BeadFest Bead Bounty!

I am so sad that BeadFest is over this year. I've really made some good beady friends over the past year that I only get to see in person at shows such as this, and I don't want to have to wait another year!

The other great thing about BeadFest is all of the beads!!! Last year I bought tons of crystals...a lot of which I still have. My style has changed to using almost exclusively artisan beads as the main components, and I'm also looking at making some more gemstone pieces. So that's what my bead stash consisted of this year!

First off, the gemstone hoard! I hit Dakota Stones--hard! They have great quality and good prices, plus they were super nice! I got a bunch of labradorite (my favorite), some cool hematite that looks like silver, pyrite, pink opal...and other good stuff!


My other bead purchases where made in Artisan Alley. I really wish I had bought more...thank goodness for the internet! ;)

XAZ Bead Co. Handmade Raku Feast!

Adorable earring components from Starry Road Studio!

 I made bought lots and lots of pretties from Firefly Design Studio, and Michelle is a sweetheart! I love her work and the colors she gets from her glazes!

Firefly Design Studios, take 1!

Sweet flowers from Firefly!

And yet more fun from Firefly Design Studios!

Then, I also was lucky enough to be included in the Art Bead Swap organized by the ever-lovely Diana of Suburban Girl Studio! I was paired up with the uber-talented Melinda Orr, who is a magician with metals!

This first pairing are patinaed and enameled, and are gorgeous! I know I will be hoarding these for a while as I let ideas swirl in my brain for creating something equally gorgeous with them!

Next, Melinda gave me an assortment of fun trinkets to play with, all of them awesome, along with some lengths of leather she had worked with!

 

Finally, I am in love with this last piece Melinda gifted me with. It is simply stunning and magical, and a photo can not do it justice. I'm still deciding if it wants to be a bracelet component, or a pendant...but whatever it turns into, it will be one of my personal pieces to treasure!

Now do you understand why I miss BeadFest already?

BeadFest Silver Glass Class with Sara LaGrand!

I have wanted to take a lampworking class since...well, forever! Ok, not quite forever, but considering my first class where I learned to make beads was about 10 years ago, I was overdue. I needed something to help hone my skills, get the creative juices flowing and just give me a boost creatively. I've tried to get in to classes in my area and Rochester, and have always been turned down because they fill up immediately.

Cool pink and dark caramel bead! Super cool reactions around the edge of the lines!

So I was thrilled to see that BeadFest brought back lampwork classes, and that there was a class of high interest to me--Silver Glass. For those of you who don't know the behind-the-scences of the glass world, silver glass refers to specialized 104 COE glasses that have a high silver content. These glasses, when worked properly, give incredible iridescence, sheen, and pops of color you can't get with regular soda lime glass. The "worked properly" part is crucial--some are easy to master, while others are downright persnickity, and all of them cost around $80-$100 PER POUND. So this isn't a material you feel great just experimenting wildly with!

Top 2: Views of a Triton Bead; Bottom Left: Gold Fumed rose bead (the base started as off-white and turned pink!); Bottom Right: Cool reaction when silver glass is placed over a pale moss green transparent

The instructor was Sara Sally LaGrand. The name rung a very quiet bell--turns out she was President of the ISGB (International Society of Glass Beadmakers) a few years back, and has been working with glass for 17 years. I'd say she knows her stuff!

Sara was an incredibly patient and generous teacher. She showed us some very specific techniques to try, but also allowed us to experiment and play a bit. I learned so much just by watching her work in the flame that I was able to address some bad habits then and there.

My play bead: 2 different silver glass for the flower petals...Amazing range of colors with little effort!

My favorite bead is one only a mother could love, because, frankly, it's totally ridiculous! I'm not one into drawing...and we were attempting a bead with a fish "drawn" on the surface with glass. The thing on my bead? Not. A. Fish.

Not a fish. More like a newt in a bad toupee...

I started laughing when I picked up my beads, because the delightful little guy looks like some cartoonish representation of the fish that walked out of the primordial soup, trying to be a reptile! But I do love him, because he reminds me that there is delight in failure (and if you saw what we *had* been going for, you'd agree).

Soldering Silver Bead Fest Class!

SUCCESS! I did NOT solder any part of any component to myself. Actually, that would be impossible, but I was so tired, I could imagine it happening to me.

The first class I took at Bead Fest this year was on Soldering Silver Components. I have wanted to learn how to solder for a while, mainly to create some closed rings for use with my jewelry. When I saw the class, I signed up, even though it started at 8:00 AM. In my summer world, that is the equivalent of about 4:00 AM to the rest of the world that rises early.

So armed with a coffee that was so small it wouldn't satisfy a toddler, I stumbled my way in to the class.

It's as small as it looks. Actually, it's smaller.

The teacher of the class was Mark Lareau. I realized that I had a book of his on wire work (I'm a book junkie). All Wired Up was one of the first wire-working books I had purchased.

Mark was a great teacher. He had the rare ability to take some technical material and make it so easy to understand. I was able to quickly understand why soldering was a preferred method, versus the use of the "paste" used in many cheaper components. He was also very enthusiastic and open with his knowledge. If you ever have a chance to take a class from him, go for it.

The one thing he made us do that was painful was think. At 8:30 in the morning. Have a mentioned I'm not a morning person? But he charged us with the task of designing a piece that needed to be soldered in multiple places, so we could jump into the fire (no pun intended). This is what I came up with in my foggy brain.

Kind of reminds me of a health class poster...

But the exciting part is that all of the pieces stayed attached to each other! There is definitely a slight learning curve with soldering--it reminds me of lampworking in the sense that you have to *know* your material and at what point in it's heating cycle it's at.

The soldered piece; a few gaps, but not too bad!

So I got brave and tried to make a flower. Now I would do it totally different if I try one again, but it was good practice in making some shaped rings and trying to solder a lot of points in a small area. You can see that there are some chunks of solder still there. I was so concerned with overheating the silver that I didn't wait for the solder to flow.

The "flower", even though it didn't work out quite like I had planned, was the best learning tool of the day. This is what I like the most about good classes--they give you a chance to play and experiment and actually learn; sometimes learning what not to do is much more valuable.

My final piece was simple. I wanted to make a component I could use to make earrings. I just soldered together a couple of "S" shapes, and voila!

Not too fancy, but they will make a pretty pair of earrings for my personal collection!

When I have more energy, I will post about my other class, with Gail Crosman Moore!

Bead Fest!! A Bead-for-All!!

I am happily at Bead Fest Philadelphia this week...not as a vendor, but as a happy ecstatic buyer! I got to meet some very cool people today, *and* buy lots and lots of beads!

If you don't know, Bead Fest is one of the biggest bead shows held each year. It's total Bead Overload. It's more beads than you know what to do with. It's heaven.

Even my hotel room is amazing. I wanted to make sure I had a fridge, and last time I came, I stayed in a suite, which had a fridge and sink. I figured this hotel room would be similar. Wrong!

That. is. a. fireplace. I was seriously tempted to crank up the air condition so that I could snuggle in front of the fire...but that would be such an egregious waste of energy I would suffer from bad karma for months. I don't want bad karma.

I know no one really cares about my hotel room, even if I am incredibly excited about it. You all want to see some beads, right? I apologize for the phone pictures, but I didn't drag my photo set-up with me! ;)

I have fallen in love with porcelain beads this trip. They are my *thing* to over-indulge in this year. And what's better, is that I am supporting fellow handmade artists!

My first haul came from White Clover Kiln (they have an etsy shop)! I just fell in love with the colors and patterns on her pieces and will make some beautiful earrings with her beads. The one salmon colored bead is all mine. I fell in love with it, and will probably just string it on a black cord so it can be showcased as the star it is.

My next stash of handmade porcelain were found at Suburban Girl Studio LLC's booth. Her beads are so original and unique, and since I love all things Egyptian, I will be claiming the pharaoh head pendant and scarab earrings for my own person stash! I'm thinking of hoarding the paw print pendant as well. I need some new jewelry as much as anybody!

I will be visiting a couple more porcelain artists tomorrow--I actually ran out of time today at the show!

Next, I picked up a kumihimo kit. Kumihimo is a type of Japanese braiding, which makes a great complement to lampwork beads. I have been wanting to try this technique out for a while, but waited until BeadFest. Better yet, I found a artist selling the kits, so even though I didn't get any of her lampwork beads, I was still able to support her! I bought the kit from Emerald Artistry, who makes adorable animal beads!

This is only the board and rattail...lots more was in the kit!

I also got a few base metal findings, but didn't take pics of those. And of course, I had to hit some of the bigger vendors to replenish my supplies of crystals and a few gemstone strands.

My camera couldn't capture the gorgeous colors in these beads!

Gorgeous lead-free pewter!

Some chain, lapis and other good stuff!

Tomorrow, I am taking two classes. One on soldering components. I am a little worried that I may solder myself, since I am running on little sleep, and class starts at 8am tomorrow! Then, I am super excited to take an enameling class with Gail Crosman Moore! I hope to have some fun experiments to share in the next couple of days!