Blogging at Beaducation.com

Hey all! I am officially abandoning this blog. I kinda suck at keeping it current...my last post was a year ago! It's not that I don't love writing but life has me busy busy busy coaching Volleyball, makin' stuff, hangin' with the kiddos and running Beaducation. I am blogging a few times a month over at beaducation.com. Come visit me over there :)

xoxo!!!
Lisa

2013, Year in Review :)

Recently a few students reminded me that it's been a while since I have posted pix of my babies.  Well, really, I haven't posted much of anything on my blog.  I'm not such a good blogger, but none the less, here ya go my friends, a Kelly family year in review, in no particular order....

2013 was a GREAT year!!!

Cheers to 2014!

Izzy, 13 ~ Lucy, 11

Bead&Button 2014

The Bead&Button Show 2014 is bigger than ever!

Class registration is now open for viewing only, you can sign up for classes on Jan 7th...mark your calendars, sign on up and book those flights!

Unfortunately for me, I will not be teaching this year.  My wee tiny baby (sigh) is graduating from 8th grade right smack in the middle of the show week so I can't come out before or even after to teach :(

My company, Beaducation.com, is also sitting this one out.  We have some huge projects on the horizon and we need to keep our focus in-house rather than out on the road. But we are still sponsoring the Wirework category of the Bead Dreams contest. Have ya started workin' on your entry yet?

I hope you are able to attend the show. It's a very inspirational week :)

My trip to Craftsy & a GIVEAWAY!

In mid October, the kind and wonderful people from Craftsy invited me to come and teach for them. I traveled to Colorado to shoot the class mid-December and last week, my class Make Your Own Wirework Findings launched!

Wooweeee, what a whirlwind. The class run-time is about four hours long, so prepping for this class was similar to prepping for a book. My "on camera" skills are much stronger than my writing skills, so this was my kind of project!!

I had such a great time filming with these folks. They are so professional and so fun!

My days on set started with me in "Hair and Makeup." Yeah, I said "Hair and Makeup." Makes it sound kinda fancy, huh? Well it was! The lovely Danica did my hair and makeup each day and man, I loved it. I wanted to just put her in my pocket and take her home with me. Oh, if only I could start each of my days with a Danica. She had lots of fancy makeup and magic stuff to pretty me up.

This is my crew. James was my producer.  He is the scary guy on the left. Super scary, never smiled and not funny at all. Oh, who am I kidding? I can't even joke about his "not joking" because he might be one of the funniest people I have ever met. He even does stand-up improv (he had a show the day after I left, bummed I missed it)!

Sean was the cameraman. That guy can man a camera like no other. The arial tricks he pulled off to get the tight shots were very impressive! :)

And this is the very talented Nicole, my on-set editor. She is watching me for any mishaps, watching both cameras, and doing some live editing. What at team! They were all so easy-going. They made me incredibly comfortable, they spoiled me rotten, and provided lots and lots of laughing (and snacks).

This was my view for the three days of filming. Look how organized that table top is!

But don't be fooled, open the table drawer and holy guacamole! Ok, that looks more like Lisa's workspace...

GIVEAWAY TIME!  Over at my blog at beaducation.com, we are giving away 3 seats in my Make Your Own Wirework Findings class on Craftsy.com. Those 3 lucky winners will also two of my favorite tools from the class as well as some sterling wire. Click on over for details on how to enter.

Thanks Craftsy. I had a blast! I can't wait to do it again. :)

(and P.S. - I was very impressed with Denver, what a cool city!)

Live Classes at the Beaducation Offices!

Yay, in-house classes at Beaducation!  I am so excited!  March 16-17, 2013 at the Beaducation headquarters in Redwood City.

When I first moved my business out of my house (2005), it was because I wanted space to teach classes in my own setting.  Oh my gosh, I was soooo nervous, "how am I going to afford the rent for a 600 square foot office?".  Well the business grew and we expanded but I lost my teaching space to the overflowing inventory.  That was ok, cause I was now teaching online...woo! But I missed live classes. So now that we have moved (the third expansion since moving out of my house), we have plenty of room, see....

Look at that big gorgeous room, it screams for tables and chairs and students and teachers and pliers and torches and beads (oh and snacks!) !!!  We often have dance parties or TRX workouts in this room,  but now it's time for classes. Come join us!!!

 

SPIRO PENDANT with Lisa Niven Kelly

RIVET IT with Lisa Niven Kelly and Aisha Formanski

INTRODUCTION TO SOLDERING with Joe Silvera

 

RAKU ENAMELING with Steven James

CHAMPLEVE AND PLIQUE-AU-JOUR ENAMELING with Steven James

METALWORKING WORKSHOP with Lisa Niven Kelly and Aisha Formanski

SALE on all my online classes at Beaducation.com!!!

Big sale on not only my classes but everyone else's as well!

We recently dropped the price on a few of our classes, and now with a 35% sale goin' on, there is no better time to stock up!  Remember the classes never expire :)

Discounted price will reflect in your shopping cart.

Interview on About.com

A big thanks to Tammy Powley for this fun interview!
There is some interesting info in here ;)

Lisa Niven Kelly, The Techniques Master

By Tammy Powley, About.com Guide

Pimp My Bench...wooo!

This post is copied from my other blog at beaducation.com :)

Every day when I get to work, I sit down at my desk with a mug of Chai tea and begin the day with a glance around my office. Having no shame, I will share with you what I used to see:

I'm lucky enough to have a personal office with a built-in "Creative Workspace" and I had allowed that whole corner of my office to turn into a dumping spot. It was cramping my creativity big-time! 

The first step is admitting there's a problem, right? The second step is taking action!

PIMP MY WORKSPACE!

I considered buying a proper jeweler's bench, but instead I kinda made my own. My tabletop was a solid wood door, so I had our contractor, Dave, come in make a rounded cutout. Voila!

As you can see in the "Before" photo, the wood door was resting on IKEA storage cabinets. Functional, yes. Fashionable, not so much. So I had Dave attach real table legs. This worked great! The table is incredibly stable, it's the perfect height, and I have more space underneath. Only one problem -- the legs were ugly. Fabric and a staple gun to the rescue!

I have been collecting fabric for awhile (I don't sew...but I might someday - ha!). I cut the fabric in strips wide enough to wrap around the leg with a little overlap and folded the ends over before stapling it to the wooden legs. I had no rhyme or reason to the patterns or lengths, I just kinda went for it.


I really love how my new table turned out, and for a fraction of the cost of buying a generic jeweler's bench! Now... what to do with all those tools?

I always struggled for the perfect way to hang my hammers so they were out of the way, yet accessible. Pipe sleeves and spray paint solved my problem!

My main goal when redoing this space was to have all my tools organized in a smart and attractive way. Hammers had their new home, next came the pliers. An old quilt rack with shelf was the perfect solution. I painted the rack and lined it with contact paper to protect the painted wood from getting marred by the jaws of the pliers. This holds more pliers than one can possibly need (which is saying a lot coming from a tool addict like me!), and holds them at a perfect arm's reach.

I loaded this tool cabinet from Harbor Freight with files, drill bits, etc... 

A few finishing touches included stapling on some beaded trim ('cuz why not, right?) and hanging a few decorative hooks from Anthropologie. The real piece de resistance included spray painting over 20 picture frames and filling them with favorite images from my collection of Alice in Wonderland books. Dave installed my Italian light and BAM, I was in business.  

Finished product -- I LOVE IT!  I am giddy every morning when I come in and see this inviting workspace. I can't wait to create, create, create!

Vamos a la Playa!

This year for Spring Break, we headed to a beach house in San Diego for a very RELAXING vacation. Yes, that picture is 3 bff mommies and SEVEN kids. The men stayed home. Relaxing you ask? Yes, it really was. We have hit that stage where our kids are self sufficient and we no longer have to watch them like mommy hawks!

The sunsets, the sisterhood and the joy of kids has me super inspired and charged.  I came up with 3 new designs while walking on the beach. Bring it summer...I am so ready for more sunshine!

First Beaducation Design Challange

We have been having some fun at work over at Beaducation.  Work and fun often go hand in hand in our office!
We had our first (of many, I am sure) Design Challenge!  Woohoo!
We started with this.

To see what we made, hop on over to the Beadyo Blog.

DIY Project! Make Your Design Stamp Holder for $3!!!

Pulled this one over from my other blog at Beaducation.com.  Who doesn't love a good DIY project :)


Last week we received this inquiry on Facebook from our pal Keona. Great question Keona!

Unfortunatly, no, we don't have a holder for some of those larger design stamps....but that question got my creative juices flowing. I too hate the fact that all my beloved design stamps get to stand tall and proud in a holder, while the larger stamps have to lay on their side like they are napping.

I love a challenge! The first thing that came to mind was floral foam. I headed on down to JoAnn Fabrics (just a hop and skip from our office) and bought a block.  It worked great, but it was messy. The foam kinda flakes off all over the place. I formulated a new plan, tested it out and LOOK AT THIS, a custom Design Stamp holder that cost me $3 to make!

Here is how you can make one too!  Head on down to the craft store and dollar store for a block of styrofoam or floral foam and a baking tin or some sort of box (some dollar stores might have both).

Use a knife to cut the foam to fit nice and snug into your container.  Place a stamp (image side down) at desired location in the foam and hammer them down (use a soft head hammer like a Plastic Mallet) until 1/3rd of the stamp has sunk into the foam.  Repeat for all the stamps.  Perhaps leave some space for future stamps.

I know what you are thinking..."Hey wait a second, what is that writing on the side?".  Well, since the container I chose was metal, I couldn't resist stamping on it (yes, I stamped it before putting in the foam).  Again, bring on the challenge! I had to build a strong stamping surface in the container so I busted out my Sandbag, Bench Block and any available piece of wood that would fill the left over space. I didn't get regular and strong resistance so the stamping came out uneven (depth-wise) and it was a bit awkward, but it worked! I used the Wackadoodle Uppercase and Lowercase.

Other ideas...

• Cover the foam in fabric and cut a hole for each stamp.
• Paint the foam.
• Use decorative scrapbook paper to cover your foam.
• Use a beautiful Kleenex box as your box and just cut the top off.
• Use one of the many DVD boxes in paper or even bamboo from The Container Store.
• Use a soap tray and cut your foam to fit.
• Make your own wooden box with plywood. 

We love a challenge, and we love to save money. More DIY projects soon :)
And remember, Facebook is a great place to ask a question. We promise you will get a quick and thorough reply :)

Sweet Savings over at Beaducation.com

Beaducation.com is having a Cyber Monday SALE!  We chose our most popular category... Sterling Silver Blanks.  Great time to stock up on some of those fun shapes that you have been wanting to try!  Sale is supposed to start at midnight, but Paul and I are pooped and we want to go to bed!  There is a bit of manual work to be done to post a sale.  We just finished...happy shopping...nighty night!

This sale is good on in-stock products only.  Sorry, no rain checks.

Test Gallery

Last day of STAMP SALE at Beaducation.com

C'mon now, a sale like this doesn't happen very often.  This is a great time to stock up on those stamps you have been wanting so badly :)

25% off ALL Letter Stamp Sets - yep, all!

~ ~ ~

25% Design Stamps - 219 designs on sale! 

Our newest batch is not on sale.

Beaducation's New Digs...continued!

Hey all!  Earlier this week I wrote a post over on Beaducation's blog with lots of before and after pix of our new office.  Hop on over and check it out :)

Campin' and Stampin'

A few weeks ago, we made our annual journey to the Strawberry Music Festival.  Camp was great, music was fabulous, the weather....not so much (it snowed on us a bit!).

When the sun popped out, out came the tools and I stamped about 50 pendants for the folks in our camp.  I have discovered my new all time favorite place to stamp....ON A STUMP!

My goodness, I have never had such a successful stamping session.  The resistance from ol' mother nature was perfect.  No wobbly table, no bounce back, just a strong stable foundation from deep in the earth.  It also helped that I was using a high quality Beaducation stamps set :)

Team Beaducation! PLAY BALL!

Beaducation is the proud sponsor of the Blue Stars... Redwood City Girls Softball League!

Tough!

NEW DIGS!!!

We've made the big move!  Beaducation has a new home.  We have moved from 2000 square feet to 5700 square feet. Room to spread out. More room for creativity and product. We even have a dance floor.  Well, it's a large open space affectionately referred to as "the dance floor". The kitchen is huge, the creative space is huge, the shipping/warehouse has tripled in size.  We have 6 private offices, 3 custom built "cubes", 5 bathrooms and a secluded, quite shootio (shooting + studio = shootio).

On friday we unpacked the last of the mountains of green "green" bins that we rented (need moving boxes?  ZippGo is amazing!).  Late friday we put together the "creative room". Today I finished building our cubicle walls...more on that once I get the pix off my camera.  And also today I taught my daughters how to use a power drill and they put together their desks for my office (only stripped 2 screws).  My new office is super big! I can fit a desk for each of them (complete with 2 bottles of glue, 2 sets of pens, 2 sets of pencils, 2 scissors, 2 things of tape, 2 sets of pliers, 2 mix packs of wire....can you tell we have been having a bit of a sharing issue in my house lately). I even have room for a couch, work table AND I have my own bathroom....my own bathroom!!!

I will be posting a big "before and after" blog soon.  This building has made an amazing transformation.  All the Beaducators are super excited about our new home.

But for now....here are 2 "before" pictures.  Notice the nasty lighting, the lack of floor and the horrible light grey with dark grey trim paint job.  All that is gone now! More soon......

It's out...it's on the newsstands...the latest issue of Wirework Magazine!  This special issue is produced by Kalmbach, the publishers of Bead&Button Magazine and Art Jewelry Magazine.

Check it out, and let me know if you try my project....it's a dooozy!

This issue has a lot of really cool wirework projects.  The editor did a great job of finding creative, fresh and inspiring projects.

- 20+ ALL-NEW necklace, bracelet, ring, and earring projects
- Projects for beginner to intermediate skill levels
- Step-by-step photos and instructions tested by the editors
- Reference information including wire types, gauge, shape, and hardness
- A wire lovers guide to wireworking tools
- Techniques such as wrapping, coiling, twisting, chainmaking, hammering,
- And much more!

ENGRAVE IT

I am having so much fun with our new Engraving tool over at beaducation.com.  I am engraving everything in sight....jewelry, tools, my desk, my fingernails (accident and then on purpose), my metal water bottle, and oh so much more.

I didn't do that cute ass owl, Danelle did!