Ever wonder what to do with that beautiful sea or lake glass? Create your own jewelry. Students will learn how to wrap seaglass with craft wire. After working with the wire, students will learn how to cage a piece of seaglass. Polished stones can be used as well. Wear your creation home.

Beginners welcome, ages 12 and up.

Instructor: Dayle Loutzenhiser is a retired school teacher and she has been making sea glass jewelry for more than 6 years.

Cost: $35.00 plus the cost of glass& wire (under $10.00 or bring your own glass). Tools and all else provided in class.

Minimum class size: 2 Maximum Class size:6

Register :tourchautauqua.com/chautauqua-in-Junr.aspx   or Imagine! 4950 Main Street. 716 386 2244

There are so many things to do in Bemus Point, like boating, dinning at one of the 9 restaurants, watching live entertainment on the floating stage, but don’t forget the shopping. There are 14 shops to choose from. Each of the shops has its own character, so there is a wide selection. They are specialty stores that feature gifts hand picked by really passionate shop keepers . Because of this, it is rare that you will  find the same item from store to store.

Imagine! is an artistic mix of mostly made-in-America, and/ or made in the county, and/ or made right at the store gifts. You will often find one of a kind gifts. The  collection is eclectic and includes collectible and vintage pieces as well as contemporary work. One of the shops’s specialties is a romantic selection of Estate Jewelry. Designer and statement jewelry are a favorite,too. Many pieces are made exclusively for the store. They range from fun and funky to upscale and artsy. In addition to jewelry, the shop showcases leather, wood and ceramic pieces as well as hand-dyed silk accessories including scarves, ponchos and ruanas. Hand-woven linen wraps and hand- knit, felted bags, hats and mittens are often on the shelves  . Glass is a favorite of the store owners and leaded, fused and blown glass are to be found throughout the shop. The place brings out your inner crafty so you might be inspired to make something of your own including beach glass jewelry, beaded or strung bracelets, rings or necklaces or you could learn to knit and crochet . There is a cozy section of the store where the coffee is always brewing and you can bring a project to work on or schedule a class for you and your friends. The store has evolved since it first opened in the spring of 2006 and it is easy to see the influence of the owner’s background in theater. Often customers will say that the shop is “different” “unique” like a “treasure hunt” ”eye candy” Imagine! is just one of the the fun stores in Bemus. The village offers shopping the way it should be  where there are goodies waiting to be discovered that you won’t find just anywhere.

Estate piece, opals and diamonds

Fused Glass Pendant

Lake Erie Glass pendant

Imagine! is more than a knit shop. It is two stores in one, really. In the front rooms, the shop is filled with gifts that are artisan crafted by individual U.S. and Canadian artists. Some of these artisans are from Chautauqua county. The store specializes in jewelry of all kinds including pieces that are produced just for Imaigne! or by Imagine!. In addition, we offer Estate Jewelry that is collectible and high-end pieces that feature gemstones, gold and silver. The idea is that you can  buy something creative that is an old or current hand-made item or you can move to the back of the store and find luxury beads and yarns to make your own inspired work of art. We have instructors who will teach you how to drill beach glass, or to wrap the beach glass in silver, gold or copper in order to fashion a piece of jewelry for you or as a gift. We also teach the basic skills for beading, fused glass, polymer clay, wire work, and many other creative jewelry-making techniques. For a current list of classes, please click classes and see individual listings or check the calendar. To see samples of the projects, stop by our store. We are open Wed-Sat 10-5 off season but between Memorial Day and Labor Day we are open 7 days a week. Imagine! is closed in the winter from January through March.

We have also done a little restructuring. For example Dayle will now be in charge of all the classes. This will free me up to concentrate on other things. And Dayle is excellect at being organized. She has planned a master calendar at the shop and now it is also on line just waiting to be filled. She has contracts designed for our teachers and a great new tracking and feed back system that will help us make your learning experience even more fun. This year, among other classes we are offering a beginner knitting class in June and October. Students will learn all the basics while making a lush, thirsty cotton washcloth. Have you ever used a hand knit one? Spoiler Alert! you will feel sorry for yourself if you have to go back to using a commercial cloth. Dayle is doing a sea glass pendant class in June and October as well and Chris French is coming back to do a wonderful beaded and wire necklace class in May. We are excited to welcome Barb Dunderdale,  who has promised to teach us to make socks and of course, our famous Bead Lady, Kathy Shomo will be back to sign her new book and show us some fun new projects. Fused Glass classes continue with new offerings by Wendy Cohen and we can’t wait to find out what Sandy and Joan have on their knitting needles. We are thrilled that Jackie Thies will join us with a spectacular beaded necklace. We’ll be sending announcements and list them on the site in the next few weeks.

Brooch from Michael Michaud

Yancey and I just recently returned from Philadelphia where we shopped at the Buyers Market of American Crafts. We met with artists like Barb Levy http://www.barbielevyjewelry.com/  and Jill O’Reilley http://jilloreilly.com/artist.html whose jewelry has been featured at our shop. We bought great new pieces from them and other jewelry artists whose jewelry we love to carry. And  we found some artists that will be completely new for this coming season like Starbird http://starbirdjewelry.com/index.html They are a mother/daughter jewelry- making team from Texas. Their work is so unusual because of its textures. We drooled over the work of Megan Auman http://www.etsy.com/shop/meganauman  who designs in clean lines with steel and sterling and Kevin O’Grady who makes bracelets of glass. We put them on our wish list for the near future. In all we visited over 250 jewelry booths. There were so many choices, it took several days of contemplating. We got so excited that we decided to re-do our jewelry displays and are currently working on them. One of the artists that we have been wanting to carry for several years is Michael Michaud who designs for Four Season’s Design Group. He is a nature jeweler. His pallette is the garden, or the woods, anywhere nature is displaying its beauty. His designs are actually cast from real flowers and leaves and they are stunning.http://www.fourseasonsdesigngroup.com/silver-about-us We found necklaces made to look like pussy willows and pink miniature pearls that circle your wrist like lilac stems. We can’t wait untill we open the boxes and show them to you!  By April 4th. we hope to have them start streaming in for you to see and enjoy. In next week’s post, we’ll tell you about what we bought besides jewelry. Can’t wait to share our shopping experience with you.

Create something memorable yourself in a fun and relaxed atmosphere. We sell supplies and offer classes which include knitting, crochet, wire work jewelry, beading, sea glass, fused glass, fine silver clay. We have many teachers with various specialties and sometimes we host international instructors.

Imagine! is a place to linger over coffee with friends or make new ones. Bring your latest project and chat. Not the crafty type,?browse our eclectic mix of surprises. We look forward to welcoming you. We’re open Memorial Day-Labor Day Open 7 Days a week 10-5

Winter Hours Wed.-Sat.10-5 (call for holiday schedule or snow day cancellation)

Closed Jan 1 and re-opening April4th.

The georgeous blown glass hearts from Chicago artist Jeff Price

We are pretty excited, because on Friday, Yancey and I are headed for Philadelphia and the Buyers Market of American Crafts show. This is a wholesale-only event that features the work of hundreds of extraordinary artist from the U.S. and Canada. It is held at the Philadelphia Convention Center. We’ll get an early start because we want to arrive by 4p.m. That is when they will open about 1/3  of the floor, the jewelry exhibitors area. Usually, they greet you with Mimosas. Lovely, you can sip and browse. Everything  is artisan- crafted and it makes you proud to see how ingenious our American artist are. It can be overwhelming, though, Last year there were about 250 jewelers represented. It takes hours to view. The work ranges from diamonds in minimal classic settings to very artsy or whimsical designs. Nothing looks like the jewelry in stores at the mall. These designers are award- winning. And we get to meet them and talk about their work. We are looking for new trends from artists we already carry and hope to add some new ones to our collections. After hours of browsing and taking notes, we head out to find dinner. We usually end up at one of the Thai or Asian Fusion places just down the block. But we know that before we leave Philly, we’ll make our way over to the Italian restaurant that everybody from the show loves.  After dinner, we comb through the catalogues that we have gathered on the show floor and mark booth numbers that we will re- visit. Then we crash. In the a.m.  I’m up and out by 7:30 in order to grab a cup of coffee and attend the seminars offered by national experts on all kinds of topics. Last year I was really inspired by the editor of Gift Ware Magazine who did a slide presentation about store windows. As soon as I got home, I asked Vern Johnson make a platform and had lighting installed in our windows. All year, we had so much fun designing displays, using information that I learned from the speaker.

So then for the next two days, its hour and hours on the floor, checking more than 500 additional booths in aisles divided by categories such as “Glass” “Ceramics” “Apparel” “Mixed Media”etc. Its a little crazy- making because there is so much to see, so many decisions to make. We get sore from walking. Aspirin. We have to take short breaks. Creme Bruelee. We have to keep checking our budgets. Coffee. We have to try not to fall in love with too much. Wine. Every night we go over our work sheets. Tums

So we’ll let you know how our trip went this year. Here’s the most important part, we will be thinking of you when we shop, because that is what it is all about. We want you to come to the store with the same excitement as we feel at the show. We want to find the most wonderfu, fun, interesting, treasures in the country for you. Cheers!

Lontue by Araucania

When the yarn representatives come to the shop with their suitcases full of samples, its an exciting day. How the mills keep coming up with new temptations, I can’t fathom. We vocalize our approval involuntarily,”ohhh…oooo…ahhh” as we pat the skeins, as if they were kittens. But we really try to be restrained,too.We want to buy the most beautiful for our customers but not every yarn we see. Invariably, however, when the reps are leaving, they always give us a skein or two to worry over. What do I mean by that? Well, its usually something we hesitated over but then pass up. Maybe it is  too expensive, maybe doesn’t fit in with our current stock, maybe got over looked because there were so many stars. But then its left with us, there it is, the yarn you didn’t buy,one skein.  Two weeks ago, we were left with a beautiful skein of yarn. Its Lontue by Araucania. Its a 50% linen and 50% cotton, hand- dyed in Chile and meant to be worked on a 4 needle. I said,”Its a sophisticated yarn, I love it but not sure our customers would buy it. For one thing its on size 4 needles.” And there it is , sitting on my desk  for the last two weeks and I am absolutely being seduced by it. We had seen a scarf made of it, not very wide, not very long, but it had a lovely drape. The skein is 249 yards so I think it only took one to make the scarf. The picture doesn’t show the texture very well, the fiber is matte and that makes the colors seem rich but still earthy since the linen running through features the natural texture. So here’s what I’m thinking, I’ll just knit up a scarf, like the one we saw and then I’ll show it to the knitters that come into the store and see what they think. Or, if anyone has ever used it and you’re reading this, let us know what you think. I used to hate to knit on such small needles, but lately, I am beginning to enjoy the delicate beauty of the smaller stitches. I just finished a lovely Steve West scarf with Madelinetosh merino light and love it. I’ll write about it soon. Meantime, I have to go wind some yarn.

Niche Award winner 2011 hand sewn leather bag by WiliNilli

Lake Erie Glass pendant

Ruby Bracelet

Shopping on vacation is part of the fun,right?. There is a sense that you won’t find this item at home. And you’re probably right. If you are a boutique shopper, cool little indie shops are where you find your visual fix, so don’t miss Imagine! in Bemus Point when you are cruising Chautauqua county. Imagine! is an ever changing mix of eye candy and carefully selected eclectic treasures. Some are from county artisans and some are  produced at the shop itself. The store features American made, artisan- crafted gifts gathered from travels throughout the U.S. . So that means local customers don’t have to leave the county to see some of the most stunning work that is available. They can find it anytime at Imagine! You’ll see a mix of fiber, wood, ceramics, leather, glass and particularly jewelry of every kind.The staff is particularly fond of estate pieces with diamonds, pearls, gold as well as contemporary work from national and local artists. Here’s the thing about Imagine! , the work of the artists is inspiring, so then walk into the back of the store and you’ll find a classroom where visiting and local instructors teach you how to make something of your own. Luxury yarns and beads from around the globe are available for you to play with. Some of the items are so easy to make, 12 year- olds have mastered them in minutes. There are jewelry techniques, clay, fused glass, felting and more. The atmosphere is fun and welcoming, so if you are a curious shopper, we’ll see you there. Hours are seasonal so check our website or call 716 386 2244.