BEAD & BUTTON 2010...

Bead & Button was fantastic. Exhausting... but successful! Saturday & Sunday were on the slow side all around... Thank God that Thursday & Friday were uber busy. My best show EVER... beyond any expectations I had.

A BIG THANK YOU to my friend, Kelly Hazel of KLH Designs, who was @ B&B all week for classes & a little shopping... she stayed an extra day & helped me out @ my booth. And another BIG THANK YOU to my awesome friend, Kimberly Polka, who showed up & helped me tear my booth down on Sunday!!

Really great bead sales...my acorns & the etched copper leaves, OMG...they cleaned me out!! It was quite awesome! I've always enjoyed watching customers select their acorns... trying to find the one that speaks to them (they all have their own personalities!), but now watching them try to pair an acorn up w/ a copper oak leaf, priceless!! :o)

I haven't posted these copper leaves before, have I? (other than when I first learned to etch w/ Robin Koza) I knew last year that I wanted to come up w/ some sort of oak leaf element to go w/ my copper & glass acorns... these are what I came up w/ & they are FABULOUS! (if I may say so!) Some designs are from rubber stamps & some are hand-drawn. Alot of the backs I did by hand... some included words, like STRENGTH, BEAUTY, BELIEVE, COURAGE, etc. Robin saw this picture when I posted it on Facebook last month & sent me a message, asking if I would share my source for the stamp I used for the leaf @ the top w/ the bullseyes & wavy lines. I'm always happy to share a source... of course this source is difficult to share, since that is a hand-drawn design. I love it & had a few others that were similar... they all sold, of course! I will definitely do more... it's nice to have pieces that are uniquely mine.

I got a few wholesale orders that hopefully will turn into returning customers. My sweet friend Nicole Valentine of N Valentine Studio came to my booth with an amazing fine silver birdhouse from Christi Anderson of Elemental Adornments... she was looking for a miniature electroformed glass acorn to hang underneath the birdhouse. She found one & a little while later, Christi showed up @ my booth looking for acorns!! My stock was pretty low @ that point, she found some, but I'll be making her more. They're absolutely perfect w/ her pieces. How exciting! I actually met Christi when I first started lampworking @ a show here in the Twin Cities... her work is phenomenal. It will be fun to work w/ her & see some our pieces together!

It was awesome to see & hang out w/ long-distance friends...a fun dinner out w/ Andrea Guarino-Slemmens, Nicole Valentine, Donna Mehnert, Kristi Brokaw, Marion Ogle & a sweet friend of Andrea's from Israel, Ilana Magriso. The Blue Angels were in town & we ran into some of them a few times. A man in uniform... nice... Nicole was quite smitten w/ them & Andrea took the opportunity to put Nicole in the middle of them a time or two w/ a picture w/ a few of them & a phone call. LOL. Quite funny.

I missed out seeing so many people that I would've loved to see since I was on my own @ my booth... what a drag. Thankful that some came & tracked me down!! Wonderful to meet Heather Powers & Erin Prais-Hintz! I wish I had gotten a chance to come visit Heather's booth!

It was fun having customers from last year (my first year) return for more... (some w/ my business card w/ little notes written on the back!) and great to have customers that I've gotten to know through teaching @ the Madison Art Glass & Bead show the last 2 years come by to see me. I really enjoy continuing to build these relationships w/ such wonderful & creative people. 

Fantastic feedback about my booth space as well. That makes me happy. :o) It's ridiculously fussy... not necessarily fussy looking, but so many layers...pieces & parts... it takes me forever to set up & tear down. But I love the look! My friends laugh @ me & talk about how I need to pare it down! I'm so thankful that Kim showed up & helped me tear down on Sunday!! I do look wistfully @ the next aisle of well-known & talented bead artists w/ their single artisan tables & watch them show up just a few hours, if even, before the show starts to set up their space (& tear down quickly, too!) & think to myself "Hey, I'm just a glass bead artist, too... why do I have to have not only a full size booth, but why do I find it necessary to have all of the extras... like ribbons, chains, findings, etc... that keep me from quickly setting up & tearing down?" Well... I suppose, for one thing, I don't have the name (yet!) that draws customers directly to my table just because I'm me (& I make fabulous beads!)... so having a booth that draws people in has been helpful... & having the extras helps sell my beads, too. Can't tell you how many people walked away w/ a bead, acorn &/or copper leaf hanging from their necks as they continue on their way to shop the show.... FABULOUS advertising for me. So, for me, it's been worth it. A hassle, yes... but it's working.

Anyway... it was a wonderful experience. An awesome show. Can't wait till next year!!

Till next time...

~ Julie

ANDREA GUARINO-SLEMMONS...

I just got back from a long weekend in Austin, Texas taking a glass beadmaking class w/ Andrea Guarino-Slemmons at Blue Moon Glassworks. It was AWESOME!!!

Andrea has been the one artist that I've had on my "want to take a class with" list pretty much from day one. I love her style(s) & having met her a few times before, I really like HER, too. I had also heard that she was a fantastic teacher, they were right!

What a fantastic class! First off, I want to say that Blue Moon is such a wonderful place...those that live there & get to take classes from nationally (& internationally) known artists are spoiled, spoiled, spoiled!! (I'm just a tiny bit envious!) Jim & Rose Berry, the owners, are the sweetest people. We were lucky enough to hang out w/ them after class each night. I got a chance to sit at the quiet end of the table w/ them & were able to chat w/ them & get to know them a bit. Lucky me. :o)

(click images to enlarge)

Andrea is not only talented....but a really great teacher! Just because you have something to offer others doesn't automatically make you a good teacher.... she's a good teacher! :o) I learned so much from her. Not only how to use her techniques to make her fabulous beads... (& definitely some techniques that I can incorporate into my own style), but I also learned how to encase & keep my clear from getting scummy!

(I DON'T clear encase... I didn't "get it" back when I was first learning how to make beads & just moved on w/out it. I'm known more now for my opaque beads, so I never needed to figure it out. But who knows? Maybe I'll figure out how to incorporate encasing into my style!?

I'm so excited to not only

be able to do it confidently, but to keep it clear!! LOL!)I'm so pleased w/ my class beads...

I was so excited that a friend that I met in 2008 @ Glass Stock came along w/ Andrea to be her TA... Nicole Valentine (Nicker on LE). It was so nice to get to spend some time w/ her! Such a neat lady... AND she is a fantastic TA! She knows exactly what Andrea is doing when, had everything ready for her & just basically kicked butt the entire class. I can't imagine doing that class on my own as a teacher, there are so many pieces & parts to the class, Nicole was so good about really keeping it together & being there when we needed something from her (some glass, a tool, scratch my back, tie my hair up, etc... LOL) I'm so glad she came.

I didn't mention that I took this class w/ 4 friends, did I?? Kimberly Polka, Serena Thomas, Becky Caspersen & Jeannette Remmington. Oh my gosh, we had so much fun!! We stayed in an awesome little cottage that is part of the Austin Hyde Park Inn & is just a couple of blocks away from Blue Moon. So much fun. Lots of late nights hanging out on the back deck chatting & laughing. The 5 of us made up half of the class... I think that our familiarity w/ eachother helped pull in others in the class. (or so I'd like to think!) It was fun to meet the other ladies in class, a few of them came out w/ us after class, so we got to get to know them a bit better. Nice to make new friends. :o)

We enjoyed hanging out w/ Holly Cooper each evening after class, it was fun to get to know her a bit better (she was a teacher @ Third Degree Glass Factory's Midwest Glass Experience back in February)

& on our final night there, Donna Mehnert, Anne Ricketts & Jill Symons joined all of us for dinner. Nice to meet Jill for the first time, I so admire her work. I first met Anne @ the ISGB Gathering in 2007 when I was just a new kid on the block. She's such a nice lady (& talented!) ...it was nice to have a chance to visit w/ her on a smaller scale. :o) .....& Ms. Donna... I love me a Ms. Donna. I met her for the first time just this past summer @ The Bead & Button Show.....she's so talented & just a cutiepie. I'm so glad I got a chance to see her again. All 4 of these ladies live in the Austin area... I'm so jealous! All of that talent in one place. Dang. I'm glad that we can continue these friendships online... & I'll definitely be back down there to see them again.

Anyway.... it was such a great experience all the way around. A fantastic class over way too quickly... a great time w/ friends & a wonderful chance to meet new people & make new connections.

I'll be back.

Till next time....

~ Julie