Summer Strands

Despite how strange the weather has been, summer is fast approaching. With summer coming means bright, fun colors. It's around this time we start thinking of bright colors to go with the warm weather, as well as the changing of color for the fashion season. Here's some brightly color strands that you can keep an eye out for.

Some may recognize the large bright green bead from this post.

  Keep an eye out for these, and any of our other brightly color strands and packs out in stores!

Fancy Beads

It's been a while since we've updated, but with this update we can show off some of our more expensive beads. Since the summer is coming around, we thought we'd show off some of our more brightly colored beads.

Bright orange boho, great for a centerpiece.

This bead has a hint of sparkle behind the metal, to make it brighter.

This metal bead has the look of something that is rich, the gems adding an extra sparkle.

This bead has a simple wire wrap, but the bright color makes it stand out.

You can find these beads in our vairous strand families or Uncommon Elegance packs.

Bracelets and other projects

So most may think to make a necklace with our beads, but if you don't feel inspired to make a necklace, why not try and make a bracelet instead? Bracelets require less work to make, but they can still be customized to be cute and flashy just like a necklace. Here are a few inspirational projects to help you along!

 

These bracelets are made using beads from our Jesse James POG collection, as well as the clasps from the Grand Finale. You can create something basic with a single strand, or use multiple strands to create a flashy, chucky piece.

   

You can chose whatever beads you'd like for your project, these are just some pieces to be inspired by, depending on how difficult of a project you wish to make. The beads can be used for beginners or beading pros. Feel free to mix different products together, try using some of our POGs or our Chained Reaction to create a piece.

Don't feel like making a whole bracelet? Just a few beads can make a lovely set of earrings.

  

This set of earrings uses two beads and one set of chains. It creates a simple yet flashy look that doesn't require too much work or effort, easy for beginners to try. 

Customer Creations

This post I wanted to take the chance to highlight some of the different people who use our beads, and how they've used them. I wanted to show off their lovely work as well and show people how our work can be used. And for anyone who doesn't feel so confident in their ability to make jewelry, most of these items are for sale. Feel free to check out the creator's stores!

Precious Creations LCW
 
This bracelet is really lovely in rich shades of orange. The beads look as though they were taken from our Gypsy, or Spice Market. Possibly both combined to help make a lovely bracelet. 

Designs by Jojo
 
This one used one of our Design Elements, Cinnamon Toast, to create this beautiful, simple necklace. The photography for her pieces are rather inspiring, looking so simple but well presented and laid out. Her choice for the string was even really fitting for our beads.

Trini Gaiya

Here's a nice little piece where she used our Hollywood Chic pack to create this lovely little necklace. The combination of our beads with the pendant really makes a rather outstanding piece.

If you have any work you'd like highlighted feel free to drop us a message, we'd love to show off how our customers use our beads!

Bead Shows

Other then online and retail stores, we travel to different shows or conventions to sell our bead and bead packs. It gives us the chance to show off our product as well as reach out to different customers. Check out some of the photos we have from some of our previous shows. And if you're interested in checking out us at a show here's our upcoming schedule:

Innovative Bead Expo
Mount Laurel, NJ
Oct. 27-28, 2012

Bead Society of Greater Washington
Gaithersburg, MD
Nov. 10-11, 2012

Innovative Bead Expo
Wilmington, DE
Dec. 1-2, 2012

To Bead True Blue
Tucson, AZ
Feb. 3-11, 2012

We usually keep an up to date schedule or post when an upcoming show will be on our Facebook page. Feel free to check us out and say hello!

 
Bead & Button 2012 - Milwaukee, WI - June 7-10, 2012
Our inaugural showing at the ever-prestigious Bead & Button Show! Bead & Button is the world's largest consumer bead show. We hope to see you there in 2013!


Beadfest Philly 2012 - Oaks, PA - August 17-19, 2012
Beadfest is always such a treat! The girls at Innovative Press sure know how to throw a bead party. We love every minute of Beadfest and all the smiling, beading faces this show brings to town.

 
G&LW - West Springfield - October 12-13, 2012
A bead show at the Big E! The Gem and Lapidary Wholesale promoters are never short on fabulous vendors, that is for sure! And we sure loved seeing the beautiful western Mass foliage every morning, bonus!

 
Michelle setting up for Beadfest Spring! All those strands have got to get hung up somehow!

 

 
Prepping strands for shows! Shower hooks never looked so good!   

 
Bead Gals! Your two resident show girls, Sarah and Michelle bring the Jesse James Beads glitz to a town near you!

We hope to see you guys at an upcoming show! Keep watch over our Facebook page for details on any upcoming shows.

Project Inspirations

Every buy some of our beads and wonder what you could make with them? Or just wonder how you can combine several different packs to make a wonderful project? Here I can show you an example of a finished project and the products used to make it.

One of the easiest things you can create with our products is a necklace. With the amount of options you have, your choices are limitless. But here's an example using four of our different products.

This lovely necklace was made using the Gypsy Inspiration pack, Spice Market strand #1, Uncommon Elegance style #9 and the clasp was made using our Grand Finale style #8.

Each piece was carefully selected based on color and what would look nice. I chose this particular piece to show off because we're in the fall season and the colors might help inspire someone.

Most of the larger green and orange acrylic pieces come from the Gypsy pack, the slightly darker acrylic and glass come from Spice Market. Each are similar in color but play off each other well, they work well as companion packs.


The larger center pieces come from the Uncommon Elegance. The color pallet fit rather well with Spice Market and Gypsy, but it also creates a nice looking center piece to make a focal point for the whole piece. Uncommon Elegance pieces tend to be a bit larger and nicer looking, but they're perfect for any sort of center piece in your work. The Grand Finale is that little extra touch in the back. Rather then use a boring old clasp, you can pair it off with our fancy clasps that will add a little extra to your necklace. The best part is that it's magnetic, easy to put on and off.

I hope this post helped inspire you as to what you may want to make with our packs. Happy beading!

Behind the Scenes: Photos and Beads

It's been really busy here at Jesse James, but I wanted to show off our little setup for how we'll be photographing beads and buttons from now on.

We just got the chance to set everything up, but hopefully soon we'll be able to take high quality photos of our product. We want people to see how nice our strands are after all.

Since we have a little bit of time, rather then the usual rush, you can see how our desk areas are set up when we're working on a product.

A fortress of beads!

That right there is all one product, in this case an Inspiration pack. Each bead is hand selected and decided what is right for what pack. As you can see it can get pretty crowded. My own cart is stocked full of beads as well, currently I'm working on the Spinach Inspiration pack.

Keep an eye on the blog, I'll be posting some photos soon of our products!