Hot Arts & Crafts Posts

How To: Purpose and repurpose vintage necklaces and brooches

If you're a habitual thrift store and consignment store shopper, then you know that every now and then you'll stumble upon a vintage necklace or ring that has one part that's sooo pretty, but the rest looks pretty tacky or too old. Give new life to the little bits of vintage jewelry you've collected by repurposing them into a brand new necklace.

How To: Craft brass stampings and select plating finishes

Interested in getting in on the vintage jewelry trend? Then consider this video the introduction to the rest of your jewelry-crafting career. This jewelry tutorial focuses on brass stampings, which are intricate, almost filigree-like floral patterned rounds that you can string onto necklaces or pin onto earrings.

How To: Pack jewelry business orders easily and quickly

So you've done it. You've been wanting to have your own jewelry business since you were six, and you finally saved up enough money to purchase all the materials and are now making more moolah than you can count with your on-trend wire wrapped earrings. But how do you handle packing and shipping so many orders without going crazy?

How To: Measure stones, bezels, and mounts with brass measuring calipers

If your idea of jewelry making is simply strining on glass beads and vintage knick knacks onto a string and then adding a clasp, then you have some serious learning to do. While in the end creativity trumps all, it's important for many intricate projects that you calculate exactly how much of one particular stone or filigree stamp you need. And in order to do that, you must measure them.

How To: Paint spring-loaded clothespins into colorful, decorative wooden fasteners

Spring-loaded clothespins are used for more than just clothes. If you looked in anyone's home, you'll see these springy wooden clothespins used for things like chip clips, photo holders and even for attaching sports cards on bicycle spokes. They're even used in the film industry (called C47s or bullets) for clamping colored gels or diffusion to hot lights on set. So, there's a million uses for these wooden clamps, but that doesn't mean they have to look the same— drab and unoriginal.