Books about Making Jewelry with Pearls

Beading with Pearls: Beautiful Jewelry, Simple Techniques (A Lark Jewelry Book)

Dear Good Reader,

I've become fascinated by Pearls. I've learned how to knot, how to use Beadalon Bead Bumpers (hard to find - Firemountaingems.com has a private label kind. Not as nice but less expensive if you are buying a number of items. I'm learning how to combine them with other beads like Garnet, as I said in an earlier post, but also Angelite, a beautiful pearl-like blue stone and with silver chain. I'm also making a few sets of cluster earrings.
If you want some instructions for how to make these beautiful strands, I recommend the firemountaingems.com website which has a bunch of designs of different types. I love to cook, and I appreciate lists of ingredients and instructions, but I rarely follow them to the letter or anywhere near that. I'm a good cook.
I am even more adverse to following instructions too closely when it comes to making jewelry and prayer beads. Or music. Or Life I guess... I am intuitive. Are you? I find that if I follow my sense of things, they turn out at least a bit magic. I don't feel like I am any different from most artist type people. These books that you can check out at Amazon.com from here all have beautiful photos and give you the list of beads and all the designer used to make them. They even have resources at the end where you can go online to get the exact ingredients. All good. I do suggest getting on as many good bead and finding sites as you come across, as they will often have private sales.
I've got to admit that unless I have something that I need for a piece that is very specific, I am somewhat addicted to eBay for beads and findings. If you are up early one morning, or late at night, check out eBay, watch the shipping costs with all your might, as you can be really ripped off by international shipping costs, and outrageous handling costs if you are not careful, but once you know to look for the Free Shipping orange circle, you can find auctions about to be over with one or no bidders at $.99 or even $.01! Be careful with this, it does add up, but eBay is truly one of the very best outlets for loose beads, loose gemstone beads, vintage jewelry that you might want to play with, and all sorts of good deals. I am at the point that I know what the various components cost, and that is a good thing for figuring out whether something is really a bargain. but still, You can have lots of fun for $20 on eBay in the off hours. Let me know how it goes for you! Have fun, and start to feel the purity of the pearls, the energy of red garnet (it also comes in deep green, light green, shades of brown, yellow and orange, purple and black! These are different garnets with the same chemical make up but with different contaminants that color them in wonderful ways. Each of the colors of garnet, for example, have a different vibration. Start to feel these to know what bead is going to "sing" next to the other, and which don't work.
Most people don't start out knowing what I'm talking about. However, keep in your mind that basically everything in the Universe of universes is vibration. We are all colonies of whirling atoms, and subatomic particles, none of us solid, all of us beautiful in our specific energy signatures... it is not a concept, it is the way of this place. It is very cool.

Love Is,

Dr. Laurie