Scenes from Bead Fest Philly

I'm back at home and decompressing from a fun trip to Bead Fest Philly, and I thought I'd share a few of the pictures I managed to snag while I was there.

Susan took a few minutes between the Wildflower Fields class and the Tila Garden class to find some black tila and round seed beads on the show floor. She combined them with the beads from the Rizo Flowers kit to create this striking version of the Tila Garden Pendant:

I had a nice classroom space for this class, with a whiteboard and everything! I used it to point out some helpful tips for this project:

Several students finished one piece or another of the Sparkling Compass Set in class! Here's a completed bracelet in the Golden Denim colorway:

And the earrings in the Jet Cosmos colorway:

I managed to do a bit of shopping on the show floor too. I picked up some buttons and Czech glass beads from Nirvana Beads, filigree from Kabela Design, Swarovski flat backs and Miyuki long drops from Beyond Beadery, and a Crystal Katana from the Ninja herself!

I'm looking forward to playing with these new components this week. Next up on my schedule is a class on the Cosmic Nocturne Pendant at the Beading Bar this weekend in San Diego, followed by preparation for my classes at the BABE! show in November. If you're interested in any of my BABE! classes, be sure to register soon, as some are close to selling out!

Scenes from the Bead & Button Show

I'm back from the Bead & Button Show and slowly getting back into my normal routine. It was a whirlwind of work and play, but I did manage to remember to take some pictures!

Milwaukee

It was a little chillier in Milwaukee this year compared to past years, and ranged from partially cloudy to raining! Here's the view from our hotel room on our first morning there:

Workshops

I always love teaching beading workshops and this year's classes were no different! A couple of my students finished their Cosmic Nocturne Pendants in class!

Here I am providing some one-on-one time for the Tila Garden Pendant:

And here are some of my students' completed Raindrop Flower Necklace components - both the Raindrop Flower focal and a few of the accompanying beaded beads!

Awesome People

There's no other place where you can see so many fabulous bead artists under one roof! Sabine Lippert, (aka The Fastest Beader in the West), finished her Tila Garden Pendant in class!

My friend Susan Blessinger and I represented the San Diego contingency at the Bead Dreams Reception. Isn't her beach-inspired necklace awesome? (check out her Bead Dreams finalist entry, "The March Hare," here!)

And along with Marcia DeCoster, we made a trio of San Diego Bead Dreams Finalists! Marcia and I got the chance to model our respective pieces together (check out Marcia's blog for the story behind this collaborative piece between her and Sherry Serafini - truly a melding between the minds of masters!)

As a San Francisco Giants fan, I always have a reason to wear orange and black jewelry, but I didn't think that this color combo would be popular with any other beaders (outside of October). The always-fabulous Suzanne Golden totally proved me wrong!

I had the pleasure of meeting many of the fine people that work so hard to create all the little Japanese seed beads, Czech shaped beads, and sparkly crystals that bead artists adore. The folks at Miyuki took the time to take and present me with my own souvenir Beading Happiness photo. Cool huh?

Fireworks

On our last night in Milwaukee we were treated to a perfect view of a fireworks show, right from our hotel room!

A fitting end to a wonderful trip!

Showtime!

I'm headed out to the Bead & Button show today! I'm looking forward to seeing good friends, teaching enthusiastic students, and an abundance of beady inspiration!

I tested out my new booth setup for Meet the Teachers tomorrow night, and I think it turned out rather well.

Zero the cat seems to approve!

I'll try to remember to take more pictures at the show this year!

Kits Kits and More Kits!

I've been very busy putting kits together for the Bead & Button Show! I'll have several kits for sale at the Meet the Teachers reception on Wednesday, June 5. I'll be offering special discounts on kits for show attendees, so be sure to stop by my booth on the left side of the room. You can download the floor plan here!

I've also finished the kits for my classes, and my printer is busy printing away the class patterns.

I'm getting quite excited!

Are you going to the show? I'd love to see you there!

New City, New Workspace

I know I've been somewhat absent at this blog as of late, and it's because I've been busy moving all of my worldly possessions across the state to a new city. I'm now getting settled into my new apartment in San Diego, where my husband plays with the symphony orchestra.

The best thing about my new apartment is that I have an entire room for my new bead studio! I've setup my workspace right next to the window for plenty of natural light.

I'm looking forward to creating plenty of new beaded art in this new space. 

I also listed this Crystal Ball beaded bead in my Etsy shop:

It reminds me of a warm forest during the summer. Don't you agree?

Scenes From the Bead & Button Show

I'm back home and gradually getting back into the swing of things after teaching at the Bead & Button Show last week. The show was as intense as I expected, but I had a great time! I was so busy that I only managed to take a few pictures though. Here I am posing with my booth right before the Meet the Teachers event:

Meet the Teachers was crazy busy! I was happy to meet Sarah of Saturday Sequins, Linda Roberts of My Heart Beads For You, and reconnect with Carol Perrenoud of Bead Cats. Next year I'll have to set aside more time outside of Meet the Teachers to be able to talk to everyone for more than 30 seconds!

Here I am with my fellow beaded bead addicts Gwen and Florence at their booth. Gwen's wearing her Infinity Ubercube necklace that graced the show schedule page of the show program.

Speaking of Cali peeps, I had a lovely dinner with Beki and Shawn Haley of the seed bead mecca Out on a Whim, and also met with my soon-to-be San Diego neighbor Marcia DeCoster. I'm looking forward to living in the same town as such a fantastic bead artist!

My students were awesome! Fellow dodecahedron fan Sharon Wagner of Yadasi Beads finished her Tila Garden pendant in class, and was exceptionally kind to come back the next day and assist me in my larger class. Check out the Infinity Dodecahedra and Ionic Polyhedra in her necklace:

Finally, Gwen and Florence and I had a nice breakfast with Leslie Rogalski. We didn't plan to all wear pendants that morning, but it just somehow turned out that way:

Have you gone to any bead shows lately? What kinds of pictures did you take?

Off to the Show!

Well, I'm headed off to the Bead & Button Show tomorrow! I've been very busy packing patterns, kits, and all the odds and ends that I'll need for my classes. I hope I haven't forgotten anything...

You can still place orders and download patterns off my website while I'm away, but any kits ordered will ship out on June 11 when I get back. Are you going to the show? I'll be offering attendees 10% off patterns and kits, so stop by at the Meet the Teachers event on Wednesday night or check out my classes Friday through Sunday.

I must admit that I'm both excited and anxious to be going to this show... I've admired photos of the past Bead Dreams winners for several years now, and many of my favorite vendors exhibit at the marketplace this weekend. But I'm especially looking forward to meeting the attending bead artists who I rarely get to see in person, several of whom I've only ever interacted with online. With so many people and bead art to see, I'm already feeling overwhelmed!

Japan in the Springtime

I'm back from my trip to Japan and working to get back into the swing of beading. I'm working on writing a couple of beaded bead patterns before the big push to get ready for the Bead & Button Show. In the meantime, I thought I'd share a few photos from my trip. We were lucky to visit Japan while the sakura were in bloom, which I've always wanted to see, and I certainly wasn't disappointed:

Sensoji Temple in the Asakusa area of Tokyo

A reconstruction of a former Japanese palace administrative building at the Hikone Castle museum. Rather cold on a rainy day.

At the Genkyuen Garden in Hikone on a rainy day

The Okunoin Temple grounds in the Koyasan mountains, the center of Shingon Buddism, an important Buddhist sect in Japan.

A maiko at a photo session in the bamboo grove of the Arashiyama district of Kyoto, along with the inevitable throng of onlookers.

Fuji-san on a rare clear day, taken from the Tokaido Shinkansen.

The Nishinomaru Garden on the grounds of Osaka Castle, with its blossoming cherry trees illuminated at night.

Osaka Castle and illuminated cherry blossoms.

Full bloom at the Expo '70 Commemoration Park just outside Osaka.

Hanami parties at the Expo '70 Commemoration Park

Sakura close-up!

One of several couples getting wedding portraits taken while the cherry trees were in bloom.

With my hubby at Koshien Stadium, the home of the Hanshin Tigers and the most fanatical fans in all of baseball. A Tigers game at Koshien is an experience, to say the least, and if you're into baseball I definitely recommend checking it out.

I also got a chance to feed my washi addiction while in Japan, but that's a subject for another post.

Travel Notice: March 29 - April 11

I'm traveling to Japan to visit my sister from March 29 through April 11, so I'll be unable to ship any jewelry or kit orders during this time. My Etsy shop will be on vacation mode for the duration of my trip. You will still be able to place orders for kits via my website, but they will ship out on April 12. So, if you have your eye on any possible Easter gifts, please place your order before March 29. 

Fortunately, since the patterns on my website are available as PDF downloads, you can still order and download these patterns while I'm away. I'll have somewhat limited e-mail access while I'm traveling, but if you have any questions about a pattern order, just e-mail me anyway and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

Patterns and kits for the Sakura Charm, Circle Starburst, and Balloon Box designs will continue to be available at beAd Infinitum.

I'm very much looking forward to seeing my sister, and I'm fortunate to be visiting Japan around the time that the sakura trees will be in bloom (and not during the miserable heat and humidity of the Japanese summer). I'll be sure to take plenty of pictures! In the meantime, here's a picture that I took the last time I visited Japan. It's of the Kinkaku-ji (Temple of the Golden Pavillion) in Kyoto:

Japanese Seed Beads, In Japan!

For our honeymoon a few months ago my husband and I traveled to Japan. Why Japan, you might ask? Well, we had always wanted to go there, my sister is currently living in Osaka so we could visit with her while we were there, and we wanted an adventurous trip to a place different from what we were used to.

But my visit would not have been complete without...

...A visit to a Miyuki bead store! 

My favorite Japanese seed bead manufacturer, Miyuki Co., ltd, operates three retail stores in Japan. The employees at their Tokyo branch kindly allowed me to take pictures after I asked them (in Japanese! For the curious, it's "Shashin o totemo ii desu ka?" Props to my sister for the survival Japanese lessons!), however the Osaka branch was decorated with "no photography" signs so I didn't even try to take photos there. 

The Tokyo store is three stories tall, with the first floor taken up entirely by Miyuki seed beads:

A big difference between these stores and the Californian bead stores that I've been to is the storage and display of the seed beads. While their Delica beads are sold in 5- and 20-gram boxes, the rest of their seed beads are displayed in rows and rows of individual jars and are sold from these jars in carefully-weighed out 8-gram increments. This display makes the whole place look like a candy store:

Here are some fringe drop beads in their respective jars, in one of my favorite cobalt blue colors:

While this display was quite impressive, I think that it actually made it easier to stay within my shopping budget. Language barriers aside, it's easy to pick a pre-packaged tube of seed beads off the shelf in a Western store and take it up to the counter to have the sales clerk ring it up. While the three young women helping me at this shop were quite efficient in weighing, packaging, and labeling my bead purchase, I would have felt somewhat uncomfortable to ask them to weigh out 30 different kinds of seed beads. 

This store must sell over 100 different kinds of kits:

They even have some geometric kits!

I loved the different kinds of beadwork that they had on display. Check out this loomed lamp cover and the purses in the background:

But the cutest display was definitely this little French-beaded flower garden right next to the register:

So, did I break the bank? Actually, I was able to restrain myself :). I was mostly looking for seed beads which I haven't been able to find here in the States, and I found that this selection was quite small; 99.9% of their stock is also readily available at retail bead stores the USA. In fact, I was surprised to find that both the Tokyo and Osaka stores were not yet carrying the new Tila and small 2.8 mm drop beads which had just started to appear here in the US.

I did manage to find some dichroic-lined seed beads in shapes and sizes that I haven't previously seen. Here they are in the 10° triangle size:

Finally, just to show that we visited other places in Japan besides bead stores, here we are at the Shitennoji temple in Osaka:

And at the Kinkakuji temple in Kyoto:

So, in conclusion, it's relatively easy to go bead shopping at Miyuki's Japanese retail stores without spending your entire vacation budget. Just... Don't ask about my washi shopping spree...