Jewelry and Craft Recommended Links
This comprises of a list of links to resources found to be really informative, authoritative, useful, and/or fun. It also includes any link exchanges we have made, but all of them are vetted for quality and compatibility.
Quick Index of Recommended Links
- Art (painting, drawing, patterns, design inspirations, etc.)
- Artists (fantastic artists in various media)
- Beading
- Books (stores & places related to, including magazines)
- Clay (Polymer, Metal Clay, etc.)
- Colour (very colour-specific, like colour wheels, tools, etc.)
- Crafts (general)
- Crochet (Beaded)
- Crochet/Knitting (including C2c, Graphghans)
- Felting (fulling & felting needs)
- Friendly Plastic
- Jewelry (mostly from handmade stores)
- Jewelry Supplies (general)
- Other (related but not usually associated with crafts)
- Sites (websites of interest with beautiful works and/or information)
- Tools, Gadgets, Notions
- Tutorials, Information, Tips
- Wire Work & Chainmaille
- Yarn
- Zazzle
Note that all links will open in an new window/tab.
Art
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- Artist Vasare Nar (www.vasarenar.co.uk)
Note: I love her colourful and geometric abstract designs. I find her designs to be a great source of inspiration. - Danny Gregory (www.dannygregory.com)
Author of “The Creative License”
Note: Highly recommended book. Very interesting site. Aid to become more creative and unblock creativity. - DragoArt.com (www.dragoart.com)
Note: I like this site. Offers step-by-step on how to draw simple things. - How to Draw Cartoons by Brent Windsor (brentwindsor.co.uk)
Note: I like this site. Offers step-by-step on how to draw simple things. - Orange You Lucky by Helen Dardik (orangeyoulucky.blogspot.com/)
Note: I love her happy, Scandinavian colours and illustrations. - How to Draw Cartoons Online (www.how-to-draw-cartoons-online.com)
Note: I like this site. Offers step-by-step on how to draw simple things.
- Artist Vasare Nar (www.vasarenar.co.uk)
- The Artist’s Way (www.theartistsway.com/)
Official site of Julia Cameron; author of “The Artist’s Way”
Note: A highly recommended site/book on recovering/discovering your creativity.
Artists
- Michele Carragjer Embroidery (www.michelecarragherembroidery.com)
Embroidery & Illustration for film and television. Embroidery work for Game of Thrones
Note: Very interesting illustration and embroidery works. Quite a few detailed galleries of her work. Plus some tutorials.
Beading
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- Love Bead (lovebeadlove.blogspot.com.au/)
As of 2017, a new blog by a group of Bead Artists, Designers, Teachers and Authors from around the world. Their aim is to spread the love of bead.
Note: Definitely worth a look. Interesting and possibly free projects. - Just Let Me Bead – Free Patterns — beautiful, free beading patterns by the talented Laura McCabe.
- Love Bead (lovebeadlove.blogspot.com.au/)
Books
- Tarcher/Penguin (www.tarcherbooks.net)
Books, videos, talks – very good book site. Even spiritual.
Note: Very good site. Especially the video section which includes talks with the author of “The Artist’s Way”.
Clay
- Clay Princess (clayprincess.com.au)
“Polymer Clay and Specialist Arts & Crafts Materials and Supplies”
Note: Online as well as brick & mortar store. Leichhardt, Australia. - Cool Tools (cooltools.us)
A US based shopping site specializing in pretty cool tools and kits, especially for metal clays.
Note: Also provides free learning videos and learning center. Worth a look. - Krafty Lady (kraftylady.com.au)
Australian shopping site specialising in large selection of art moulds.
Note: A lot of gorgeous stuff including crucifix moulds. Worth a look.
Colour
- color-hex (color-hex.com) – thousands of colour palettes and schemes. Can search e.g. “warm” or “tropical”, etc. Even gives colours in Hex# and RGB. (RECOMMENDED)
- colr.org (www.colr.org)
“Play with color and color schemes”
Note: EXCELLENT site to get lovely color schemes, e.g. from a pic you have. - Home Design Color Wheel Tool (www.homedesigndirectory.com.au)
Interactive online color tool for home decoration but can be used for anything else.
Note: I like it. Easy to use. For any color needs. And great for seeing color changes to a room.
Crafts
- Chicago School of Shoemaking & Leather Arts – Design It Yourself (chicagoschoolofshoemaking.com)
Offers free templates and basic instructions on making shoes with leather.
Note: Very Very Useful – especially the downloadable shoe templates. Recommended.
- How to Fold Origami Flowers (www.bloom4ever.com)
Interactive online color tool for home decoration but can be used for anything else.
Note: I like this site. Some real looking flowers. Maybe can be used for jewelry?
- U Handbag (u-handbag.com/)
Stock bag handles, purse frames, and hard-to-find metal bits ~ Everything to make hand made handbags.
Note: Looks very promising. UK site but will ship internationally.
Crochet & Knitting
- Antique Pattern Library (antiquepatternlibrary.org) – Free/Public Domain. Some great antique patterns on knitting, crochet, & craft. Excellent!
- Craft Gossip.com (craftgossip.com)
Mainly about crochet, but it does cover a whole lot of other crafts like felting, jewelry making, knitting, needlework, polymer clay, etc.
- Crochet Abbreviations Master List (craftyarncouncil.com)
Useful list of crochet & Tunisian crochet abbreviations. Includes some term difference between US/Canada vs UK. - Crochet in the Car (titlemax.com)
Pretty good site offering quite a number of links to free pdf files on crochet. The files are nicely classified from crochet basics to more advanced. However, note that some of the links are dead. Nonetheless, a worthwhile resource. (Credit: Thank you to superstar Mia, & Cynthia for recommending this site.) - Free Pattern Wizard – (Recommended.) a free online graph generator. Register for free membership (and more options incl. word graph!)
- KnitProPlus Pattern Design Service (theknitting.site) . – online graph generator.
Note: IMHO this produces a clearer, better graph than FreePatternWizard. - Overlay Crochet: LillaBjorn’s Crochet World (lillabjorncrochet.com) . – Tatsiana’s blog.
Note: Her patterns are amongst my most favourite overlay crochet patterns. - StitchFiddle – online graph generator for C2C, crochet, knitting, cross stitching, etc. (free but with a paid premium version. It is a monthly or yearly subscriptions.)
Register to get free membership. Membership will give you more options to generate graph, including word chart!!! - Vogue Knitting – Free patterns – downloadable free knitting patterns (pdf)
- Ursa’s Software (MacStitch, WinStitch) – a paid software to generate graphgans (Tunisian crochet), as well as for normal crochet, knitting, cross stitch etc. It looks pretty good but I have not paid money to trial it.
Crochet (Beaded)
- wk.com (Russian) (craftgossip.com)
Lots of examples of beautiful beaded crochet work, including graphed patterns.
Felting
- Color Streams (colourstreams.com.au)
Embroidery Supplies for Textile Art.
Note: Looks like quite a fab store & Australian! Includes lots of things for felting as well and exotic threads.
Friendly Plastic
- E-cyclopedia of Friendly Plastic (justbananas.com)
“Terms-Techniques-Tips-Tricks-Tools”
Jewelry
- Clearly Helena (clearlyhelena.com)
Our own store of exclusive craft and jewelry creations. Australia.
- Maryniky Designs (marynikydesigns.com)
A most talented and featured artist in Wearable Art. Unique and 100% Beautiful. Australia.
- Larson Jewelers: Girl Scout Shout Out: Jewelry Making
Lots of useful links to various fun jewelry making projects. Aimed at Girl Scouts but useful and fun for everyonw. - Passion for Flame Jewellery (passionforflame.com.au)
Passion for Flame – Handmade Jewellery Design and Manufacture South Grafton, Australia
- Peruzi (peruzi.net)
Unique Handmade Clay Beads, Pendants, and Jewelry. Australia.
- Ruby Tuesday Beads and Gems (rubytuesday.com.au)
Online beading blogs and beading supplies. Home of Miyuki Delica Anonymous! Looking for exceptional beadword to display on blogs. Details on site. Australia.
- The Andean Collection (theandeancollection.com)
Socially Conscious Fashion - Totaram Papalal and Sons Jewelers (totoram.com)
Indian Jewellery – “Totaram Papalal’s Online jewelery store to send or gift gold and diamond jewelry at a reasonable and affordable price to anyone anywhere.“
Jewelry Supplies
- House of Gems (houseofgems.com) – based in USA, provides international shipping for their jewelry supplies. Includes an interesting blog to help spark creativity.
Other
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- beso bridal hair combs (beso.com)
Bridal Hair Combs
Note: A good selection of different bridal combs. - finishing.com (finishing.com)
“The home page of the finishing industry.”
Note: A lot of finishing tips and help, including FAQs on antiquing and plating.
- Quilting 101 (www.onlinemattressreview.com) – some pretty good resources on the history of quilting but more importantly, it has links on How to Quilt & Quilting for Kids).
- beso bridal hair combs (beso.com)
- SOLVENTS LIST: DIFFERENCES & USES (plascondiy.co.za/)
Good list of solvents and their uses and effects on different materials - Watson Brass (watsonbrass.com.au)
A lot of brass products – especially for architecture and homeware. However some interesting products that could be used in crafts.
Sites
- Bead Line Studios – particularly for innovative ideas on crochet beaded ropes
- Fibre Arts (fibrearts.tumblr.com)
Loads of art and crafts – beautiful works from various artists.
