Viva Fiesta!

I'm posting today from deep in the heart of Texas! Saturday's show at the King William Fair was wonderfully fun! Just the energy and color was amazing!! I ended the day with sore feet and my face hurt from laughing so much. It was such a great day! Oh...and one of the highlights was when I got to meet Heather of Humblebeads! She came up to my table where I was shaking my best bellsy bracelets (because they make great fiesta noise that way) and we shared a big bead-loving hug! I pulled out those great cherry blossom necklaces to show off her great beads.
How cool is that?!

But now, with the weekend in the past, and after my tenth meal featuring chips and salsa, it's almost time to head north and get ready for a few more shows. It's odd to realize that I have to focus on business instead of beading...how depressing! haaaaaaaa But, Susi and I had a blast and we're ready to move on to the show in Ballston in just two short weeks. If you're in the Northern Virginia area, come on out to the Ballston Metro stop on May 9th and say hi!!

I'm going to have that Etsy shop stocked up, too, so be on the lookout for just the pieces you need!!!

"You're really funny!"

I had my first teaching gig a couple of Saturdays ago and it was so fun! Many thanks to Denise over at Off the Beading Path in Occoquan for being such a great supporter and setting up the Wild Wire Weekend.

The morning started off with a big cup of coffee and lots of headpins. I taught four lovely women how to make a clustered necklace. That means a nice group of beads, each strung on a headpin, gathered into a fun, textured, chunky cluster. I loved seeing how each of the ladies worked with their color choices and tried a little bit new with their bead selections. Each of them left with something wonderful to wear--a couple casual with leather and a couple fancier with great ceramic and glass beads.

My designer friend, Kelly, led the lunchtime class on some gorgeous wrapped rings. I was jealous, but took some time to go wander around Occoquan, which is such a cute little waterfront town.

My second class of the day was on the Squiggle. That's, of course, my favorite thing because just about any way you curl, twirl, or bend the wire, you end up with something interesting. And, to make it even better, you get to hammer it! My two students enjoyed the hammering the most--no surprise--and came up with some really great, unique pieces for themselves! You can see below that we worked with some silver and some copper. Then, they both fell in love with the great colors of the Kazuri beads--these are ceramic beads handmade by women in Kenya. (If you click the link you can read the story at a Kazuri supplier's website.)

If you're interested in learning something like this, let me know! I'll be teaching again at Off the Beading Path in May plus, I'm always willing to open up my bead workshop slash dining room table to help you create something wonderful. :)

When I asked the gals if they learned anything in the two plus hours we were together they both responded with, "You're really funny!" So, my teaching technique may be left wanting, but they still want to come back so there must be some entertainment value! haaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Two-Stepping!!

I'm not much of a dancer, but I'm soooo excited to head to San Antonio I think I could actually two-step! I'll be dancing my way through the airport deep into the heart of Texas!!

It has been years since I've been there, so I'm thrilled to report that I'll be pairing up with my friend, Susi, in a booth at The King William Fair on April 25th. This lovely historic district will be hosting a one-day fair complete with yummy festival food and awesome hand-crafted jewelry! It's an official Fiesta San Antonio event, so if you're in the area, I hope you'll come out to visit and shop!

I'm going to have a big selection of goodies from the variety of techniques I've been trying. Here are a couple of the sets that I came up with featuring great mixes of stones and featuring more wonderful discs from Heather Boardman.

So, I'm going to keep the creative juices flowing...and might even include some margaritas!! Hope to see you!

Cherry Blossom Time!

It's the time for blossoms of all sorts here in Washington, D.C. Even if you can't tell the difference between lovely pink dogwoods and fluffy cherry flowers, it's still a great time of year! And, what a wonderful rainy day I spent today working on some special pieces to mark the occasion...

I picked up some wonderful Humblebeads that are absolutely perfect! Plus, I have these fantastic garnet slices that totally look like crushed cherries--without the mess! haaaaaaaa

These special pieces are on their way to Bedford and will be available at Elaine's Wearable Art. In the meantime, I'll be working on some others for my on-line shop!

Blue Adventure

I am completely addicted to rock crystal and have it laying all over my work table. When I sat down last night to work, there was a big chunk calling out for some action. I went to my "blue" drawer to see what I could come up with. Lo' and behold, the result was a mix of all sorts of neat beads tied together with some quartz and silver tube beads.

The blues are from all over the place which makes this necklace an adventure for me.
- There's a vintage glass Mardi Gras bead that I found at a shop in North Carolina.
- There's a big, rough sodalite nugget, which was from my very first big wholesale show. I was so overwhelmed that day; I'll never forget how excited I was to see the strand of these crazy blue and white stones.
- There are a couple of sandcast trade beads that are painted with different shades of blue.
- There's a handmade lampwork glass bead from Linden Avenue designs.
So, take a little bead adventure...

Look Right....

You can see my Etsy shop right here on my blog page! I feel like a tech genius!!! haaaaaaaaa

So, for all those in the mood for shopping, click away!

Mardi Gras in Mookaite

So I'm a little late for Mardi Gras, but this is a festive piece featuring the purples & golds of mookaite. I used several shapes of mookaite and included some Indonesian glass. I also dug some special glass beads out of my stash: there are perfectly gold & purple handmade discs by Heather Boardman and some gorgeous little lampworked rounds from Lisa New.

I've been studying color theory lately and trying to move away from my normal analogous tendencies. For those who don't dork out on beads like I do, that means I gravitate towards colors that are similar--near each other on the color wheel. If you really dig my work, you'll see that this is actually an analogous scheme, too, since it stays on the warm side--red through yellow--but at least I didn't use orange, like I usually do! haaaaaaaa

The other bonus about this piece is that I found another way to get a squiggle in there!!! On that note, I'm going to be teaching my first classes on April 4th at Off the Beading Path...more to follow soon!