Month: December 2012

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Interview: Bead Photographer

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Q. So you’re the person that takes the photos for the website? How did you get that sweet gig? A. Well – it sort of came with the rest of the job as being the person that processes everything, writes the descriptions, and gets it onto the website. You gotta have pictures … . Q. Absolutely. Walk us through the process – what goes into photographing a bead? A. I start with a box of beads – usually all from one wholesaler. I’ll empty the box and sort it, and get a sense of what I need to do. If …

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The Joy of Metal Clay: Easy Make-it-Yourself Textures

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I bought some Scratch-Foam Board to try out as I have heard it is a quick and easy way to make your own textures.  It a thin white foam board that you can easily “scratch” your texture onto the board. The instructions say ” With just a pencil, lollipop stick or ball-point pen, any child can ‘cut’ a block”. I tested it and it really is that easy. My fish bone print.  I hope to use this with a pottery dish I am going to be making for my cat.   A random heart print.  I am not sure if I …

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The Business Chat – You’re in the drivers seat.

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It’s that time of year again. No, not the I-can’t-believe-I-ate-all-that time – it’s that time where everybody starts talking about resolutions. Ho hum. We make them then we break them, both personally and professionally. It’s darn easy to be sitting on the couch with a beverage and some chocolate and talk about all the great things you will do for your business starting on Tuesday January 1. Until that alarm clock goes off on morning of the 1st and it goes downhill from there. So this year don’t even go there. No promises to faithfully blog twice a week. Or …

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What a Year It’s Been!

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It’s hard to believe that 2012 is almost over. And what a year it has been at beadFX! There was THE MOVE to end all moves. All those beads and goodies that were packed up, moved over and unpacked. It was really a group effort and wild when you realize that the store was closed for less than a week! Then there was the inventory of every single item in the store….that was quite the job and a big thank you to everyone who came out and helped with that endeavour. The new store, for those of you who haven’t …

BeadFX Weekly World News

State of the Onion

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No new stuff this week – so we thought we’d do a little recap of last year and give you a peek into the future as to what is coming up in the new year! About this time last year, we were madly packing – as we were moving into new premises. We doubled our floor space, increased our back office/counting/packaging/shipping area, and added a big classroom, a metal-smithing studio, and a redesigned, state of the art lampworking studio. Around the middle of the year – we installed a new point of sale system in the store for faster and …

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Merry Beading to all and to all a Good night!

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by popular request – we’re running this post again this Christmas eve.  by Dwyn Tomlinson Merry Beading to all and to all a Good night! T’was two nights before Christmas, and the malls were all hopping Not a beader was beading, they were all madly shopping Oh, the beads and the tools were all lined up with care In the hopes that spare moments soon would be there The kids were distracted, farmed out with their Gran It was now the last minute – and a do-or-die plan Just a few left to go, it’s a workable list I’m checking …

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The Joy of Metal Clay: Cutting Tools to Use with Stencils

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Last week I mentioned that I got the QuikArt Standard Stylus (from Art Clay World USA – retail $5.79) to use to cut stencil shapes with metal clay  (I usually use a pin tool rather than a craft knife; often, I find mya craft knife will accidentally notch the clay).  This week I managed to test the QuikArt Stylus.  I compared it to my favorite pin tool, the Ultra Clay Pick (which I bought from Cool Tools US – current retail $11.97) and to an Economy Needle Tool (I picked mine up at a pottery supply store for a dollar or two). Above is a photo …

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The Business Chat – Your “I’m great” list

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Well I don’t know about you, but on December 23 I have to say that business is one of the last things on my mind right now. Even I, as a hard-core seller am done with it for the year. At least I’m done with all the making, selling, photographing, writing, admin-ing, social media-ing work of running my business. There is still one last task to do. It’s a fun one (depending on your definition of fun). My last task is my annual review. My review is not just how I functioned in my “job”, or how well the “company” …

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The Dixon Chick Picks

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Hiddy ho! I thought I would post some of the products that I picked this week for our new feature on Facebook – The Dixon Chick Pick of the Day. Every day I share one of my favourite items available at beadFX. I realized that not everyone who reads our blog may be on Facebook. I could not deprive our faithful blog readers, so I thought I would share some of my MOST favourite picks. If you have not been assimilated into the cult of Facebook, it’s really not as bad as you think. There are lots of “fan”pages on …

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It’s beginning to look – not even remotely like Christmas

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Well, here anyway. Some parts of the country have snow and cold – Vancouver has been crippled by a staggering inch of snow – businesses are closed and the roads are a mess. But it’s been insanely great weather for December here – sunny and mild. Consequently – speaking personally – Christmas has snuck up on me – yet again. Along with the apocalypse, apparently – to which I have to say – what, another one? We survived the last three end-of-the-worlds. I’m not worried about this one. If you’d like to ornament yourself, instead of the tree (or as …