SLEEPLESS BEADER.COM New Shop!

EVOLUTION for Sleepless Beader! I've been working hard to grow the kit and tutorial sales part of what I do. This gives everyone out there a chance to make my designs and reveals which designs are ready to become workshops and classes with me at the helm, too. I have teamed up for this facet of my beady path with one of my sisters who is a whiz at the biz end of things. Her skills have enabled me to focus on what I do best, design and of course social networking! She's got the tech savvy to take over financials (taxes, tracking and ordering inventory, kitting and shipping, costing) and web based stuff such as our new site, and she even knows how to do some seed beading! With her help, the brand new sleeplessbeader.com commerce-enabled site will launch soon!

Along with the shopping cart part we'll have a newsletter sign up, calendar of events, special offers, a gallery, fun and games! Look for Sleepless Beader at the upcoming Bead Fest on August 17-19th at the Oaks Expo Center–Artisan Table 445. Kits and tutorials at the show will include popular favorites and new designs I have finally gotten around to writing and illustrating. Good thing I'm sleepless!

Playing with Beadalon Rubber Tube

For my Oct 6th appearance on Jewelry Television, Beadalon asked me to design using their 1.7mm rubber tubing, in both black and frost colors. Slender as a flower stem but very durable, the tubing is hollow which means WooHoo! You can thread through it with beading wire or Artistic Wire (less than 20g) and it cuts like buttah with a scissors, snips or craft knife. Was I a happy camper! (Y'all know I love the look of rubber in jewelry designs!)

Since lots of people ask about how ideas come about for my finished work, I'm sharing some of the constructions I played using the tubing. 

My first idea was to cut black and frost tubes into pieces and string them with 4mm round Swarovski Siam crystals, for one of my fave combos of  red and black and white. I curled .015 beading wire (same way you do with curling ribbon) to give the strands movement and more body. This necklace is unfinished. I think it will succeed if there are tons more strands for a more substantial presence, and, having (for the moment!) a limited supply of the tubing, I moved on to a new direction.

Having a pile of cut pieces of tube leftover, I took beading wire--not curled--and crisscrossed through the tubes and crystals in a traditional netting stitch. The only diff here between beadwork netting and this is that I strung the pieces of tubes instead of beads between the junction crystals. I'm not quite sure yet how to give this a polished finish as a piece of jewelry but it sure looks unique around a glass holiday ball or votive.

Here I strung doubled over lengths of the frost and the black tubing through a pendant bail, which I taped to a table on a wire. I strung one of the new Swarovski silver lined big holed beads intending eventually to do some sort of weaving with the tubes, as in those lanyards we all made as kids. (With gimp, remember?) I still need to work out that process.

Grabbing a handful of the tubing inspired me to work with it in bunches. I cut pieces into varied lengths, strung them with beading wire, and crimped more Siam crystal rounds on each wire end. I simply took Beadalon crimp beads (not tubes) and squashed them flat with a chain nose pliers. The crimp beads are small enough to be innocuous yet add a touch of silver.

Here's how I wired the crystal-tipped tubes together so I could hang them from a pendant bail. Totally easy!

More multiples of tubes, wired with beading wire and crimped onto a slide multi-strand clasp. I attached a pendant bail at the center of the tubes.

Here's the finished pendant, using stacked turquoise donuts and a whirl of tubing wired with Artistic Wire.

Using the frost color tubing seemed perfect with Beadalon's SP Quick Links and chain. I strung short lengths of the tube on eye pins with Swarovski Comet Argent Light 4mm bicones, and used simple wire wrapped loops to space the embellished eye pins along a lovely rolo chain. This necklace sparkles big time! So – the discovery I made in this play time with rubber tubing was that it can look dazzling and elegant, as well as industrially chic.
Do you think?

 

 

Should you sell jewelry you learn from a published project or in a class?

This is the real hot button topic, isn't it? I've been engaged in a very lively discussion with Cindy,  a new fellow beader. She's agreed to allow me to share our exchange thus far, and we'd both be interested to hear opinions and possible solutions to this and related issues.

Cindy was making things she learned from a book, being somewhat new and not ready to forge her own designs yet. During one convo she said she thought that she could sell her work as long as she mentioned the original artist.

I said: It is generally considered acceptable to make and sell pieces not your own design but only in limited quantities. For instance, at your own home show, local craft fair, to private clients, or giving as gifts. But I've had my own designs being re-created and sold on Etsy where I sell my own work--the same design, and for less money than I asked for my piece. I did not like it but the beader doing it took great umbrage when I asked her to stop selling it on Etsy. She felt that once a design has been published it is totally up for grabs. So it's an ethical question that continues to be a discussion. What do you think? You made the piece so you should be able to sell what you made, right?

Cindy said:  I totally understand how recreating someone else's work and selling it would be upsetting. I have very mixed feelings about it but of course at this time I haven't created something of my own to be copied so have a limited view and feeling on this matter at this time. It is confusing because you buy a book, magazine or etc. to learn how to create items but then not being able to sell them after you make it is disappointing. I guess the feeling might be if you don't want it copied then don't produce instructions on how to make it. It is a very complex situation that I'm not sure there is a clear answer to. When I become more adventurous and confident in my beading perhaps I will then be able to come up with my own creations but until then I need all the help I can get.

I said: You are among many jewelry-makers who don't make up their own designs but want to sell their efforts. I get it completely. It is a fine line--for all of us. Designers realize that people want to make our projects. It's why we teach and sell to magazines. That's how we earn a great part of our living. But we also sell our finished work. So when students (classroom or magazine followers) take our designs and mass produce them for sale, it takes away from our livelihood. It's the "making money from another person's design"  that's the bugaboo, and not one easily resolved. All magazines ask that readers be sensitive to the authors rights and not take advantage. OF COURSE people want to sell what they learn to make. But is it okay, or when is it okay?

If someone learns to make my original bracelet from a magazine, should they make and sell it over and over on Etsy?  Many artists don't publish tutorials for this very reason, and that's sad for students who could learn so much from those pros.

How about at their neighborhood craft shows? I say sure if it's not in my home town.
On their own web site? HM, maybe. So ask me. But don't you want to make your own originals?

On Etsy?  I say this overlaps my market, so I'm not gonna like it. Shouldn't I get a commission as if it was a licensed product? If you want to make and sell my designs, please contact me today! We'll make some sort of contract where I get a small percentage of your sales and you can make and sell as much of my work as you like.

And speaking of licensing... I have Disney jewelry I made for myself to wear when I go to Disney World. I DO NOT and WILL NOT EVER make them to sell or even to give as gifts! Even tho' the form of my jewelry and the use of materials is quite unique, it is not my mouse. So I walk the walk, beady peeps. (But anyone from Disney can contact me about officially designing for them. My designs are definitely Mouse Couture.)

If someone takes my class, can they now go and teach that project in classes of their own?
Only with my permission.

Should someone buy my tutorial once for $10 and then charge other people $25 to learn that project from them in their bead shop? That takes bread from my table, unless they buy my tutorial for each student and THEN tack on their fee as an instructor.

Who invented peyote stitch, anyway? I hear this a lot. It's "just" peyote  stitch. You didn't invent that. True, but chances are the published project in question is more than just peyote.

I think seed beading is different from other jewelry making. The materials are similar, while other jewelry designs can switch out types of beads, chain, or wire, and become much more original even if the same technique is used. It is not as easy to invent something new in a seed bead work. Perhaps this is why beaders appear much more proprietary.

What do you think?
Can't wait to hear what you all say.

Bead and Button Show 2011

Stuff I Had to Share From 

the Bead & Button Show 2011

Talk about an exciting portal! 

I am there before it opened to the public, 

which is why there's no public there yet.

Doing my demos for John Bead 

on Hat/Tiara/Hair Fascinator Day. 

I showed folks all about Miyuki tila beads.

Everyone is crazy about those 

cool two-holed beads. 

(And thanks for the vintage hat, Mom!)

Ezel Findings had the most fabulous magnetic clasps including this style with Swarovski crystals on gunmetal. YUMMY! 

Sun does exquisite beadwork to show off her findings, don't you agree?

 Lea Zinke's enamel rings

as modeled by Denise Peck.

Lea's lampwork was truly stunning, too.

(Denise is the editor in chief of 

Step by Step Wire Jewelry!)

Geri Warhaftig lampwork beads 

in the Bead Dreams showcases. LOVE!

AMAZING polymer from John Rose, 

a polymer bead winner in Bead Dreams. 

Black and neolithic, no wonder I like it!

A class in copper electroplating revealed alchemy magic as nature became immortalized in metal.

Suzanne Golden's HUGE spiral bangle.

Ginormous talent in a little lady!

 As a CREATE YOUR STYLE with Swarovski Elements Ambassador, I like to feature my sparkles in modern designs, such as my latest Dragon Cuff. Thanks to everyone who admired it at the show!

At the Vintaj booth, Jess and Betsy invited me and Denise Peck to play with a rolling mill style press to imprint metal blanks. 

Check out this little video of her demo. 

A must have, I must say!

I had time to soak my barking puppies in the hotel hot tub before heading back to the airport. AHHHHHH. And now--I can't wait until the Bead and Button Show 2012!

PS: Special thanks to John Bead who brought me to the show!

If you're a wholesale designer or store owner--go register at their site at www.johnbead.com.

Meet me at the Bead & Button Show 2011

Come see me at the
Bead & Button Show June 10 & 11th, 2011
JOHN BEAD booth #1028-1030
(c) 2011 Leslie Rogalski All Rights Reserved to designs and content on this site 
   

Friday June 10, 10:30am-12:30pm
Easy Bow Farfalle Bead Bangle Demo

Friday June 10, 3:00pm-5:00pm 

Miyuki Tila Bead RAW (Right Angle Weave) Cuff Demo 

Saturday June 11, 10:30am-12:30pm
Miyuki Tila Bead RAW (Right Angle Weave) Cuff Demo

Saturday June 11, 3:00pm-5:00pm
Miyuki Tila Bead Square Stitch with Herringbone Cuff Demo

See you there!

Totally tubular beaded beads

On my beading mat April 18th, 2011:
I'm making really super fast and easy peyote beaded beads by stitching small flat strips and zipping them together into tubes. I'm making a ton of them in about every shade of green Delica I have–and if you know me, you know I have a lot of green beads! I made tubes using some shiny hexes too.I am just tubing away, because I need to have as many components as I can in order to play when I make whatever it is I will make. Yesterday Mike and I drove to Baltimore (met friends, had Bertha's mussels) and I beaded in the car all the way there and all the way back!

Tip for car beading--work in larger sizes, it's easier to get your needle through larger bead holes if your needle is bumping around! I worked in size 8 hexes and size 10 Delicas. Hardly any finger stabbing at all. ;-)

I'll be combining the tubes with the Swarovski Dorado 2X crystal bicones #5328 into... something! Stay tuned!

Beads, Baubles, and Jewels tapes new series for 2011!

It may not sound exciting to say I go to Cleveland twice a year, but I go there to tape a TV show! Here I am on the set of the PBS series, Beads, Baubles, and Jewels with host Katie Hacker. We're excited to be working together, can you tell? Katie is the host with the most, and makes it SO much more fun than ever.

On the table are yummy new "sunflower" Swarovski crystal fancy stones, which I show used in a beaded netting bezel technique. (You have to wait for the series to air before that project is available, sorry!) You know, I'm not usually a big yellow fan but this sunflower color is just brilliant and fiery. A true dazzler!


Thanks to Beadalon, who sponsored my segments. I only use their WildFire beading thread for all my seed beading--all my beading, actually. Thanks to Swarovski for sending me samples of this fabulous new color, and to John Bead Company for the Miyuki Delicas I also used in this lesson.

I think this series will air about April. Stay tuned!

August 2010

I only have eyes for . . .the lampworked beads of Joanne Zekowski .

Jewelry show display

Using folding panels from MD displays, I hung my work for sale during a home party.  This is only about half my inventory!