Writer Archives

The Big Transition

by Susan Campanini on 3/15/10 | View Comments Comment(s)

When I first started making beaded jewelry, it was just for family gifts. I didn’t really intend to run a business, but I found myself making earrings like crazy. Pretty soon, there just weren’t enough ears in my family! The only way to justify and pay for my bead addiction …



Oh, Those Lovely Bones!

by Susan Campanini on 3/09/10 | View Comments Comment(s)

Oh Those Lovely Bones
There’s a novel by Alice Sebold called The Lovely Bones that has recently been made into a feature film. I haven’t had a chance to read it yet, but I do know just how lovely bone beads are.

Bone is one of the very earliest materials used by …



Made of Glass

by Susan Campanini on 3/03/10 | View Comments Comment(s)

Introduction: Making glass beads is an extremely ancient human art, dating from Egyptian and Roman times. Modern glass beads are made by a variety of methods: wound, drawn, and molded. There are also composites, such as millefiore and chevrons, in which cross-sections of drawn glass cane are applied to a …



Bead Collection (Part II)

by Susan Campanini on 2/25/10 | View Comments Comment(s)

This is the promised follow-up article to last week’s piece about organizing and storing my bead collection of the past 20 years. First, I want to thank everyone who read the article, especially those who added such kind comments. Everything about creating handmade goods is so personal—why, what, where, and …



Organizing and Storing a Collection

by Susan Campanini on 2/17/10 | View Comments Comment(s)

Do you have a growing collection of beads or other craft materials? Organizing and storing it all can be a challenging and important part of the handmade process. I have been hunting down great beads for almost twenty years now. Over the years, my collection has certainly evolved, and I’ve …