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While the whole world tries to comprehend the Haitian disaster and do their best to help the Haitian people, some jewelry artists have been turning their skills and ingenuity towards charitable ways of raising money to help the earthquake victims. Time and time again I am always proud and encouraged by the way so many people turn to making jewelry to help their favorite charity, and the people who have begun making jewelry to Haiti are no different.

Of course, Beverly Hills jewelry designer Raju Rasiah’s donation of all his jewelry from the Golden Globes to help Haiti has been in all the news, but he’s just one jewelry maker out of thousands all over the world who are interested in helping. And while there have been plenty of celebrities starting to work towards helping Haiti, it’s more heartening in my mind to see regular jewelry makers and real people pulling together to help Haitians. It’s still early yet, but there are already jewelry makers and beaders and designers who are trying to raise money and awareness with their creations.

Here are some other people using the jewelry they made to help Haitian earthquake victims:

Donate now to have a chance at winning an Ida Jefsen original necklace!

Ida Jefsen is Holding a Donation Auction for Jewelry: It was only a few months ago that I wrote about the amazing pieces being made by jewelry designer Ida Jefsen! Now she’s helping Haiti by offering a one-of-a-kind piece of handmade jewelry to the person who donates the most to the MercyCorps Haitian relief effort through her MercyCorps donation page! Her goal is to raise $500 before this Wednesday, and she says that she’ll start another round of giving jewelry away to the high donation on Thursday! This is a unique opportunity to raise a lot of money for Haiti while also having a chance to win a great piece of jewelry from a wonderful jewelry designer!

Ann Weydert: Lots of news outlets are reporting on the jewelry making efforts of Ann Weydert. She was making jewelry for Haiti long before the earthquake struck. She was making jewelry and giving the money to an organization called Food for the Poor which was able to use that money to build two homes and even construct a water well for the people of Haiti. Ann normally saves up all her jewelry money and then makes one donation at the end of the year, but now she’s sending down her them money she makes from her jewelry as soon as she can because it is needed immediately to buy aid supplies and food.

Ruth Adomunes: Like Ms. Weydert, Ruth Adomunes has been making jewelry for Haiti long before the earthquake struck. Ruth began making bracelets on a whim and was soon raising money for the Haitian Health Foundation on the suggestion of a friend. The organization used the money to build “Happy Houses” which cost just $500 to build, but were much better than the shanties that were being lived in. The Boston Globe featured a story about Ruth Adomunes’ jewelry making for Haiti a few years ago if you want to read more!

Lots of Etsy Jewelry Designers: Okay, I admit… there are too many kind and generous bead jewelry makers out there to even mention! One quick search for all the Haitian relief jewelry on sale on Etsy and you know that lots of people are trying to help out any way they can. Some people are donating all of their jewelry profits, others are giving a percentage, and some are even donating all the money make from selling jewelry, which means they are giving away the money it cost them to make the jewelry as well! There is even an Etsy collective known as Help For Haiti which is selling donated jewelry and giving the money to Doctors Without Borders.

These are just some of the many, many people who are helping to raise money for Haiti… If you are aware of others, or you’re making jewelry for Haiti yourself, please let me know!

As you may have guessed, I love bead jewelry and I love beads! At the beginning of each year my husband and I start looking around for some place to go for vacation, and while searching I ran across a bead museum in Washington, DC! Then, as I looked some more, I found four different bead museums scattered around the country. I haven’t been to any of them, but here they are so that if any of you are traveling or live near them you can check them out!

So here’s a brief synopsis of each, from east to west!

MBAD’s African Bead Museum - Detroit, MI - If you’re into African beads or art, then this is definitely the place for you! The MBAD African Bead Museum is one of the most well-known and perhaps largest collection of beads, textiles, sculptures and art from Africa and the Museum itself has been in operation for over 25 years, with the current 17,500 sq. foot location being a site to behold!

The Bead Museum - Glendale, AZ - If you’ve heard of one bead museum, it’s probably the one in Glendale, AZ. It was started in 1984 as a place to keep and display beads from different cultures throughout history. They have permanent as well as regularly changing exhibits as well as a museum store and a website filled with interesting information.

Picard Trade Bead Museum and African Art Gallery - Carmel Valley, CA - Here’s one I didn’t know about before I did my resaerch, but now I’m really looking forward to the next time I go to California! What’s amazing about this bead museum, other than the huge collection of art and beads, is that they have a large part of their collection on line! Right now they are featuring Venetian chevron/star beads from 1800 to the mid 1900s and they have lots and lots and lots of beautiful photos online. You can also access all the photos of the Picard Trade Bead Museum’s past bead exhibits.

And one that’s now closed: Bead Museum - Washington, DC - Though now closed due to mounting operating costs, this museum once featured a large bead time line of history that was apparently pretty impressive and their website still has some information about bead shows in the MD/VA/DC area.

Of course, if anyone has been to any of these I would love to hear about them! Just leave a comment!

It’s the holiday season already and it’s time to start gift shopping for everyone on your list. Some artists and crafts people are very specific about the tools they use or the materials they work with, so you may want to look for gifts that are a little more helpful or fun instead of necessary. Obviously beginning jewelry makers will have different wants than professional jewelry makers, but there are some things that everyone appreciates. So here are some great gifts and gift ideas for jewelry makers:

Gift the Gift of Sparkle, with Jewelry Cleaners - The one thing every jewelry artist has is lots of jewelry! A jewelry cleaner will help keep her own jewelry dazzling and may also brighten up any jewelry she’s trying to sell, especially if she has a lot of stock. There are several different types of jewelry cleaners. The ultrasonic jewelry cleaners are inexpensive and work well for most general cleaning. The semi-professional steam jewelry cleaners are a little more expensive but they are also what many professionals use. These cleaners may not be safe to use for some costume jewelry, but for the higher end handcrafted jewelry made with real gemstones they should work well.

Gift the Gift of Display, with a Jewelry Tree - Decorative jewelry trees have been around for several years, but now they’re really “branching” out and getting more and more elaborate and beautiful! LOL! A decorative jewelry tree is the perfect place for your special jewelry maker to display her earrings, bracelets and even necklaces in her own home or at her sale table. I know several jewelry artists who use their tree for a dual purpose: they display their own jewelry at home, but then they pack up the tree and use it on the road to display the pieces they made and want to sell. Some jewelry trees are small and relatively simple, but others have gotten quite large and can be considered art objects in their own right!

Give the Gift of Inspiration, with Jewelry Magazines - I like to browse through all sorts of jewelry making and bead magazines just to get some inspiration for my own projects and to see what other people are doing. And unlike other magazines, jewelry magazines can be saved and read and referenced again and again. Sure, the styles change from year to year but the basic skills and tutorials don’t and sometimes you come across pieces that you didn’t have the skill to try the first time you read the article. Here are just some of the jewelry and bead magazines you can buy subscriptions to:

Jewelry Artist
Art Jewelry
Metalsmith
Bead & Button
Simply Beads
Step By Step Beads
Bead Unique

Give the Gift of Sight, with a Jewelry Making Light or Magnifier - This might fall under the category of “jewelry making tools” but giving someone a better lamp or some sort of special magnifying glass could be a very thoughtful gift. Some people I wrote an article about some of the lights and magnifying glasses and can be used for making jewelry recently, but that’s really just the tip of the iceberg. A decorative or inscribed magnifying glass could make a wonderful gift that has the chance to be cherished for many years.

Give the Gift of Organization, with the Bead Manager Pro Jewelry Inventory Program - If you’re shopping for the jewelry maker who is serious about turning her hobby into a business, then you may want to consider this affordable program for the MAC or PC which will allow her to keep track of all of her jewelry supply inventory, as well as customers and jewelry pieces she’s made and sold. I’ve written about different jewelry making programs before. Bead Manager Pro is affordable, easy to learn has lots of great jewelry and business management features!

Gift the Gift of Surprise, with Mixes Beads and Gemstones - When all else fails, you could always surprise that jewelry maker or bead lover with a big box of beads and gemstones of every sort! Now I’m not saying blow your budget and give her a box full of rubies (though I wouldn’t complain! LOL!) but you can get some great mixes of beads and stones for a relatively good price online. Another option is to hit some yard sales and buy up old jewelry pieces and combine them with a good mix of beads. For most jewelry makers being given a box filled with beads and jewelry for plundering is like being given a treasure chest of possibilities! You could even get clever and hide a little gift card to her favorite bead store or jewelry website at the bottom of the box!

Give the Gift of Fun, with the Nintendo DS game Style Lab: Jewelry Design - This one isn’t just for the kids! If you have a Nintendo DS (I know a few moms who have one for themselves!) then you can use this fun game to design your jewelry online the screen and then order real jewelry that’s made according to your virtual design specifications! Pretty neat! This is a great way to introduce jewelry design to beginners or just give the kids (or you, Mom!) something to do when you’re waiting somewhere and can’t pull out all your boxes of beads and jewelry supplies!

Give the Gift of Learning, with the 2010 Bead-A-Day Calendar - My husband got me one of these a few years ago and now I ask for one every Christmas (that’s how I know he reads my blog!) It’s basically 365 days of great bead jewelry making tips and tricks. Some tips are for beginners, some are more advanced, but like the jewelry magazines you can go back to them year after year and still learn something new each time!

Want even more great gift ideas for bead lovers and jewelry makers? Check out some of these gift lists from previous years:

More Gift Ideas for Beaders and Jewelry Makers
Even More Gifts for Jewelry Designers and Makers
Yet More Ideas for Bead Jewelry Makers

Yep, some gift ideas even show up on different lists year after year! There are lots of great things you can give that special jewelry maker in your life. If you share a home with a jewelry maker then sometimes one of the most precious things you can give is just a little time to let her be creative! Offer to take the kids out for an afternoon and let her blast her music and make some jewelry!

Whatever you do, I hope you and yours a Happy Holiday and a Merry Christmas!

If you’re looking to pick up some truly beautiful and classic retro and vintage looking jewelry, then you need to check out Ida Jefsen Design to see some of her amazing pieces!

Here’s one of many classic jewelry pieces from Ida Jefsen!

Ida Jefsen is a one-woman whirlwind of artistic endeavors and amazing talent with an international background that would make most of us here in the United States jealous! She currently lives and works in Oregon, but she grew up in Denmark and pursued a degree in Fashion Design in none other than Paris, France!

You can see all her international influences and more at her Ida Jefsen Design website. Her jewelry has a classic vintage feel that is never overdone or ostentatious. Ida’s jewelry mixes and matches many contrasting and different shapes and colors into sophisticated and coordinated pieces which really feel as though they came from a time long past. Almost everything she makes includes some intricate wirework and is hung on antique looking or brass chains, which really adds to the authenticity.

Thankfully, she hasn’t limited herself to just one medium with all that creativity. Her Ida Jefsen Design website features a variety of creative pursuits including jewelry making, photography and even graphic design! As an amateur photographer myself I’ve started to pay a lot more attention to how jewelry is photographed, and I was totally blown away by some of the photos on her site. Some of her photos of jewelry could easily be printed on canvas and stand on their own as a beautiful piece of artwork.

Her website has multiple large photos of each of her jewelry pieces, wonderful descriptions and she loves doing custom jewelry design. Some of her pieces are even designed to match with others and her site helps connect you to jewelry that coordinates with the piece you’re looking at. Even her website photos of her jewelry are beautifully and thoughtfully laid out. She makes bracelets, earrings, pendant and even photo necklaces (with her own photos of course) and they’re all like mini pieces of wearable art!

She sells most of her pieces through Etsy, so visit her website or cruise on over to the Ida Jefsen Designs Etsy store soon. She’ll even guarantee Christmas delivery if you order before December 10th!

Okay, so I have to tally from the month of October’s drive to donate jewelry money to breast cancer research. I’m going to give the money to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation because they seem to be one of the larger breast cancer fundraising organizations out there. Here is the breakdown of jewelry money raised by category:

Yay! We raised over $110 for Breast Cancer Research! The graphic is a quick screenshot of the donation my husband and I made today on our credit card!

And please remember that you can donate money to the Susan G. Komen Foundation or any other breast cancer charity or cause throughout the year, and not just during the month of October.

There are lots of worthy causes and lots of organizations that can always use donations, no matter how small or how large they are. I’ve written about a lot of different charity beading and jewelry organizations in the past and I’m proud that we were able to join their ranks with our small contribution!