See…here’s the thing. If I wasn’t doing Bead and Button, I would be totally stressed out with everything going on anyway. It’s mostly good stuff, but it’s time consuming and requires so much more than I have to give at this point. I won’t bother to list it all because my blood pressure will skyrocket.

However, attaining a “last minute” entry into Bead and Button as a vendor when I already had 2 shows scheduled 1 month apart then B&B one month after the 2nd one…Oy. I am pretty much shutting down. My creativity? Zilch. My beads? Look like crap. My state of mind? I don’t think there’s an actual word for how bad it is.

I have exactly 2 more potential beadmaking days between now and when I have to leave for Milwaukee. Holy crap that just made me feel worse typing it out. Makes it more real. Ugh.

What do I do? I don’t want to make a total and complete fool of myself with lack of inventory or good beads. There are so many other beadmakers there that I look up to, that I will already feel pathetic even on my very best torch days.

However, I don’t want to give up the opportunity. Will I be invited back next year if I drop out now? I don’t know. Next year I will be better prepared because I will know at least 6 months in advance.

Also, I have the mother guilt thing going on. My daughter’s dance recital will be the Saturday of the Market. While I have seen 3 of her dances at various competitions, there are 2 dances she’s doing I have never seen.

I try to give myself pep talks like “With only 10 beads, Glass Addictions beads will be so rare that I can charge $500 each” or even just telling myself I’m not giving up no matter what.

But it is soooo tempting to take the path of less resistance. I could just list the decent beads on etsy. Heck, I could list the fuglies too because I know my idea of fugly is someone else’s idea of a masterpiece and who am I to tell them they are wrong? Ugh.

I don’t know what the point of this post is. Is it simply to vent? Looking for a pep talk? Hoping for permission to quit? Maybe all 3? I don’t know. I do know I am exhausted and overwhelmed by everything else going on that B&B is putting it all over the top.

And if you made it this far, I am very sorry for being so pathetic, ungrateful, and very whiny.

The Absolute Beginners Guide: Making Wire Jewelry

If you missed the review, you can read it here.

Confession time. I do some wire work here and there and have been for several years. In a book titled The Absolute Beginners Guide: Making Wire Jewelry, I honestly did not think I would learn anything new.

I was wrong.

Martine has some very interesting tips that I wish I had thought of years ago.

However, let’s go back to the beginning. The premise of this book is a person with absolutely zero wire working skills can pick up a few basic tools, some wire, a few beads, plus this book, and make wire jewelry. I read this book cover to cover and can honestly say that yes, this is true. The photos are some of the best I’ve seen when it comes to showing the process of wire working. The instructions are concise. The projects ordered from super basic to what Callaghan calls a “Masterpiece Charm Bracelet” in which you make charms using the all techniques you have learned in the book.

There are helpful descriptions and photos of tools needed and tools that are optional, an explanation of wire types, beads and findings. Did you know that the word “findings” in the jewelry world came from the practice of goldsmiths making them from the scraps of metal found on their workbench at the end of the day? I didn’t! I always wondered why they were called that as it seemed a strange word for them.

The book contains 25 main projects each with alternative ideas and tips sprinkled throughout. After the masterpiece charm bracelet, there are 3 more projects (for a total of 28) that feel like “bonus” projects since they are small and come after the masterpiece charm bracelet.

If you work through the book from beginning to end, there is no reason you couldn’t be making wonderful wire jewelry by the end of the book. But it’s set up so you can create a successful piece of jewelry even if you don’t get past the 1st project.

If you are an experienced wireworker, this book is  probably not for you. If you are interested in it, you might want to visit your local bookstore or maybe see if they will get it at your library so you can preview it before spending money on it.

Are you a wannabe wire worker? Or a novice wire worker? Leave a comment by May 18th answering why you would like to own this book and I will send my review copy (provided by Kalmbach) to a random winner. I will announce the winner on May 19th.

Not only is the gallery shop beautiful and filled with local artists’ work, but the entire art museum went through a huge renovation a couple years ago, which is just beautiful. However, if looking at art isn’t your thing, you can certainly shop without paying admission

Currently the Paradigm Gallery is carrying  4 of my lines of jewelry including Lampwork Lollipop necklaces:

Vintage Modern Hoops:

Chinese Lantern Earrings:

Autumn Harvest Earrings:

Sometime after Bead and Button is over, I will be adding loose focal beads and one of a kind pieces at the Paradigm Gallery, in time for the Three Rivers Festival.

I will explain further another day. Today I have too much work and a desperately needed massage for the knots in my neck and between my shoulder blades (from lampworking and jewelry making).

My show last Friday was pretty good. It was definitely a different mindset crowd compared to the Indiana Artisan crowd a month ago. The last time I did Tapestry was 3 years ago and I have evolved since then (thank goodness! I would hate to stay the same forever). The price increase was not popular. However, a few shoppers did appreciate the time, materials, design, and expertise it takes to create what I do.

Interestingly, those who complained about the pricing ignored my pieces that had a lower price point. (by the way, I will be writing about handling customer criticisms gracefully on the AJE blog and will let you know when that’s posted).

I actually remembered to get a pic of my booth this time. I wanted to take it when there were no customers. The only time I didn’t have customers was during keynote speakers. They turned the overhead lights down to nothing. It was eerie. I was definitely glad I paid to have electrical (the lighting in that room isn’t great anyway).

This next pic is a couple corner unit bakers rack type shelves and a mannequin I picked up at Hobby Lobby.

I also had this mannequin to the front left opening of my booth, but being black and without lighting, it looked like a black hole in the photo

If you have “liked” my Facebook page, you might have read that I stayed up most of the night before the show trying to finish up some in progress pieces. I sold one of those (which I didn’t get a photo of). Here are 3 of my favorites from that night. All of them are listed on etsy.

My absolute favorite bracelet ever. At least, for now. And it doesn’t use a speck of glass. The one section is a dragon scale chainmaille weave with niobium rings, flanked by Egyptian coils in sterling silver, and an amethyst box clasp.

The next two necklace designs are the same except one is in copper (with a little silver), the other in silver (with some brass and copper)

I created a bead based on this photo by my friend Carol Dean Sharpe:

Here’s the bead:

And here it is when not backlit:

Join the blog hop by visiting AJE and linking your inspired by post to AJE.

Anyway, it’s a fun show to do because it doesn’t get any more low key. I will be there on Friday from about 7am til about 5 pm. There are set shopping times where I will be very busy, but then the conference goers go to their breakout sessions and I can sit and catch my breath for a minute, straighten up the booth, do some viking knitting, etc.

You would think with only a few hours to shop, it wouldn’t be profitable for the vendors. However, I have always done very well for the few hours of work and low booth fee.

Here’s a piece using a Jade Scott pendant, one of my lampwork beads, and some swarovski chain I will have with me tomorrow that I have never shared with my online friends:

The wife of one of the men who received this gift from the March of Dimes emailed me about how much her husband loves it and could I make something similar for her friends.

Without going into too much detail, her friends have a very sick little boy. He spent months in the NICU. After years spent in and out of several hospitals, multiple surgeries, and all the horrors involved with that, he has been sent home on hospice care because there is nothing else they can do for him.

Of course this story just broke my heart and I wanted her gift to her friends to be perfect.

For Kyle’s dad, she wanted a wrap style bracelet like her husband’s with all the kids names on it.

She also wanted something for Kyle’s mom. However, she already has a necklace with all the kids names. So she requested a bracelet with just Kyle’s name and somehow incorporating orange, which is his favorite color.

I saw pictures of mom, and she is teeny tiny and I learned that a bracelet she regularly wears is 6.3″ and huge on her.

I wanted to make sure the bracelet I made for her was to scale with her tiny size and also adjustable since I didn’t have her actual wrist size. I also had to scale back on my grand plans of adding a bunch of frills to it because it was just too much.

I think I took this apart and redid it a few times trying to get the scale right, but found this chain hiding in a corner and fell in love instantly. The key was to keep it simple. This is how the back looks:

When I heard about the wrapped, stacked & layered bracelet challenge and blog hop being hosted by Tracy Statler, I just had to join. Whenever I wear more than a single bracelet, or one that is wide, it stresses me out. Do I look like I’m trying to wear my entire jewelry box out in public? Am I trying to prove I never made it out of my “dress like Madonna” 80′s phase (ok, I only sort of did that…my parents required modesty in clothing choices and cost of clothing choices”.

However, this style of wearing lots o bracelets is kinda in right now.

My life has been insane crazy lately and while I have several in progress bracelets on my workbench, I didn’t have time to complete them. So I shopped my jewelry box. Here’s what I found:

 Left to Right:

#1-Made by me: a wrapped bracelet made using a tutorial. I wish I remember which website it was, but there are about a billion tuts on this bracelet. I used a Lisa Peters button as the closure plus some labradorite, faceted pearls, and sterling silver. I didn’t have thread, so I used fireline. I don’t really recommend it for this application…

#2-Made by me: European 4-1 chainmaille sterling silver bracelet with a lampwork disc wired on.

#3-Made by Andrea Guarino-Slemmons: sterling silver bracelet. All those little cup thingys move. I love it.

#4-Made by Irish artisans: I rarely buy things when we go on vacation. My usual souvenir is just a Christmas ornament or something we can make into a Christmas ornament that will remind of us our vacation every year when we put up the tree. However, when we went to Ireland last July, I bought this awesome bangle. There is a dragon head at each end, each holding a garnet bead in its mouth. I got the matching ring too.

#5-Made by me: Dragonscale chainmaille weave bracelet.

#6-Made by me: I got the tutorial from Beaducation.com. I think it was called a Shabangle…but I don’t see it there now. Anyway, I made it way too big to wear comfortably. However, it was perfect for this stack.

And look! I did a bonus stack because one stack isn’t enough.

One quick side note…with all these bracelets on, I told my kid (who turns 14 in about 2 weeks. boohoo!) that I felt like I should be a superhero with super powers. He said I am super jeweler. haha! What a kid.

Left to Right:

#1-Made by my friend Carol Dean Sharpe of Sand Fibers. She used a Lisa Peters button as the closure.

#2-Made by me: This is one of the 1st pieces of jewelry I ever made and it was in a class. Those are some of my first beads and definitely the first time I ever stamped metal. There are a total of 3 “tags” each with a single word and the phrase is Plays With Fire.

#3-Made as a gift for me by Carol Dean Sharpe. It doubles as a choker.

#4-Made by me for the last Bead Soup Blog Party. That gorgeous polymer clay toggle is made by Tania of Moobie Grace Designs.

I had hubs take these pics for me because it’s kind of difficult to photograph your own wrist and arm full of bracelets. He says “you look like Madonna.” HA! Think I’ll put all but one of these back in the jewelry box.

Time to go visit the other wrapped, stacked & layered players.