Making "Beautiful Jewelry"

Posted Fri, Dec 2 2011 8:00 AM by Stacy Werkheiser

Our newest special issue, Beautiful Jewelry -- Make It, Wear It, hit newsstands just before Thanksgiving. With all the hustle and bustle of Black Friday, Shop Small Saturday, Cyber Monday, and now the first days of December (!), this gem of a magazine can hardly compete with the fanfare of the holidays. But here's the thing: Beautiful Jewelry is very near to my heart, and I'd like to silence the jingle bells for just a moment to tell you why.

1. Can you say "unprecedented"? Beautiful Jewelry was created by three staffs: that of Bead&Button, BeadStyle, and Art Jewelry. We all occupy the same wing of the building here at Kalmbach Publishing, we all partake of the same potlucks and occasional box of donuts, but rarely do we all work together. I take that back: We NEVER all work together. Then came Beautiful Jewelry. For this special issue, we were asked to combine our unique perspectives on jewelry to create a publication that would appeal to today's jewelry maker -- someone who started from one media (stringing, stitching, maybe some metalwork) and began latching onto more and more media (metal clay, chain, wirework, and anything new and exciting). Thus, Beautiful Jewelry brings together easy to intermediate projects in all these techniques, each one tested and approved by editors from three different backgrounds. You've never seen this from us before, and it's pretty exciting.
2. We're talking wearable: I know this is a silly question, but I'll ask it anyway: Have you ever looked at a piece of jewelry and thought, "Well, it's cool, but it's not wearable"? Like I said, silly question. Our goal with Beautiful Jewelry was to amp up the wearability factor. We looked at magazines. We talked trends. I even test-drove my "Designer doppelganger" necklace (p. 42) for a TV interview about the Bead&Button Show last June. The point was to make jewelry that was wearable, the kind of designs that you would pick out for yourself at a store or art show. We know money is precious right now, so why spend it on jewelry you won't wear? Again, silly question.
3. Forget YouTube: The secret's out -- we know you don't just go to YouTube for cute videos of baby otters and funny wedding processionals. YouTube and other video sources are the place to go to see how a technique is done, and that's true of just about any craft right now. (I myself learned to hem pants from YouTube not long ago.) So we took the cue and included a DVD in Beautiful Jewelry that shows you how to do many of the techniques used in the magazine projects. I think my favorite is Theresa D. Abelew's video on using resin. You couldn't coax me to mess with that stuff without showing me Theresa's calm and surprisingly tidy approach.
4. 'Tis a gift to be simple: We put a special (by which I mean exhausting) rush on the production of Beautiful Jewelry to get it out in time for the holidays. We thought it would be a no-brainer gift idea, especially with the DVD inclusion. Of course, you could make and give any of the projects in the magazine too, but I'll let you decide if you want to be a Santa or an elf.

So there, I've said my piece. Beautiful Jewelry -- Make It, Wear It was a monumental undertaking, and I wouldn't be writing this blog if I didn't believe it was a total success. If you want to learn more about the magazine or how to order, click here to get the scoop not to mention a free online project using some of the hot products you'll find reviewed in Beautiful Jewelry.

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