The sun is out, the air is warming, and our gardens are blooming! Spring is a wonderful time of year and feels like a fresh start after a long, dark winter. This season of renewal is a great time to refresh not only our minds but our jewelry designs as well. If you are looking for inspiration, you need not look any further then outside your front door. It's mid-April and beauty abounds in every direction!  Flowers and gardens offer fantastic design inspiration. You can create floral designs using flower beads, add butterflies to your designs (see last week's blog post) or build entir ..read more

The butterflies are visiting my garden more and more these days. As a little girl they seemed somehow magical and I must admit that as an adult they still do. It's something about how they float around and gently touch down with grace and beauty. They are so fragile yet so strong.  As a design element, butterflies can bring some magic and whimsy to your creations. You can choose to allude to butterflies by incorporating dagger beads with an etched wing design or wing beads. These are more of a subtle nod to butterflies. You can also layer butterfly charms together in a single design ..read more

It's already April! How did that happen? 2024 is whizzing by and the major milestones of the year are coming and going just as quickly. We have already had New Year's, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, and Easter! Next up is Mother's Day. This year Mother's Day falls on May 12th which gives us about 6 weeks to come up with a gift for mom.  Every family is different but in my family, we try to do homemade gifts as much as possible or gifts that encourage an activity. I think it is all about personalization and making memories. Life is very noisy these days and gifting and receiving ..read more

March's birthstone is the lovely and transcendent aquamarine. This beautiful blue hue is distinctive in its light blue vibrance, sometimes possessing a touch of green. Like many other gemstones, aquamarine is thought to have metaphysical properties. It is said to promote happiness, hope, clarity, and courage among other things. It is also said to represent the sea and the sky, and in ancient times, it was said to protect sailors at sea. For more details about the meanings and metaphysical properties of gemstones, please check out our guide to gemstone meanings. Discover other birthstone g ..read more

We use earring hooks all the time! They are one of the main staples to jewelry making. What's nice about earring hooks, is that you have so many different choices and can really make the earring hook disappear into the design or become the focal of the design. With almost 300 in-stock earring hook styles to choose from, there is really the right hook for every project. Below are our personal 10 favorite earring hooks!  Earring Findings, Long Earring Hooks 25mm, Gold Plated Earring Findings, Ear Wire 21mm Long 20 Gauge Thick Sterling Silver Earring Posts, Stud with Ball 4mm, Gold Plate ..read more

Memory wire is one of those jewelry making techniques that is just plain fun! You don't need to think about tension or perfect how to crimp a crimp bead. You don't need to figure out a clasp to match your design or think about sizing. With memory wire projects, the main focus is on stringing the beads onto the wire and coming up with delightful bead patterns. Even if it's a random bead pattern, it's still so much fun to see it take form. To finish your memory wire, you can just make a simple loop with round nose pliers or glue on an end cap. The focus of memory wire projects really are the bea ..read more

How is it already March? I must admit that my mind somehow still thinks it's late January and there is no way it can already be March with St. Patrick's Day, spring, and Easter just around the corner! Time is definitely zooming by!  This year has been fun as I have had a beading partner in Deb Floros, and she has been designing great projects and videos for Beadaholique. Our video catalog continues to grow and it's always interesting to see which projects, techniques, and videos really resonate with our beading community.  Here are the top 5 most popular videos made in 2024 so far! T ..read more

Side-drilled beads are unlike "regular beads" in that their hole for stringing goes across the bead (usually the top of the bead or front to back) versus going from top to bottom. These types of beads are great for creating drops and charms. As you are shopping for them, you will also notice that sometimes they are referred to as beads and sometimes as pendants. PRESTIGE Crystal Components makes a wide variety of side-drilled pendant beads, and these add a wonderful touch of sparkle. Leaf and heart beads are other common types of side-drilled beads as are Czech glass dagger beads.&nb ..read more

Happy birthday to all those February birthday gals and guys! I too have a February birthday and have always loved my birthstone, amethyst. Amethyst gemstones are so pretty to look at and can range from a light purple to a deep rich purple color. According to our Gemstone Meanings and Metaphysical Properties Guide, amethyst gemstone properties include calmness, clarity, peace and courage.  The amethyst color itself is such a lovely hue and pairs well with both silver and gold findings. It can be accented by greens, browns, blues, and many other colors. It's hard to go wrong ..read more

Have you ever felt like designing a new piece of jewelry but didn't know where to start? I think there are times when all of us are looking for that burst of inspiration to get our next project going. Have you ever considered looking at a bead mix and then designing around it? This is a trick that many designers do—they find the beads they want to use and then they come up with the design. Bead mixes go one step further in that they are usually curated so they all coordinate well and their colors all complement each other. This is also great for those new to beading because it takes some of th ..read more