Why am I so tired already?

It's only the second day of gem show and I am so tired! But I guess it's probably because in addition to spending a little time at To Bead True Blue, I also took Maggie to doggie class and went grocery shopping and more importantly, watched a very boring movie, which almost put me to sleep (yes, even MST3K couldn't save "First Spaceship on Venus."). Nothing saps my energy more than sitting on the couch, in the dark, with a puppy in my lap, watching a dull film. Oh well. At least the puppy was happy!

To Bead True Blue was pretty good. I think I like the new location better than the Manning House. I'll be going back tomorrow, as Christi Friesen did not really have many steampunk beads, but was going to be making more tonight. I will not be denied! I did go ahead and pick up her Polymer Clay and Mixed Media book, which I flipped through before the movie and found to be most impressive. Lots of things I want to try!

My big purchase at the show was a whole bunch of pewter and a few shibiuchi pieces from Green Girl Studios. Nice mix of two of my favorite things: faeries and steampunk. While talking to Andrew from GG, however, I was disappointed to learn that there had been a faerie ball last night and Friday night, and I was completely unaware of it! What the heck, me? Stop living in a cave. Honestly, is there any place that I'm more suited to than a faerie ball? An excuse to put on my wings and dance? That's about the best thing ever. I will not miss the next such event, that is certain!

The only other thing I purchased was three little silver and blue enamel half-circle pendants whose vibrant cobalt hue really captivated me. There was other nice stuff, but nothing nice enough to compell me to buy. I think I'm saving myself for Best Bead.

Gem Mall Haul

Ok, clearly I need to stop taking lazy pictures on my desk, because they turn out all blah-like. Nonetheless, here are some goodies from my Gem Mall trip. From left to right: A green stone carving of a bug on a leaf; an opalized ammonite, a teardrop of some pretty green and crystal stone, a turquoise carving with a lizard and flowers, a boulder opal, and another turquoise lizard. I picked all of these up from Intrinsic Trading, and they're all drilled to be used as pendants. With the exception of the first two, they're also all flat enough to be used as cabs if I prefer. I love versatile components!

So. Gem Mall. Always a must-shop for me. Has been ever since my friend Schermo snuck Chris and I in because she wanted to go say Hi to her friend Marie (yes, Marie from East of Oz, my favorite vintage supplier!). It's a very nice tent show, with a real floor and solid-ish walls and climate control and good lighting and good parking, and lots of quality vendors whom I frequent year after year.

After waiting in a long line to register, we popped in to the usual entrace, which I always go in because it's right next to Lanshang, where I get my crystal fix. I only needed a dozen colors of crystals this year, and they had them all. Nice. Then it was around the perimeter. Hit Sandy Schor again for more vintage keys. There was someone already digging through the keys when we got there. She proceeded to move on to watch movements. Clearly, a competitor in the steampunk jewelry business. Luckily, she did not take all of the good keys. I found some beauties. Chris helped. We even found a couple big, manly keys.

Next stop, of course, was Raven's Journey, where I chatted and shopped for pretty glass. I got some firepolished, some leaves, and these weird little spade-shaped drops in a weird shimmery green color. Plus gorgeous buttons and a ceramic raven pendant. At that point, I had purchased everything that I went to Gem Mall for, and intended to just browse the rest of the show.

The flaw in this plan is that I had Chris with me, and he is quite the little arm-twister. That's how I ended up with half a dozen stone carvings that I originally had no intention of buying, plus some pyrite, green kyanite, and seraphinite from the same vendor. I don't normally buy a lot of stone beads, but these were very high quality for what struck me as a nice price, and the pyrite and seraphinite match cabs that I already had at home. The kyanite is just something that I've personally wanted for a while, and since it's green, it will get used.

The other impulse stop was Da Beads, where there was lots more Czech glass to be had. Because their beads were by the strand, instead of by the hank, I was able to pick up some weird beads that I will really only use a few of. Plus more nice Czech buttons, and a handful of made-in-the-USA dyed silk ribbons, which are nice to put things like rivoli pendants on (I've wanted some for a while, and the price was right).

After that, I was pretty much done shopping. I looked at some cabs, but ended up deciding that I would rather buy a few very nice cabs (like what I got from Gary Wilson at the September show), than a lot of < $5 cabs that had no real "wow" factor. We didn't even go to the second tent, as it was a lot warmer than I had expected and I was roasting alive in my long-sleeved tee and just wanted to take my heavy bag-o-swag home.

Tomorrow: To Bead True Blue!

A couple of hours at the bead show

This was the weekend of the September bead shows. It used to just be one G&LW show, but people are trying (in vain) to turn it into a miniature version of February. There are now two G&LW shows, a Best Bead Show, and a Beaucoup Conge show (actually, I don't know if they had that one this year, their shows are so small that I don't pay attention to them).

Although I had pre-registered for the G&LW show back when I registered for the February shows, I decided to skip it. I would have been too tempted to spend lots of money stocking up on crystals, and other than said crystals, there wasn't much I wanted at that show. The one I went to a couple of years ago was mostly finished jewelry and stone beads.

I enjoy the Best Bead show, however, as it's very laid-back and there's always lots of eye candy. It's a very small show, though, and this year a lot of the vendors who were there last year were absent. I'm not sure if the show was smaller, I think they may have replaced all of the missing vendors.

The main reason that I went to the show was to see local lampworker Margaret Zinser, who is a great beadmaker and a fun person. In fact, I feel pretty lucky to have such a talented artist in my hometown, because it means she's always at the shows! I love her beetle beads, and I was excited to see that she's now making large beads decorated with lots of tiny beetles. Way out of my budget for this particular show, but fun to drool over. I ended up buying a pretty set of barrel-shaped beads from her (which I already have a plan for) and some little spacers to put in earrings.

I intended to just window shop the rest of the show, but Chris did his usual arm-twisting to make me buy a few more things. Well, actually, he didn't have to twist me at all to get me to buy the strand of coins. Do you know how hard it is to find those things? Every belly dance costume supply place that I've seen only carries the cheap stamped ones. In fact, I really should have bought 2 or 3 strands, so I'd have plenty to make a bra some day, but oh well. I got the imitation dZi bead from the same vendor. I know the different designs have different meanings, I'll have to research what mine means. I just liked the colors. I have some Afghani jade that will go perfectly with it.

The cabs were my real splurge, however. They were just so pretty and Chris insisted that I should buy them, even though they were way more than I usually spend on cabs. The black-looking one is fire obsidian, and it has beautiful flashes of browns and oranges and hints of green. The greyish looking one is a pyritized ammonite, which has a nice spiral pattern from the shell. And the triangle one is actually drilled, so I can use it as a bead or a cab, and I think the receipt says that it's Binghamite. It looks kind of like quartz with tiger's eye or some other chatoyant golden stone through it.

I also bought some thread, but that was too boring to photograph ;) I got a great deal on Nymo, the primary thread that I use for my woven work, and I bought another spool of the cord that I used to make that notted necklace, this time in black. I wanted some green, too, but I didn't like any of the greens available. Well, correction. I liked them, but they wouldn't have coordinated very well with many beads.

And just for fun, here's a picture of what I bought in Flagstaff:

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!

Done with gem show!

Well, the shows are still going on, and I might go buy some cabs (but probably not), but I am done working! Today was the last day of Best Bead. It really flew by. Betcey and Mark kept me so busy that I had no time to be bored. We were all happy with the arrangement, though, and they already asked me to come back next year -- to which I said yes.

I've picked up a few more nice things since my last blog post. I'll try to take some photos and do an end of show recap tomorrow. Tonight, I am really, really beat.

The apartment is such a mess. Chris and I were both so busy with work and socializing this past week that no housework got done. Yuck. Guess what I'll be doing tomorrow, in addition to photography and blogging?

Real update tomorrow -- gem show day 5

Whew, I am one busy gal! Work has been good the past two days, there's been plenty for me to do, whether it's packaging crystals or bagging peoples' purchases. I've met a few cool people, and touched bases with some friends. Tonight was Bead Dinner. Almost half of our attendees backed out, so it was just 6 of us. We had a great time, though, chatting and eating delicious Chinese food.

Yesterday I bought one of Margaret Zinser's new mini-beetles. It's amazing! She had a WHOLE BUNCH of them, and each one was a tiny marvel. I wanted them all!

So far, I don't have any plans for tomorrow night after work, so hopefully I can do a more detailed blog post then. Tonight I am just beat!

Too busy to blog -- Gem Show, Day 4

I've got to be at work in half an hour, and I still need to do my hair, put on some jewelry, oh, and pack some lunch. As such, this is a really quick blog post.

Had a nice dessert with my friends last night. We talked about the shows, beads we'd bought, mutual friends, and computers. Deb brought a bunch of her beautiful wire work for show and tell, and I gave her a sneak peek of Peacock Feathers. We also swapped some beady gifts, and mine from Deb included some really cool pressed glass ivory skulls. YAY!

By the way, I made a Sock Dreams order for some things to wear to the shows... The Harajuku Steampunk arm warmers are just as awesome as they look on the page, although they're very prone to snagging on any rough edge. Today I'm wearing some purple over-the-knee tube socks. They're warm and comfy on my legs, but HUGE around the feet. I think the toes are going to bunch up and give me some serious blisters. Definitely not a good buy if you have size 7-8 or smaller feet.

Tonight I am going straight from work to gaming. If you're going to be at Best Bead, come into Beyond Beadery and say "Hi!" I'll be the 16 year old looking brunette in lots of purple.

Shopping and Socializing -- gem show day 3

My apologies for the lack of pictures. I need to leave in 15 minutes, so I don't have time to photograph anything for show-and-tell.

As it turns out, I didn't need to go into work today. So I chilled out at home, and made a necklace to go with the skirt I'm wearing, then in the afternoon, Chris drove me down to Manning House, because he's awesome. Manning House is the home of To Bead True Blue, a show with a wide variety of vendors. Some of my favorites are there, so I was really happy to have today off to shop.

My first stop was Green Girl Studios, where I stocked up on a LOT of beads and pendants. I couldn't afford to make the wholesale minimum, but the guy there was really sweet and cut me a nice deal anyway. It's so good to deal with vendors who understand how hard it can be when you're a designer. I almost bought one of the beautiful shibiuchi Moth faerie pendants, but I'm trying to cut down on impulse purchases for myself, and there's no way I ever would have allowed myself to sell it. Hopefully, they'll still have them at the September show.

Then it was just 10 feet or so to the Christi Friesen booth! Christi is such a sweetie, and I was lucky enough to arrive when she wasn't teaching a class or swamped with customers. She not only complimented my necklace, but oooh'd and aaah'd over Sky Dancer. I'd saved up some of my holiday money for one of her beads. I took a break from my tradition of buying dragons from her, because she didn't have any green ones, and instead bought a horse. Not only do I love horses, but this one has a mane of leaves! It's a dryad pony!

Then I proceeded to wander about. I ran into Betcey and Mark, my bosses for this year (and my friends all other times), then 5 minutes later I ran into my friends Deb and Dave at my old booth neighbor's table. I helped Deb decide that she did, in fact, need one of his jellyfish. Even when I'm not working there, I sell Jeremy's beads! After solidifying tonight's dessert plans with Deb, I continued on my merry way. I picked up anodized findings to make myself earrings, purple wire lace for Marilee (it's REALLY purple, you'll love it!), and said Hi to my old boss Norm. I also said Hi to the nice lady from Beads of Courage!

All in all, I had a great time at the show. Due to some poor management, there's been heavy vendor turnover. I'm guessing word has spread in the bead world, because most of the new vendors didn't have beads or beading stuff -- they had clothes. Really beautiful clothes that I lusted after, but refused to buy. I've already run roughshod over my budget.

Tomorrow I start work! Hopefully I'll be able to sneak off on a few shopping breaks. At the very least, I have to go snag a bead from Margaret Zinser!

In the meantime, I'm off for dessert. Mmmm, chocolate!

Look at these KEYS! aka Gem Show, Day 1

We just got back from Gem Mall a little bit ago. Man oh man did I blow my budget. As usual, my first stop was Lanshang for crystals. The only problem was, I forgot to bring the list of what colors I needed to buy! At first, I just picked out some colors that I knew I needed... but then, I decided to just stock up on everything. Due to the international market and the dollar being weak versus the euro, the price of Swarovski crystals is supposed to go up significantly this year. So in the long run, it just made more sense to buy loads of crystals, and then I won't need as many when the September shows roll around.

After that, I was making my usual circuit, heading over to see Raven's Journey and East of Oz, when I passed by this place that sells a lot of vintage, and they had tons of brass stampings. Well, I started looking at stampings, and was debating whether I wanted any, when I saw a tray with a single vintage key in it. And so I said to Chris, "we should see if they have any more!" That's when we saw it: a plastic shoebox 3/4 full of old keys! Well, we both descended on it with great glee. There was a mix of your standard modern-style keys and the older, more elegant style. Of course, there were no prices, so we had to ask, and discovered that we had $50 worth of keys, so I winnowed them down a little bit to what you see above. Aren't they beautiful?

The funniest part was at lunch, when I called my friend Lois to let her know that I'd only been able to get half the crystals she wanted. She asked how the show was, and I gleefully told her about my shopping, and how we scored a bunch of vintage keys. The conversation went like this...

Lois: "Keys? Like the kind you open things with?"
Me: "Yeah! But vintage skeleton key style ones!"
Lois: (in a not very convinced voice) "Oh-kay."
Me: "It's a Goth thing!"
Lois: "Oh, okay, I see."

I love Lois like another mother, but she and I have completely different tastes. Unfortunately, she's not at Gem Show this year, but in previous years, we'd hit Gem Mall together, and show each other things. There were a few things we'd agree on, but mostly she'd respond to my enthusiasm with "Sorry, it leaves me cold" and I'd respond to hers with "Eh, it's OK, I guess." Of course, the nice thing about that is that when there's a limited amount of something, we don't have to fight over it.

Anyway, keys in hand, we continued on. At Raven's Journey, I said "Hi" to Jamey and Lenka and picked up some gorgeous Czech beads. I actually only picked up one type of leaf this year, but I also nabbed some beautiful lentils and windows. Then I went over to East of Oz, and I chatted with Marie, and I got some great vintage beads. Black glass Japanese spiderweb-y rounds, and huge green droppy things, and some opaque flat drops with a Deco look to them, and some foil-backed flowers... All very nice stuff. Plus I found a vendor with some cool bells, and brass and copper clasps that practically glow.

By the time I bought all that, my bag was heavy (actually, the strap came unstitched!), I was starving, and I'd spent more than twice what I intended to. We didn't even go to the other tents -- I had all that I'd come looking for, and then some, I didn't need any impulse buys!

Now I have to figure out where to put all these beads! Yikes!

Show Report: 2nd Annual Fall Best Bead.

If I had to pick a slogan for the Fall Best Bead show here in Tucson, it would be, "Great For Shoppers, Not For Vendors." Of course, Crystal Myths would never accept that tagline, as it would scare away the potential sellers, but that's what I'll always think when the show comes up.

I had a fun time at the show on Saturday. Chris and I got there sometime between 11:30-12 and found the wholesale registration table. My favorite local beadmaker (and to be honest, one of my favorite beadmakers in general), Margaret Zinser was right across from there, so my first stop was her booth for hugs, catching up, and seeing what she had that was new. One of the things that I really like about Margaret is that she is always trying new things. What really captured my eye this time was the black double-sided beetle bead with all the accents done in silver Precious Metal Clay, but that was out of my budget. I'll be saving up to treat myself to one in the future, though! As much as I loved the new beads, I decided to buy one of the first beads of hers that I saw on-line and loved, back in 2004... The spiral teardrop. It's a good thing that I did, too, because she's probably discontinuing them. You can see the one that I picked in the center of the above image.

There were a lot of great vendors at the show, and we had a few hours until gaming, so Chris suggested that we do the tried-and-true "walk through first, decide what we want, then go back and get it." Of course, it was hard to exercise any self-control, due to the table full of the work of what must have been about 20 super-talented Japanese beadmakers. The lampworkers in Japan have such a different style from the ones here in America, and I am always captivated by their work. However, budget once again prevailed, and I did not buy anything there. They tend to have an even bigger selection in February, so I'll probably treat myself then. Even Chris saw some beads that he would wear, so he may also indulge next show.

I really wanted some small but attractive focals, so my first stop after the walk-through was Green Girl Studios. I'm a big fan of Green Girl, and in fact, I already have a lot of her pendants, but I wanted to pick up some more. You can't make them out too well in the photo (they're the pretty pewter pieces), but don't despair: you'll be seeing a couple of them in new necklaces within the next couple of weeks. I really like the tree pendant, and I might try to make it into a more masculine necklace. We'll see what the muse decides.

For more nice focals, I walked across the aisle to Lillypilly Designs. Heidi does great work engraving shells and various other materials. I picked out half a dozen pretty shell pendants, in various colors. I might keep the blue and brown one for myself, because it would go perfect with this skirt I bought in NY, but the rest are strictly business! I already have inspiration for the orange and ivory one, and the green and white. I know what beads I want to put them them, so now I just have to figure out the perfect design.

The other thing I really wanted was some pretty pressed glass. I'd picked up some nice things in NY, but I'd noted that I was running out of good blacks and whites. Bokamo Designs came through with some unusual Czech beads for decent prices. The black and white ones filled my need for medium-large interesting shapes in those colors, the mottled ivory is very versatile (looks great with bronze!), the green ones are just fun, and the agate-y looking ones at the top are what convinced me to stop and shop. They're gorgeous in person. I think I'm going to split them up, use half with the orange and ivory Lillypilly drop, and half with this carved carnelian dragon that I bought back in February.

Although I'd originally intended for my only present to myself to be the teardrop from Margaret, I simply could not resist the green faerie from Bickley Studios. I mean, come on! It's a green faerie! And I'm me. It's not like my logo is a green faerie, or like I was wearing a necklace with a green faerie pendant. She really is irresistibly beautiful, and she was just one of the lovely faeries and mermaids that were displayed on the table. The decision was easy for me to make, however, as she was the greenest, and I think I have some crystals and vintage leaves that will coordinate nicely with her.

Now, as for my reasoning for my personal slogan for the Best Bead: the items that you see above are just the tip of the gorgeous bead iceberg. There were a lot of very talented beadmakers at the show, with simply incredible beads. I didn't even mention the black glass bead with the silver metal dragonfly on it (now I did!), nor did I mention all of the big-name artists, nor did I buy any stones or seed beads or vintage, though I had opportunities to get all of those. There was a great selection. What there wasn't was a great crowd. Despite it being a Saturday afternoon, there were few shoppers, and even the really popular vendors who are swamped in Feb had space in front of their booths. A couple of sellers seemed decidedly unhappy, and I feel bad for anyone who traveled really far for what seemed like a dud of a show. I really do think that it's nice for Tucson to have a show sometime other than February, but I think they're trying too hard to make it a second February show. I honestly believe that the show must only be good for those who live in or near Tucson, or who can score cheap airfare and then crash with a local friend. For anyone else, it has to be too much cost for the amount of sales that they make.

I, of course, had a wonderful time. I didn't buy anywhere near what I do during the main gem show season, but I did pick up enough great things to spice up my Fall Line and keep my muse entertained until the big February stock up.