February's featured jewelry designer is Jean Campbell. Read this wonderful interview with her and learn about all the possibilities out there for someone interested in creating a career in the beading world. You don't have to just try to sell your beaded jewelry, and that is just one of many lessons you will learn from this talented beader.

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Art Bead Scene
Gaea shares some of her current favorite beading and craft related tools.

Beading Arts
Interested in publishing this year? How about starting out with a magazine?

Beads and Books
Join the spring challenge and makeover a ready-made wintry bracelet into a piece of springtime jewelry!

Jean Campbell
What exactly does a beadwork tech-editor do? Read on!

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!
Everyday Gemstones from the publishers of BeadStyle magazine is beautiful, easy, and is a special Winter 2012 issue --and Jean thrilled to be in it!

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton
Want to help a small business out? It's so easy! With a few clicks you can help Allegory Gallery get some free advertising dollars!

Let us face it already - metal is just outrageously priced right now! This is especially true of gold and silver. I remember back in the day when I could order loads of sterling silver or gold-filled wire and not think twice about the price. The same was true for metal beads that I could use as spacer beads when doing bead stringing. When stringing up beaded bracelets...

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Remember back in the 70s when you could find all kinds of owl themed items? It seems owls are making a come back. This owl charm flew in from B'Sue Boutiques, and I have been mulling over a design for it for some time. He is made from brass and then has a rusty black finish. You can find out more about this metal finish in a video posted on the B'Sue Boutiques web site. As she suggests in the video, I took a polishing cloth and rubbed this charm to remove some of the black finish. I think I finally have figured out how I plan to use this guy, so stay tuned for an up-coming owl themed jewelry project.

Art Bead Scene
Heather offers a beautiful free project inspired from high in the treetops!

Beading Arts
Cyndi has been trying to encourage everyone to get out there and take a class this year!

Beads & Books
See the 30+ beautiful winter jewelry designs in the Secret Snowflake Challenge. Participants used techniques such as bead embroidery, resin, stringing, wirework, etching, and more!

Carmi's Art/Life World
Carmi has a link to a kumihimo give-a-way to share!

Charlene Sevier Jewelry
Sometimes jewelry acts up a little before it comes together. Charlene shares one of those times

Earthenwood Studio Chronicles
Melanie looks back at an older post where a favorite song inspired a series of wing themed pendants.

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!
Valentine's Day is one of the most delightful days on Jean's calendar! Why? Because she gets to think about love, and jewelry such as the astounding pendants at NanoStyle! Tell your beloved "I love you" in a most incredible way!

Cyndi Lavin's new bead embroidery e-booklet, Three Bezels Plus a Bonus, is available for downloading, and it only costs $1! In this new addition to her bead embroidery series of e-books, she includes 30 pages of instructions for three decorative bead embroidery bezels to stitch for 14mm Swarovski rivolis, plus step-by-step advice on how to bezel around an irregularly shaped cabochon. This booklet is aimed primarily at jewelry designers who are bead embroidery enthusiasts but who don't have a lot of experience in creating seed bead bezels. After covering the techniques, she includes a project tutorial that culminates in an amazing finished necklace.

Art Bead Scene
We giggle and chuckle along to the sexy bead humor of the new blog Beaded Laughter by Sylvie Lansdowne.

Beading Arts
Do you struggle to add Swarovski rivolis to your bead embroidery? Cyndi has the solution for you in her brand new e-booklet, "Three Bezels Plus a Bonus"!

Carmi's Art/Life World
Carmi declares 2012 as the Year of The Knot!

Earthenwood Studio Chronicles
Melanie goes into her blog archives to share two pretty bird necklace inspiration pieces.

Resin Crafts!
Carmi has a two part series featuring resin on agate!

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!
Margot Potter, Swarovski, the incredible low down on the most fab event at Tucson this year! You must check this out!!! WOW!

When I was obsessed with making fused glass jewelry, I particularly liked creating opal style cabochons. Of course, once I made them I had to figure out how to incorporate them into jewelry pieces, and that is when I realized I could use a similar wire wrapping technique I had used for gemstone cabs.

In this tutorial, Wire Wrapping Opal Glass Cab, I use common tools like round-nose pliers and some gold-filled wire (though you could also use brass wire considering how much gold-filled goes for these days) to create a pendant using the glass cab. You can either wear it solo on a chain or add it to a bead and wire necklace.