Beading Blogs and Sites for Tips and Inspiration

If you're an experienced or semi-experienced beader, you're probably aware that there are a lot of great beading blogs and sites out there, and you've likely garnered new ideas and inspiration for some of your own beading projects. For those of you just getting started with beading (or you may have missed some of these), here's just a few of some of the great beading blogs / sites that we've discovered:

Art Bead Scene - A collaborative effort by a small group of passionate beaders, this blog focuses largely on art beads. From "Designer of the Week" features to "Studio Saturday" (peeks into the blog contributors' studios, creative process and inspirations); bead show reports to book reviews; new materials to the "Monthly Challenge" beading contest (with nice prizes)... Art Bead Scene is a smorgasbord of beading techniques, materials and inspiration for beaders and jewelry artists.

Beading-Arts.com - Cyndi Lavin's blog features beading / jewelry artist profiles (showcasing a very diverse array of creative approaches) and inspiring techniques and materials, as well as book reviews, weekly prize giveaways for readers, and more. A great place to get new ideas for your next beading project.

Beading Daily - Sort of a Grand Central Station for beaders, Beading Daily is published by Interweave, one of the leading crafts publishers (and publisher of Beadwork Magazine). For whatever sort of beading technique or project you're interested in, you'll likely find useful information here. Browse Beading Daily's blog posts by leading beading artists including Kristal Wick, Jean Campbell and Leslie Rogalski, or check out the beaders forums to participate in discussions. Download free, detailed beading projects from the Projects area, as well as free e-books. Check out the contests, giveaways and challenges, and enter your own beading creation. Browse the photo galleries or create your own and upload images of your own creations. Much more to see and learn here!

Inspirational Beading - Lots of ideas for design, materials and techniques to be found on this blog. Check it out!

Margie Deeb's Color for Bead Artists - Margie Deeb, author of The Beader's Guide to Color and The Beader's Color Palette, is widely known as a color expert, and in particular as an expert on the application of color theory and color palettes to beading arts. Margie covers a lot of ground on the subject with her blog. Regardless of how much you think you know about color, you'll likely come away with many useful new tips and insights for your own beading projects. (See also Margie's main web site for lots more information, classes and events, podcasts, an archive of "Margie's Muse" columns on color, and much more.)

Objects and Elements - With a focus on mixed media and "urban chic," Susan Lenart Kazmer and Linda Larsen's blog is a treasure trove of ideas and inspiration for jewelry projects. Currently, the blog is running a daily Reader Challenge using Susan's Industrial Chic^TM line, and also posts regular Guest Artist features and creations by the Objects and Elements Design Team members.

Something Sublime - Deryn Mentock is a jewelry designer who loves to use vintage, unusual and found objects in her creations, and her blog features a fascinating array of ideas for using such materials in beading / jewelry projects. Deryn is also a design team member for Susan Lenart Kazmer's Objects and Elements (see above), and conducts classes regularly around the country.

Treasures Found - Jewelry designer Erin Prais-Hintz's blog draws on many sources for creative inspiration for beading projects; designs found in other media, color palettes, found and vintage objects, fellow jewelry artists, and more. Also features a monthly design challenge; each month, a different theme.

That's just scratching the surface of great blogs and sites about beading. You can discover more yourself; just Google "beading" or "art beads" or "beading arts" etc, or click the fellow beaders' links listed on these blogs.

Happy beading!