ODDS & ENDS

Selling finished products from my patterns:

My policy regarding selling finished products from my patterns is that as long as you give me designer credit and make each finished product yourself, you can make and sell as many of my designs as you wish.

Clasps:

I often get asked what clasps are best to use use and where I get the clasps I use on bracelets in my patterns. I think everyone has different tastes when it comes to clasps. Some people prefer toggles and some hook and eye clasps. I don't have any set rules for selecting clasps. I usually have a good selection on hand and make a decision based on what I think looks good to me, or if the bracelet is a gift, what type of clasp I know the giftee prefers.

I do, however, have my favorite places to buy clasps:

• Rishashay has a huge selection of high-quality clasps:
  http://www.rishashay.com
• Fire Mountain Gems also has a wonderful selection of clasps:
  http://www.firemountaingems.com
• Embellishments has some really unique clasps, especially clasps with gemstones:
  http://www.embellishmentsinc.com/catalog

In addition, you can make your own clasps out of beads:

• FusionBeads.com has a great tutorial for a bead clasp that works especially well with crystal cuffs: http://www.fusionbeads.com/beadingfaq/techniques.php?bfid=34
• Carole Ohl has some gorgeous and easy to follow patterns up at Bead-Patterns.com that use buttons as clasps at Bead-patterns.com and several patterns for creating your own beaded buttons: 4mm Round Button, 3mm Round Button, Crystal Floral Button.
  

Just remember that there is no right or wrong when it comes to selecting a clasp. It's all a matter of personal preference so just go with your gut. For years, I only used hook and eye clasps but now I use a lot more toggle clasps. You'll find that your tastes change over time.

Creating Patterns:

Beaders often email and ask what beading software I use to create my patterns.

I don't use any "beading software" because what is out there is really for peyote, loom or brick stitch patterns (graphs), which I don't really do. I'm a freelance desktop publisher/graphic designer by day so I use the same software that I use for book and magazine work to create my patterns: QuarkXPress or Adobe InDesign (for layout of text and illustrations), Adobe Illustrator (for creating the individual step by step illustrations), Adobe Photoshop (for cleaning up photos I take of finished pieces with my digital camera) and Adobe Acrobat Professional to make the PDF.

These apps are expensive and not all that easy to learn but I use them all the time for work and have already made the investment in time and money so I stick with them, but moreso, I just don't know of any other apps that do the job as well. If you find any, please let me know because my method is very time-consuming. Each drawing is hand-drawn in Illustrator.