Bead Fest :: Final Thoughts on Laughter

That is likely going to be one of the things I remember most about my first trip to Bead Fest. All the laughter. It was contagious. I think leading up to the event there is so much anticipation, and then let all these lovely bead ladies loose in a room together and you get a rush of energy where the chatter is seemingly endless. Oh, and then there is all the giggling that ran late into the night. We even managed to be so loud in Melinda Orr's suite that the manager kicked us out and down to the lobby. I felt like college kids getting in trouble.

My daughter managed to snap this picture of Linda Landig, and I just love how it captures her smile. Yes Anne, my 10 year old, was hanging with the bead ladies for the weekend. And made quite a few friends. I went back through pictures and manage to find Anne photo bombing a few of them. There she is jumping in right over Genea's head ... that's my girl! Not that she was alone. There were plenty of other photo bombers around. I think the queen is probably Amy.

I love how I caught this action series of Linda Younkman unsuspectingly. She was snapping pictures, only to find I was taking pictures of her! Once she realized it, we did a picture of the two of us taking pictures of each other. As I said ... pure silliness when you get this many bead ladies in a room. Or a patio as the case may be.

It was great meeting people in person after only knowing them through blogging. Like Sandi Volpe. She was too much fun to hang out with and just chat about the events of the weekend. And then there was Genea and Staci (I'm not sure I ever saw one without the other all weekend long). And I met Lea Avroch, and Sue Kennedy, and Anne Gardanne, and Jan Onipenco, and .... just so much talent all in one place. Truly an amazing weekend.

Bead Fest :: The Mother Load

Yes, the Mother Load. I don't think I've ever seen so many beads all in one place before. My poor friend Linda Younkman was looking frazzled and on overload when I found her Friday afternoon wondering around Artisan Alley. She had already been there since the night before, so she had hours of shopping in before I met up with her. I really don't think I was much help because, well I'd only just started!

I got my bearings on Friday, and saved most of the 'loot shopping' for Saturday. So here is how it went down. It's not pretty my friends. I can't remember the names of all the shops, it is sort of like that hang over after a college party where you have no idea what happened the night before but you find a card in your pocket. I have a stack of cards from various stores visited in my shopping flurry, but if you ask me which one I got at what stand of beads ... I'd be hard pressed to remember how to piece the events together. I did at least label the beads so you know what they are. I was simply in LOVE, and I mean BIG LOVE with these jasper focals. Look at the colors in the Red Creek, or Sonora Sunset ... or how about the fine details in the lace. What about those drilled rocks with the turquoise inset? How friken cool are those? Yes my little focal friends I have plans for you. What? you don't talk to your beads?

Ok, moving on. There were these amazing strands of matte druzy. Holy cow are they cool. And I found the charlotte cut seed beads tuck away in a far corner of a store. Score! I just love these seed beads that I bought by the 'hank' ... oh yea, look at me going all technical on my bead terms. I really loved the heshi I saw everywhere and I did pick up some great titanium ones. Who knew I needed titanium? I even found heshi beads in turquoise and lapis. 

But then I could not forget about my first love. Seed beads. I spent quite a bit of time here. I even lost my posse as they gave up all hope of me making it out alive. I did eventually emerge with quite a large stash of new seed beads the likes of which even Sally Russick seemed impressed by. Ok then, job well done.

Bead Fest :: Swapping Beads (& Things)

One of the things about getting this many of us together in one place is that we're all pulling out beads and talking about them. And well, one thing leads to another and before you know it you've got some swapping going on. One of the big ones is Diana's of Suburban Girl Studio which she does every year. Her's is exclusively for Artisan beads (don't try sneaking in anything other than beads made by hand!) It is a fun swap, with an enormous amount of talent sitting around a table. Truly amazing to glance around and recognize all those people and faces you've been blogging with! I posted this picture on CBC last week and had a lot of fun watching people comment and identify all the faces! A really great bunch of people to meet!

I did do a fair amount of swapping all weekend long! I was shopping with my BCM (Bead Chat Magazine) crew Melinda Orr and Linda Younkman most of the weekend and then pulling out the stash once we were back at the room! Here is just a little bit of the loot. We went just a little crazy over all the charms! I mean at $3 a bag ... how could you go wrong? So we each picked out favorites and then swapped and traded later. Even my daughter got in on the action running back and forth between the three of us trying to entice us to drop one of the bags she'd found into our baskets. She was work'n it! And for good cause. I've already made several pieces for her with the charms since we got home. She had a motive. A girl after my own heart!

Linda brought a little extra stash of trade beads. Aren't these great! And she made these sweet muslin bags to drop stash into. Because a girl's gotta have a bag for her stash! We've been talking about packaging over at BCM for the last week or so, and Linda has been working on what she wants to use for her shop. These are just so cute and really fit the look of her store. There is a great piece in this month's BCM magazine by Natalie McKenna you should be sure to check out if you're working on packaging for your shop.

Ok, now Melinda. Darn you Melinda! I was perfectly happy with my beads and thread ... but then you had to go an introduce me to leather! I am completely in love with it. It is working its way into a lot of my designs lately. And then when we met up Melinda brought her stash. Are you crazy?! Opening up all that wonderful stuff in front of Linda and me? Yea, I went home with a nice new mix of leather from Melinda's shop Orrtec!

And as if that wasn't enough, I had to pick up more at the show? What have you done to me Melinda? Look at these gorgeous melon and bay blue leathers ... and they are so soft! My daughter, struck again throwing in her 'camo' .... she's in a phase. Sigh. Notice the camo clasps I bought to match. Yea, I gave in. I was so proud of my little bead shopper! She shops like a pro that one. 

Bead Fest :: Walking Through Artisan Alley

Bead Fest was an amazing experience. I've never been, and I was really looking forward to meeting all my friends in person. My first day I spent most of my time walking through Artisan Alley meeting all those amazingly talent people who make the beads I love!

I had my personal photographer (my 10 year old daughter) with me who was very politely going up to people and asking if she could snap their pic. She got quite a few takers. But I can see that she and I were distracted by all the beads and didn't take as many as I would have liked! To see the rest, try this month's Bead Chat Magazine where we pulled in lots of pictures from the event. Above is Staci of Staci Louise of Artisan Accents, Diana of Suburban Girl Studio, Sue from Sue Beads and Jenny Davies-Reazor

And for a little show and tell, these are just a few of the gorgeous beads that came home with me. There were these awesome Roku faces by Amy and Daniel Mealey of XAZ Bead, and these super fun beads by Genea of Genea Beads (which I actually won in a swap - yay me!). I love this cool octopus by Karen Totten of Starry Road Studio which my daughter picked out for herself. She reminded me yesterday that I better get crack'n on making her necklace with 'her' octopus. And I just love these little head pins from Sandi Volpe. She shared these with quite a few of us, which was so sweet of her. They are so cool, and I know exactly what I want to do with mine. I'm just still looking at them a bit longer before I do that! 

Focusing on Life :: Growth & Change

Our prompt from Sally for the week was to look for growth and change in our lives. Not hard to find the first week of school with the kids once again grumbling about rolling out of bed in the morning to catch the bus! 

But is hard to capture how much they've grown in one picture, and it is even harder to get them to agree to have their picture taken. First question "this isn't going to end up on Facebook is it?"  "...ah, no thanks mom."

I realized I still had the growth chart on the wall even though we stopped tracking it a few years ago when Kate literally ran off the chart. She is now about 5' 4" but you can see the markings from the past. My favorite part is Kate scratching out one of the marks claiming it wasn't true and demanding we re-measure her! You can see the scooch upwards with the revised marking. Which satisfied her at the time. She was so worried she was going to be short, but she just took a little longer to sprout. She's all legs at this point, so the worrying is over!

Focusing on Life :: Splendor in the grass

This week our prompt from Sally was to add something to our pictures ... or in other words edit the picture. I decided to have a little fun with a pair of beaded earrings I made with some stone squares Melinda Orr sent me. 

I had originally photographed them with a fiber background, but then re-photographed it with a plain white background so I could take the background out and play with the picture. 

The results are this whimsical shot of my earrings appearing to be lying in a field of grass. I played around with the blades of grass so they layered onto the collage. Total silliness. 

Focusing on Life :: How I Spent My Summer Vacation

I took a bit of a bloggy break over the summer, and I thought I'd show you what I was up to ... or actually what I was not doing! I was relaxing with my family and trying to shift into 2nd gear. I picked my favorite spot to do that; our camp in the Adirondacks. Nothing fancy, just a cabin on a lake in the middle of nowhere. Sounds perfect doesn't it? So to catch up on the 8 weeks that I wasn't posting regularly to my blog, here is what I did on my summer vacation.

Week 26 :: Your Own Prompt the week I left off, Sally asked us to pick our own idea for a picture. I decided to show you the Matriarch of the family; my mother-in-law Joan. Getting up to our camp in the mountains involves a lot of family. Aunts, uncles, cousins, second cousins ... and the list goes on. That is because Joan's father and his brothers all decided to either buy or build camps around the lake. So when we are up in the Adirondacks the other cabins around ours are full of relatives. But the one who is still around and telling us all about our little lake in the mountains is Joan. Everyone knows her. And everyone comes to her to ask advice. She's seen it all, and has the stories to tell.

Week 27 :: Textures our camp is actually full of pieces that Joan's parents brought back from their years spent in India. Various pieces that they collected from the North in the Garo Hills and nearby. This first piece is a beautifully carved wood candle holder. When my husband and I visited we brought back several carved wood pieces. And this is just as beautiful in its leaf pattern. This piece is carved from wood found locally in Kashmir called sheeham, or the local rosewood. 

Week 28 :: Pretty Patterns I really love this old elephant bell. It is unbelievable just how heavy it is! And I can't imagine an elephant carrying it around, let alone several of these. When I said exactly that to Joan, she simply said "well they are huge animals and this wouldn't be that heavy to them." Well, yes I guess that makes sense. Regardless, the pattern on this bell is just so beautifully done with such intricate detail in the painting that I pulled it out to display prominently on the mantle. Even daughter-in-laws get to make some changes.

Week 29 :: Routine one of the things that seems to mark the end of a beautifully, relaxing day at the lake is to sit out on the porch and reflect. Just a bit of rocking in one of these babies does the trick. Rockers are so common here in the mountains. You'll find them in all the camps, and you'll find it is typical that someone will ask you to come in and sit for awhile as you rock and chat about the comings and goings around the lake. Something I really enjoy about summer at our cabin.

Week 30 :: Catch the Sun this summer was pretty hit or miss with the sun. We were painting the outdoor trim, but had plenty of raining afternoons with puzzles as we waited for the weather to clear up. When indeed the sun did show up, it was glorious. Sparkling on the water, and just making you want to jump in the kayak for a paddle around the lake. We also had quite a few loons living at the lake this summer. So getting out there to visit them on their little island in the middle of the lake was quite an event. They are really big birds!

Week 31 :: Hues of Blue there are lots of blues around camp. The kayaks, the row boat, the large float the girls swim out to ... not to mention the water. So with this prompt is was easy to find blues around camp to photograph for Sally's prompt. I love the stillness of the water with the row boat in this picture captured in the early morning when the lake looks like glass.

Week 32 :: From Where I Stand speaking of glass, I love the way the lake looks first thing in the morning before all the boats, birds and kids hit the lake creating endless waves. It is so peaceful from the end of our dock that I could stand deep in thought for sometime. That is until the mosquitoes find me!

Week 33 :: In Season ok, finally caught up to this week's prompt! There is nothing like all the wild flowers that pop up in the mountains. The growing season is so short, that they seem to come into bloom all at the same time! While the black-eyed Susans are likely planted by us locals, I love seeing them. Everywhere you look. And in several varieties from the classic yellows to the orange centers. They are such happy flowers.

Stringing :: Not Your Grandmother's Pearls

Ok, maybe it isn't quite fair of me to allude to my piece being featured in Stringing. Yes, the most current issue of Stringing has a section on pearls that are 'not your grandmother's' style. And I did enter this necklace, but it was not selected. 

I'm posting it anyway, and I'm doing so because I think there is an important message to those out there that do submit to magazines, but get frustrated by the process.

So few pieces are actually selected, and it always is a bit of a mystery as to why some are selected, and others are not. I feel like I can say this now with some confidence since I have had a piece selected and published. Although I would not say that I am a regular contributor by any stretch of the imagination. But, I did think that I had finally figured out what might be selected, only to have 2 others rejected. And even more frustrating is that it seems to always be the same designers showing up. One other tip I will tell you is that once you submit you end up with a bit of a dialogue with the editors and it does help to make your name known to them. Although it clearly made no difference for me!

The message I would give other designers out there is to keep designing. Design in exactly your style. There are so many amazing pieces out there that never end up in the few select pages of these magazines --- to match whatever theme happens to be on the drawing board for that issue. 

What I would encourage you all to do is to check out Bead Chat Magazine. This is an eMagazine designed, written and edited by the bead community. And in our short 7 months of publishing we are up to 100 pages each month full of the designs from all of you (August issue). You can find more about us on the CBC Facebook page or on Artisan Whimsy for upcoming themes. Or you can email us at beadchatmagazine@gmail.com

Join us!

Happy Blogoversary :: Pepita Handmade

Happy one year Blogoversary Alenka! In June Alenka let us know that she was coming up on her one year blog anniversary and asked if anyone wanted to join in on a hop to celebrate. The theme is focused around using her handmade components of course!

But if I back up just a little, back to April, Alenka was hosting a give away on her blog. I was one of three winners and I got the 'surprise' package. It was a bead soup of her handmade clay components including beads, headpins, a cabachon and a toggle. Cute stuff! So when I saw Alenka's post to celebrate her anniversary I thought ... "well, I already have a bead soup from her sitting right here on my bead table, so why not just use this and join in?"  And so I did.

Let's get to it then. First up were the beads which I turned into a stacked and wrapped cuff. Beaded on memory wire and then ladder stitched together. I just keep finding more, and more ways to use that ladder stitch! I kinda love how this one turned out.

Next up I pulled out these lovely flower pieces. I used bead embroidery on a fabric swatch. I've been reading about Native American beadwork this summer, and well I sort of have that on my mind. This almost has the look of a beaded breastplate. I think that might be a style that stays in my repertoire! 

Then there was the heart cabachon. I beaded the backside (in peyote) and then attached it to the cabachon with reinforcement stinging along the cross-hatched pattern. I wanted to keep this whimsical, so I added some colored suede and ribbon and then included the toggle Alenka sent as well.

One last little piece. I just love these headpins! This translucent green just shouts spring to me. I didn't want to overwhelm or lose the feel of the headpins, so I just added some simple Chinese crystals (from Znetshows) in an opaque green to accent the leaf pattern. A pair of my own earwires, and there you have it ... sweet, simple and fun. 

Be sure to check out Alenka's blog today as she will be giving away 2 of the items I've created above. And then hop on over to everyone else's blog to check out all the other creations:
Our host: Alenka Obid
Ginger Bishop                      Sue Kennedy 
BeckyPancake                      Debi (Kepi) Rasmussen
Evelyn Shelby                       Dini Bruinsma
Monique Urquhart                Jo-Ann Woolverton
Penny May                         Carolyn Lawson
Ana Cravidao                      Dolores Raml
Cynthia Machata (You Are Here)

Bohemian Leather :: 5 x 5 Test Group :: One More!

Ok, not exactly sure how I missed this one. Maybe because there were so many pieces I made with Melinda's leather pieces she sent for our 5 x 5 test group in this month's Bead Chat Magazine. There was one more that I did that featured some really cute wood buttons that Edi over at Memories for Life made especially for the team. She really does some amazing things with wood and I've had her cut some custom items for me in the past. The little wood feathers on my Native American necklace were also by Edi.

This bracelet is a simple design, and the buttons seem like they were made for this. looped to pull around on either side they create leather wraps. Fun, light and comfortable to wear. Do check out Edi's store! along with Melinda's at Orrtec.

Bohemian Leather :: 5 x 5 Test Group

I think Boho has got to be one of my favorite styles. It's comfortable to wear, and from a design standpoint there are very few rules. Leaving the artist to play. And boy did I have a lot of fun playing with the goodies Melinda Orr sent me! The leather is soft and easy to work with, and I used every last bit and piece of it! 

This first piece was a stamped pattern flat leather. I punched holes in it and then beaded on top of the pattern. I also learned how to create a button hole closure with a rivet that Melinda sent me. You can see the tutorial in this month's Bead Chat Magazine glossi (page 81-82) ... I can't even believe how big our little magazine is getting! I'm like a proud moma.

The next piece I decided to leave the beautiful pattern alone and add a beaded band. I recently saw something like this in one of the beading magazines, completely escaping me which one. But a simple enough concept!

I moved on to the thin leather cord which Melinda sent in 3 colors: blue, off white and natural. Might sound a little strange, but it is beautiful stuff! I tell you that this first one with the cross pendant, the second I finished my teenage daughter (also my model here) put it on and never took it off! 

She did the same with the next one I created with various wood beads. I had only just finished gluing all the cords into the end when she slipped it on! Popped out one side of the closure, so I had to reset everything. Guess who claimed this one as well?

Now this next one I tried a little something new. I'm calling it freeform chainmaille. I was pretty sure that there wasn't such a thing as chainmaille is a pretty organized sort of thing. But I decided to try. I used it to create a focal and pull the two leather bands together in the middle. Later I googled 'freeform chainmaille' and found that it is indeed a technique, who knew? There is even a book on it by Kalmbach. 

Ok, so at this point I have only a couple of scraps left on my bead table. And not wanting any of this gorgeous leather to go to waste ... I decide to create little leather loop earrings. The final two pieces include a Native American inspired beaded pair, and then a wood disc pair that I added a little flair to. If you haven't already clicked over to August Bead Chat Magazine issue ... then click here and check out what everyone else did with their leather from Orrtec.

Fish are Friends :: Blog Hop

Isn't that the best name for a hop? Bobbie of Beadsong Jewelry came up with that one. Although in my house fish is food! We eat a lot of fish, so this one made me giggle. 

Our host, Karen Williams of Skunk Hill Studio, has written a wonderful tutorial (you can find it on Etsy) to create these little Fancy Fish, as she calls them. I saw them over on her blog and commented on just how cute these little guys are, and next thing you know I’m on her design team! 

She sent just a couple of us the pattern to give it a try as ‘testers’ of her tutorial. She also sent a few of us a bead package in colors she wanted us to use with the fish. I made one in green and one in blue. And if you look closely at the blue fish you’ll see that I alternated between a sparkling blue and a matte blue. I really like the stripe effect on this guy. I used dark colors on the tips of the fins to accentuate them, and I think that it really brings out the pattern of the fins.

Overall, these two little guys beaded up quickly. I did each one in an afternoon start to finish. It took me a couple of tries to understand RAW (right angle weave) in a circle, but if you know this stitch the tutorial is very straight forward and easy to follow. Karen also offers lots of alternatives to the pattern, the number of fins, just how fancy you want to make them or even adding side fins. I kind of liked mine just like they are ... cute and playful. I’ve decided to send my fish off to two little girls who are just about to become big sisters. It is always nice to receive a big sister gift when a new arrival comes into the family. Just to remember how special each and every one of our children are to us. So these two fish are heading off to Singapore.

Black & White :: Challenge

Sally Russick over at The Studio Sublime has yet another challenge for us. She asked us to create jewelry using only black and white. I love a good challenge, who doesn't? But I also really love black and white together. A very classic look. These will likely be staples in my jewelry box.

We've been 'off the grid' quite literally for a few weeks now. We like to get up to our lake cabin in the Adirondacks when the weather heats up in July. No connection whatsoever, so please understand my slight delay in getting around to all the other hoppers. I did bring my beadwork with me so I could work on some of the challenges I signed up for weeks ago. 

So for Sally's, I started with some ribbon I picked up at Mokuba quite a while back. I loved it and knew I'd eventually find just the right piece for it. It is a thin black embroidered ribbon with small glass pearls running down the middle. I used it as the center of a bracelet and added twin beads to the sides to create a pretty picot edging to it. It doesn't usually happen this way for me, but this piece turned out exactly as I had envisioned it in my head! Normally I just let my patterns flow with a mind of their own, but this one seemed to let me be in charge for once.

Speaking of, this second one did not turn out at all as I thought it might. But that's ok because I like the end result so much better than what I started with! This one has a simple peyote down the center and then I did a stringing weave that has a braided effect. I finished with double fabric buttons. It has such a nice feel around the wrist. 

Check out all the other designs either back over at Sally's blog, or the links below:

ZnetShows Summer Challenge :: Partner Pick

ZnetShows has a new twist on a bead soup swap. We were sent a catalog to peruse and pick out 5 items for our partner. Then ZnetShows sent our items off to our partner. My partner, Sandi James, sent me a gorgeous soup to play with, and it was full of green - my favorite color! I tried to include the links to all the beads I used below just in case you want to do a little shopping on your own.

In my soup was some small pebble sea glass in a sea foam green color. I absolutely love these! I paired it up with some light green fabric. Now here is a great idea. Christine over at One Kiss Creations happened upon a furniture store getting rid of the sample books from last season (aka, free). And those books are full of great fabric swatches to use for beading. She let me sift through and pull out some samples to try. This is my first piece using one of them. I did a little bead embroidery along the edges, and then ran large chain along the sides so I could add sea glass dangles to a very Beach Boho piece. 

As a second piece I did a necklace I call Spring Equinox with it's yin-yang colors of light and dark ... dormant and rebirth. I used one of the beautiful green sardonyx stones and did a freeform peyote around it using that same light-dark theme. The green and white beads are a pretty candy jade faceted bead. I finished it with one of the leaf connectors from the soup. This one could be worn all sorts of ways!

The next piece is a simple double helix pattern using various tones of greens and some lovely opaque green Chinese crystals from the soup. The smaller green rounds are a light jade. 

I love the flower petal pattern in this next bracelet. I picked it up years ago and haven't had a chance to try it out. It actually beads up very quickly as a RAW (right angle weave) with large beads. The pearls have a faint green tinge to them, which is just gorgeous. I wanted to bring that out a bit and added a button closure in a soft green. This one feels very luxurious on!

Ok, one last pair of earrings. I LOVE these crystal twist beads that I paired with more Chinese crystal. It is a simple pair, but would be lovely for a summer night out. I have more, but ran out of time to keep beading. So, I'm sure I'll be back with more ideas using these pretty lemony yellow crystals.

For the final surprise, ZnetShows is doing a giveaway .... so head over to their blog and get your name in! They've got some amazing beads, and rumor has it that they pulled out a little of all our soups for the give away!