| Back to Back Issues Page |
 |
|
Bead At Home #002, March Welcomes Spring March 01, 2015 |
March from Winter to SpringIt was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade. Charles Dickens
Greetings and Salutations
As the New Year moves on, we enter March, which means we draw closer to spring.
Did I just hear a sigh of relief in unison?...AHHH I do enjoy the full seasons but even I am ready for some warm weather. The thought of spring also means…green! The flowers and trees will begin showing their new wardrobe of colors. We will be heading outdoors to soak in some sunshine and shedding our winter skins. Beading jewelry is a great indoor hobby and activity during the cold months but have you ever taken your beading outdoors? It can be great fun to enjoy a sunny warm day working on pretty jewelry and with spring just around the corner it may be time to begin thinking about hosting a beading party for you, your family and friends. Celebrate the coming of a new season with new seasonal jewelry. But then ‘Jewelry is Always in Season’ as my husband reminds me. If March is still a bit too early to be thinking of warm weather outings, then you can at least begin planning as I share some key points to hosting a beading party . Break out of the winter blues and step into some cheerful spring greens. What kind of events will be happening for you in March that can be turned into 'themed' beading parities? March Themed Beading PartiesFund Raisers One personal event in my little family is we participate in a local 5K walk raising funds to help feed the hungry. Every March, the Atlanta Community Food Bank host an annual Hunger 5K Walk/Run. We have been involved in the walk or should I say walk/ride while the youngest has grown up in this event so stroller rides were in order. My youngest is soon to be 14. I have always enjoyed this event as a start to the coming of Spring. Thousands of people show up at Turner Field, home of the Atlanta Braves MLB. We walk a path around the city while local artist and groups entertain and cheer us on throughout our walk. There is just something about the whole event, you can feel it. It's like an unseen electricity flowing through the crowd. We look forward to it every year.
This is bracelet we offered one year to help the kids with raising funds to sponsor their walk/ride. I created this bracelet style, made up some samples for my children to carry with them as they did their own little fundraising. We set a nominal donation amount in order to receive the bracelet. It was an effective way to help increase our funding. We do not live close to any family so an e-mail campaign was sent out to our usual donors...Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles, but the bracelet did provide more incentive for the kids to ask beloved teachers and favorite neighbors, showing the bracelet when they would ask for support. I chose the color green since the 5k walk is always around St. Patty's day and to represent color of nutritious food as well. The finished design had an apple toggle or charm incorporated into it. Everyone seemed quite pleased. 
To complete the process we, as a family, made up the bracelets, from Dad down to the youngest. Everyone had a hand in it.
It was good family time and it gave the kids a feeling of contributing to something good.
So why use handmade jewelry for fundraising? Bead-cause it is worthwhile and helps others that are less fortunate than ourselves.
March Madness Are you a college basketball fan? Kentucky is big basketball country, like other areas, and with prominent teams like the University of Louisville and University of KY, March was the month for that loyalty to shine. If you grew up in my family you had to be a U of L cardinal fan just to keep family peace, otherwise you were excommunicated ;-). Some I think went with the opposition just to kick up the dust, all in good fun of course. Lots of good memories. It's a great time to get your collegiate jewelry going and ready to show your team spirit, which was also a requirement in our family. If you were not showing your team spirit in your attire or accessories, you got razzed very bad and were given something to wear during game time, It was required. [miss those days] That’s what March holds for us in our corner of the world. What about you?
Other Ideas?
I have listed a few other events I have found happening in March. Some are just plain silly for the fun of it while others are more noteworthy. Any or all would make great 'themed' beading parties. Either way, March is a month to be enjoyed with the anticipation of spring just around the corner. Here is wishing you a month full of coming sunshine and budding flowers to inspire those new creations. Please submit any of your March themed creations so that I may feature them for other beginners and encourage them that the process of making jewelry is easy. March Calendar of EventsMarch is Women’s History Month and Lenten Season on the Church Calendar March 2: Dr. Seuss Day March 4: Grammar Day March 7: National Doodle Day March 8: Daylight Savings Time Begins & International Women’s Day March 14: National Potato Chip Day, this will be one of my favorite, but you didn't hear me say that. March 15: Atlanta Community Food Bank Hunger Walk/Run March 17: St. Patty’s Day & NCAA March Madness Begins March 20: First Day of spring March 26: National spinach day [gotta have one for the healthy minded as well] March 29: Palm Sunday Color Trends for Spring 2015Last month, as I spoke of designing jewelry, I suggested using a color wheel as an aide in designing your creations. Color plays a large part in our jewelry designs.
The easiest way I have found to do this is to follow the Pantone color trends for spring 2015. Pantone is a leader in the industry, setting the current and future color trends. The market, fashion and home, turn to them for color etiquette. The first on the palette of color is Aquamarine, as shown, which leads us right to the... March BirthstoneMarch claims two birthstones, the first and most commonly known is the Aquamarine gemstone. Aquamarine gemstone alludes to the sea and water simply by the definition of the name. 
Aqua – water Marina – sea The beautiful cool colors of this soothing gemstone range in the serene color family of the blue-greens. It is believed to bring calmness, release fear and mental clarity to the wearer.
March also claims another birthstone, the ‘bloodstone’.
The bloodstone is a type of quartz which is a common mineral. It is deep green in color with flecks of intense red scattered throughout. It is said that this stone is commonly found in many religious carvings such as the crucifix.
I am enjoying these little segments on birthstones, I hope you are as well. For more information visit these sites.
American Gem Society, and Earthsky.org Photos courtesy of: Wikimedia and Crystal Rocks and Gems Question of the MonthLast month I had a question sent to me and thought good to share with you in case you may be wondering as well. Q - Hello, I need a complete beginners beading kit...How do I get it? A - Hi and thank you for your inquiry. This is a great question and I am sorry to say that I have not found a complete beginners beading kit that I would recommend. So the easiest way to attain a beginners kit, based on my recommendations, is to put one together yourself. These kits will be available in the future, but for now I would encourage you to follow the list I have created in this article, ‘Top Ten items needed for any beginners beading kit’ Each item listed should be linked to a resource where you may purchase the items directly [these links will take you directly to Amazon.com]. I do not offer these links as a way to make money [although if you click the link and purchase through that link I do earn just a bit]. The real reason for providing the links is to offer you the ability to purchase the products with ease and eliminate the frustration of where to find them. These are my recommendations for all beginners which are also the products I use myself. If you would rather, you should be able to find each of these items, listed in this article, at a local beading store or craft store in your area. I hope this has been of some help to you and if I can be of any further assistance please let me know. What’s new at Beading Jewelry 101Have you seen the new look? Bead At Home with Beading Jewelry 101 has a new look…and a new face. May I introduce you to…Betty Beader. Betty Beader is your guide to this simple and informative beading for beginners website. Betty has been sitting in the wings waiting on me patiently to come on board. Now she has arrived. I will be doing a series of interviews from bead enthusiast that I have encountered through this year, to inspire your jewelry making journey, with the key theme ‘Everyone starts at the beginning’…I hope you stick around to share in them. What else is new at Bead At Home? More are in the works, time is my greatest challenge, more to do than time will allow. Until this site starts earning it's keep there is no room to hire help. But here are topics in the works to be added through 2015:
And so much more, as time allows. So you see 2015 will be a busy growing year. Just a note… With the new look, that has just been introduced, it has left some of the pages rather untidy. I am busy cleaning those pages up but as I keep saying it all takes time. Being a staff of one, well in addition to Betty now, my time is limited so I continue to thank you for your patience. This not full time for me, I am a mom first, but this site is my second love and sharing it with you is what inspires that motivation to keep working on it to provide help for you. I could keep all of this to myself but what fun would that be. As you visit through the new look please feel free to point out anything you noticed that needs to be adjusted, I appreciate the extra eyes and this is for you so please feel free to participate. I need to hear your voice. Thank You... Speaking of which, I want to thank all who participated in the site survey from last month. I appreciate your input. I'll be sharing more on that another time. If you have not taken the survey and would still like to, you can find the link on the navigation bar towards the bottom or follow the link here...
Beading Jewelry 101 Site Survey Your input is always welcome and valuable to me. There is still so much to share but I will save that for next month. Let me leave you with one more little tidbit. I received this picture from one of our beading buddies who wanted to share what she has been working on since her first visit with Bead At Home beading jewelry 101. 
She has made several pieces, this is just one of the results. I love seeing your projects and encourage you to please share more with me. The supply list for this sweetheart of a bracelet came from Michael's and the silver stardust beads she ordered through Amazon.com but I believe I have seen these also at Michael's as well. Her list of supplies:
Thank you Seanece for sharing your creations with us. Let me see more from any of you so that I may feature you here and let me hear of what beading themes you have been working on during March. Until next month...see you at Bead At Home beading jewelry 101.
P.S. Be sure to take the site survey if you haven't already. I need to hear your voice. Thanks again for participating. |
| Back to Back Issues Page |
Jewelry can be a great incentive to encourage others to support and sponsor your fundraiser.
Allow me to add to the list by suggesting staying up on the current fashion color trends.
