Belle Armoire Jewelry

You may or may not have heard the news already, but for those who have been fans of the Belle Armoire series of magazines published by Stampington, you'll be happy to hear that Belle Armoire Jewelry is now officially as a quarterly publication ($14.95 + SH).

Stampington and Belle Armoire is known for its unique take on crafting, full of rich looking craft projects with than emphasis on artistic touches. In the issue out right now, Spring 2008, there's a little bit of everything with a maybe an extra emphasis on mixed-media jewelry.

Under the title of the magazine, it lists beadwork, mixed-media, claywork, and wirework, all of which are found inside the 140+ page issue, some of which you can see inside at the publisher's website. I think one of my favorite projects is "Weaving with Silver Clay" by Maria Martinez where she takes strips of metal clay and shows how you can weave them together to make a really cool variety of designs. It looked like a very "doable" project with a lot of different design possibilities. All of the jewelry tends to be more on the artistic side of the spectrum, no classic strand of pearls here. So, this will really appeal to anyone who enjoys using a lot of different techniques and media who isn't afraid to make more "out there" jewelry designs.