Before I go on, I have to right a wrong. It appears that when I wrote the Marketplace day 1 post, I inadvertently called Ashley Abigail. The names are so similar, and when I was typing I was saying in my head, "ASHLEY, not Abigail... ASHLEY, not Abigail!" I was unsuccessful. During dinner tonight (more on that later), I was informed of my mistake. Miss Ashley Kate demanded a retraction then beat me senseless with her adorable pink bead bag. I have since fixed my mistake, and I profusely, publicly apologize. That's what I get for posting after a long day at the Show.
So, with that in mind, let's do it again! Today I have seven vendors to show you. Yes, the Bead&Button Show is over for another year, but you can visit the vendors' websites and see them at the next bead show.
Ooh! Before I forget, I'm going to have a giveaway! It'll be all the way down at the bottom, though, so you have to read down to get to it. Yeah, I'm pretty mean that way, but it will be worth it.
First up today is Julie Picarello from Yellow House Designs. My friend Cindy (who always comes to my rescue) works with Julie a lot and introduced me to her a few years ago. Julie makes very interesting mixed media polymer clay art beads and jewelry. She taught some classes for the Loose Bead Society recently. I didn't take any of her classes (sorry, Julie!) but after seeing all of the neat pieces that people did, I wish I had.
Here are a few of her pieces close up:
They're so neat! If you get a chance to pick up her business card, be sure to read the back. It's chock-full of information about polymer clay and the "mokume gane" technique that she uses on her pieces.
Next up is Evelyn Fay Leinbach from evvybeads. I'm having a problem loading her website, so I'll check with her and change this post after I've heard from her. I hadn't met Evelyn before, but she was really nice to let a crazy lady take pictures of her and her beads. She's a lampwork artist, and the colors in her beads are really pretty. First, let's take a gander at her:
Hi, Evelyn! Now let's take a look at some of her beads:
I love the rainbow look to these beads! The price is excellent, too. I don't know exactly what size these beads are, but they're a good, hefty size.
Since it's the Bead&Button Show, I had to stop at a button vendor. There aren't many, but they do exist! This is Bruce Beck of The Button Box:
All of those cards you see in the boxes have lots of buttons on them, so that means he has a lot of buttons! They're all really pretty. Here's a look in one of the bins:
These are very special buttons, I'd gather, based on the prices. I took one look and said, "Ooh!" If I was in the market for antique, rare buttons, though, I would have spent ages at this booth. These buttons aren't for sewing on your sweater, but I think they'd be gorgeous sewn into bead embroidery (carefully) that was for display only.
A little while later I went to bother Perry Bookstein from York Beads. He's always posting great jewelry on Facebook, and I was glad to meet him in person. I had an ulterior motive for going, though. I wanted to pick up one of the big bags of O beads he had posted about, and I was glad I wasn't too late!
York Beads held a "Bead for a Man" contest this year, and here are a few of the entries:
The winners will be announced June 16th. I bet they'll post the results on the York Beads Facebook page, so check that out!
My final three vendors are all glass artists. Yes, there are a lot of lampworkers/glass artists at bead shows, but they all seem to make different things.
I worked for Bronwen Heilman (another great glass artist) a few years ago at the Bead&Button Show, and her next door neighbor was Karen Ovington of Ovington Glass Studio. She was very nice, and ever since then I make sure to harass her and Cynthia, our next vendor in today's tour, as much as I can whenever I see them. No, I'm really not that bad, or I wouldn't get smiles when they see me. Here's Karen:
She's a multi-tasker, Karen is. She not only makes glass beads like these:
(they're so different from anything else I saw today!) but she also does bead crochet, felting, and even stained glass! Check out her website, above, for examples of panels she's done.
Next to Karen is Cynthia McEwen from Cynthia McEwen Design. I don't think I've ever seen one without the other, and I think that's because they're both from Chicago. Makes sense! Cynthia is also very nice and always greets me warmly.
Here are some of her newest beads:
See? They're even labeled as new. I should do that with my new designs. Thanks for the idea, Cynthia! The colors on these are so pretty - blues, black, gray, white/cream (I'm not sure which - looks cream to me). The black dots are really neat, too. What will she come up with next? A purple set? I may be in trouble if that's the case!
Our final vendor of this post is Nikki Thornburg-Lanigan from Thornburg Bead Studio. Ah, Nikki. I love Nikki. I met her around the same time I met Karen and Cynthia, I think. I was drawn to Nikki because of her distinctive glass frogs and her personality. She's so exuberant and is another one who's happy to see me. (All these folks I see only once or twice a year who remember me makes me feel so warm and fuzzy! Steve would just shrug and say, "Well, everyone loves you." I don't think that is true, but it's nice to hear!)
Here's Nikki:
While she does make a lot of glass beads and flowers and frogs and starfish and... what on earth are these things in this picture?
Yup, I don't know what those are, but they're neat! Anyway, not only does Nikki do all that stuff, she also puts pieces together for people - pendants, necklaces, and possibly even earrings. During a bead show. While she's busy. But she does it all quickly (with helpers for the browsers) and with a huge smile on her face.
While we were talking, she showed me a necklace that's been very popular:
It's really pretty and unique!
So, that's it for the bead show for me. I had a great time and (after a week or three of recovery) will look forward to next year's show! I'm thinking of what classes I'll be submitting, and what lampwork pieces I'll be looking for!
After the Marketplace closed, I loitered at the Xuron booth with Abby, ASHLEY, and Jean, who's from England and says neat things like "serviette" instead of "napkin". When the booth was packed up, we dropped the stuff off at the hotel, and the four of us went off to dinner. I coined the term "Xurontourage" for Jean and me because we were hanging around our beloved Xuron folks. Abby and Ashley thought that was great. We went to Rock Bottom Restaurant and Brewery, which had good food and (I'm assuming based on the happy smiles on my friends) good beer. Here we all are:
There is a weird perspective/focus thing going on in this picture. Anyway. We had a great dinner, and I loved hanging out with them! Abby was wearing the bracelet she made from my Stitched Saucer design that's in the current (July 2014) BeadStyle Magazine, but, like the picture I took on Friday, we can't see it in the picture. I swear she's wearing it. If you missed the blog post about this bracelet, you can check it out here.
Now onto the giveaway. Abby gave me two 4 in 1 Crimpers for me to give away! If you missed my review on these wonderful crimpers, please read this post. I love these crimpers, and I'm thrilled to be able to share them with you!
The terms of the giveaway are as follows:
- Send an e-mail to traci@creative-pursuits.biz with a picture or two of a project you've made that I can post on my blog. It can be jewelry, a refurbish project (I have one of those for you from Carol in a few days), knitting, scrapbooking, candle-making, whatever. I'd like it to be something you made recently. Please send me clear, well-lit photos so our readers can ooh and ahh appropriately.
Also, please let me know if I can post your whole name or just your first. If you have a business, send me the name and website so I can give it out as I have been doing for all of these wonderful vendors.
- The deadline is Monday, June 30th, 2014, at 5:00p Central time. That gives you three weekends if you want to make something with your Bead&Button Show purchases!
- I will post the pictures and descriptions as I get them and will put your name in my antique Fenton glass bowl to await my husband coming home from work on June 30th. I will e-mail you when your project is posted, and I'd appreciate if
you could share the link with your friends and family. I mean, you'll
want to do that anyway, won't you?
- My husband, Steve, will draw out two names. I will stand on a chair and reach the bowl above his head so he can't see what he's drawing. He's really tall.
- If I don't break my neck (and the bowl) getting down off of the chair, I'll e-mail the winners and post about it here on my blog. I'll mail the tools on July 1st.
If you’d like to be in the loop about what I post every day, please like my Creative Pursuits Facebook page. If you’d like to send me a friend request for personal stuff, I’d like that, too. You can find me at Traci Southern Otte. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask!
I have had little response to previous giveaways, so I would appreciate it if you could share this one with your friends. These really are great tools, and I'd love for you to love them, too. I even made a fancy page on my website that you can share: http://creative-pursuits.biz/xuron-4-1-crimper-giveaway/.
Don’t wait – make your projects and send me great pictures and descriptions!
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