling myself that maybe I can make something else (probably something that won't be worn or handled as much as jewelry).  Or I can continue doing more experiments on it—use it up, so to speak—so my next piece will turn out perfectly. 

What kind of crafter are you?  Would you throw the piece away, try to salvage it, or use it up?