I Heart Macro - Aerial View

Can't you just see the outline of some volcanic island chain, with the blue waters reflecting the sky and clouds and wind currents?

Or some undersea adventure with all the aquatic life around?

A strand of micro worlds

All woven together into a universe of sorts

I sat down yesterday with instructions in hand and created my first Kumihimo necklace with boro glass drops and hand dyed silk ribbons that I picked up last weekend at Beadfest Philly.

The rain stopped long enough for me to take it outside and get a few shots to do this post and link up with all the I heart macro goodness over at Studio Waterstone.

Head on over to see what everyone else is focusing on this morning.



Tales From Beadfest

Last August, upon my return from Beadfest Philly, my daughter told me she wanted to go with me next time.

Now, this might not seem like a big deal to most of you, but growing up, my independent daughter wanted to be everything I wasn't and nothing that I was.

So I was only too happy to give her this trip as her birthday present in March.

We got up around 2am on thursday, left by 4am and arrived in time for our first class at 8am, casting resin with Debbi Simon.

We both really enjoyed this class and Lindsay even purchased some bezels and filled those before the end of class.

The seed has been planted.

Afterwards, since the expo and shopping didn't open until friday, we made our way to our hotel and then drove around to see what was nearby. After a nice lunch Lindsay spotted this wonderful ice cream shop, Zwalen's right across the parking lot from the hotel. How convenient!

One step inside and we knew this was the good stuff. The aroma of freshly made waffle cones and home made chocolates filled the air.  It was different than any place we had been as they always have fresh vanilla and chocolate ice cream but each day they also add an additional flavor and it changes all the time.

That evening I had a tabbed bezel class with Linda Larsen. It was a big class, 20 students , and while I finished the pendant base, I still need to sand and polish as I didn't bring any of the finishing stuff with me.

I think the technique will come in very handy for odd shaped found objects. I just used a czech glass button in this one.

Bright and early friday morning we ran into Sally Russick who made a last minute decision to come down and take a class and do a little shopping just for the day. So glad to have been able to spend a little time together.

Then came Lindsay's classes. 

Michaels design academy offered 45 minute classes in a large booth right on the show floor. I think this was great to offer so those who have no beading and jewelry experience can sit, have everything provided for them, tools and supplies, and make something they can wear immediately.

Everyone has to start somewhere and most people who have never taken a class before might be intimidated by the supply lists and expectations of a more advanced class.

I gave Lindsay 3 classes, the first was a memory wire bracelet, the second a necklace which combines stringing and chain an the third was an earring class.

So for little investment in time and money she picked up all of the basic beginner skills.

Yes, I could have taught her, but like the instructor said, this is like having someone else teach your child to drive.

I figured she could get the basics here in this environment and then I could take her skills further if she is interested.

So then it was on to getting supplies to make more.

I gave her a set of beadsmith tools to get started so she concentrated on picking beads for projects already swirling in her head. She had the classic " I want one of each" response when she saw these combo sets in Jesse James Beads booth.

For those of you who love to work with bead soup type collections, this is for you. 2 walls of components called design elements and inspirations.

A quick stop by Barbara Lewis' booth to say hello ( Barbara was still in NY so I left the message with her son David) and let her know that i would be ordering some enamels soon as I didn't have time to get my list together before leaving home.

All those luscious enamels sitting on the shelves were just calling my name. This is where I have the "I want one of each" moments! 

After the show closed we met up with Cindy Wimmer, Jeanette Blix, Sandi Volpe, and Roseanne for dinner at an Italian restaurant within walking distance to the hotel.

Then hit the ice cream shop on the way back.

Ok, twice I know, but we did walk and you spend all day walking the show floor.  

Lindsay and I came home Saturday and both headed out to work at the restaurant that evening.

These pretties were waiting for me when I arrived home, I am a lucky girl indeed!

On Sunday morning, Lindsay said to me " I left my tools in your car and I wanted to make a necklace last night when i got home, I had a great idea!"

Congratulations, you've been sucked into the vortex!



Happy Spring!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter/ Spring break!

Everything around here is so far ahead of schedule (except me of course), the wisteria is in full bloom, a month early, the irises are budding, the daffodils are just about gone, as are the cherry blossoms and flowering magnolias. I feel like I have almost missed spring entirely with all my travelling about!

Since last we spoke, I went away to the Art and Soul retreat in Virginia Beach from 2/29-3/5 and had 7 fantastic classes.

Came home , unpacked, repacked and left bright and early on 3/6 and headed back to Florida for the last hurrah and to close up the house for the season and returned home on 3/21.

While down there, we took a trip to St. Pete and met up with Barbara Lewis and her husband Jim for a delicious Thai lunch and a driving tour of the area and got to see her new studio/shop in progress.

Caught up with work at the restaurant ( Ok , sort of) and then headed out to Leesburg Virginia for a chalk painting workshop with Annie Sloan on 3/31.

Picked up my grandkids on 4/4 and headed to the beach for the afternoon as they started their Easter break and kept my grandaughter for 3 nights and days during her break, she returned home on 4/7.

Now I am getting ready to head out to Beadfest Spring with my daughter where she will be taking her first jewelry making classes, the trip is my gift to her for her birthday. I am so looking forward to this time together, I even bought her a set of tools of her own!

I hope to see some of you there!

When I return I will post pictures of all of my adventures, most of which are STILL in the camera! Ha!

It's been a fun ride but I am looking forward to getting back to my regular routine ( whatever that is these days!) and putting into action all of these creative ideas I have filling up my head!

Thanks for stopping by, see you again soon!



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! 



New Pretties

I need to share with you my treasures from the meet and greet at Artbliss.

There was so much to choose from,  but these are the pretties that came home with me. Aren't they beautiful? The fold formed and enameled earrings on the left are from Melissa Manley. The copper and turquoise earrings on the right are from Deryn Mentock.  The gorgeous lampworked bead set is a limited edition for the bang gals bracelet from Kerry Bogert.  I haven't had the pleasure of taking a class with Kerry yet, but I met her at Beadfest Philly and watched her do a demo and purchased her book Totally Twisted. These colors are all my favorites! Yummy!

The Vikings are coming!

Last week I had the pleasure of taking a class with Denise Peck , editor of Step by Step wire jewelry magazine, at Beadfest Philly.  At first when she started the demo I was thinking "what have i gotten myself into?"  But in short order we were all merrily knitting away on our bracelets. I found it to be very zen like once getting going and i hope to make many more pieces using this method, especially some neck chains.  My son was especially impressed with the weaving when i showed it to him.

The beads that I added are artisan lampworked beads and Kazuri beads along with some hill tribe silver.

Trade Ya

I intentionally left these out of yesterday's post as I think they deserve attention all their own.  The first picture is of African trade beads, more specifically Dutch donuts.  They are from the late 1800's and most likely were used in the slave trade.  A lot of these  glass beads were made in Thuringia Germany and Europe and were used as barter for trade in Africa.The seller had one strand left in this beautiful cobalt blue.

This next picture is of beads known as Padre beads getting their nickname from the time when European and Spanish priests came to America and gave them to the American Indians in their efforts to convert them to Christianity. 

The next strands of beads are the pinnacle of my hunting and gathering.  They are called tradewinds beads.  They were of course pricey and the seller had 3 strands, I picked up 1 but upon hearing of their age and history promptly went back and picked up a second strand!  They are about 2000 years old, they hail from a time when the tradewinds carried sailing ships in season and they had to wait for the tradewinds to shift to carry them home. They were used to purchase spices and incense and other wordly goods. Their age is very evident in all their beautiful imperfections!

The last picture is of Roman Glass shards. I was actually searching for them when I came upon all of the above beads. It was a very reputable dealer and i felt confident that I was getting what I was paying for which is very important if you should choose to purchase some yourself. Roman glass is antique shards of glass that have recently been found during site excavations. Due to the high mineral content of the sand and water in the mideast, the glass has taken on an iridescence on the surface.

Now the hardest part will be to actually USE these beads and not hoard them away!

Under The Influence

I am back home now from Beadfest where I had a wonderful time. Meeting up with old and new friends, learned a few new techniques and of course shopped and shopped and shopped! I got some cool new tools and metals and of course beads of every description.

They had made an announcement that there was to be NO PICTURE TAKING ON THE SHOW FLOOR- but I asked permission for a generic shot into the entrance. This was Sunday morning, no where near as crowded at the start as was Friday and Saturday

The reception area had a ginormous necklace on an even bigger display

I came down from my room about an hour before the show opened because I thought it opened at 10 again and it was 11 on Sunday. Apparrently so did a few other people.

Now when i say that I was under the influence I don't mean alcohol, although a nice glass of wine after all that shopping would have been welcome . No I am talking about how what we see in our daily experiences have a way of creeping into our subconscious and coming out in our work.  Remember a week or so ago when we went to see the Tiffany exhibition? As I unpacked my stash today i noticed a theme happening. I didn't realize it when i was shopping but I was clearly drawn over and over to the colors and feel of that exhibition. Take a look-

Lapis beads in several cuts

Real turquoise

cultured pearls

Czech glass beads

Handmade artisan beads, Raku, clay, lampworked and Kazuri beads

Glass and Agate beads

Misc. beads

See what I mean? As an artist we can't help but be influenced by what we see- nature, the change of seasons, fabrics, decor and even exhibitions of another artist's work.

All in all, being at a show like this is like being in a huge candy store, all filled with colorful confections set in beautiful displays, just tempting you at every turn!

As fun as it is to go away, it is always best to come back home. Some of the loveliest colors I saw were waiting for me when I arrived. My love, my husband always has a bouquet of flowers waiting when I return from a trip. I am a lucky girl indeed!