The Gem Show Recap -- in photos.

Ok, I've somehow lost the ability to change my font, so we're going to have to live with this one. That's alright, though. The main attraction here is bead photos!

First, the above image. My vintage haul from East of Oz! In the center, some really wicked Japanese beads, black spiderwebby lampwork. They're actually hollow. I've had just a couple of these in the past, in light pink and light blue. To have a full set of graduated black ones is really cool.

On your left, some huge green satin drops. I forgot to ask where they were from. I'm going to guess maybe they're Czech or West German. Even though I buy a lot of vintage, I am not any sort of expert on it. I just love green satin glass, and these look like the antwerps from the old Quest For Glory games, which is funny.

On your right, some opaque green Czechoslovakian drops. They have a really cool deco look to them, and they also remind me of cicadas. I think I'm going to hang them from some sort of collar... Maybe something inspired by Flaming Teeth.

And along the bottom, some luminous foil-backed flowers. Look how they shine! Chris actually picked those out. Marie also had some in emerald green, but the darker glass didn't glow like this aqua does.
Next, my Green Girl Studios goodies! This grouping of beads didn't photograph well, most of the details just don't show up at all. Anyway, I've already got a plan for that mermaid ring. And the cool thing about a lot of these, mermaid included, is that they have words or even entire quotes on the back.
The dryad pony! She has a garnet eye and coral accents in her mane. I'm going to have fun matching leaves to her to make an awesome necklace. Because, of course, I don't have enough leafy necklaces already.
Mini-beetle! And matching spacers! Pretty cool, huh? This was actually one of the simpler and smaller mini-beetles. I almost bought a black one with green and black wings, but I am a real sucker for that green opal glass. Also in this picture, two ridiculously cute Japanese lampwork beads. They had all kinds of little animals, even a baby seal.
I bought way too many seed beads at work, there was no way I could photograph them all. Instead, here's the highlights! On the left, a very nice green-bronze marble. The most expensive seed beads I own. I didn't even add them to my database, because I'm going to be greedy and save them for myself. They're actually brighter than the photo. The middle two are Czech size 6 seed beads that have a mottled, stone-like appearance. I have some pressed glass leaves (and maybe some fire-polished) the same color as the blackish ones. On the right, magic-lined size 6! These dichro-like seed beads are unbelievably awesome.
And last but not least, some goodies that my friend Deb from Bead Indulgences gave me! Very cool ivory pressed glass skulls, a malachite cab, a serpentine donut, and Swarovski crystals. They have an official name, but I call them "dust grey opal." I was hoping for an opal version of shadow crystal, but they have a decidedly beigish cast. I've heard they look better if you string them on gold wire, so I'm going to try.

I forgot to photograph my rivolis and Czech glass, so I'll probably post those later this week. Also, I didn't photograph the crystals, because there's a lot of them. Most of them are colors that I already had anyway. And speaking of crystals, I'm going to try to put them all away before I crash tonight. I'd better get started!