Amarettogirl Craft Book Review- The Naughty Secretary Club: The Working Girls Guide to Handmade Jewelry by Jennifer Perkins

Since I'm big on reinventing the function of small plastic toys into jewelry (such as my Mai Sweet Shop Altered Rement line) I was beaming with intrigue when I saw the new book by Jennifer Perkins (yes the DIY network's Craft Lab host herself!) has a new book with her trademark kitschy style, entitled The Naughty Secretary Club: The Working Girls Guide to Handmade Jewelry.

One day, in a hurried rush I browsed through the book in the bookstore, but I was too tired from a hard days work (teaching is not easy) and I didn't immediately purchase it. Then my fave Threadbanger podcasts had a Naughty Secretary Resin Bracelet demo on their weekly show with Jennifer Perkins and her book. The demo was so informative and thorough that the second I got on Spring Break I went back and bought the book. Boy am I glad I did, since a big chunk of my vacation was all about crafting with Jennifer!

The Naughty Secretary Club by Jennifer Perkins

• Paperback: 144 pages

• Publisher: North Light Books (August 11, 2008)

• Language: English

• ISBN-10: 1600611168

• ISBN-13: 978-1600611162

So here are some of the many strengths and little weaknesses of the book:

Excellent for beginners and inspiring enough for experienced folk (like me). Jennifer's overall mission is to get creatives and non, to see outside the normal confines of jewelry making and in this -recycle and reuse way- to see potential in anything, and I mean anything.

excerpt from pg. 14 of The Naughty Secretary Club by Jennifer Perkins

So on the negative side, if fun colorful, larger than life kitsch, garden gnomes, telephone cords, swizzle sticks, plastic toys, eyeglass necklaces, pencil earrings and watch headbands are too over the top for your traditionalist-little-beady-jewelry-makin'-mind than this book is not for you.

Ms. Perkins applies a secretary (9-5 gal) theme throughout the book with funny little side-notes, hot-tips and blurbs on the working girls history, holidays and lore. She includes what I think are hysterical, informative tidbits on the art of true, multi-tasking ability, ie., six other uses for coffee filters and a list of eight other uses for pantyhoses!

So in honor of the first day of Spring I tried my hand at an over-the top plastic, fantastic bracelet inspired by Ms. Perkin's Secretary's Bouquet Bracelet on pg. 120. excerpt from The Naughty Secretary Club by Jennifer Perkins I was super lucky to find a cha-cha bracelet blank (yes thats what its called) at A.C. Moore (Michael's didn't have any). However the cha-cha bracelet blank that I found had only one loop running across it, as opposed to the two loops on the blank that Jennifer uses in the book. I'm sure if I would have found the correct blank my Spring Chic bracelet would have come out a lot meatier. Instead I opted for the longer hula-skirt style.

Another great aspect of the book is that is categorizes every project in chapters of difficulty. This bracelet is a three star difficulty (highest level in book). In addition, she explains that this bracelet is great for the collector and Lord knows thats what I am truly master of.

My Spring Chic Bracelet inspired by The Naughty Secretary Club Spring Chic

So if you're interested in adorning your body with original, funky, re-cycled, joyful and often whimsical jewelry BUY this book!!

Tialey Vintage and Entrecard

As I am a new member of entrecard, I was spending some time learning the ropes and dropping 'virtual' business cards in 'virtual fish bowls' of other bloggers and sites for the past couple of days. I was hoping to find some genuine artful blogging, 'linky love' and some creative connections, when I came across the Tialey Vintage (pronounced: tea-alley) blog spot. Tialey is an independent company selling quality vintage, clothing, accessories and housewares worldwide. Now I have to say, I'm a huge Threadbanger fan and believe wholeheartedly in recycling, reconstructing and simply DIY clothing, but what if your're Edward Scissorhands and sewing is out of the question? You can still be progressive by re-thinking, reusing and thinking VINTAGE!!

Tialey' s Fit to a T - Turquoise and Black Body Hugging Spandex Vintage Mini Dress S

I was thrilled to see Tialey's banner tagline is 'The Future of Fashion is Recycling the Past'. So as it turns out, the wonderful Tialey folk (Cathleen) saw something worthy in me too, and gave me and my site some 'linky love' AND wrote a post about my etsy store!!! As it turns out Tialey has an etsy store too! -So I have featured some of their chic, retro pieces in this post.

Mod Pop Art Tialey's Flower Print Hawaiian Textiles Vintage 70s Barkcloth Dress S

"Our handpicked selection of items are primarily from the 1940s to the 1980s. It's not only a designer name that gets our attention. We look for good design, fun fabrics, vibrant color and things that will make you smile."

The way I see it, with all the production of clothing that we have in the world we can and should save a lot of time, money, energy and resources by re-using and recycling some pretty stylish clothes! Just look at this fantastic orange dress - I wish I was tall enough to pull it off!Tialey's Citrus Orange Vintage 1960s Miss Elliette Cocktail Social Maxi Dress S

Tialey also sells men's clothes! There stock is always changing, so check back often for new arrivals. Sign up for their newsletter to see a sneak peek of featured items and receive exclusive discounts.