Myra Nicholas:
Charm and Kit Diva
partzdiva@notjustpartz.com
PJ Sweeney:
Glass Diva
PJewelry2@aol.com

About Us

FABULOUS PARTZ FOR CRAFTING, JEWELRY MAKING, ALTERED ART Handpicked or handcrafted materials you're not likely to find anywhere else for you to make jewelry, hair accessories, decorate your own craft project. We do the treasure hunting, so you can spend your time creating fabulous art. Product questions? Email Save 15-30% with Mixed & Match Partz: 14 categories (the best of our "partz") for you to make your own bundle... designer pricing AND a wide variety of choices!

$30 MINIMUM     CHARM INDEX    PARTZ INDEX

LINKS

I'm finally organizing my links so you, the viewer can actually find something!! Links..some narrated & contributed by PJ, and some of Myra's that may lead you to even more interesting partz! All in no particular order, so browse at will!

Other Crafters/Artists doing neat or related things
Animal Rescue Foundations using my partz, or others partz as fundraisers
Suppliers of beads and neat stuff

Beading supplies
General Craft
Funky & unusual Stuff

Sites where neat ideas, inspiration & resources can be found
Sites where I found interesting techniques and uses of materials
Guilds, Organizations, Galleries & Shops that carry or cater to crafters
Publications and sites of interest to Crafting
Polymer clay links
Fractal Stuff For those wanting to look at more fractal links
Links i can't classify, but still find really kool
Link Partners Folks with whom I am exchanging links (after checking out their websites & liking their stuff. The web gives you the ability to find (and be found) by wonderful artists!

Artist Sites

First and foremost, there's Donna's Twist 'n' Curl.

finished glass jewelry from the fabulous P.J. Sweeney!!

Kim Joy is one of the most creative and fun artists i know. Together we've spent many hours brainstorming new kit or class ideas. Combine an incredible mind and artistic curiosity, there's a force to be reconed with! She's a member of the National Capital Art Glass Guild, Northern Virginia Bead Society and NOVA PMC Guild.

Wolfe Run Studio..A extraordinary artist, Bill Harrah now has his own web site.

WhimsicalClayCreations.com. Oscelyn Brooks is truly talented. Her work in polymer clay consists of wonderful and whimsical collectibles. As she says "I am now creating my own sculpted pieces from dragons to cats to miniature houses and lots of things in between. My inspiration comes from many places, books, nature, my children, life experiences and from my own creativity. " I call her style Disney meets Cabbage Patch and makes a slight turn. Very original and a warm and funny woman as well!

1 Of A Kind Designs.... Affordable, handmade beaded earrings, bracelets & necklaces made with Semi-Precious Gemstones, Lampwork Beads, Swarovski & Czech Crystals with free shipping. 1 of a kind beaded jewelry.

Animal Rescue Fundraisers

AARF Animals in Winston Salem, aids homeless and helpless cats and dogs in the greater Winston-Salem area; providing rescue and adoption services, information, and education while encouraging the human/animal bond. I recently put up a fundraising jewelry site for them

Cats Rule a wonderful organization in Northern Virginia with a focus on feral cats, was put together by my friend Vickke, who is very dedicated. I hope to help in in future months as she does more fundraising. They just attained their 5013(c) status. Check out their FAQ for more animal rescue links.

Suppliers

Beads & Beading Supplies

Beadalon..Wonderful suplies, including permanently colored wire. I always look forward to them being at the Vienna (VA) Bead Bazaar in October.

Bali silver beads wholesale.. a wide range of bali silver beads and silver from Indonesia. Prices are very reasonable for international sourcing.

Bead Babe..Huge selection of beads and such. New supplies every month, auctions, newsletters. Nifty site.

Beyond Beadery.. Specializing in seed beads from 6/0 to 15/0.

Eastern Findings..Huge selection, small minimum order, over 15,000 jewelry findings and supplies.

Fire Mountain Gems and Beads .. America's favorite beads and jewelry making supplies. Largest selection of beads and components at wholesale prices. I find unique items there i don't find anywhere else and their "lunar pearls" and other unusual finished glass beads are a great find.

General Bead
Huge selection of delica and antique beads. Close outs also.

Guyot Bros. is one of my best kept secrets... They're Leaders in ornamental stampings since 1904, first big point... and they have the most incredible selection of raw brass Filigree, Ornaments, and Charms & Novelties. They're stricktly wholesale, so be prepared to buy by the gross, but you'll get wonderfully high quality stampings in a wonderfully interesting array of designs. I use them for my kitz!

Ornamental Resources.. Wide selection, some very different findings. Find specialty items like 3-4mm flat and pointed back rhinestones in 2-4mm sizes, perfect for our filigree kits. and Colorful Jump Rings

Rings n Things.. A good source for jewelry supplies.

Rio Grande.. A great place for tools, display goods, findings, etc.

Shipwreck Beads..A great resource for your bulk flower and, butterfly and leaf beads purchases. And check out their great selection of color bead mixes. Perfect for special events, demos and hands-on teaching!

Star's Beads A wonderful local (DC Area) shop that not only has fantastic classes (every one i know is teaching there), but has stuff from all over and an inpeccable eye for what's going to be hot.

Softflex..A good site for lots of stringing supplies and tips and tricks.

TSI Inc...Wide assortment of tools, supplies and components.

Went to Pieces..This site is a special service of BeadNeed/Beadaholics in West Fort Lauderdale, Florida. They specialize in hard to find stuff.

Wholesale Beads
BeadStoreSupplies.com is the definitive directory for online wholesale beading supplies.

Wig Jig..Marvelous tools and supplies. The legacy of a grand local lady, Marge Helwig, making good. Plus the products work!

POLYMER CLAY LINKS

Polymer Clay Central The main goal of this site is to promote Polymer Clay in every way, shape and form imaginable, throughout the world, and to do this in a safe, respectful and welcoming environment.

The secondary goal is to help EVERYONE promote their contributions to Polymer Clay, be it artistic creations, web sites, businesses, information, ideas, techniques, Guilds, or just a love of Polymer Clay.

Polymer Clay Express has all types of neat things you might want to use with your polymer clay projects. Also follow their links to even more tutorials & projects. Great selection of fresh polymer clay, and they're fabulous folks to do business with!

Glass Attic says its the "encyclopedia" of polymer clay information and they're not kidding. Zillions of links to everything, a discussion list that is guaranteed to keep you reading, and so many fantastic ideas!!! Great place to start!

PC Projects Judith Perry's awesome site full of so many projects

Polymer Clay Store has a very nice selection of Polymer Clay, in the 2-oz size as well as the 13 oz size in fimo, premo as well as cutters, findings and more! Check out the tutorials! Good resource!

chadiscrafts by Eileen Chadis Wood. A website overflowing with links, good projects (especially for kids...and not just polymer clay) and a great source for Judaica. Lots of great links on every page. Another good place to start the search for a new technique.

Specifically Craft Supplies

Art Emboss..This is the site for American Art Clay. They carry embossing metal sheets and other craft supplies as well.

Dick Blick Art Materials has a nice blend of fine arts materials and neat stuff you can do crafty things with. I recommend their molding material for creating polymer clay moldss. From structural acrylic paint to nifty finishes and colors that are hard to find.

To Sell Wholesale, You Have to BUY Wholesale You can save up to 75% on Art Supplies at MisterArt.com

East West Dye Corp..Looking for a place for a wide variety of aluminum products. They will also do custom work.

Hygloss
A great source for craft materials. They specialize in "bright, colorful, reflective and just plain old ‘neat' crafting materials" I agree! (Found their ad in CraftTrends magazine)

Jo-Anne's locally and on-line is a great place to find the more unusual craft items. Their fabric and notions are also a good buy. I found their "computer fabric" stuff kind of neat, but try the Sulky metallic thread with your bead or paper project! Very funky, very unusual. Looks great!

JuleArt
A great place for interesting acrylic displays.

Lucky Squirrel
Artist grade PolyShrink shrink plastic. Pretty nifty stuff.

Silver Art Clay..Very interesting product, pretty good site.

Funky & Unusual Supplies (not necessarily for crafting, but can be fun)

American Science & Surplus A funky, you never know what you'll find kind of site. Surplus funk, a flea market on line, and a great source for some of coolest vials, containers, materials, lenses, motors, gears, electronic stuff and whatnots you'll ever see. Some great projects started here.

Flax Art & Design is a very cool resource. Great fun gifts, materials that are always neat to play with, and some very good craft kits & items sure to please the arty type. Be sure to check out their Paper Catalog which has some of the most beautiful handmade papers... and in sizes large enough to make a shoji screen!

GUILD.com A really neat site with some of the most beautiful handcrafted work! Check out the fun and functional metal section!

Techniques

About.com -- Jewelry Making

Wire-Sculpture.com..This is a great site for wireworkers -- all levels.

There are a lot of good techniques and tips on most of the sites listed here. So look thru them and look for sections labeled "projects", demos or something related.

Ideas & Resources for Projects (and ebooks by crafters)

Ebook, How To Create Your Own Fabulous Fascinators and Creative Cocktail Hats! Written for the creative, passionate milliner, as well as anyone, who has had the desire to use their hidden creative talents to produce a millinery masterpiece!!

A Software And E-book Package To Make Lifesized Cardboard Cutouts. Turn any good quality picture into a full-sized cardboard cut-out that looks just like the real thing. Almostbreathing.com provides you with an Ebook and software to turn any good quality picture into a life-sized stand up without the time and expense it takes to find a printer or website that specializes in life-size stand-ups. Almost Breathing- Life Sized People.

Make Gourmet Scented Candles. start making your own richly scented candles. The beautiful crystal patterns of the wax were so unique, something not seen in plain old paraffin or soy candles.

Learn How to Make Soap Like an Expert . The Super Soap Making Book. Everything You've Always Wanted And Needed To Know About How To Make Soap And Soap Products Easily. Includes Soap Recipes And How To Make Your Own Soap Recipes, As Well As Tips For Setting Up a Soap Business.

How To Start Your Own Perfume Oil Business and Make Your Own Personal & Custom Perfumes The Sweet Smell Of Success. Make Your Own Fragrances For Fun And Profit!

Learn How To Embroider The Easy Way With A Series Of Videos Demonstrating Ten Common Embroidery Stitches. Discover The Secrets To Making Money From Jewelry And Beading. Start Your Own Business Today.

Creating Personalized Candy Wrappers and Custom Newspaper and Magazine Covers The Dapper Wrapper. Candy Wrappers For Fun & Profit - Unique Home Based Business.

One Stop Macrame Book. Macrame Ebook That Offers Easy To Follow Instructions, Knot Examples, Patterns, Materials Needed, Suppliers - All In One Book.

How to Make Your Own Hats from Scratch Yes, YOU Can Learn How to Design and Make Hats That Will Have Other People’s Heads Turning in Admiration!

The Secrets Of Flower Pressing. How To Press Flowers & Make Greeting Cards For Fun And Profit. A Creative & Inspiring Course With Instant Access.

How To Make Cigar Box Purses. New Video Series Teaches You The Secrets To Making Cigar Box Purses For Fun And Profit.

Complete Guide called Bead Patterns for Everyone, that teaches you in a Fast, Easy and Convenient Way to Begin Making Wonderful Bead Animals, Flowers and Jewelry. How To Make Beaded Creatures. This Complete Guide Teaches You How To Make Different Beaded Creatures With Very Detailed Step By Step Instructions And Pictures.

Clipart.com is still my absolute favorite place to get fantastic photos, clip art, fonts and everything you'd need for great graphics. Its by subscription (you can join for a week, a month, a year..still cheap..cheaper than buying one of those clipart collections and it has a good search engine). But the sheer volume of stuff they have is amazing. They've even got most of the old Dover Books graphics (if you're old enought to remember them) For you rubber stampers, my fav thing to do is to get on, search in the clipart for black & white not terribly detailed illustrations and print them out. Trace over them with fabric puff paint (make sure that tube tip is thin) and after 2 layers, you've got a decent raised surface to stamp on polymer clay. (i've not tried to use it with dye-based stamp pads, but it works great for large images and is a quick way to work up a design.

Stencil Girl A wonderfully delightful site that brings a new meaning to stenciling. Well worth a peruse and a lot of fun!! Direct quote from this site These unique designs are not for the faint of heart. If, however, you want people to stop and stare when they walk into your house you should really have a look through my stencil galleries" and she means it!!

The Carol Duvall Show Put this under techniques AND ideas!! If you don't watch it, then come here and find neat craft-related proejcts and how-to's. An incredible Resource!!

Other links of interest

My most favorite set of filters for Photoshop...and how i get those fantastic effects are from Alien Skin Software

Cliptomania.com LOVE the name, and after hearing all the grousing by folks who can't get decent clip-on earrings, i had to recommend this place. Cute site, nice stuff, good ideas.

Fonts.com I'm a real fan of typography and its amazing how different a message you can give with different fonts. This site also highlights type designers as artists. Very cool.

Art Pierson Photography.. Virtually all the photo images on the PJewelry site were taken by Art. Check out his site to see more of the range of his beautiful work. (I am sure you can tell the one or two I did. OK, my chosen field is glass, not photography.)

I'f you're a graphic artist like me and need royalty-free images to monkey about with (though i only use them for clients work), try PhotoSpin.... PhotoSpin lets you pay once and then get access to 30,000 royalty-free content files.

This to That.com
Looking for a site to find the right adhesive? This might be the place. Thanks to the warmglass discussion group.

Thomas Register..This is a great place to look for wholesale sources on just about EVERYTHING! When I am hunting for something, I start here. Most times I find it!

Walsh Brothers watches and jewellery, a great site for Craftsmen, Watchmakers, & Jewellers, has some very cools stuff on it. With clocks, zippo lighter stuff with a distinctly "UK" flair, there's a neat browse.

New-age Resources - new-age related news, books and web resources.

Craft Publications and Craft Sites

Art and Craft Show Calendar courtesy of Andrea Pretorian.

The 5 Elements of Seductive Craft Fair Booth Displays

Bead & Button Magazine .. A very informative source of information, suppliers, and ideas.

Craft Trends Magazine..This magazine is primarily for quilt/sewing shops, but I find it a great source for many other materials I might incorporate, and style trends.

The Crafts Report Magazine.. One of the best, if not THE best trade magazine for crafts people. I read it the minute it arrives. Great discussion board, also!

Jewelry Crafts Magazine..This magazine has hidden treasures. I find a lot of useful information. You may also!

Wire Artist Jeweller did a feature on one of our own Twisted Kitz last February.

Niche Magazine.. A wonderful magazine!.

After a wonderful email conversation with some folks in the UK, i urge you to check out the Textile Arts.net site for some interesting proejcts and ideas. Great stuff for arts teachers as well! A bit of comment from the: TextileArts.net... who?
artists, students, teachers, researchers, enthusiasts, suppliers ... you?

why?
to build a virtual arts centre for creative textiles, a place where people can meet, share and learn, find resources and supplies, showcase their work. If this inspires you, please get in touch with your ideas for how it could take shape, and let's make it happen. Now, doesn't that make you want to visit?
And also see what some very talented young artists are doing in the UK: with paper and fabric making beads.

Organizations, Galleries & Shops

Artisans Center of Virginia..This is the Official State Artisans Center, 601 Shenandoah Village Dr., Waynesboro, VA 22980, 540-942-3443. The gallery opened in June.

Artisans United Craft Gallery ..We call this place the "best kept secret in Fairfax County". The gallery is located in the Fred M. Packard Center in Annandale Community Park (street address is 4022 Hummer Road, Annandale, VA. --if you are in the Washington D.C. area--) 703-941-0202.

Northern Virginia Handcrafter's Guild.. This is a local (Northern Virginia/Washington DC area) crafts guild. Lots of good networking. Click here for another new site for this organization.

Wholesalecrafts.com
This is a wonderful site available free for Galleries and Shops. Highlights of PJ's finished jewelry are here.

Info, Sites & Links for more information about Fractals

SunLeitz.Com...Limited edition fractal prints from Australia. Unique with primal beauty, Mandelbrot fractal images are printed on wearable items but are strictly limited in number. After 360 prints of any particular design has been shipped, it is retired and never repeated.

Wanna know more about fractals? Want to know the answer to the question "are fractals art?. Check out thefractalstoreandmuseum.com for some interesting words on fractals from John Macpherson who is having a lot of fun with his new Fractal Museum and Store.

Link Partners

Find the best selection of Scrapbooking ideas and Supplies on the net at Scrapbooking ideas and Supplies. Find hundreds of pages, with some of the best Scrapbook links.

Dichroic and Fused Glass Jewelry.
WindHorse fused dichroic glass drop earrings come in a wide selection of colors and five different shapes and two sizes. The light that plays through the drop earrings truly shows off the vibrancy of the fused dichroic glass.
www.alisonthibault.com

Pearl Diamond Necklace Charms has one of the best set of links to fine pearl, diamond and precious metal jewelry cahrms i've seen in a while.

Bali silver beads wholesale has a wide range of bali silver beads and silver from > Indonesia. Our prices are very reasonable for international sourcing.

Art Gallery Worldwide a unique resource for finding all art, of all kinds worldwide!

Italiancharmsandgems.com offers wide selection of Italian laser charms, Italian enamel charms, Italian mega charms and more!

Pillows   The Cotton Connection has unique throws and pillows for every interest from dog breeds to movie stars! Very cute... they also have bell-pulls and tapestries.

downtoearthjewelry.com...Quality beaded jewelry in sterling silver, semi-precious stones, freshwater pearls, copper, and other earthy materials.

Beaded Lady Jewelry, Watches and Gifts. Fashionable beaded bracelets, necklaces, earrings, anklets, watches and more - for every occasion. Handcrafted jewelry for your friends, family members, or loved ones. www.beadedlady.com/ (cute and user friendly design here! The Product info page is great!).

Iguana silver Contemporary handmade contemporary silver jewellery, Jewelry, Made in Cornwall using the local landscape as inspiration,

Watchessite.com THE Definitive Watch site for all things watches. I have truly never seen so many links to watches in any one place! Great for those who want to shop online for watch "heads"!

If you want to be DAZZLING, COMPLIMENTED, and UNIQUE then you need to see the sculpted Wire Jewelry at sculptureinwire.com. The techniques used to make wire jewelry date back well over 4000 years.

A lovely site: Handcrafted gemstone jewelry from GiftsJoy.com. URL is http://giftsjoy.com and the site is wonderfully photographed! The festure one of a kind handcrafted jewelry made of semi-precious stones. Various gifts. Great jewelry designs. Custom orders are welcome. The gemstones used in our designs are genuine stones hand-picked. The silver findings we use are made in Bali (Indonesia) and India.

Neat site, neat stuff for retailers... "importers of Italian charm bracelets and charms, Linx & More is proud to offer a very attractive wholesale program for approved retailers" Very interesting & unique. Their "charms" are quite well done! http://www.italiancharmbracelets.net/, they also have another site http://www.123jewelrywholesalers.com/ which has gemstone bead-strung jewelry (and some very nice pieces!).

Forex-Trading-Strategies.org - Business Resources

Please check out PJ's site for glass links and Confabulations' for other links

If you saw our ad in Bead & Button here's where you Order the Sample Pack