AdornmentCraft

This morning’s discovery:

According to the site:

metalchasers is a site that promotes and supports the field of jewelry and metal arts.

Here Jewelry and Metal Artists come to network, find inspiration and are free to express their creativity. . . .

This site is for beginners to advanced artists with absolutely no membership fees or restrictions. Feel free to browse around, or sign up and start meeting others who share the same interests.

The young site is very well put together and has quite a few members already. I decided to join.

The registration went smoothly, but I hit a snag when my confirmation email failed to arrive. (You must receive the confirmation email in order to activate your account.) You do need to check your spam filter for such emails, of course, but for some reason mine didn’t show up there either. I’ve had the same issue before when using my beadjewelry.net email account . . . so I’m beginning to suspect that the hosting company has some additional spam filter that I’m not aware of. (If so, it’s only blocking things I sign up for, and not ads for “E.D.” medications or body-part enlargement, unfortunately.)

Anyway, I submitted the Metalchasers contact form to report my challenge, and site admin Marcy emailed me back almost immediately. She had manually confirmed my registration, and her email was very courteous.

The Metalchasers site is set up as a social networking site (like MySpace). You can create your own profile and your own customizable page. (Mine is still boring because I haven’t modified it yet.)

You begin with one default “friend” (just like with MySpace), and of course you can add friends over time whose avatars will appear in the friends box.

In addition to a profile page, you also have:

• a gallery where you can upload images of your designs
• a blog, and the ability to add other blogs to your favorites list or browse recent blog entries
• a place to view streaming video related to jewelry making, and to add your own video stream (from a source like YouTube)
• access to the forum and chat
• a place to post ads to sell your wares
• groups you can join or create
• a collection of jewelry-making polls to participate in - or create your own
• and several other interesting things, including a planned “MCtv” page where you’ll be able to view video channels devoted to jewelry making and metal arts.

As you can see, there is a lot there already, and more unique services are planned. If you’d like to give it a try, and find out what the Metalchasers future holds, click here to sign up!

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.

I recently posted about Jewelry Television’s new jewelry making DVD series called Jewel School. Over the weekend I had the opportunity to review the first DVD in the series, Basic Wire Wrapping, and I must say that I was impressed!

You can read my review here on BellaOnline.com, or visit the Jewel School web page to preview some video clips.

This is a subject of some controversy among decor enthusiasts. Some believe that beautiful, old wood pieces should never be painted. They say it ruins their beauty and is a travesty against solid wood - a material rarely used in household furniture anymore because of its scarcity and expense.

[The chair. Originally uploaded to Flickr by La Belle Avenue]

Some folks (including my husband) go even farther, arguing that old wood furniture should never be refinished in any way, even if it’s in bad shape. (Someone’s been watching Antiques Road Show.) As a consequence, we have several pretty scratched-up, but nice, old hand-me-down pieces throughout our house.

Then there are the artsy, reclaiming types, who can’t resist the challenge of turning an old, worn-out piece of furniture into something colorful, unique, and eye-catching.

I’m a bit torn on the issue. I agree that valuable, ornate, antique pieces should be preserved as close to their original state as possible. But I’m also ok with updating pieces that are otherwise not worth much because of their poor condition or unpopular style.

What’s your take?

Shortly I’ll post in AdornmentCraft on techniques for repainting old wood items. If you have any tips or questions along those lines, post them in a comment and I’ll try to address them.

If you haven’t visited BellaOnline.com Jewelry Making in a while, you may want to check out my latest articles:

• Labeling Jewelry Made in USA - Can you legally label your designs “Made in America” or “Made in USA?” Find out!
• How to Lengthen a Vintage Bead Choker and Change the Clasp - My approach to modifying a funky old beaded choker to make it more wearable.

Also see the November 5 newsletter to find out about some recent changes announced by two of my favorite suppliers, Rings & Things and Fire Mountain Gems and Beads. And, speaking of Fire Mountain, they’re now receiving entries for their annual Beading Contest (2008). Read all the rules and instructions for entry here.