Bead Fest: A Feast For The Eyes

Bead Fest was held over the weekend.  It's one of the highlights of my year and I've been attending since 2004.  I've even been a vendor at it 3 times (and might again in the future).  This year I went for fun; to see friends and do some (lots) of shopping.

Welcome to Bead Fest

You need to be careful at Bead Fest.  It's easy to go waaaaaaaaaay over budget in a short period of time (ask me how I know).  I told myself to lay off so many art beads this year...hahahahahahahaha!  Ok, yeah that didn't happen.

Gardanne Enamel Components

Explain to me how I'm supposed to do that with such fabulousness like Gardanne Beads enameled pieces?

Thornburg Bead Studio

Nikki/Thornburg Bead Studio brought some of her gorgeous lampwork urchins with her.  I ended up buying a bunch of lampwork headpins from her though to assist me with our AJE headpin challenge.

Penn Avenue Pottery

Tracey/Penn Avenue Pottery had oodles of fun ceramic beads to choose from.  I found myself trapped (totally against my will) at her booth for awhile, with my hands stuck (yes, I couldn't pull them out) in those trays.

Staci Louise Originals 

After my escape from Tracey's booth, I ended up at Staci's booth (that's a lie, I'd been there probably 500 times already by Saturday morning...my apologizes to Staci).  Her booth looked like a magic unicorn had visited with all the beautiful rainbow colors.  I added more beads to my gigantic Staci-collection.

Staci's bags

In addition to her beads, Staci also brought some of her hand-dyed and stamped bags with her.  I own a luna moth bag and it was perfect for shopping the show.

In fact, several bead-makers brought other art with them in addition to their beads...

Diane Hawkey

Diane Hawkey had some of her whimsical pot head planters and house sculptures for sale in her booth.

Beaded Chic Fused Glass

Donna/Beaded Chic has been playing with fused glass lately and brought some new pieces along with her table full of lampwork!

Marsha Neal

Marsha Neal had beads, tiny pottery and her needle-felted creations at her booth.  

Jenny Davies-Reazor

AJE's own Jenny Davies-Reazor had some of her gorgeous tiles and needle-felted/bead-embroidery pieces for sale at her table.

Firefly Design Studio

Michelle/Firefly Design Studio had her beach-inspired dishes with her!

And of course there was gorgeous jewelry at the show...

Marcia Balonis and Pam Garbig

Marcia Balonis and Pam Garbig had a table full of beautiful samples and kits for sale.  I brought home one kit and will be writing about it on here in the near future. 

There were also great tools for sale!

Lucet

New AJE member, Cooky Schock had a booth and I came home with a lucet and some cord from her. You might recall the recent blog post that Cooky wrote for us about the lucet.  This great little tool helped make my 5+ hour car ride home go much quicker!

Xuron

Treated myself to a new Xuron plier.  Soooooo comfortable!

Funky Chain, ParaWire, Gemstones

This was just the tip of the iceberg of what was available at Bead Fest!  You're probably wondering what I brought home with me, right?  Let's take a peek...

Pottery Purchases

A bunny pot head planter from Diane Hawkey, a ring holder from Marsha Neal and a dish from Michelle/Firefly Design.

Tools and Kits

The lucet, cord for the lucet, some dyed Stiff Stuff (Bead My Love), spiffy new XBow Series Xuron pliers and a fab kit from Marcia Balonis.

Art Bead Haul

And this is the art bead haul.  So many beads, pendants, headpins and cabochons!  

Bead Fest 2016 was fabulous as always and while I hate to see it end, my wallet requires a year to recover.  See you in 2017, Bead Fest!

Happy Beading!

A Quick Trip To Bead Fest Spring

Back on April 9th, I took a trip out to PA for the final Bead Fest Spring (don't worry, the August show isn't going anywhere).

Snow...in April

When we crossed the NJ border into PA, it started snowing.  As we got closer and closer to the show the weather got worse.  Mother Nature was not kind.

Scenes from the show

In my short 2.5 hours at the show, I was fortunate enough to see some friends including Jenny Davies-Reazor, Staci Louise Smith, Leslie Rogalski/Sleepless Beader, Greg Ogden/Green Girl Studios, Claudia Warszawski, Linda Escobar Panagopolus and many more!

MyElements by Yvonne

It was also great to see Yvonne Irvin-Faus/MyElements back vending the show!  She brought a TON of her YUMMEEz with her!  I couldn't resist them!

The Haul

As you can see, I wasn't lying when I said I couldn't resist them!  I also came home with goodies from Jenny and some Green Girl pieces.

Ezel Findings Beading Pal

This was the big purchase though.  I FINALLY got an Ezel Findings Beading Pal.  My friend Meg at Bead My Love was at the show and she had a nice selection of them for sale.  I decided to go with hot pink.  I love this thing!  It makes traveling with your bead project so easy and convenient! I'll be taking this on the bead cruise for my bead embroidery/weaving class.

So this may have been one of the quickest trips to BF Spring ever, thanks to the oddly-timed spring snowstorm.  I'm just glad I got to spend a couple hours with my bead friends.  Looking forward to spending a weekend with them at Bead Fest August!

Daisy Medallion Chainmaille Workshop Recap!

I had the pleasure of taking a chainmaille workshop this year at Bead Fest Philly.  I selected the Daisy Medallion Chainmaille class hosted by Michelle Brennan of HyperLynks.

Photo by HyperLynks

Can you blame me for choosing such a colorful and fun looking project?

Michelle with Medallion Eyes

I should start off and say that Michelle was a fantastic teacher.  She was patient, witty and funny.  These qualities are especially important with someone like myself in a class as I'm horribly impatient and have quite the sarcastic streak (I'm from Jersey, what do you expect?). 

Project Layout

Michelle came UBER prepared!  She provided everything we needed for the project including Xuron pliers, beading mat and all the rings (in a huge variety of color options).  I should note, I loved the pliers so much that I bought some after class was over. 

Diana & Sue

Oh and I managed to convince fellow contributor Sue Kennedy to take the workshop with me.  That made it extra fun...especially at 8:30 in the morning!

First Step

This was my first time working with rubber rings in a chainmaille project.  The first step was frustrating.  Many bad words escaped my mouth for about 15 minutes as I attempted to get the attachment above to work.  Thank goodness we had a class & teacher with a good sense of humor!  

Six Finished Pieces

The first three gave me angst but the final three weren't so bad once I got the hang of it.  

Adding Sections to the Large Ring

After we completed those little pieces, we had to start adding them to the large washer.  Michelle demonstrated this for us first.  She also included a print-out of VERY detailed instructions for us.  HyperLynks has some of the best instructions I've ever seen, in their kits.  

More Progress

You can see some of the project starting to come together now.  I got further than this but was so in the zone that I forgot to take more photos.  I haven't actually finished the pendant yet but it's on my to-do list.  

After the workshop was done, I wandered my way over to the HyperLynks booth.

Mark & the Walls of Goodies at HyperLynks booth

HyperLynks carries a great assortment of rings, kits and tools.  I picked up the Xuron pliers, rings and some kits while I was there.  

I certainly hope Michelle teaches at Bead Fest Philly 2016 because I'd take another workshop from her in a heartbeat.  

Thanks for a great time Michelle & HyperLynks!

Happy Beading!

~Diana P.

Suburban Girl Studio LLC

Bead Fest Stress....Errrrr Prep

Prepping for Bead Fest is stressful.  There are so many things that have to get done before the show;  make a ridiculous amount of inventory, new displays, pricing, sorting, jewelry samples...

Speaking of jewelry samples, remember this rainbow Byzantine weave chain from a few weeks ago?

Well it currently looks like this...

I finished the chain, added the clasp and got the pendant attached.  Then I created more mini links coming off the necklace.  There are supposed to be porcelain charms hanging from them.  Unfortunately, a few weeks ago I was firing a large batch and the kiln shut down during the firing.  Big ERROR message on my screen.  Ahhhhhhhhh!!!

It turns out that after 4 years of solid use, the kiln needed some parts replaced.  The Suburban Guy (Colin) ordered them up and then realized he needed a few other things.  The parts came in a few days ago and Colin made all the repairs.  We did a test firing and it ran a little hot (brand spankin' new parts will do that) so we adjusted the firing.

Yesterday I took that half-fired batch back over and loaded it back in the kiln.  Here's the bottom getting filled up...

And here is the top shelf...

I have never re-fired pieces before but my fellow ceramic artist friends were encouraging.  I'm heading back over to the kiln this morning to see how it all turned out.  I will update this post this evening with the results...good or bad!

*Update*  I do believe the kiln is working again.  Wouldn't you agree?   

Happy Beading!

Diana P.

Suburban Girl Studio LLC