My Bead Fest Haul

The torching was my favorite part of last weekend's Philly trip, but the shopping was a close second.  Here's a little taste of my bead yumminess with some of the "natural" stuff I found.  Yes, I know some of those colors aren't necessarily the natural colors of those particular stones or seeds or nuts, but they're still completely awesome.  Who doesn't love a pink bean?

When it comes to handmade lovelies, I met Alice St. Germain and fell immediately in love with her "Succelent Glass" work and wanted something big and dramatic and special.  So, you see this one:

I'm all in the mood for some brass, too.  I just love the satiny texture of these.

And here's just a final shot from Saturday night of the goodies that Elisabeth and I picked up in just a two hour shopping venture.  It's sort of funny looking at this pic now because you can see that one of us went on the warm side and one went on the cool...interesting!  I don't think we even noticed it that night.  She wasn't surprised by the pinks and oranges I picked up.  They'll always be my faves.

What will I make?  Uhhh, who knows.  I just looked around the apartment today and realized that I have projects out in every corner and it's basically a disaster area.  I haven't been in at the actual bead table in almost two weeks.  Now I'm facing a week of vacation at home with my family in Penna. so there's going to be even more time away from my beadisaster room.  Ah, this is a public call for responsibility and I must sit down and organize!  Whoo hoo!

We Painted With Fire!

It was Bead Fest Wire time in Philly this weekend and my friend, Elisabeth, and I had a phenomenal time getting into full-on bead dork mode.  It was fantastic.  There was shopping, of course, which I'll talk more on later, but most importantly, there was Barbara Lewis of Painting With Fire fame.  She makes the best enameled beads so I was thrilled that I could get a seat in her class on Sunday.  

It was worth the hours and hours in the car to come up with a little something like these:

There were 20 of us in the class and because of the torching, we ended up moving out of the conference room that was originally scheduled and got a big workspace down near the food and vendors so we'd have lots of ventilation.  It worked out perfectly since we all had plenty of space and our own kit setup with the torch, gas tank, and all the rest of the tools that we'd need.  I intended to take a before and after picture but was too wound up to get the after...here's the before with the whole setup, including the required coffee! 

Barbara set us on the path to goodness with demos and lots of help along the way.  Jim, David & Chris were a wonderfully helpful team.

Working with the torch was a little bit scary starting out.  Both Elisabeth and I have only had a little experience with lampworking, so that's the only torch time we've really experienced.  On that note, many thanks to my bud Juls for giving me my first taste of the flame last year.  :)  Once we got the hang of it and started seeing all the colors of the enamels coming out, we were hooked.

Elisabeth is concentrating.  She was all about the color "elan" which we finally figured out was like a dove grey.  Really pretty.

And I couldn't stop with the yellows and pinks.  I kept coming up with really pretty orangie-salmony colors and wanted more. That orange ball on the mandrel that I'm staring at is a HOT hot metal bead that's going to be dipped in powdered enamel a few times until I think it's ready and then it'll cool and become beautiful (or not...depending on how I worked it).

My favorite part of the class was in the last couple of hours when we got to really go to town and actually "paint" with the fire and use the heat and the copper to develop wonderful patterns, textures, and colors.  These are my favorite...

This is my actual Favoritey McFavoriteson.  We had the lights in the room dim so that we could see the flame more clearly and keep our work in the right/hottest part, so it was hard to see the colors once the beads started to cool.  I had this one still on the mandrel and wanted to take a look at it and walked out into the light.  I was so excited that I started skipping and running around and ran over to show Barbara.  It was just about the coolest thing ever!  Even better is that Curt asked me where I bought it...I told him I actually made it myself with a torch!!

Before we could leave, I had to have a picture with Barbara & Elisabeth. We put the "skinny" filter on...haaaaaaaaaa

Of course, there is now cylinder of MAP gas, a torch head, and a bunch of yellow and pink enamels here in my apartment so I can do it all right here in my kitchen!!!  Just what I needed...another obsession.  :)

Wire Girl At Work

bead fest teaching 8, originally uploaded by kabs_concepts.

In my class with Kerry Bogert over the weekend, she was taking some pics. Here's one of the lovely mess I had going on...which turned into a "Delightful" necklace. It's one of the projects out of her book, Totally Twisted.

Plus, I was wearing a necklace with Kerry's beads that I made last year. I was worried I'd seem like some crazy bead stalker chick, but it was okay. haaaaaaaaaaaaa

p.s. the creative energy appears to have started at the roots of my hair! haaaaaaa

Bead Fest Wire - New Friends and Old

I'm recovering from my weekend in King of Prussia at Bead Fest Wire.  It was a fantastic weekend...well worth the flight up there even though airports aren't my favorite places.  This post is all about the people...there'll be another one for beads later.  :)

First, I spent Saturday in class with Kerry Bogert and fellow fan Bev.  We worked out a bunch of different chains focusing on Kerry's glass beads.  I felt like a random stalker chick when I showed up with my book in hand knowing all the details of her life from her blog.  But, luckily, I'm not her only fan...Bev and I were lucky enough to have Kerry all to ourselves for a great class.  Kerry's really down-to-earth, so we ended up gabbing like old beading buds all day long.  The class--and the project--exceeded my expectations.  :)  Here's a pic of us from midway through the day...

One of the best parts of any Bead Fest is the shopping.  :)  Curt called in the middle of my browsing and we got to have a nice long chat.  I actually happened to be right next to the table of goods from Afghanistan.  He was a little stressed out about his job, so I offered to distract him by telling him how much I was spending and what I was getting.  He declined with a laugh because he'd rather leave those numbers a mystery...what a great husband!  haaaaaaaaaa

Because this post isn't really about the beads, but about the people, I'm just showing this little bit of goodness from Na Bo Row...

I had the most fun shopping experience at their booth...must've been there for an hour!  And, when I needed help, Ms. Lynne was there for my...we laughed and laughed because I made fun of her hand-written nametag.  I promised her that she'd get a great mention because that was one of the highlights of my weekend.  She even wrote me a note on my reciept to "make it good."  haaaaaaaaaaaaa  So, for Lynne I'm sending out a huge laugh, a hug and a recommendation for amazing clasps and silver at Na Bo Row.

Last but not least, it was a great meetup weekend.  My old Air Force bud, Elisabeth, came up from DC to share some beady goodness.  She just opened up her own Etsy shop.  :)  Plus, we had dinner with Jeanette Ryan and Cindy Wimmer...lots of great bead and family chatting as I look forward to moving back to Virginia in a couple of months.  Whoo hoo!!!

Headed to Philly for Bead Fest Wire!

I can't believe it's finally time for my trip up to King of Prussia for Bead Fest Wire.  It has been ages since I registered for these workshops.  This is my third trip to this event, and it's going to be extra special this time because I get to meet some of my blogging buds!

I have to go pack.

Oh, and go to school first.  :)