Great News from Jeff Banks, Jewel School’s Divisional Merchandising Manager
Dear Jewel School Customers:
DRUM ROLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!
- Who is ready for the 3rd Annual Jewel School Customer Appreciation Workshop? It is officially on the calendar for September 19, 20, and 21! Three big days oozing with creativity. This workshop is the highlight of our Jewel School year. We love hosting the Jewel Schoolers at our home here in Knoxville, Tennessee. There’s an all-star cast of designer-instructors coming to the classroom this year and we’re adding some new instructors and new formats. The really big news is we will have more space and more seats. Jewel School now has a classroom building!!!
Electronic registration open before June 1, 2012; you will register electronically for your classes and be able to print your schedule at home and bring it with you. Now isn’t that very good news? Keep reading the blogs and watching Jewel School and checking in with our Facebook page. We will tell you when registration opens. As always, we do not charge our customers for the workshop classes.
- Who is ready for the 2nd annual Jewel School Design contest? Start getting your designs, photos and details ready. Details will be coming soon!
- Who is ready for latest new Dale Cougar Armstrong DVD’s? Coming soon in April, stay tuned for more information!
- Who is ready for Lampwork Art on Jewel School? Or, better yet, who is ready to come to Knoxville and learn from one of our local master artists? We cannot wait to bring as many of you as possible to Knoxville to participate in classes at our new 6500 square foot teaching facility! Our official Open house is June 21, 22 and 23! FIVE great artists focused on metal crafting and lampwork art!
- Who is ready for a new day of Jewel School! We are thrilled to announce our new hours beginning April 25th. 10 a.m. to noon each Wednesday EDT. We are putting together new products and artists to make this additional time each week very informative, special and fun!
- Who is ready to see and have available some of the most beautiful new “GEMMY” bead strands and amazing new focal parcels? We are so excited to be finalizing new relationships to bring your our first ever “Bead market” truck event. We are bringing a truckload of “WOW” materials straight into our studios with everything priced for sell-out. Watch for the dates!!!
- Oh, yeah! (One more) – Who is ready to start faceting your own rough? Very awesome new guest – in the works!
Happy Spring Everyone! We appreciate your business and we value your friendship.
- Jeff
The Insider’s Report with Jewel School Buyer Julie Evans
April is showering us with many fabulous guest designers!!!
Celebrating April Fools’ Day with Jewel School is Katie Hacker, host of Beads, Baubles and Jewels on PBS. Katie is here Sunday and Monday April 1st and 2nd to share her new pendant kit as well as a new memory wire kit with end caps and cutter!!!
Margot Potter is returning to Jewel School on Thursday April 5th with a great new chain kit and bunches of inspiration for adding dazzle using components!!
Wyatt White and Lauren Andersen, a dynamic duo of creative energy, will wow us on Sunday and Monday April 8th and 9th. Lauren debuts her exciting new chain maille ring kit, tool kit and more. Wyatt, the Beadalon Education Director, will turn on his classroom charm and share some of the highlights from his repertoire of jewelry making skills.
On Thursday April 12, Cougar’s going to wire us up! A Jewel School favorite, Dale Cougar Armstrong will channel the wire artist that lives inside all of us !!! She’s debuting her new slim line tool series, a classic look wire kit, and her bail making kit!!!
Sunday and Monday Aril 15th and 16th meet Sandra Younger, inventor of a wonderful new cord knotting and design tool. The Knotty Do It All will wow you with how it simplifies knotting and shows you how you don’t need end caps to finish your designs!!!
Sunday and Monday April 22nd and 23rd, we are bringing back two fan favorite artists. Patti Bullard, inventor of Wubbers tools and Fernando DaSilva, Beadalon Design Team Member. Patti will have some of your favorite Wubbers featuring new tips as well as new jewelry making kits! Fernando is kicking off spring with beautifully fun new colors of wire mesh and more!!
Sunday and Monday April 29th and 30th Anne Dilker is kicking things off with an all new Kumihimo, the art of Japanese braiding kits!!
How’s that for an all-star cast! Join us Sunday, Monday, and Thursday for Jewel School’s best.
Hope you are having a great spring break and enjoying the color and blooms of the season. In this issue, we’re including instructions for making a quick pair of hoop earrings. They are so easy to make and with the use of the beautiful Artistic wire, you can design one of a kind earrings for every outfit using your spare beads!
Finally, here’s a big thank you to everyone that helped us during the February Beads of Courage campaign. Jewel Schoolers contributed $8000 that will be used to buy beads for the necklaces of children with serious medical problems. That’s a real act of love!
-Julie
April Project - Quick Hoop Earrings by Christiane Ross
Supplies available at Jewel School on jtv.com!
- 1 pair hoop earrings - I’m using 2-1/2” diameter silver tone from this kit:
- JLWKIT2864- smooth hoops or JLWKIT2865- fancy pattern
- Artistic wire 24-26g – 2x50” lengths
- Small round beads-I’m using 6mm smooth opalite so I need 42 beads - 21 beads per earring
- 1 pair chain nose pliers and 1 pair flush cutters
Cut apx. 50” of artistic wire off the spool. If you want to conserve your wire, you can wait to cut it and work off the spool but you will need to string on all of your beads at once. I prefer to add beads as I go and not worry about keeping track of an attached spool so I cut my wire first.
I start my wraps on the side of the hoops with the hinged back. I want my wraps to cover the hinge. Pinch about ½” of the wire against the open hinge back with your thumb and first finger of your non dominant hand. This will hold your wire in place as you wrap. Wrap around your earring hoop enough times to cover where the hinge is attached and then three wraps more. Make sure the wraps are tight against your hoop earring. This was a total of 2 wraps before the hoop part started, 3 wraps on the joined part and then three wraps more. Go back and cut the extra off the end of your wire at the beginning and use your chain nose pliers to tuck the wire flat against the underside of the hoop. If you are worried the wire may come loose, use a tiny drop of glue to secure it.
You are ready to add your first bead. Make sure your weaving wire is pointed to the middle of your earrings. Leave a space in your wire that is half the diameter of your bead or the distance from the hole in your bead to the outer edge. Since I’m using 6mm beads, this is about 3mm for me. You can use your chain nose pliers to make a 90 degree bend here towards the unwrapped part of your hoop or you can slide your bead down and use the edge of the hole to make the bend while you turn the bead 90 degrees with your fingers. Bend the wire after the hole back towards the hoop then wrap around the hoop 5 times. Make sure you keep going in the same direction with your wraps around the hoops. You don’t want to change direction after your bead or that bead may come unwrapped. By making the space in your wire before your bead, you keep the bead holes both horizontal to the hoop base.
**Play with that spacing to see the different effects you can get.
**Also play with the number of wraps. More wraps will make the wire more prominent in your design.
Continue wrapping all the way around the hoop.
**You can create interesting designs by only covering part of the hoops. You can keep the beads only on the front, only on the back or just in the bottom middle!
When you get to the end of the hoop, wrap the wire around the earring to take up the rest of the space. Use the flush cutters to trim off the excess wire and touch the end against the hoop with your chain nose pliers. Add drop of glue to secure the end.
Repeat for the second earring.
Change your wire color, your hoop size and your bead choice for an almost endless variety of styles to complement every fashion.
- Christiane
