Exciting new stone beads!

As planned, today I trekked up to Mesa for the Rings & Things bead show. I still find it weird that they have these shows mid-week, but I guess it allows them to do several shows a week and spread the beady love around, so I can't complain.

These shows are great because they have table after table of quality stone beads, properly labeled as to what they are and how they're treated. If a stone is dyed and heated quartz masquerading as something more valuable, Rings & Things will make sure you know it. They're also good about dealing with stone suppliers who treat their stone cutters fairly, so I don't have to feel guilty about my purchases.

I don't think I bought quite as much as last year, probably because I still haven't touched quite a few of last year's strands, and I didn't have Chris twisting my arm to get me to buy things I was hesitant about, but I did get some nice stuff.

From top to bottom:

Black lava coins; dyed red lava; dyed cream lava; brown lava rectangles; dyed green lava coins; black labradorite; kiwi quartz; pyrite coins; faceted mossy agate; color-gradiated chrysoprase rondelles; green two-hole, flat-back pearls; rough cut black tourmaline; assorted glass skulls; black pyrite ovals; heated quartz matrix; big round black lava.

Clearly I did not really move far from my green/brown/black/metallic comfort zone on this trip, but hey... they're all pretty!

Best Bead Today!

It was a small show today, and not very crowded at all. There were no cheap Afghani coins (I really should have bought several strands last year!), the cab guy from last year wasn't there, and Jane's Fiber and Beads did not have the seeds I need for Cthulhu.

That said, I still had fun! Chris talked me into buying a glass ring as my first purchase. Then I purchased the beads on the right, a mini-focal and four spacers in black and raku. Lousy picture, so you can't see the beautiful rainbow colors. They'll make a nice goes-with-everything necklace. In the center, some new beads from Green Girl Studio (well, the Medusa coin isn't a new design, but I like mine so much I decided I should make one up for sale, too). On the left, three gorgeous lampworked cabs from Dolly Ahles. The top two are for me, hopefully I'll have time to make them into something before Tahoe, because I have the perfect dress to go with. The bottom one is for the brooch swap at Tahoe.

I'm very happy that Best Bead has moved the September show to the same location that the February show is held in. It's more convenient, the perfect size, and the vendors who I spoke to all seemed to be happier with it. Now if they could just attract a few more awesome vendors for my shopping pleasure!

Best Bead Tomorrow!

Tomorrow I'm going to the Best Bead Show for a little shopping. Only a little, because the Tahoe retreat is less than 3 weeks away, so I really need to save my money for kits, souveniers, oh yeah, and food. I guess I'll need some of that.

I'm looking forward to the show, not only because I'll hopefully score more Cthulhu-green beads, but because Green Girl Studios will be there, and of course, awesome local lampwork artist Margaret Zinser. I'm sure there will also be lots of other great vendors to tempt me with their wares. After all, last year I came home with gorgeous cabochons and a strand of Afghani coins (most of which went into my bra, so if I get the chance to replenish my stash, I will).

Beads, Glorious Beads!

Here they are, the beautiful strands of beads that I bought on my mini-vacation. Except for the two glass strands near the bottom left-hand corner, all of these came from the Rings and Things show. I think I'll be good on stone beads for a while. My finds include:
-Brown Lava
-Black Lava
-Kambaba Jasper
-Antiqued Jade
-Eagle Eye
-Nephrite
-Lizardite
-Bone
-Green Jasper
-Copper
-Fireworks Jasper
-Smoky Quartz
-Red Tiger's Eye
-Something tagged as "Copyrite?"
-Lots of Czech glass
-And more!

I'm looking forward to designing with these beads. What I'm not looking forward to is putting them all away! Heck, most of my purchases from the February shows are still in the bags they came in. I think I'm overdue for some Spring cleaning -- before it becomes Summer.

And of course, it wouldn't be a blog post if I didn't mention the Daily Special! Check out Mistress of the Secret Forest, on sale for $85 down from $100.

What Fun I Had!

Before I talk about my trip, I have to do the marketing thing. This is Asrai, and it is the Daily Special on Etsy.

Now that we have that out of the way, let's get down to how awesome my mini-vacation was. First, we hit the Rings and Things show, where for just under $200, I left with a bag full of stone beads, Czech glass, and two focal beads that I bought on a whim, because they were cleverly placed next to the cash register. I whole-heartedly recommend these trunk shows to any of my beady friends who have a wholesale license. The beads are beautiful, the prices are awesome, the employees are friendly. You can check the show schedule to see when they'll be in your area.

After the show, we left Mesa and headed off to Scottsdale, where our hotel was located. I used Hotwire to book the room, which meant I didn't know where we were staying until after I paid. This could have been disastrous, but it turned out to be perfect. We ended up at the Scottsdale-Paradise Valley Doubletree Resort, which was pretty sweet. Nice room, quiet hotel, and a great pool and hot tub to relax in after dance class. Plus, it was really close to downtown Scottsdale, which as it turns out is just like a California beach town minus the beach. I'd happy visit there again. If you happen to find yourself in downtown Scottsdale, you should consider eating at the Stax Burger Bistro, which was delicious.

On Tuesday night I had my dance class at Plaza de Anaya which is basically one of the best places ever. It was my first time taking a real dance class and I enjoyed it immensely. I can't wait to be in the position to drive to Tempe weekly and take classes -- yes, it really is worth driving 1 1/2 hours each way, when you consider that no one is teaching American Tribal belly dance in Tucson, and they also have an amazing selection of dance clothes for good prices. Which reminds me: I finally have a 10-yard full circle skirt. Eeee! I can't wait to dance in that!

Then on Wednesday, it was over to the Bead Museum. Chris and I purchased a membership, then leisurely browsed through all of the exhibits. I had already seen most of it on a previous trip with my parents, but it was nice to see it all again, share it with Chris, and talk about it with him. Then I did my part to save the museum by doing a little shopping in their gift store, where I picked up a bunch of seed beads (including some metal size 11s) and some gorgeous cabs.

After that it was back home, where my cute little corgis and my awesome friend/dog sitter were waiting for us. I'm pleased to say that the girls were very good for their sitter, maybe because they learned that if they laid around being quiet she'd say "Aww! You guys are being so good!" and give them treats without them exerting any effort. My dogs are very treat motivated!

Now it's time to start putting all of my new beads into my inventory spread sheet, and maybe take some pictures of my haul to share tomorrow.

Today's Daily Specials

Today I decided that I should really have Daily Specials on both my site and my Etsy store. So today's two specials are Lilac Whisper (website) and Napping Treasure Hunter (Etsy).

I also decided that the specials should be easy to find, because I do want people to buy them. My Etsy shop now has a Daily Special section, and on my website, the Daily Special will be featured on the front page. What could be simpler? Well, I guess maybe checking here for them, or stalking me on Twitter or Facebook. Whatever floats your boat.

One reason why I'm so keen on having Daily Specials is that I'm going to a Rings and Things trunk show in a week, and I'd like to have a little extra spending money to buy new and exciting things. While I'm up in the Phoenix area, I'll also be visiting the Bead Museum. As you may or may not already know, they're having some financial difficulties, so I'm going to try to help them out with a little gift store shopping, as well as purchasing a membership. If you live in AZ and haven't already visited the museum, it's worth spending a couple of hours there admiring the collection.