About Our Guild

Guild Description:
Our guild represents a wide variety of jewelry artists with unique talents and techniques, as well as the suppliers of beads and beading supplies.
Guild Mission:
To gather together Jewelry Design and Jewelry Supply Studios for the purpose of sharing information, ideas, techniques, and strategies for promoting our Artfire Studios.

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Featured Studio of the Week: StudioOnTheHill


The StudioOnTheHill is owned by Karen who hails from Rochester Hills, Michigan. Karen is not only an accomplished Jewelry Artisan she is also makes her own jewelry supplies and sells them to other artisans to create their own jewelry with.

The StudioOnTheHill is her original shop which has lots of high quality hand made supplies and jewelry. When you look at the sections in Karen's shop you can't miss the fact that this artisan loves copper--whether it is rosy, antiqued, colored, or just plain copper. Need copper wire for your wire wrapped designs? Well, this is the place to come to. Need some copper ear wires? Well, this is the place to come to. Need copper head pins? Well, this is the place to come to. She has a great selection.

Our Karen is not just a jewelry artist. She is also an instuctor that has been teaching private and group classes for a number of years now. She is presently teaching in the "Paint Creek Center Of the Arts" in Michigan. Hey Karen, it would be nice if you weren't so far away!

Karen's latest passion ( and we all know about that) is designing with metal and wire. She also is a lover of Swarovski crystals and lampwork glass

Recently, Karen opened another shop on artfire just for her own jewerly designs. Be patient because she is in the process of adding new creations:
http://artisanjewelry.artfire.com/

Karen says that if you come by her place she will usually be found in her studio with a torch in one hand and a piece of glowing metal on the soldering brick. And of course that metal is definitely copper, oh yea, and silver too.

Karen has a web site so you can keep up with her latest activites:
http://www.studioonthehill.net/

If you want to keep up with what's happening in her studio she has a blog:
http://www.todayinthestudio.blogspot.com/

Any comments can be left here, hers shops, her website, and her blog.

Please take a few moments to look over her fabulous artistry.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Featured Studio of the Week: LaDeDaCreations


LaDeDaCreations is quite a "cool" studio to visit. I guess that's because the owner, Laura, is probably a reincarnated "flower child" of the late 60's and 70's. Yes, you read that right, a reincarnated "flower child". Are you wondering why I said this? Well her studio is filled with items that are in her own words, "groovy, fun, and crazy". Now that's a "flower child"!

Laura loves the whimisical and wierd and it shows up in the colors, shapes, and kind of items she creates. And she creates quite a potpourri of things from jewelry, to jewerly displays, to incense holders, book marks, and even banners and avatars. Now that is quite an interesting list of handmade items in one studio. She certainly is quite a talented "flower child"!

Polymer clay is probably the material that she is addicted to using when she is in her creative mode. She is quite skilled with using this medium in her works of art. She makes jewelry, incense holders, and jewelry displays using this clay. She is quite adept at mixing colors and creating "groovy" patterns with the clay.

Laura, being a riencarnated "flower child" also loves to create with "hippie hemp".That's the cord that is used in the art of macrame, or knot tying. She makes fabulous jewelry with the hippie hemp alone or with polymer clay.
Wire wrapping techniques are also used in a lot of her creations. Hey, this is definitely one multi-talented lady, oops, I mean "flower child".

In her personal life she is the co-owner of a fabulous spa called "Laura's Garden Spa". It's a place to get pampered and have some fun. And you will find lots of her artistic creations of jewelry and more in the gift shop of the spa.

Please take a few minutes to visit LaDeDaCreations to see some of the fabulous jewelry and more that Laura has made.
If you have any questions that you would like to ask Laura or comments you'd like to make please contact her through her studio.

http://LaDeDaCreations.artfire.com

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Featured Studio of the Week: DWhiteCreations

DWhiteCreations features handcrafted jewelry that has a definite ethnic flare. Dawn, the owner of DWhiteCreations prides herself in designing and creating pieces of jewelry that are creatively different.

Dawn is a trained goldsmith. Unfortunately she doesn't have a bench to work on at this time. However, she is quite resourceful and is currently learning new jewelry making techniques that do not require any soldering. Actually, learning new jewelry techniques happens to be something she loves to do, as well as, working with all kinds of beads.

Dawn is really quite a multi-talented artist. Her talents range from being a free-lance artist, a photographer, and a journalist.

Recently, Dawn was promoted to teacher status at JewelryLessons.com. Kudos to you Dawn on this new role. On March 23rd of this year she had her first tutorial on how to make a "Jewelry Stand" published. How exciting is that??? This great tutorial is available to see at:

http://jewelrylessons.com/jewel/node/18640/

This tutorial demonstrates, in detail, how to make a jewelry stand. The total cost for the materials are only 50 cents. What a bargain for such a necessary item to have when selling your jewelry at fairs or home parties. This tutorial is for free so it's a great idea to check it out. If you have any questions or comments you can contact Dawn through her artfire studio.



Please take a few moments to look at the lovely jewelry pieces that Dawn has created at her artfire studio---

http://dwhitecreations.artfire.com/

Monday, May 4, 2009

Spring Cleaning and Treasure Hunt Event

After all the planning and all the setting up our Spring Cleaning and Treasure Hunt Event is now over. During this event guild studios had increased views and great sales. Many thanks to all you fabulous guild members who promoted our event on their blogs, twitter, facebook, plurk, my space, and other sites.
Our grand prize winner was Ruth Ekiert who has an artfire studio named "trinketsandtreasures". Congratulations Ruth for locating 20 of our studios with the special treasure hunt phrase. We hope that you enjoy wearing the lovely handcrafted necklace that you won.

Now, that things have calmed down we will be preparing some fun activities with giveaways in the near future.
So remember to touch base with our blog to find out the details of our next guild activity.