New Bead Show

This coming weekend I will be selling my wares at the Heart of California Bead and Adornment Expo in Fresno, California. The event is on Saturday and Sunday, September 22 and 23 from 10:00 to 5:00 both days. I will have LOTS of beads including sets and focal as well as unique glass jewelry components like clasps, bead cones, head pins, slider rings, disks,glass leaves, bobbins, vintage skeleton keys with a bead on them and adorned with Swarovski crystals, Auntumn leaves, pendants and more! Here's a link to the Facebook page for this event: https://www.facebook.com/HeartOfCaliforniaBeadExpo See you there!

In The Pink

The secret's out!! In support of Lori McDaniel Anderson for all the hard work she does for the beading community, especially the Bead Soup Blog Hop party and Bead Soup Cafe, a group of 137 women (and maybe some men?) have put together a Facebook group called "In the Pink" We have kept this a secret from Lori and now it's time to reveal our "pink hair" As Lori has part of her own hair dyed pink, the tribute was to either dye your hair or add some hair extentions, pink feathers etc. As I did not have time to dye my hair, I set out to the dollar store to see what I could come up with. Well...hair extentions were found in the kids section! (too tacky) No feathers to be found, so I ended up with hot pink curly ribbons. The worst part of all this was trying to take a decent picture of myself!

Thank you Lori for all the wonderful selfless things you do for the beading community!

New Bead Show

I have been busy getting ready for the Heart of California Bead and Adornment Expo

in Fresno, California on Saturday, September 22 and Sunday, September 23. Trying to juggle an online store and doing shows is quite a job! I have always been an effeciency freak, so I'm pretty well organized. In between making beads, photographing, editing and listing, filling orders, doing online marketing...there's a garden full of vegetables to be preserved! Only one or 2 more things to can, Bread and Butter Pickles and tomatoes...if we get enough before the cold weather sets in.

Bead Soup Blog Party 6 Reveal!

Today is the big reveal for Lori Anderson's Bead Soup Blog Party 6! My partner Karin von Hoeren from Germany http://www.creativeideen.de/sent my bead soup which included the beautiful beaded bead focal she made.

I decided to make 2 pieces of jewelry, one with the beaded bead as a focal and a bracelet made with the cute wreath toggle clasp. I used one of my lampwork glass beads as the focal in the bracelet and some of the creamy white pearls Karin sent.this bracelet can go from Fall right into Christmas!

I had fun making the necklace. As a full time lampwork artist, I don't take the time to work with seed beads like I used to...and I realized how much I miss it when I made the spiral rope for this design. I added some of the beads from Karin, a few Swarovski crystals and one of my lampwork beads. The challenge was trying to attach the bead wire without adding a clasp. Can you tell where I crimped it together?

I attached the beading wire to the seed bead rope inside the gold bead cones. The 2 wires are crimped together at the top next to the bead cone on one side. A matching gold ball on the other side balances the crimp cover.

Be sure to check out all the other participants in the Blog Hop. Again, thank you Lori for all the work you put into hosting this event. And thank you Karin for the beautiful beads!

Hostess, Lori Anderson, Pretty Things

Agi Kiss, Moonsafari Beads 
Alice Peterson, Alice Dreaming

Exploration

One of the things I love about working with glass is all the possibilties. I recently purchased 2 cabachon mandrels and am having alot of fun with them. They are easier to use than I thought too! The uses for these cabs is endless. I am currently working on a beadwork bracelet with the cab as the focal. Another idea I'm working on is glass rings. I've made a couple but need to get the proper mandrel for that too. Again...so many possibilities.

Bead Soup Blog Party

Here's a picture of my Bead Soup from Karin von Horen all the way from Germany. She made the beautiful beaded bead. Now to come up with a worthy design for the focal bead. Since I'm a seed beader also I'm thinking I should use a spiral stitch or something like that to coordinate with the bead. I already made a simple bracelet with the wreath toggle and one of my floral lampwork beads in red. August 25th is the Reveal date for these and many more designs from Lori Anderson's Bead Soup Blog Party.

Time Flies!

So much going on this time of year, I can't believe it's been almost a month since I blogged! I had the most wonderful time at the 20th annual ISGB Gathering. Exhausting...but fun. I learned alot, met new friends and reconnected with a few. The hotel was very nice, the food was fantastic and the lectures very insightful. Had alot of fun at our Lampwork Etc. bead exchange too, and got to try Vegamite for the first time....yuk! (thanks Deb!)This is a picture of my booth at the Bead Bazaar.