The Winner & Editor’s Pick for our Weeping Willow Design Challenge!

Posted on May 13, 2013

Congratulations to Sarajo Wentling of Sj Designs Jewelry, our blog readers voted her “Big Spring Willow” necklace the winner of our Weeping Willow Design Challenge! Here is what inspired Sarajo:

“As a child, one of my favorite treats was to go with my grandmother to the duck pond at Big Spring Park. We would take a bag of bread and spend hours feeding the ducks from under the majestic, old weeping willow tree that grew along the edge of the water. Both the tree and my Mema are long gone, but this necklace brings back the feeling of being under that green canopy with her.”

Sarajo wins over 75 pieces of Vintaj metals and her design will be entered in our End Of The Year Design Challenge! Visit her blog, www.sjdesignsjewelryblogspot.com and Etsy shop!

Our Editor’s Pick for Weeping Willow is Barbara Krajnik Olsson of Krajol Design!

Here is what inspired Barbara:

“A pair of earrings made of waxed linen thread in 2 colors, small seedbeads, chech glassbeads, Vintaj Filigree Bead and altered blank, etched with Fine Feathers DecoEtch Die.”

Visit Barbara’s website!

Thank you to everyone who participated and voted, it was an impressive selection!

We are skipping a month… our next Design Challenge is “Ocean Surf”, submissions are due June 28!

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Bead Trends May 2013

Posted on May 10, 2013

The editors of Bead Trends were inspired by the Pantone Color Of The Year, emerald green for this issue. There are beautiful pieces showcasing the color green! There are also inspiring designs made with Mom in mind that you won’t want to miss. We loved the story Kristi Harrison shared about her mom on pages 82-84 with her “Mother’s Garden” necklace and earrings.
We’ve featured designers who used Vintaj in the gallery below, Click the image to enlarge and scroll through to enjoy!

To find more information on this issue and how to subscribe click HERE!

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Step-by-Step Tutorial: Filigree Wrapped Bail Pendant

Posted on May 8, 2013

Learn how to filigree wrap a beveled glass pendant with a Natural Brass Passion Flower Filigree & create a wire wrapped pendant bail with 18gauge Vintaj Artisan Copper Wire!

Click center of image to view full screen!

Visit the Vintaj ISSUU page for some of our past tutorials.

Make this necklace, all the supplies at Hobby Lobby stores! Vintaj Natural Brass & Arte Metal jewelry findings are 25% off this week at Hobby Lobby! Also includes BIGkick Embossing Machine, DecoEmboss & DecoEtch Dies, Technique Book & Bezel Sheets. * expires Saturday, May 11, 2013.

Happy Designing!

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Weeping Willow Design Challenge ~ Let’s vote!

Posted on May 6, 2013
We hope these submissions to our Design Challenge inspire you to try a design with a “Weeping Willow” theme using Vintaj! Click thumbnails to enlarge. The title and inspiration is listed below the enlarged photo of their piece – just click on the thumbnails, you may need to scroll down a little.


Vote for your favorite by selecting your favorite ‘number’ on the poll listed above and clicking VOTE in the lower right corner! If you do not vote through the polling system your vote will not be counted. One vote per person please!

The poll closes at midnight (central time) on Friday, May 10. The challenge winner will receive a collection of over 75 pieces of Vintaj products, a posting on our blog with a link to their site/blog, and they will also be entered into the End of the Year Challenge contest!

We will post the winning design on Monday, May 13, by noon (central time) so be sure to check back. Our Editor’s Pick will be announced the same day.

 

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Tip: Transform Filigree with Metal Shears & File

Posted on May 1, 2013

Do you ever wish a filigree was a different shape or size?

It’s easy to transform Vintaj natural brass filigree, simply cut filigree with our Metal Shears and smooth the rough edges with our Metal File. Turn a large filigree into multiple smaller unique jewelry components. Use them to wrap stones and cabochons, suspend as a pendant bail, or incorporate as a decorative connector.

Our NEW 63mm Full Diamond Circle Filigree is awesome

You can use it to wrap around large pendants,as seen below in the Antique Tile necklace…

Or cut it up into smaller pieces, as seen in the Weeping Willow & Willow Pond necklaces…

1. Use Metal Shears to clip through inner opening of filigree, along the double swirls.

2. Continue to cut away the decorative border of filigree to reveal the large diamond shape.

3. Use the Metal File to smooth all rough edges.

4. Clip away the sharp pieces and file the 4 smaller sections.

5. You now have 5 filigree components, 1 large for wrapping and 4 matching pieces!

Willow Pond, features a large Ephemera pendant by Skye Jewels, with 2 of the smaller filigree pieces wrapped around the top front and back of pendant to create a decorative bail.

Weeping Willow, features the center diamond shaped wrapped around a circle Ephemera pendant by Skye Jewels. Smaller sections hang from the bottom and top of pendant to hold beaded dangles and Willow Branch connectors.

Happy Designing!

 

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Ombre Feather Bracelet Tutorial by Humblebeads

Posted on April 30, 2013
Do you love our new Feathers as much as we do? There are 2 sizes available in this beautifully detailed Natural Brass Feather! You can suspend it as a pendant, turn it into a connector in a necklace, or form it into a bracelet focal/cuff, like Heather Powers did here…

Visit the Humblebeads blog for this fun bracelet tutorial!
Heather patina’d the Tall Feather with Vintaj Quartz, Opalite and Cobalt Patina to create a popular Ombre trending color effect. She paired the feather with some of her Ombre Feather Disk Beads, and our Elongated Oval Half Round Chain.

Heather made another great piece with our NEW Stained Glass Window and Circle Frame. This is a very cool look, with the Circle Frame blank textured and then these piece layered and secured together with waxed linen.

Thank you Heather for the gorgeous Spring jewelry inspiration!!!

Happy Designing!

 

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Ranger U 2013: Vintaj Patina & Melt Art Jewelry Techniques

Posted on April 26, 2013
Today Mackie and Betsy are at Ranger U! Mackie is teaching 4 jewelry projects incorporating fun Vintaj patina & melt art techniques. The lucky “chosen” ones attending Ranger U this year, come from all over the world, including; Korea, Brazil, Holland, New Zealand, Germany & France, in addition to the great US!

Enjoy some behind the scenes pics…

Yesterday Betsy had some time to kill until Mackie landed into Newark. So what else is a girl to do, then head on over to NYC! At the Museum of Arts and Design, there was a jewelry exhibition doing on, how perfect is that!

Day 1 of Ranger U started with Tim Holtz giving a tour of Ranger’s operations and teaching.

     

Mackie was up next, everyone had to change gears from paper crafting to 2 hours of creative jewelry designing!

Mackie (and Betsy peeking her head up, so cute!), and her amazing class! Great job everyone!

Happy Designing!

 

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1-Step Looper: Trim/Loop Eye Pins & Head Pins in One Motion!

Posted on April 24, 2013

Making bead links and drops has never been easier!
The Vintaj 1-step Looper is a unique tool that leaves the option for customer preference, beginning from grip to cut. Watch how easy it is to make a loop using a Vintaj head pin.
Simply trim and loop eye pins & head pins in one motion…

  • Create & trim eye pins in one motion!

  • Works with dead-soft or half-hard precious metal wire; craft wire; and copper or brass core wire.

  • Consistent size loops every time.

  • Bends & trims wire between 26-18 gauge.

  • Customize the length of eye pins.

Add a bead to a 1.5 inch head pin, (or eye pin). Simply insert the straight end of head pin below the metal peg and above the cutter and through the back hole of the tool. String head pin through opening until bead rests against the stopper along edge of plier.

Squeeze plier to cut the end of your head pin.
(With the extra wire you cut, you can form an eye pin ~ no waste!)

Continue to squeeze the plier handle tightly to form and close the loop.

Grab the end of the bead and gently bend it to straighten the loop. Release the pressure on the handles to remove bead from metal peg and you have yourself a bead drop in seconds!

Visit our Internet Retailers on our Where to Buy Page or contact your favorite bead store to inquire about this popular new jewelry tool.

Happy Designing!

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Pinning “Weeping Willow” Inspiration for All to Share!

Posted on April 23, 2013
Have you seen our “Weeping Willow” Inspiration board on Pinterest? It is full of beautiful designs inspired by our theme, featuring the gorgeous Ephemera pendants handmade by Marie-Noel of Skye Jewels. The soft greens and muted colors in this theme complement our Natural Brass findings perfectly. As you can see here, we are having so much fun pinning! This collection shows you project ideas, art beads, and the metal components you will see throughout the jewelry designs. We hope our Pinterest boards have been inspiring you to Repin and create your own Vintaj favorites! This is a great way to jump start the creative process and join us in our monthly design challenges. “Weeping Willow” designs are due by Friday, May 3 ~ click HERE for details!

Follow our Pinterest page HERE!

Want to purchase some of these items? Shop VintajRetail.com for 15% off your entire purchase of Vintaj and over 16,000 craft & hobby items – Enter Discount Code VB15off in your Shopping Cart before you proceed to Checkout to receive a 15% discount off your entire purchase! – expires 4/29/13 – VintajRetail.com!

Click on the image above to bring you to our board. Then, click on any of the retailed packaged product on this board to bring you directly to the item in our shop. Interested to see what Vintaj pieces were incorporated in these designs, click on the jewelry and it will bring you to our Idea Gallery with item #’s and product links.

For registered Wholesale customers, follow this link for our current promo!

Happy Pinning & Designing!

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Recycle, Reuse, Repurpose: Don’t Trash it, Turn it into Jewelry!

Posted on April 22, 2013
Happy Earth Day!

We do our part to protect our Earth each and everyday. Did you know that Vintaj metals are eco-friendly? Natural Brass, Arte Metal & Artisan Copper are not antique plated or chemically treated in any way. We are proud of the unique and artistic nature of the stages we apply and the time it takes to bring you these naturally beautiful elements!

One of our favorite ways to protect our environment, and recycle found objects and little trinkets, is to incorporate them into jewelry.

This ‘Upcycled Trinket’ necklace designed by Jess was inspired by our Flea Market Finds theme back in October 2011. Over the weekend Jess went to a flea market and picked up some more tiny treasures in the hopes that we can bring back this popular design theme again.

Happy Recycling & Designing!

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