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About Us
BeadBugle.Com is an e-Zine all about beads and things made from beads.
 In 1998, the BeadBugle was introduced to the beading community as a beading magazine on a diskette. The magazine was created by Tonette M. Pillitteri and William P. Johnson.
Within its first year, BeadBugle then moved to the web and became BeadBugle.Com. The e-Zine was updated as time permitted and gradually grew to over 500 web pages. During that time Tonette and Bill created and established BeadBabe.Com as one of the pioneering websites for beads and beading supplies.
In 2004, BeadBugle.Com began to become a regularly published beading e-Zine with complete how-to projects, articles and columns. BeadBugle.Com was published twice a month online. People enjoyed the e-Zine, but readers demanded more reading and delivery options. Starting with the March 2006 issue, the e-Zine began expanding delivery options with the ability to deliver complete issues in a PDF format, downloadable at the reader’s convenience. With the continued expansion it became necessary to convert BeadBugle.Com from a totally free e-Zine to paid subscriptions to help cover the costs of content development and delivery.
 BeadBugle.Com continues to be offered at no charge on the web, but the how-to projects are published without step-by-step instructions. We created Premium Subscription at $25 per year, and allowed premium subscribers to download all articles, complete projects with step-by-step instructions, and a consolidated monthly issue in PDF format at no charge. Free or regular subscribers are required to pay a minimal amount per article or project.
In May of 2008, BeadBugle.Com expanded it’s presence on the web by the inaugural issue of BeadBugle.Com/Daily. The Daily delivers a new beading article and/or project every day (5 days a week) in an e-mail format to readers. The Premium Subscription formats remains in place with unlimited download access at no charge; while regular subscribers still pay a small fee per project for complete project downloads. Each article and download published in the Daily edition will be consolidated into the monthly edition of BeadBugle.Com and will be available in the normal monthly format on the web and in the monthly PDF issue for download.
Both Tonette and Bill continue to ask for your support and encourage you to subscribe, and help us with your comments and suggestions.
What is BeadBugle.Com
BeadBugle.Com is a online/PDF magazine all about Beads. We offer articles, columns, stories, tutorials and “how-to” projects that all involve beads. Currently the site is available to our readers at no charge, but we limit direct access to our Projects and are only available at no charge to our Premium Members (Premium Memberships is $25 per year). For Non-Premium Members our articles are available to download in PDF format for $1.00 each and our projects are available in PDF format for $2.99 each.
Why Should You Become a Premium Member?
BeadBugle.Com has and will hopefully continue to remain a free publication on the internet. Many of you have commented enthusiastically about the improvements in quantity and quality on the site. But like public TV and other publications, we have significant expenses. We developed the Premium Membership ($25 annually) status as a way to generate some of the revenue to help us meet expenses. To encourage our viewers to become Premium Members, we created Premium Privileges that are available only to our Premium Members. Over time the following list of Premium Privileges will be expanded and enhanced.
- Free access to Project PDFs and Archived Articles: Our projects have been professionally edited and laid out, photographed and bundled, using the Adobe Acrobat format (PDF). This allows viewers downloading the project to print the document quickly and easily with the highest possible quality.
Unlike other media concerns, we give our Premium Members unlimited access to all current and past projects and articles at NO CHARGE. Regular subscribers and visitors must pay a nominal fee for article and project PDFs.
- 50% Discount On Bead and Beading Supply Purchases: For a limited period of time, BeadBabe.Com offers all Premium Members a 50% discount on all discountable purchases. The Premium Member discount can not be combined with any other discount, but in the event that there is a higher discount than 50%, members will receive the higher discount instead of the Premium Member discount. We hope to extend this Premium Member Privilege to purchases made from other bead suppliers as our marketing and technology permits.
- Other Promotions and Privileges From time to time, we offer special inducements to encourage people to become Premium Members. We plan to make these promotions and privileges available not only to new Premium Members but also to our existing Premium Members. The most current promotion is a free PDF copy of “Designs for Beaded Jewelry by Alice Korach, founding Editor of Bead&Button, ($14.95 value).
- Other Premium Privileges are being considered and developed.
Reading and Navigating BeadBugle.Com
BeadBugle.Com is packed with information and projects. In the past we kept all previous articles on the Website, which grew to more than 1,300 pages. This became unmanageable for viewers and made publishing every month almost impossible. We had to do something to make it easier for everyone. This is what we did:
When Do We Publish?
BeadBugle.Com is published monthly Each Issue is complete in itself, and has fresh content and projects. Any previously published article or project are archived and made available as PDF downloads at NO COST to Premium Members; everyone else must pay a fee to download PDFs. Premium Members can also download the complete issue in PDF format. The PDF version includes the complete step-by-step projects. Current and back issues in PDF format are FREE for Premium Members and $4.95 for all others.
Download Each Magazine Issue with Articles and Complete Projects
Each of the editions are available for download in PDF format. These versions contain all the articles and projects. The projects are complete with step-by-step photos and instructions. The cost for each PDF version of the BeadBugle.Com is $4.95 per issue and of course is FREE to all Premium Members.
How Do I Download an Article or Project?
We have written a detailed and separate tutorial on how you download an article or project to view this tutorial simply Click Here.
Selectable Page Viewing
You can also select individual pages to view, but to do so, you need to understand the structure of the Website. This is the best navigation method if you want to view a single page or the extensive archive of past articles no longer residing on active web pages, but now available in PDF format on our download site.
The following outline of each major level explains the structure of the BeadBugle.Com Website as well as how you can “drill down” to find that one special article you want.
Major Sections
Currently, BeadBugle.Com is divided into eleven major sections that are defined in the Table of Contents (go to bottom of this page and click on Table of Contents to see full details). The eleven sections are as follows:
- All About Beads: Includes sections on Glass Beads, Metal and Polymer Clay, Beads from Mother Nature, Seed Beads, Wire Working, and others types of beads.
- Artist Profiles: In-depth artist profiles from the media of glass, metal and wire, metal clay, polymer clay, seed beads, and more.
- Beading Basics: Beading Basics Tutorials that teach techniques, Bead Facts, and Tips and Tricks, including Tips From Rena.
- Bead Savvy: Includes Color and Style; Kids, Moms, & Beads (beading projects for kids and parents); and Bead Savvy (articles about beading in general).
- Reviews: Book reviews, DVD/Video reviews, product reviews, and other reviews. This section keeps all past content on the Website, since many books, videos, and products are not time sensitive.
- Business of Beads: Four sections regarding the business of beads; Packaging, Pricing, Production, and Marketing.
- Collectibles: Focused on collectible jewelry and beads, personal bead collections, and the business of collecting.
- History of Beads: Featured sections include African, Asian, Native American, and World Beads.
- Bead Scene: Bead Scene Profiles, Brag Page to display everyone’s art, Bead Bytes, Helen Dietz and Quick & Easy Free Projects to everyone.
- Projects: How-to projects with detailed step-by-step directions and numerous close-up photographs. Projects are categorized by Bracelets, Earrings, Home Decor and Gifts, Necklaces Sets, and other Fashion Accessories. Each category is further defined by the materials used: Mostly Glass, Metal or Polymer Clay, Strictly Seed Beads, and Mixed Media. All projects listed in these section are downloadable in PDF format at NO COST TO PREMIUM MEMBERS. Regular and non-subscribers must pay to download articles and projects.
- Technology of Beads: The technology surrounding the creation and use of beads is broken down into the categories of: Glass, Metal and Polymer Clay, Minerals, and Other.
- Directories and Information: Features active classified advertising, useful directories, listings, tutorials, and information areas. The active sections include The Bead Bazaar, Links, Event calendar, exhibits and museums, Free Bead Stuff, Letters to The Bead Bugle, Bead Store Directory, Bead Society Directory, Advertising in BeadBugle.Com information, Guest Book, FAQs, Viewer Statistics for BeadBugle.Com, and Premium Subscription information.
Categories Within Each Section
Each section has a lead page that defines the categories within the section and offers navigational links to them. Where appropriate, the lead page also features article teasers for the most current article available within each category. These articles are only archived when a new article replaces them. For an example of a typical lead page, if you visit Business of Beads, you’ll see the following items:
- Most current Business of Beads article.
- Icons that will link you to each major category within the section, taking you directly to the Subject Lead Page:
- Packaging
- Pricing
- Production
- Marketing
Subjects Within Each Section
The subjects in each section can be a single item (such as the Bead Shop Directory) or they can contain numerous items or articles that pertain to that subject. Each subject has a lead page that contains the following:
- The actual single page content as in a Bead Shop Directory, an Event Calendar, etc. This depends on the content of the given subject.
- The typical subject lead page includes a list of articles pertaining to the subject. This list is linked to take you to a short description of each article.
- Short descriptions of each available article. If you click on either the Icon/picture associated with each article or the article’s title within the short description, you will be taken to a page were you can order and/or download that article in PDF format or view the article online where available (book reviews are a good example of online viewing).
The Projects section is organized somewhat differently. Because it is such a large category, we have added an extra level that allows you to view projects in the following format:
- Sectional Level (Projects)
- Category Level (Bracelets, Earrings, Home Decor & Gifts, Necklace Sets, and Other Fashion Accessories)
- Subcategory Level based on media (Metal or Polymer Clay, Mostly Glass, Strictly Seed Bead, and Mixed Media)
- Subject Lead Page: Lists the projects and links to a description and picture of each project. Each description and picture provides a link to download the project PDF file.
The Archives Page
The easiest way to find and view the archived articles and projects is to click here and go directly to the Archives Page. This provides you with easy to use links directly to each category and lists all the articles and projects that are available.
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