BTW- The Beadfest Version

My bead table this week is full courtesy of my recent trip to Beadfest Philly

First up is a gorgeous collection of Elaine Ray beads from Ornamentea.

I tried to win one of Heather's books in their giveaway but i guess I'll just have to buy one since i didn't win it!

Next up is beautiful lampworked flowers from the talented Lisa Kan and some Italian wire mesh ribbon.

Then I found the coolest recycled glass, rings cut from vintage coke bottles by Cathy at GlassGardenBeads.

I can't get out of the Hands of the Hills booth without some antiquity. I am most excited to have found these blue Peking Glass melon beads, very rare from the 1800's. I picked up some more of those beautiful aqua trade beads too.

Then just for fun we found some etched glass rounds and daggers reminding us of beach glass and look at those cool colors!

AAAhhhh, aqua terra jasper

An earthy variety of ceramic, jasper, lapis and shell

Some pretties, prehnite, chalcedony,green amethyst, amethyst, moss amethyst, moonstone and cherry quartz briolettes. Knowing my palette, those cherry quartz stick out like a sore thumb don't they?

 My favorite is the moss amethyst which has greens, purples a little brownish and clear moss filled stones. Love.Them.

Some dagger shaped labradorites, prehnite and amethysts.

Are these chrysocolla cabs just amazing???

The ones with the darker areas are called Sonoran Cactus chrysocolla.

Chrysocolla beads were on my have to buy list and believe me they were hard to find so imagine how thrilled I was to find these?

I think my palette is pretty evident, blues, greens and purples but I went outside my box a couple of times and picked up some crab fire agates, garnets and tourmalines ( which really still fall in my palette)

Plus some aquamarines, blue topaz and blue apatite faceted rounds.

Been There-

I took 2- 3 hour classes while there on Saturday.

The first was Rockin Rivets with Kieu Pham Gray ( in the center) along with 2 BFF's Carol and Bette.

We learned to drill holes in river stones and glass and set with a sterling silver tube rivet-fun!

Kieu is a hoot and we did a lot of damage in her booth Urban Beader , she had a bunch of must haves.

The second class was a jewelry photography class with Jim Lawson who does a lot of work for Interweave publications among other things. look for his name by photos, you'll be amazed how much he does.

Done that-

My 2 river stones from class

That black one was tricky as it wasn't flat and the rivet is set in a ridge.

Got the T-shirt-

Isn't this funny? We got these t-shirts from Kieu's booth, sounds better than tool junkie dontchathink?

Then after braving some wicked storms on the way home, arrived to find these waiting for me.

I have THE BEST husband.

I'm sorry that i don't have more pictures from the beadfest floor itself, i did carry my camera with all intentions of taking lots of pictures but got caught up in the moment and shopping frenzy and never took the camera out - was too busy fishing for my credit card all the time :)

But we did get to see a lot of people and enjoy the company of friends old and new, over dinner and I might add we had our share of "Oh look a chicken" moments as we all got sidetracked by the shiny things surrounding us!

So, what's on your table today?

Head on over to the Flickr group to see what's on everyone elses' table today! 



BTW

Things have been so crazy around here i can't even remember when I last participated in bead table wednesdays. ( actually checking back it was 7/13) This week my bead table has actually been my kitchen island where I have been doing some etching.

These are some of the pieces that have come from it. I am working on some Art Nouveau designs and so far am pleased with the results. Hopefully I can post the finished jewelry in another upcoming BTW!

Join the flickr group to see what's on everyone's table today



We Have a Winner!!

As someone who never wins anything myself, I can only imagine how fun it would be to see your name chosen.  LOIS MOON, you have won the double flush cutters! Send me your mailing address so I can get these babies off to you so you can start having fun with them!

Thank you to everyone else who joined in the fun and left comments and spread the word. I only wish I could afford a pair for each and every one of you! Thank you again for the love and support during my first year! (((Hugs)))



BTW- Giveaway

On my bead table this morning-

In my quest to perfect the jump ring cutting process, I came across a really cool tool.

This is a double flush cutter made in the USA by Swanstrom.

Let me tell ya, these are the cats pajamas! With most flush cutters, even really good ones, you'll get a flush cut on one side and a slight point on the other.

Not with these,  nosiree. Beautiful squared flush cuts on both sides which makes closing them oh-so-nice!

To celebrate my recent one year blogiversary, and to say a big thank you to all the wonderful friends I have met here in blogland ( most of whom I know are tool junkies like myself) for supporting me and being so gracious, I am going to be giving a pair of these away.

Simply mention the giveaway on your blog and leave a comment saying you did so between now and next Tuesday  and you will be entered into a random drawing. I will announce the winner on Wednesday 7/20.

PLEASE make sure there is a way for me to reach you after the drawing or I will have to draw again and you DO NOT want to miss out on these. Trust me!

*****Update! It came to my attention that there are also people who follow my blog that do not have a blog of their own and I don't want them to feel left out, SSSoooo, If you just leave a comment  or maybe post it to your facebook page if you have one, whatever, I will include you in the drawing . Thanks and Hugs!****

So what's on your table today?



BTW

This is the state of my bead table today. I have been in production mode, getting some pieces ready to restock the display case at the restaurant, for the past few days.

In the tray you can see the jump rings from the last post, I made some more yesterday, getting the hang of it, not bad.

I have been making the components, partial necklaces and hope to have them finished by the weekend. I have done 16 so far and hope to get a few more done today since the weather is going to be rainy AGAIN!

The table has so much on it right now, I hesitated taking a pix but this is real life right? I sit and work mostly in my lap, set everything up in the tray and then put the tools in my lap and work. 

I realized  that i used to work in clay the same way, everything would be on the table but I would turn sideways to the table and work in my lap., especially when doing sgraffito and painting, can't work at table height for some reason.

The rest of the time I would stand to work and still do. I gather the beads and lay them out while standing and looking at them from a distance to see if it works, then sit down and put it all together, in my lap.

I would glaze standing as well. It's funny, but I didn't put that together until just this moment.

I guess we all find what works best for us.

Come to think of it, when I was at Art and Soul a couple of weeks ago, I remember saying I had to stand to work, couldn't sit and paint.

How do you work and what's on your bead table today?



BTW

Heather over at Humblebeads sponsors a blog hop called Bead Table Wednesdays to showcase what's on your bead table each wednesday.

You can go to the Flickr group to see what everyone is doing.

Here's what's on my table today, luscious czech glass beads that have been arriving this week for an upcoming project that i probably won't get to finish until returning from Art and Soul.

I need to gather everything needed to go away and take classes next wednesday.

What's on your bead table today?