I'm back from Bead & Button!!

Of course! There's so few of us around that every one who goes anywhere is missed.

Please do, at least I would like to see and to know.

And thanks for the reply about the welding rods.

Maren HiloBeads: Beads - Beading Supplies - Hand-made Jewelry

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Yes please. I had planned my itinerary but decided against this year. Will try for next year.

Cheers, Jan

I think this year's show was really the best one so far. Lots of variety in items and prices, although there were a lot of lampwork artists, and there may have been too many to compete in today's market. I was only there Thursday night thru Sunday afternoon, and the crowd on Thursday seemed way down to me. Teacher/artists who sold at the "Meet the Teachers" night on Wednesday reported brisk sales, so maybe it was much more crowded then.

I took two classes, fusing with dichro slide (paper which has dichroic coating attached) and fusing with PMC and dichro slide, both taught by Carol Giffin from the Vinery. Both were great fun. We made 3 pendants in each class. I found that I didn't like PMC that much, it has a strange finish to it, looks more like white metal than silver. Loved the dichro slide, though. I've posted several pictures of what we made on WetCanvas under the Glass Art, then Glass Showcase Tuesday thread. Since I can't post pics on here, if you p.m. me at Beadseeker AT aol.com, I'll send you a scan.

As far as what I bought, I decided to buy mostly lampwork beads, glass and supplies I cannot purchase elsewhere. I bought some dichroic glass sheet from Ed Hoy, a grinder bit which will let me put a channel in cabs for wireworking, some 4mm bright pink fire polish for those pinwheel earrings I make, some pink cloissone for an eyeglass leash, from the Vinery, some Uroboros glass sheet and more dichro, new welding glasses to use in looking into the kiln. Lampwork - small, bracelet floral beads from Andrea Land, a rather large mint green pastel flower in flowerpot from Dolly Ahles, at $20.00 I thought it was a steal, an art noveau style teal & green bead from Stuart Abelman, similar to the Commemorative Bead from several years ago, but smaller.From Karen Moyer, I bought a lampwork and dichro ring, a floral in purple with a green dichro center, again a steal at $25.00. From Derek Lunt, a beautiful Australian opal pendant, blue with red fire. I've always wanted one of Lisa Kahn's tabular beads, but never could decide on which color to buy. She was there in person, and she had this amazing fuschia bead with raku frit. A hand mixed color, which I fell in love with. I also bought some fuschia 2xx Swarovskis to go with it and some metallic seed beads in size 8. Dakota Stones had some faceted ruby rondelles on sale, good color and price, so I bought a strand. I love rubies. I also bought some amazonite - deep blue-green with black, look more like Peruvian opals and some sodalite from them. I wasn't going to buy any more gemstone beads, but the last day they were giving such good deals that I bought some of that dyed glass stuff in teal, orange, apricot, and purple, two strands of large bamboo coral, some colored pearls in chocolate, white, blackish purple, all at $5.00 a strand, and some stick pearls in white and purple at $12.00 a strand. Basically, they were giving them away so they didn't have to take them home. One of my friends, Jeri Warhaftig, has just written a book on Lampworking, so I bought a copy of that which she signed. I also bought the show bead, an amazing floral by Kim Fields. I think I controlled myself pretty well, considering what I could have bought, lol!

There were several adventures this year. There was a tornado warning on Saturday night. The sky turned a deep, teal blue, followed by a violent thunder storm. There were tornados north of Milwaukee. It was scary and exciting at the same time. I was in the hotel, they did a great job of herding all the Easterners and Californians inside, and warning us on the P.A. system to stay away from the windows. The satellite TV reception went out.

This year I opted to say at the Hilton. The service was amazing! Well worth the extra $4.00. Plus the food in the bar was great - I miss those great Cheddarburgers.

I also volunteered at the ISGB table for two hours on Sunday. We were there with the "Out of the Box" Exhibit, which was amazing. Glass sculptures which were put into glass display boxes and secured for display by the artists. It was great fun to sit at the table, other ISGB members came by to say hello, and we sold catalogs for the exhibit and talked to people about glass beadmaking. I also went out for Thai food one night with friends, and went to the Flameoff. I saw Pati Walton make one of her amazing florals.

It is really a wonderful show. I hope all of you will have the opportunity to attend next year.

Patti

Patti,

Sounds great!! I'd love to see your pictures if you want to e-mail them to me!!

Hey Patti (and all),

We went to Jacksonville and St. Augustine (with Avner) for a family vacation. We're holding off on a 'big' alone trip for a while longer, so I can sock away some vacation time and really enjoy time off.

Glad you enjoyed the show - did you see the NPCG booth?

Barbara

Bead & Polymer Clay Habitué

There is a very fine line between a hobby and mental illness. (Dave Barry)

Hi, everyone!! Did ya miss me? I'm back from B & B. It was the best > year eveh!!!

Hi, Barb, Glad you had a great vacation!! The show was lots of fun, I did see the booth, but didn't stop in since I don't do polyclay. I tried PMC and glass and wasn't thrilled with that either, though I did have fun in class. Did enjoy the dichro slide and will be using that in some of my designs. I think the show was bigger than ever, they've re-designed the setup since I was there two years ago. Food vendors are in the lobby, so it leaves more room for booths and it's easier to get around. This was a quick trip - Thursday == Sunday afternoon, and I left feeling that I hadn't seen anything. We are already talking about going again next year and maybe I'll take one class instead of two and stay an extra day. I think there were a lot more lampworkers this year, though some of the famous ones were missing. I missed seeing you and Carla, she decided against going due to another commitment, but did meet several people from WetCanvas and more ISGB'ers. Not to mention experiencing tornado warnings and taking forever to get home due to the planes being delayed for hours. It was a very full trip and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Patti