Dishfunctional Designs: BoHo Chic Jewelry book

Showing posts with label BoHo Chic Jewelry book. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 22, 2022

Make Upcycled Jewelry! A Peek At Select Projects From Boho Chic Jewelry

Upcycled jewelry is the best!

What makes it even better? Using items that have personal or sentimental meaning to you.

In this new video I'm sharing a few select projects from my first jewelry making book, Boho Chic Jewelry, with a focus on upcycled flatware and tableware - you guessed it, knives, spoons, forks, and all that good stuff!

It's great seeing cool photos in books, but it's also fun to see them "live" on video, and I'll share a little bit about each piece and talk about upcycling too.

Be sure to check out the video and as always, I will be back each Friday with a brand new video on YouTube for you, so be sure to check back--I have a really cool low temp soft soldered jewelry project coming up next and you don't want to miss that!

And while you're there don't forget to subscribe and don't forget to hit the little bell next to the subscribe button so that you can get notified whenever I release a new video!

See all of my jewelry making videos here

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Have a great week!
Laura

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Article copyright ©Laura Beth Love 2022 and may not be republished in print or other media without express written permission from the author. For any link updates or corrections leave correct info in comment area

Friday, December 14, 2018

Bohemian Czech Glass Button Pendant Necklace With Mermaid

"I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face, and a grey dawn breaking.

I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way, where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over."

- Sea Fever by John Masefield

"A vintage Bohemian Czech glass button is the centerpiece of this pendant. The button I used had an attached metal and wire shank on the reverse side. These shanks are removable with pliers, but they are embedded into the glass, so removing the shank risks breaking the button."

- Laura Beth Love, Boho Chic Jewelry: 25 Timeless Designs Using Soldering, Beading, Wire Wrapping and More, 2014 FW Media, KP Craft

I love everything about this necklace, the color, the mermaid, the fact that it's a Bohemian Czech glass button, the beads... Rainbow Moonstone, Turquoise and Lapiz Lazuli are three of my favorite gems... (learn how to make you own button pendant like this one in my book Boho Chic Jewelry, in project: Vintage Button Pendant, page 105, Boho Chic Jewelry Book)

Yes, this is a project from my book Boho Chic Jewelry! As a matter of fact, this very pendant is one of the ones shown in the step by step instructions in the book. Did you know that when you write a DIY book like mine, that you need many copies of each project in different stages of completion? Yup, lots! This is so that the step by step photography moves along quickly and does not take forever!

So when I come home from a book photo shoot, I have multiples of each item - and now I am finally getting around to finishing off those that I hadn't finished and listing them in my Etsy shop for sale!

This is a large sized button, so it really is a statement piece. It's a pretty teal or blue-green shade and it has some gold color accenting the mermaid.

I hand-chose each of the beads, and as I said above, they are Rainbow Moonstone, Turquoise, and Lapis Lazuli. I think they coordinate very nicely with this unique piece! The textured link chain is on the longer side and measures about 24" in length.

This piece is available in my shop

What do you think?

Have a great week!

Laura

My broken china jewelry is always available for purchase at https://www.etsy.com/shop/dishfunctionldesigns

Check out my new jewelry instruction books and DVDs

Article and images copyright ©Laura Beth Love for Dishfunctional Designs™ 2018 all rights reserved

Poem Sea Fever From SALT-WATER POEMS AND BALLADS, by John Masefield

Friday, May 18, 2018

Super Special Announcement: Jewelry From My Boho Chic Jewelry Book Now Available in My Etsy Shop!

Own an actual jewelry piece from my Boho Chic Jewelry book!

My jewelry inventory has really been piling up and so I decided to let go of a few very special pieces that I have been holding on to...

These are the original pieces that I created for my first book, Boho Chic Jewelry: 25 Timeless Designs Using Soldering, Beading, Wire Wrapping, and More!

Boho Chic Jewelry

As you can imagine, these pieces are super-special to me! But I want them to go to good homes so that others can enjoy them. Because I created them for my very first book, they have a lot of love in them, and were part of a really big adventure!

These are in very limited quantity - when you write a jewelry projects book you make two or three identical pieces of each project...this is because you are shooting the how-to photos of the project in different stages of completion.

For my photo shoot my publisher flew me from PA to Cincinnati OH, and along with me went all of the projects and my tools. Weeks after I returned home I receive the jewelry pieces back in the mail after they are sent to an out of house photography studio for the "beauty shots" which are the beautiful fab photos you see on the front and back cover and throughout the book.

To make a long story short, I want to make sure these special pieces go to loving homes rather than keep them in a box in my workshop, so I am slowly listing them a couple at a time in my Etsy shop!

The first three are listed today and they are the dinner knife bell necklace (featured on the back cover of Boho Chic Jewelry book!), the vintage rose chintz china birdhouse pendant project from page 39, and the Taurus necklace pendant seen on page 52!

It's like owning an actual piece of the book!

You can find them here in my Etsy shop, and stay tuned for more that I will be listing in the near future!

Thanks for visiting & have a great week!

Laura

My broken china jewelry is always available for purchase at https://www.etsy.com/shop/dishfunctionldesigns

Check out my new jewelry instruction books and DVDs

Friday, March 14, 2014

Writing A Craft Book: The Fascinating Rewards That Come From Sharing What You Know

In my last post I wrote about why I think it's so important to share your ideas.
I explained how for me, it's all about teaching other people and inspiring others to create.
When you pass on what you know, whether it's a skill or trade,
or just something you know a lot about, not only are you helping
others by teaching them, but you are giving them the ability to learn and do something new.
After all, good ideas are meant to be shared, and I think people should inspire other people.

Book process photo: Choosing coordinating components for a project

But I also discovered - unexpectedly - a fascinating reward throughout the whole process of
writing my craft book. What was this reward? I found that as you give away what you know,
out of nowhere, completely new ideas come to you, and you discover brand new things.
The reward was, in giving, you open yourself up, and you open up your mind, to new and
different ideas. It's almost like a blossoming.

Book process photo: Choosing plate patterns for projects

As I created the projects for my book, BoHo Chic Jewelry, not only was I designing and
making the projects with my hands, I was also writing out all of the step-by-step
instructions, and at the same time writing down little notes here and there about what my
inspirations were for each project, snapping photos of each step so that the photographer
would have a reference point for what photos were important to take during the actual
photo shoot, etc. That was the work. So I began with project number one and worked my
way through; thinking, making, writing, and taking photos. Sometimes re-thinking,
re-making, and re-writing, and re-taking photos! But I was working my way through.

Book process photo: Choosing flatware patterns for projects

And then, while I worked, a wonderful thing started to happen. New ideas came.
First as a trickle. Then as a flood.

And let me clarify: these new ideas had nothing to do with the wonderful projects I had
already designed and created for BoHo Chic Jewelry. These were new, unassociated,
completely different ideas. And they wouldn't stop coming. So every so often when I would
take a break from working, I would jot the new ideas down, and set them aside.
As I gave away, I received.

I'm not sure how or why this happened. Where did these new ideas come from? And why
did they keep popping into my head when I was working on something else? I honestly
can't answer that. The closest thing I have to any kind of explanation is that maybe that is
just the nature of giving. Maybe it is universal flow. I can't explain it, but I can say, with
all honesty, that this is what I was meant to do.

May 14, 2015....
...fast forward one year later and those new ideas have been collected and organized,
polished off and perfected, written down and submitted to my publisher, put into a
new book and offered to you, the reader, the jewelry maker, the artist. My second book,
Soldered Alchemy: 24 Jewelry Projects Using New Soft-Solder Techniques,
is fresh in from the printer and on its way to a bookstore near you! And that was
the gift that I received from giving my ideas away to write my first book, BoHo Chic Jewelry.
What a fascinating reward for giving away what I knew and sharing what I learned. The
moral of this blog post? If you discover or create something new and interesting, a new
technique or method, a new style or idea - share it. Don't keep it in. Once you give it
away, so much more will come to you.

What do you think?

Check out my new diy jewelry books on amazon!

Learn how to solder and make unique jewelry!

I hope you have a great week

Love, Laura

My broken china jewelry is always available for purchase at https://www.etsy.com/shop/dishfunctionldesigns

Check out my new jewelry instruction books and DVDs!

Learn how to solder and make unique jewelry!

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Writing A Craft Book: Why It's Important To Share Your Ideas

(Note: I originally wrote the following blog post on March 3, 2014...since publishing this
post, I have now published my second book, Soldered Alchemy):

A few days ago I got an advance shipment of my new book, Boho Chic Jewelry,
and I couldn't be more excited! Yay! It's finally here!

Hot off the press!

Writing the book was tremendous work, but so worth it. To be able to share ideas
and inspire other people to create is priceless. I know that many of you who follow
this blog are artists of one medium or another, so I think you can understand what I
mean when I say that you can't rush creativity. Working under writing deadlines
is hard work and can be very stressful, but the rewards of having a finished book in
your hands are greater than you'd think. It's all about sharing what you know
with others, so that they can learn and create too!

Back and front covers of BoHo Chic Jewelry book

When my publisher first approached me about writing the book, it was a lot to think
about. A couple of friends and relatives asked me things like, "Do you really want to
give away all of your secrets and techniques?" and, "You worked so hard to build
your business up to what it is today, why would you want to give all of that away to
strangers?" But I didn't have to think about it for very long at all.

First of all, writing a book is a huge opportunity, and most folks go about it by putting
together proposals and approaching publishers on their own. Because the publisher
approached me instead of vice versa, I actually felt completely honored that they thought
my work, designs, and ideas were good enough to warrant publication. I had been creating
my china jewelry for many years. But I also create other types of jewelry too!

Probably the one thing that ties all of my work together is that I use unusual
materials in most of my designs. I saw this (publishing a book) as not just an
opportunity to show others how to create jewelry from broken china, but to
show others how they can create jewelry from all types of other materials too. Writing
this book was a chance to help other people explore and use their own creativity!
What could be better than that?

Pendants made from an antique glass buttons by Laura Beth Love - DIY instructions can be found
in the book BoHo Chic Jewelry

For this book, I had to put together twenty five different projects...that isn't just a lot
of ideas, it's also a lot of different ways to give people to look at things creatively!
So most importantly, in writing this book, I had the opportunity to inspire others.
That was reason enough for me.

But little did I know of the rewards that would come once I started writing and putting
the projects together. They were greater than I ever could imagine.
(continued...)