Many of us these days are looking for ways to save money, and that is especially true with our jewelry making supplies. Sure, we can make great jewelry that would cost more to buy, but once you get into this form of art and craft, you can easily start racking up the jewelry supply bills. One option is to rethink findings and wire. Have you seen how much gold-filled wire goes for these days? Yikes!

Plated wire and findings is an option that many jewelry makers at least consider since you get the look without the cost of the real thing, but is plated a good idea? Share your thoughts on this topic by taking the poll below. Also feel free to elaborate by posting your thoughts in the comments section and/or over at the forum on a thread I started concerning the same subject.

Cindy Gimbrone, The Lampwork Diva
It's the end of the summer and Cindy's taking it easy this week. Her "Meandering" earrings express that end of summer relaxed attitude.

Earthenwood Studio Chronicles
Melanie shows off some new sparkly supplies from her friends at Auntie's Beads.

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!
It is so hard for Jean to believe it is September! She is cheered and honored by being Artbeads' "Spotlight Designer" on Facebook! Read about it on her blog!

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton
Even though he didn't physically go to the BeadFest show, Andrew still managed to score some amazing finds! Check out his loot from the show.

A Bead A Day
Do you have a favorite craft/jewelry glue? Lisa is looking for success stories so she can start gluing things to metal ring forms.

Art Bead Scene
Let's Rewind and ask ourselves, do your customers see your work as you do?

Beading Arts
Cyndi is helping her readers show off the best thing they made this summer!

Carmi's Art/Life World
A stationary set found in storage results in a new necklace for Carmi.

In the States, Labor Day Weekend is coming up. That means most of us get a three day weekend. For some, this might mean a night out at the movies or a day at the beach. For those who craft, like make jewelry, it might mean more time to do what we love to do. Take this quick poll and comment about your own crafting and weekend plans, even if you don't necessarily get an extra day this weekend.

Well-known mixed-media artist and beader Cyndi Lavin has taken an interesting approach to writing a book. Instead of going through the traditional publishing route, she instead is self-publishing her book called Every Bead Has a Story. Along with deciding on self-publishing versus having a hardcopy publishers help her out, Cyndi is selling her book a chapter at a time in downloadable e-book form as pdf files. Her first chapter was free, and then she is selling each chapter that follows.

Now she is onto her third chapter, "Dimensional Beading" ($3.00), which continues on the idea of beaded embroidery. This is the description of the chapter from her blog: "93 pages long and covers more stitches and techniques to take your bead embroidery from flat to fluffy: stacked stitches that turn into clusters, barnacles, and ruffles; seed beads that become small flowers and spiral elements; bezels and bails and more! There are two step-by-step embroidery projects included that will put those techniques to excellent use."

So far, it sounds like this approach is working for Cyndi since I have heard a lot of positive feedback through the blogosphere about the various chapters. Bead embroidery is a beautiful technique but can seem overwhelming. This breaking down chapter by chapter helps make it more assessable, and readers get the extra advantage of purchasing the book parts or purchasing it chapter by chapter and learning as they go.