It's almost that time of year again! Time for the Craft and Hobby Association international trade show in Anaheim CA. I have been going to this show for over 20 years now and I always look forward to it. So many old and dear friends, new wonderful creative products, growth and creativity everywhere! This year is a special year for me as I will be debuting my new line of Sizzix dies and findings for jewelry makers! You can come to the Sizzix / Ellison booth and see the entire line, and wait until you feel the garment quality leather with wonderful fashion colors. Leather jewelry never looked like this before!!! Watch this short video for more information on my line!
I will be teaching a class for interested retailers that is nearly sold out, so sign up soon to hold your place! We are going to have fun learning and making this pendant necklace in class:
Here is the class info:
Inspire, Imagine and Create Leather Jewelry with Sizzix
Day + Time: 1/8/2016 2:30 PM - 5:00 PM
Room: 211AB
Difficulty Level: All Levels Welcome
Demographics: All Buyers
Instructor(s): Jill MacKay
Fees: Member: $35.00 / Non-member: $50.00
Class Description: You will be inspired and amazed at how easy it is to imagine and create fashionable, wearable art jewelry with the Sizzix® Big Shot machine and Jill MacKay’s newest line of jewelry making dies and accessories. With these wonderful tools and high-quality, leather, learn all new techniques for jewelry making and create a luxurious metallic leather teardrop pendant. Jill herself will lead this fun class and invites you to get hands on, creative while learning and becoming familiar with these innovative dies, new techniques and quality materials. In addition to all of this each attendee will also receive a FREE V.I.P. swag bag loaded with Sizzix goodies!
Items to Bring: None
On other news front I just signed a contract with F&W Publishing to make two one hour videos on how to use my new Sizzix line. I have been working furiously on the outlines and will be taping right here in my home town of Fort Collins Colorado! How wonderful is that? I love that they are located here as no airplane ride is required. I will be taping as soon as I get home from the Tucson Gem Show where Sizzix will be exhibiting my new line at the To Bead True Blue show! Look for us there!
Wow, I am so glad to be sitting at home right this minute writing this post. It feels like I have been on the move constantly this fall (okay this whole year has been a busy one. I am not complaining it's just that flying just isn't what it used to be. I just returned home from a trip to Dallas with a one day turn around time from my trip to Cleveland. I was there to tape another segment of Beads Baubles & Jewels which was sponsored by Sizzix and highlighting my new line of leather dies. I love working with Katie and Kathie and crew at KS Productions. They are so gracious and good at what they do. These are wonderful people I have known for almost 15 years now! Wow!
Katie, Andrew Thornton and I after filming.
In Octiober I flew to Pittsburgh to see my youngest Taylor for his 26th birthday! (Eek! I am getting old!) It was wonderful to be with him and spend time. He is such a great person and I love who he is. Thank you Taylor MacKay for spending so much time with your Momma! It was great to see all my friends their too. It was very hard to say goodbye even though I get to come home to an amazing home and studio and my friend family here. It always hurt to leave my son.
I doubt this will ever change....unless I can move him to Colorado!!! Ashley my amazing daughter is coming for Thanksgiving with her sweetheart Donnie. I'm still in shock we are even talking holidays...what happened to summer?!!
Life is precious and short love strong and live wisely!
I am very excited to introduce my new line of leather cutting dies and companion findings from Sizzix. It has been a complete joy working with all the good people at Sizzix-Ellison and we have worked hard to bring this new line of quality tools for both the home studio and professional studios. Cutting leather has never been easy...until now!
Combined with two different types of leather cutting dies, and two different thicknesses of leather, it's now super simple to cut leather and make beautiful leather jewelry. Very cool!
There are two kinds of dies. Steel rule dies which are for cutting thicker leather like the cuff of a bracelet (on the left) and thin ornamental dies (on right) for cutting lighter weight leather for layering on top of the heavyweight leather.
Notice that these two dies fit together...
To create this...WOW!
Being able to cut and layer different thicknesses of leather allows you a lot a large variety of creative choices to create unique expensive looking leather jewelry.
We are pretty excited because it is a big deal to bring new tools to the jewelry-making community. New tools that allow you to do something at home that is usually only in the hands of manufacturers. The ability to easily die cut leather at home and is a game changer! Those of you that cut paper will recognize these tools which have been engineered now to cut leather. Brilliant!
We will be showing the line at the Bead & Button Show in Milwaukee in June and cannot wait to see the response from all the jewelry makers there. Our choice of leathers is another thing of note. We have beautiful pastels in pink and blues, and we have soulful metallic colors for a very upscale look. You cannot find these colors available anywhere else. We're bring the complete package!
Stay tuned for more about this exciting line from Sizzix!
Wow! May has been amazing and it's not over yet!! I was lucky enough to be chosen for free promotion from Fort Collin's own public radio station KRFC 88.9 FM as part of there Support Local Culture (thank you Noosa Yogurt!) and taped a 5 minute interview which played and can now be listened to on the website here http://www.krfcfm.org . Then flew in and taped a segment on PBS show Beads Baubles & Jewels at KS Productions (with Kathie Stull and host Katie Hacker) to promote my new line of leather cutting dies with Sizzix. Though this past week was amazing as my newest product Liteseeds LED stickers launched at MakerCon in San Francisco and then at the Bay Area Maker Faire. Was that amazing. I just met so many people I cannot tell you! I was absolutely floored how accessible even the highest level people were. I love how easy to connect and how supportive everyone was. Wow. Also please note that we have a Kickstarter running for Liteseeds LED stickers, please check it out here at Kickstarter/Liteseeds.
We have been made "Staff Pick" and were featured product of the day! Feeling very blessed not to mention exhausted!
The beginning of 2015 has been rockin'! So busy it's crazy! Time for an update:
I am having a very good experience being a newly licensed designer with Sizzix. I find the company to be bright, thoughtful, innovative and supportive. What can I say except I feel very fortunate to have a contract with them to develop a line of jewelry items. We will be having a soft launch at Bead & Button in 2015 and a official big launch at CHA 2016. SO I am having a really fun year working with all the new creative folks at Sizzix / Ellison.
My new dies are really beautiful. The first samples of dies are starting to come in and I am so excited to say they are WONDERFUL new tools for the small studio as well as the professional studio. Very cool addition to what makers and creatives will be able to do at home that they have never been able to do before!
My good friend Tammy Honaman will be helping support this program by working in the B&B booth as well as teaching a class that will make use of my new leather dies. Please check out her classes HERE.
On other fronts Liteseeds debuted at CHA 2015 and was very well received. We were lucky enough to be located directly next to AgIC conductive ink company from Japan. They just one a million dollar contest (in their country) for being such an amazing innovative product. So we did make-it-take-its together the whole show.
It was my first time exhbiting as a manufacturer and I had a great experience and want to thank Nidia Negron for all her support and help! Liteseeds was a big hit! Can't say now but we will be developing educational products that utilize Liteseeds as the main ingrediant soon!
If you have any interest in whoesale or distributing Liteseeds please email me back channel. And check out the new website built by my fabulous son Taylor Mackay (who I adore)at www.liteseeds.com
I leave for the Tucson Gem Show on Feb 3. My wonderful daughter Ashley Makay will be joining me! We are going to travel to Phoenix first and stop by and visit our family (brother Kenny and his wife Anne) and then drive to Tucson the next day. I can't wait to blow Ashley's mind taking her for her first trip to the Gem Shows! It will be so fun. She will be in for a couple of days then comes some serious business and lots of meetings with buyers and the Sizzix folks.... You know I have a GREAT LIFE! I am blessed.
Wait...did I mention that I received a Public Art commission from the City of Fort Collins Colorado? WOW! What good fortune! The engineers, planners and team are finalizing and picking from my designs next week. I'll give you a peak after this step.
Introducing my most innovative product yet! Liteseeds, a peel and stick LED. That's right an LED sticker that lights when used in conjunction with conductive ink, paint or tape which is powered by a 3 volt coin battery! Watch this short video to get a better understanding: Click here: Liteseed Teaser or watch below but unfortunately the blogging browser I use isn't wide enough, so part of the screen is cut off.
Liteseeds: Illuminating crafts! Paper crafting will never be the same! I will be launching Liteseeds at CHA Mega Show 2015 in January. My booth number is 91103 in the Maker Space.
There are four stickers per sheet and they have conductive adhesive on the back that both adheres the sticker to the paper but also conducts electricity. There is no heat, noway to tell the electric current is moving across the page except to see that the LED lights up! They are safe, fun and easy to use. Red Liteseed in a paper medalion I made using Sizzix dies. Liteseeds currently come in Red, white and blue, soon pink and green will be added. Print, cut & fold Halloween decoration with white Liteseed.
Scrapbooking element made with 3 white Liteseeds.
Liteseeds will have their own website soon at liteseeds.com but until it is finished you can purchase liteseeds on www.jillmackay.com click here! If you are interested in being a distributor please email me!
More soon! I hope your holidays are grand and joyful!
Hello everyone! I am very happy to announce my new licensing contract with Sizzix / Ellison!
They first contacted me a couple of years back, so we have been developing this partnership and program for some time. It has come to fruition, the negotiations are over, and the contracts are signed! Phew! It always takes longer than I think it will! Now I can really dive in to the creating process! So excited to share this news with you!
So what is this program going to look like? I think both hobbyists and professional studios are going to love this! We are developing a line of affordable dies to enable jewelry makers to cut leather on Sizzix die cutting machines. There will also be a line of complementary metal components that are very innovative and take working with leather to a new place. Not to mention a tool or two, but I can't tell you everything yet!
I recently was flown out to meet with all the different teams that make up this wonderful corporation and was really pleased with who I met, what I saw and am looking forward to working closely with all to bring a wonderful program of products to the marketplace! I feel like I will be working with friends, and actually will be.
A special thank you to David Murray who I have known for years and years for helping bring all this together. He is a good man and will now be one of two national sales leads on this program. It's good to work with people that you have a long standing history with and David and I go way back. Thank you David!
Back in 2010-2011 I was the first designer to bring a leather component jewelry making line to mass market with Silver Creek Leather and Michael's Stores Inc. Since then there have been a few other companies and designers adding to this strong trend with some very nice offerings, I must say. Credit where credit is due! Though there is nothing out there like what we will be bringing to the table. To be able to use a table top manual machine to cut leather easily and efficiently into intricate shapes for an affordable price is going to be beyond cool!
Last night a colleague and friend and I went to Laguna Beach to experience the Festival of the Arts, Pageant of the Masters. I really had no idea what to expect, especially after hearing from every person I spoke with RAVED about it! I was not disappointed.
The Pageant of the Masters is an annual festival held every summer. The event is known for its tableaux vivants or "living pictures" in which classical and contemporary works of art are recreated by real people who are made to look nearly identical to the originals through the clever application of costumes, makeup, headdresses, lighting, props, and backdrops.
It was unbelievable the amount of theater skills involved here. Not to mention the theater itself. There were huge scenes that turn and changed on each sides of the crowd. The lighting alone to create the exact look of the paintings was masterful! So much work! Hundreds of volunteers every night all summer long! Plus a serious art market right outside the door of "the Bowl" (the theater). To recreate the paintings they paint the people that are in the tableaux to look like part of the painting. Yo have to work very hard to tell if they are real people or 2D backdrop. They do give you a view of how it works with backstage video. More interest is added by a wonderful dose of art history given about each sculpture or the artist or the model and on.
These are all real people! Just phenomenal! Thank you Susan Spiegel for letting us know about this so we could be in attendance!! AMAZING! Thank you Laguna Beach! What a blast!
Now you can easily add light to your jewelry making projects! This 3D printed conductive clasp is made in translucent plastic, has a magnetic closure, and holds a replaceable coin battery that powers the LEDs. The LEDs are hidden inside of beads or polymer clay or other to create a subtle glow (see other photos below). Easy to use it besides the tiny LED and the clasp requires no special tools or materials to use. The small lithium coin battery (not included) powers the LEDs using regular beading wire and the battery is attached by crimping, using crimp tubes. This is my first 3D printed product and first of many conductive products to come.
I love light and bringing light to jewelry making in a subtle way is my goal. I am looking forward to seeing what all the talented people create using my clasp. Over coming the stereotype of flashy blinky China products may be a challenge but I know it is possible. I filed a patent on this product because I am so very tired of being knocked off, and I am banking on the fact that this clasp will prove interesting to many people. Think of what a fun way this is to teach basic circuitry to young women! STEM and STEAM education made fun! How to make basic circuits and then wear them home
3-D Printed Magnetic Conductive Clasp
I am currently taking orders until June 1st when I will place the group of orders into my 3-D Print manufacturer. Simply click on the following link and make your purchase. You can expect your order to be shipped to you mid June. Link to store to purchase for $19.00 CLICK HERE.
Conductive Clasp shown open without battery. I am looking into whether this clasp can be produced with plastic injection method in order to bring the price per clasp down. 3-D printing is very cool but saving money is cool too! More on this as it develops.
Look for the "How To" pdf file to be emailed to you (and loaded to my website soon.
This glowing stone was made with polymer clay with the tiny LED embedded in it.
How about this glowing felt flower for the little girls in your life? Clasp shown here in white. Currently only selling in translucent.
Well this is always the busiest time of the year for me. I just returned home from CHA where I presented to a sold out crowd on new materials and technologies that will be effecting the creative industries ( and almost everyone else for that matter!) As usual I had a blast seeing friends like Marie Browning, June Beach, Jim Scatena and Julie Stephannie, just to name a few and I really shouldn't as there are so many and I hate leaving anyone out! After 20 years in an industry you get to be good friends with many and I am blessed. LOVE my industry! The show was larger than last year and I will be interested to hear the attendance numbers. We had a Maker Space and Tony Ford of Artfire and Maker House was there.
I had some great meetings with some great companies...can't say anything yet! But I will keep you posted. New product lines in the works!
ON TO THE NEXT TRIP.............................
Only 11 days until I leave for my annual trip to the TUCSON GEM SHOW! Woo-Hoo! My favorite time of year! Talk about fun and seeing friends! Oh and let's not forget shopping! I found a tiny little guest house (space?) to rent and I don't care that it is little it only cost me $60 a night! This lets me shop more! It does have a hot tub for sore feet at the end of the day! It is only a couple of blocks for UofA so it has a nice convenient location in a great section of town. I love www.airbnb.com!
Then at the end of Feb. I will be going to see my wonderful daughter in Atlanta for strictly fun time. LOVE! Not to mention a very close friend of mine from Pgh now lives 15 minutes from my daughter!
THEN if that weren't enough then off to MD to visit my dear brother/friend Peter for the Magnolia Blossoms with John & Sara who are my Colorado family. They have never been there and I cannot wait to share this with them. The blossoms for me are a religious experience their beauty is so great.
In between all the trips to DIA I have a Shift workshop with the Arts Incubator of the Rockies (AIR) and a couple of product lines to design (technical drawings to finish) and The Rocky Mountain Raptor Project fundraiser, concert tickets, hiking and visitors and my new studio furniture arrives! Which means a studio overhaul! Yikes! My life is full and wonderful. I am so very blessed.
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