Whole Bead Show

Last weekend I had the unique opportunity to get an insider's look at a bead show, even though I do not create beads.  I helped fellow AJE team member, Kristi Bowman, with her booth at the Whole Bead Show in Lynnwood, WA.  It was Kristi's first time being a vendor at a bead show and she did quite well.  Of course that was no surprise to me, because her copper and polymer clay components are so unique and gorgeous.

I arrived on Thursday and helped her with the pre-show setup.  I'm familiar with the whole setup and breakdown routine from my experiences with the fine arts and crafts shows where I sell my finished jewelry.

Thursday night.  All's quiet and ready!

Kristi's  banner was newly ordered from Vista Prints.  Originally we'd placed it on the bulletin board behind the booth, but we were told that we had to remove it.  We weren't sure how best to attach the banner to the booth and we learned from a fellow vendor that you can attach your vinyl banner to your table cover using double stick foam tape.  It holds well, doesn't damage the tablecloth and peels off fairly well from the back of the banner when you're all done.

Friday morning was a bit slow, but by the end of the day, Kristi felt pretty satisfied with her sales.  We found that we worked well together.  I'd wrap up the purchases and write the receipt, while Kristi added up the sales total, added the tax and operated the Square.

You can't imagine how difficult it was to spend 3 days with all this treasure right in front of my nose, tempting me!  I wanted it ALL!  I kept picking components up, fondling them and then reluctantly placing them back in the trays.  

Each day of the show, I wore different jewelry featuring Kristi's copper components. Pictured below is the jewelry set I wore on Friday.

April Bloom Earrings and Fly Away Necklace

On Saturday and Sunday we were battling gorgeous weather.  With summer-like temperatures, people wanted to be outside digging in their gardens, sailing their boats or playing sports.  Attending a bead show indoors, slips lower on the priority list in those circumstances.  Vendors told us the turnout was lower than the year before.   We had gaps of time when it seemed like there were more vendors than customers, but then there were other times when we had a pretty steady stream of shoppers.  At the end of the second day, Kristi was happy with her sales and she knew that she'd be able to call this show a success.  

Linda and Kristi at the Whole Bead Show

I spent the nights at Kristi's house and I must say that I fell in love with her 2 adorable long haired dachshunds, Shasta and Ginger.  

I had earrings made for Saturday's show, but I'd run short of time and had never made a necklace.  On Friday night, after the show, I created a necklace to go with the earrings. I was so tired by then that I was getting cross-eyed trying to wire on those dangles!

Saturday's jewelry du jour:

My daughter and her boyfriend live not too far away from where the show was being held, so on Sunday, I met them for brunch, since the show didn't start till noon on Sunday. That was an enjoyable bonus treat!

One of the best things about the show was getting to know our nearby booth mates.  We had so much fun laughing and goofing off together!  So much talent and such a great sense of humor. To the left of Kristi's booth, was Sheila Davis of Stone Designs.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a photo of Sheila or her booth, but her lampwork is truly gorgeous.  Both Kristi and I bought a good deal of beads from her.  And, not only does she create lampwork glass beads, but she also designs intricate jewelry which features her beads.  Swoon!

To our right, were three more talented lampwork glass artists:  Judith Billig of Judith Billig Contemporary Lampwork Beads, Lori Bergmann of Lori Bergmann Design and Lara Lutrick of Lutrick.

Judith, Lori and Lara - photo by Lori Bergmann

These three women are immensely talented and both Kristi and I bought a lot of their gorgeous beads!  During slow times, we talked shop, laughed and goofed around.

Judith hamming it up and showing off her "Angelina Jolie lips"! 

She cracked me up!

Judith with her delightful lampwork

Lori and Judith at Lori's booth

I bought some lovely sage green lampies from Lara on Saturday and used them to create earrings to wear on Sunday.  I paired the new earrings with the necklace I'd made the night before.

Ammonite Impression Earrings

Overall the show was a success.  Kristi did well at her booth, we both scored lots of great new beads and we enjoyed the company of great people who shared our passion for beads and jewelry.  I returned home inspired!

Linda

Linda Landig Jewelry - ArtFire 

Linda Landig Jewelry - Etsy  

Fly Away

Sweet freedom whispered in my ear 
You're a butterfly 
And butterflies are free to fly 

Fly away, high away, bye bye 

Elton John

On May  3rd and 4th I will be helping fellow AJE team member, Kristi Bowman, with her booth at the Whole Bead Show in Lynnwood, WA. I'm looking forward to spending a couple of days with Kristi and getting a behind the scenes view of what it is like to be a vendor at a bead show.

In preparation, I have been making some jewelry to wear to the show, using Kristi's metal clay components.  I took pictures of each step of the design, so I could share my thinking, as it developed during the process. I began with Kristi's bronze clay butterfly.  I've been hoarding this for awhile, so it was time to put this little beauty to use.

My first step is the jewelry design equivalent of brainstorming.  Anything goes.  I think freely and creatively at this point and pull out all the beads that could conceivably be used in the design.  In this instance I wanted a peach and turquoise necklace.  Here's my brainstorm pile of possibilities.

I bought the burnt orange leather cording on the way home from work yesterday.  Unfortunately, it was only available in a 1 mm size and I was worried it might be too thick.

My fears were well founded.  Only the large turquoise beads fit on the leather.  Drat! After some thought, I figured I could string about 5-6 inches of beads on either side of the butterfly, using brass colored stringing wire.  Then I could use the rust orange leather to complete the back of the necklace.

So with this new plan in mind, I started editing my beads and organizing them.  I was looking for beads whose size would be proportional to the fairly small butterfly pendant.  I also wanted a variety of shapes and textures. I chose oblong, textured turquoise beads and round peach beads that are part opaque and part  translucent.  I added some light peach teardrop shaped beads that create a zig-zag pattern and some slightly darker turquoise cube shaped beads.

I decided I wanted some dangles on either side of the pendant, so I threaded some beads onto ball end brass head pins and laid them out by jump rings that I attached to each wing.

At this point I had some tentative designs floating through my head, so it was time to get started.  I attached the dangles to the jump rings and crimped on my stringing wire,

I came up with two possible designs and strung them both to see which I liked best.  I chose the one on the left, although, in the end, I tweaked it again.  Once I decided on the final version, I strung both sides to match.

Then it was time to add the leather.  I tied largish loops on the ends of the leather and made a small loop of the stringing wire around the leather.  I crimped the stringing wire and covered the crimps with crimp covers. On the other end, I tied knots as close to the ends of the leather as possible and then glued the leather inside the brass bead caps.  I added the clasp on one side and a short chain on the other side, so the necklace would be adjustable.  I made a little dangle to decorate the end of the chain.

Now I'm all ready to help Kristi at the show.  Well....not quite ready.  I still need earrings.  Come back to the AJE blog on Sunday for our earring reveal blog hop.  I'm making earrings to accompany my new necklace!

Meet the AJE Team: Interview with Kristi Bowman

Next up in the Meet the AJE team is the wonderful and talented Kristi Bowman. 

Please describe the kind of components and designs you create and give some basic info about your process:

I think I'm all over the board with this at times. For the most part I use my PMC components as my focal in my jewelry creations, and I adore pairing my pieces with other art beads. Glass, ceramic, polymer clay, I love them all!! I've been using Sari silk in my work lately and it's been fun and challenging. I'm enjoying adding another dimension to my work!

I tend to go for textures from nature, I use alot of Ammonite and Sea Urchin and people seem to love it as much as I do. Also Paisley is a big favorite of mine! I've transitioned from mostly Silver and Bronze to Copper over the last year and I love it. Being able to torch the copper after it's fired to get a wide range of colors is so much fun!

How did you get started making components?

I spent the first couple of years making components only for myself and I decided it would be a great business plan to provide them for other Artisans to use in their work and it's been a wonderful adventure. At first I was not sure how I would feel seeing my work used by others but I love it and I've never looked back!

Describe a bit about your studio. Is it clean and well organized? Or chaotic?

Chaotic describes it pretty well, messy is another word that comes to mind. I think creative chaos is the norm for most artists. When it gets to the point it hinders the process you just spend part of a day cleaning and re-organizing a bit and then off you go again! 

What is your favorite thing about your studio?

It's all mine!! No matter how messy it is I have no responsibility to clean it up and make it look nice. I love spending time in here, it's my home!

What is your favorite color? Is it also your favorite color to work with when designing?

Probably Purple, and yes I use it alot in my designs. I also love Turquoise, the color and the stone! I try to stretch beyond those boundaries as much as possible though cause not everybody is as in love with purple as I am.

What is on your nightstand right now?

Books that I never have a chance to read. I've been trying to take at least 15-30 minutes before bed each night to get a little reading in. 

What is the last book you read? Would you recommend it?

The Pleasure Trap by Douglas J. Lisle and Alan Goldhamer I would recommend it. It's a very interesting and insightful book about our instincts for eating and how it controls many of us in our world today.

If you won 20 million dollars, what would you do with the money?

Retire from my day job, make a bigger studio space and have fun!! I'm sure I'd travel a bit more too, even though I am quite the homebody!

What is something you have never done that you would love to do or learn?

There are tons of Jewelry techniques I'd love to learn, pretty much you name it and I'd love to learn it! But beyond learning them the challenge is finding the time to actually do them!

Where was your favorite vacation?

It has to be Mexico, I've been lucky enough to go to Puerto Vallarta 2 years in a row! Besides jewelry I have a bit of an obsession with birds and both years I had amazing and very different experiences with Pelicans. I'm wondering how next years trip can top them, it'll be fun to find out!

What is one of your goals of being part of AJE?

Being in a group of very talented and like minded ladies can only be a good thing! I hope I learn from the experience and maybe along the way share some of what I know and of course meet more new and fantastic friends!

Thanks Kristi!

And people, let me tell you, I had a VERY difficult time not spending money when I was trying to decide which photos to include. You can find everything seen above in Kristi's Etsy shop. 

Art Jewelry Elements Debut

Hello and Welcome to the grand opening of the Art Jewelry Elements blog! We are super excited to be offering this brand new collaborative blog to all jewelry designers who want to elevate their designs to the next level. While our team is very diverse in skill set and media used, every one of our team members creates handmade elements (or components) to be used in art jewelry and has had work published or about to be published. We also make jewelry with our components and know the quirks involved with working with handmade components.

Our goal is to build a community of people who love art jewelry, love making art jewelry, who aspire to make art jewelry, and to those who just like looking at pretty pictures. We will focus on building your art jewelry business, getting published, challenging you to stretch yourself and flex that creative muscle, lots of tutorials, tool and product reviews, studio organization, giveaways, news, trends, and so much more. 

Meet the Team: 

Today is just a quickie meet and greet. You will get to learn more about each of us through a fun interview.

Jennifer Cameron: That's me! Team leader. Primary media are glass (lampworking) and wire. 

Kristi Bowman: Creates her gorgeous elements using CopprClay and BronzClay. She was also my bead soup blog party partner for the 4th BSBP, which was awesome because I love Kristi's work. 

Linda Larsen: A mixed media artist who writes the BEST tutorials on her Objects and Elements blog and will have tutorials to share here too. 

Barbara Lewis: The queen (and author extraordinaire) of torch fired enamel components. She is also in the process of moving and opening a bricks and mortar studio in Florida. It might be a while before we hear much from her. 

Melinda Orr: Works magic with metal and patinas and is the founder of Creative Bead Chat on Facebook (it's an open group, so if you are on facebook, ask to join!)

Karen Totten: Last but not least is Karen, our resident ceramic guru who creates the most gorgeous components. I've used a few in my work.

This is just the beginning of what is to come. While we still have some work to do on the blog and our various social media site designs, please stop by, say hi, and stay a while.