AdornmentCraft

It’s pretty clear that online video is here to stay - and it’s finally starting to compete with television, which I’m pleased about because I’ve been getting really frustrated with TV over the past few years. (I hardly watch TV anymore, and yet we’re still paying a lot for cable - go figure.)

Here’s a look at two sites that have been pioneers in bringing professional quality jewelry-making video to the web of late. (They are not the only sites in that category - just two that especially caught my attention this year.)

The first, Beaducation, appears to be doing well (it’s a nice site - so I hope that’s true); but the second, Metal Chik, may be having some troubles.

Beaducation.com

I recently added Beaducation to my slowing-growing courses-classes directory on BellaOnline.com. Here’s what I had to say about it in last week’s Jewelry Making Newsletter.

Beaducation was started by jewelry artist and instructor Lisa Niven Kelly. It’s a gorgeous, well-designed site offering professional jewelry-making video classes. Many classes are available for free, and the ones that have a fee are reasonably priced.

When you register for a class, you’ll have online video access to it for two weeks, and you’ll receive a detailed written instruction sheet to keep for future reference. There are some great, original projects to choose from in both beadwork and wirework.

You can read about Beaducation’s team of instructors here and see a current class listing here. The site also hosts a shoppe offering kits and supplies used in the lessons - including metal blanks and some stamps personally designed by Lisa Niven Kelly - also reasonably priced (yay!).

Yes, I get excited about stamping sometimes. (Can’t help it, I like working with sheet metal.)

MetalChik.com

Metal Chik is a show produced by the media company Next New Networks. It’s hosted by jewelry designer and artist Victoria Tillotson (who also recently took over the Jewelry-Weblog after the departure of Tammy Powley).

For ten weeks in 2007, the show released a new episode online every Monday. Victoria, usually with her apprentice, Adam, visited interesting jewelry-related destinations and demonstrated metalwork techniques from her studio.

The videos are nicely done, although the technique demonstrations are a little hurried - which is typical with jewelry making shows because of their time constraints. However, viewers could use the comment system on the website (or simply email) to write in with questions or to ask for elaboration, which was a nice touch.

That was then. Today, the Metal Chik website is still live, but no new episodes of the show have been released since the Halloween episode in October. (It also looks like the blog hasn’t been updated since mid-November).

The last word on the show’s status seems to be a blog comment response posted on November 14:

[W]e’ve decided to take a break from producing Metal Chik and refocus our efforts. The videos will remain up but we will not be posting any new episodes this year.

Of course, I’m curious what the team is up to - and whether the Metal Chik project will re-emerge. But I’m going to allow them some privacy rather than badger them about it. I’ll try to keep an eye on the site to see what happens.