Bud Vases as Needle Holders at Bead Fest Philadelphia

In just a week I will be arriving at Bead Fest in Philadelphia to get my artist table set up.

This is the first time in 6 years I have done this show myself.

Marsha Neal Studio Artist Booth 570A Bead Fest Philly Aug 21-23, 2015

My friend Darlene of D7Studio

(booth 366) has been taking my bead work with her to bead shows here in the north east US since I stopped doing shows. And I feel that at least for Bead Fest (and Bead & Button) it is time for me to reconnect in a physical presence way with my friends and customers.

Darlene will still have the majority of my "bead" work at her booth 366 with all kinds of cool jewelry supplies and other artists work (Nolly from Nolly's Folly).

My artist table 570A will focus more on my bracelet kits, sculptural beads, vessels and small terrarium pieces. And I am right with Staci, Diane, and Nikki - it is going to be such a fun creative area (all of the show will be - but especially the area where the artists are!)

So for those of you that do work with any kind of crafting needle - you should swing by and get one of my small vessels. They were originally intended to be used as bud vases for teeny flowers (my little kids like to pick flowers for me - but usually they don't have much of a stem) but they sweat water, so they are now only for "dry use".

Here is a quick shot of the various stages of me making these small vessels. I use my own bisqued clay texture plates that I made with flowers and seed pods from my garden. The clay is cut to a general size, and is rolled into the plate to get the reverse image. I have to work quick to not have cracked walls, as these are not large pieces of clay. 

Here they are drying out on a piece of drywall scrap after being made (the drywall helps absorb the moisture from the clay and helps avoid stress drying cracks).

The bottoms are kept a bit thicker to allow the piece to stay upright while in use.

And one of my favorite parts of figuring out the design of these is allowing the bottom of the piece to come up around the sides and create this organic line and bevel. The line collects the glaze during the firing and allows for puddling. The bevel conveys a sense of the piece being lighter.

And above you can see the dried seed pod from a newer plant (Begonia) that I used to press into the clay a couple of years ago. Makes me want to start to make some new plates with the growing season coming to an end in a couple of months. My favorite time of the year to collect!

And if you are attending Bead Fest Philadelphia August 2015 copy and print this $5 weekend admission pass! The regular fee I believe is $14 for the weekend pass (free if you are taking classes).

Hope to see you there!

Teaching at BeadFest

by Staci L. Smith

I will be an instructor at BeadFest this year!  I am so excited to be teaching here for the first time.  I am offering a Painted Polymer Fossil Talisman class.

here is what the class samples look like

In the class you will learn to form an organic focal and accent bead in polymer clay, and then use paints and other materials to create a crackle antiqued finish on it.  To finish it up, you learn to make it into a necklace mixing many materials, teaching some organic style wire wrapping, and using sari silk in your designs, along with chain.

  

In order to make sure I was prepared, I had some lovely ladies to my house for a test run of the class.  I am so thankful I did.  They were wonderful with tips about things they liked and didn't like in instructors they have had in the past.  It also helped me to make a timeline for my class, so it runs smoothly.  The practice class really helped me to nail down how to work through the project. I write a lot of tutorials, and teaching it live was a whole new ball game! 

I was thrilled to see everyone work through all the stages of the class and go home with completed and wonderful projects!  They did amazing....and I know it has opened a lot of possibilities up to them.

Here are the extra beads they got to make, since we had plenty of time to play

And here are their finished necklaces

Didn't they do so great???

I came away from the day with an amazing feeling- so, I know I am on the right track and that teaching is a good fit for me.

I also got great feedback from the ladies.  They said it was packed with techniques and it was a very fun class to take.  That was great to hear, because I really did want the class to cover a multitude of techniques (and who doesn't want their class to be fun?)

So, I will open this up to you guys as well, because I want to be the best instructor possible.....

I am open to tips, suggestions, and / or just fun stories of teaching or taking classes! 

If you are interested in taking my class at Beadfest, you can sign up here

https://www.etouches.com/ehome/79000/StaciSmith

If you plan to come to Beadfest to shop, you can print this coupon and save $10 at the door- make sure to stop by and see me Booth #371!  I will be selling my beads there as well!

Never been to Bead Fest?  Check out my blog from last year after the show!!!!
http://www.lovemyartjewelry.blogspot.com/2013/08/back-from-bead-fest.html

It's a great time on the East Coast....I have more fun every year I go!



Against the Odds

by Genea C-K

Wow, isn't that quote so true?! It's been a crazy last couple of weeks still prepping for Bead Fest Philly. Do you ever have those times where it seems like the world is against you? No matter how hard you try there is a some bump in the road that you manage to trip over despite your best efforts. I have been having a string of those days. Here I am prepping for this milestone mark in my glass career. The one thing I have been dreaming about since I started making beads. "Making it". Getting into that HUGE bead show and making a mark for myself in the bead world.

I would say attending this big show is just as much as a triumph as our move to Portland, OR. Against the odds we did it. It was my biggest success story until now...BUT not without many troubles along the way.

 

 

 

Those that lampwork saw this photo and immediately knew what happened. I broke the bead release. If you look on the left and right side of the bead you will notice that that whitish/gray is missing and that I have 2 big blobs of clear acting as "bumpers" to keep my bead from sliding right off either end of the mandrel ! I managed to save this bead from disaster, but I wasn't so lucky for the beads that followed...

OH NO!
This gorgeous bead that ended up taking me way longer than normal has a split in the top layer of glass! I saw the split start while I was working the bead and tried to "heal" the glass by re-melting it. I thought I had fixed it, but as you can see I was unsuccessful.

While creating this bead I literally "BROKE THE MOLD"! OMG you have got to be KIDDING ME?! Oh did I mention that this bead also managed not to make it?! *sigh*

When I inspected my beads from the last days work I found another crack only in the top layer of glass! You have GOT to be KIDDING ME! Not only did this bead split, but the other 4 out of 5 focals I was desperately trying to create cracked. So what the heck happened?!
Since the bead didn't split all the way through the layers this leads me to believe it's an "incompatibility crack". This means that 2 of my rods "didn't get along". So either my coe(coefficient of expansion) was different. How do we remedy that problem? SCRAP ALL OF THE GLASS I USED. UGH! I hate to waste all of those rods especially when this is just about how much I have left...

I was in town treasure hunting at "The Bins"(Goodwill outlet) with my mom and sister hoping to find some awesome new clothes for my Bead Fest outfits. The weather was absolutely GORGEOUS with cool temps and a nice breeze. I decided to stay in town and do my studio day on Saturday instead of Monday. Sweet a few days ahead of schedule! Then no more waiting a few more days stressing til I can get into the studio!
I sit down to work, and begin cleaning my glass. My mandrels are all dipped and my headpin wires are all wired up. I go to pull out my tools and realize my tool for my urchin beads is AT THE APARTMENT. UGH!

My last studio day's plan was to re-make the XL "Ocean Urchin Focals" I lost the other day! Now what? This was a bulk of what "had" to get made today? Well luckily for me I had more than one urchin tool so I had to use the other tool instead the urchin impression raised instead of indented like my other focals.

So after that dilemma I created 4 XL focals with new rods instead of my problematic bunch from the last session. The beads seemed to be working out great! *HUGE SIGH OF RELIEF*

Now onto the last task, making the "Bright Earth" Pod headpin sets. Almost done and smooth sailing now, right?! WRONG....
 

The glass I use for these sets is really soft. If the glass is too hot when I make the pods it pulls all of it instead of just the tip of glass making that wonderful pod point. So as you can see I was having an awful time finishing up the headpins. Oh and not to mention that my glass was running out at an alarming speed.

So you get desperate. As you can see I stuck many little "shorts" together to milk every last bit of glass out of my remaining rods.
I had wrapped my headpins wires too long too so to get more stability winding glass on my headpins I had wrap an extra wrap of wire at the top to stabilize them .

I FINALLY finished only a "short" (ha ha) 5 hours later.

 

The last kiln load program was set and I was finally DONE. Making beads! *Whew*

Check out this baby! I had some more bead release break on me that last session too, but against the odds I did it!

The "Bright Earth" pods turned out awesome! Thank God! Success!
I spent yesterday packing up and inventorying my beads.




Bags of beads getting inventoried on the computer.

Totes to load up with show stuff.

My empty display.

Jewelry to price and inventory.

 One full drawer of inventoried beads.

 Side view of the drawer full of beads to show scale.

So that brings us to today. I was so tired from inventorying beads that I decided to do my blog post this morning, BUT the internet is DOWN! #$%^&^%! So here I am posting from my phone and computer and transferring thing s through drop box to my cell phone where Staci is kind enough to post this blog for you all to read. (so if its wonky, that is why)

It's rough, but you know what? I am DOING THIS! I was MEANT TO DO THIS! THINGS WILL WORK OUT! This will only make my huge show success that much better of a story!

So if you are going to the show come see Staci and me at booth 371. Come give us hugs, and celebrate our big show with us. For those of you that don't get to attend, write us a post on Facebook.
We LOVE YOU ALL and it is because of YOU that we get to do THIS!
"I never said it would be easy. I just said it would be WORTH IT!"
xo Genea

Thoughts on my first time as a vendor at a bead show.

Just over two weeks ago, I attended and vended at my very first bead show. While I'm still processing all of the tidbits and information I learned and gathered, I thought I would share some tips that I found helpful as a first time vendor. I'd love to share whatever I can with you, so be sure to leave me a comment or a question that perhaps I can cover in a future post!

In many ways, Vending at a bead show is quite similar to vending at a regular art show with some very important exceptions. My booth was very close to Artisan's Alley, the area where all of the artisans are placed. At art shows, I often have to explain my jewelry to customers, and explain that the beads and components are all handmade. At Bead Fest, a large percentage of the customers are already familiar with artisan components so I was able to spend a lot more time conversing about my specific processes and techniques.

Inventory was something I was concerned about since it was the largest unknown quantity. The most important lesson I learned was to make sure you have a large and varied inventory. Don't rely on what may be a best seller online, because in person, you may find your best selling components are very different!

Meeting people in person is one of the most fun and rewarding aspects of any show. If you vend at a large show, be prepared to meet many friends and business contacts. If you have any upcoming plans or new products, don't be shy about mentioning them!

What questions do you have about being a vendor at a Bead Show? Let me know in the comments!