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!

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

Scenes from Bead Fest Spring 2014

On Saturday, Colin and I headed out to PA for Bead Fest Spring.  I wasn't vending so I just wanted to spend the day with bead friends and do a bit of supply shopping.  We arrived around noon and had lunch with a few friends before we shopped for a bit.  At 2:00 we met up again and chatted and went through a pile of metal goodies that Heather Marston brought for us.  Thanks Heather!

Shout-outs to Staci Smith (wish I could have kept all those rings she made, lol!), Linda Hanes, Melinda Orr and Heather Marston!

I headed over to the artisan section after our meet-up and found Yvonne Irvin-Faus/MyElements and Michelle McCarthy/Firefly Design right next to one another.  We goofed around with some of the cutest ceramic lollipop pendants that Michelle had in stock.

Marti Brown/The Dragon's Odyssey was in the same section!  I buy all my niobium findings from Marti as you can't beat her selection and quality.  Not only is niobium easy on my ears but the colors tend to go nicely with my raku pieces!  Marti also makes fabulous polymer clay pendants!

Heather and Harry/HMB Studios was right across from Marti, Yvonne and Michelle.  They always have yummy lampwork beads in an assortment of fun shapes and bright colors.

Around the corner I found my buddy Diane Hawkey along with her super fun head beads!  I came home with a blue one!  Tracy Bell and Brenda Schweder were next to Diane and they were playing with lots of wire!

I eventually made my way over to Meg Fillmore Mullen/Bead My Love to bask in all her seed beady goodness.  I was so excited to see that she had turned some of my ceramic cabochons into kits!  When I need seed beads, Meg is my go-to gal.

I also visited with several other friends, including lampwork artist Donna McClaren/Beaded Chic (she brought her lovely daughter with her to help) and many more (I was too distracted at times to take photos).

It was a nice relaxing day for me and while I enjoyed not having the stress of vending, I think I'm going to take this show on next year.  I love being behind the booth and spending several days with my fellow bead people.  I look forward to seeing them all again at Bead Fest in August!

Happy Beading!

Diana P.
Suburban Girl Studio LLC

A Peek Inside Berks Bead Bazaar

Last weekend I had the pleasure of vending at Berks Bead Bazaar in Reading, PA.  This is a smaller show with a focus on art beads and high quality components and gemstones.

Here's my table (with Colin holding down the fort).  I debuted lots of new designs at the show.

I was thrilled that I was in between Staci Smith and Jenny Davies-Reazor's tables.  We're all friends so it made the weekend that much more fun!  Shout-out to Staci's daughter, Julia.  She had a little table to sell her beads at and we had lots of laughs together.

And here is some eye candy from the show...

Enameled beads by Gardanne Glass Lampwork and gorgeous bead weaving by Sleepless Beader/Leslie Rogalski.

Stunning ceramic beads by Tracey Donoughe.

Fun charms from MyElements and delightful lampwork headpins by Laura Drosner Schreiber.

Yummy lampwork hollows from Louise Mehaffey.

Cabochons as far as the eye can see by Greg Graupp.

Silks and lampwork focals by McGinithen GlassWorks.

And this wasn't even everything!  I was having so much fun I didn't take nearly as many photos as I should have.  I highly recommend that if you are in the area next year, you come out and shop Berks! You'll have no problem finding special pieces to use in your jewelry!

Thanks to Joan and Louise for hosting this wonderful show!

Happy Beading!

Diana P.
Suburban Girl Studio LLC

Bead Show Start to Finish

One of my AJE Team Members and I were at the NW Bead Society Show this past weekend.
 I wanted to do a post about it but find a way to put a different spin on it.
 Not just eye candy but we decided to show some of the items we purchased and show you how we paired them up and what we made with some of them as well.

My first purchase was from our neighboring table at the show,

Lori Bergmann Design. I knew fairly quickly what I wanted to do, in fact I had trouble sleeping Saturday night because I lay awake and made them a few dozen times in my head and couldn't go back to sleep.

I'm happy they actually worked out the way I thought they would.

The little dangles actually remind me of little Goddesses.



Goddess Fulcrum Earrings

The Goddess shape made from the headpin and a czech glass bead from my stach is a fulcrum, it dangles and swings from the copper wire strung across the 2 sides of the inverted copper V.

Czech Glass beads from Raven's Journey

I also received the Ceramic/Porcelain beads below from them and thought I took picture with them included but when I edited my pics AFTER I made the earrings I realized I hadn't.

A perfect pairing with some of my new Polymer Clay Leaves.

Forest Floor

The layering of greens give the leaves a mossy quality.

Linda's goodies from Oh Sullivan.

This Oh Sullivan Shell is a perfect match to Raven's Journey Czech glass beads.

All the Czech glass beads Linda purchased at Raven's Journey

Czech Glass paired with Ceramic/Porcelain beads and a wonderful Raven Pendant from Oh Sullivan.

Linda went out of town shortly after we returned from the show so wasn't able to finish her creations but you can see how she was able to put things together.

Here we are behind my table at the show.
Lara Lutrick, Linda Landig, Kristi Bowman (me) and Lori Bergmann

Linda

Linda Landig Jewelry - ArtFire 

Linda Landig Jewelry - Etsy 

Kristi

KristiBowmanDesign.Etsy