All Roads Lead Here... Bead Fest Philly August 2013-Part 1

Hello friends!

I am still processing everything from the show. I can't believe this huge life event has finally come and gone. What a bittersweet experience. From the beginning of my glass career (about 10 and a half years in the making) I had dreamed of becoming "famous" in my glass. I would tell people when I first started that "I was going to be famous". They would chuckle and I would say "No, I'm serious. I'm going to be famous." Usually they would either say nothing or be shocked and go "Oh. Ok." Like "Wow she really was serious." So, for me, going to Bead Fest Philly was "making it," finally "being famous". It was such a deeply spiritual event for me in so many ways.

 This being the main thing, but very closely behind it,  doing this show with someone I consider to be one of my very best friends. Someone who has always considered me to be an equal. Someone that admired my talents just as much as I admired hers. Someone that created with me in, now two collaborations. This wonderful friend and artists I am writing to you about is Staci Smith. You all know her as, Staci Louise, S L Artisan Accents, or Staci Louise Originals. 

Here is a beautiful photo of Staci and me that Linda Landig took :)

So let's start at the beginning...

A special thanks to Lori Anderson for unknowingly bringing Staci and I together through her Bead Soup Blog Party.

So my darling husband, Ricky and I had just arrived at Staci's house early on Thursday morning after driving a straight 20 hours with barely 2 hours rest. We arrived tired, and haggard, but excited.

We came inside and sat down on the couch where Staci's kids excitedly greeted us.

Staci was so sweet she offered us coffee and breakfast!

We had a few more things to do in the morning before going to the show in the early afternoon to set up.

After we ate breakfast Staci and I went into her studio. I was so excited to be here I had to mark this event with a photo of my feet on her beautifully painted studio floor. Yes, I was ACTUALLY in Staci's studio!! 

I brought the finishing touches to our special Collaboration kits for Bead fest. 

We needed to add wire, chain, and instructions.

Here are the finished necklace kits.

Awhile later we were off to the show to set up.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Look at our signs!! :D:D:D

Here you can see the beginning of our booth set up. 

You can see the display building here. Man was it HOT. The a/c was not on yet and it was balls humid!

Staci and me in our booth the first day of the show.

Here is our moment, our "Making It" our "Being Famous". I couldn't think of a better person/people to share it with!

Where would I be without one of the other very special people in my life, my darling husband and partner in crime, Ricky. 

Ricky ROCKED the booth! He was my resident math guy, money taker, and holder of the fort while Staci and I wandered about the show to visit or shop :)

Here is Staci in front of her table. Doesn't she look amazing with all of her little works of art?!

We ROCKED the corner with our good friends Karen Totten of Starry Road Studio and...

Her amazingly talented daughter and Wrangler of Wooly Wire, Nellie!

After the first show day we were STARVING! Thanks to Melinda Orr of Creative Bead Chat, Artisan Whimsy, and Bandana Girl Beads for setting up a wonderful dinner at Legal Seafood.

The group gathered around the table and chatted while we waited for menus.

It was great to unwind from the first day with a big glass of fresh sangria!

I ordered the gluten free Seafood bake that was topped with gf breadcrumbs and a side of fries. Yum!

Our dessert was a gluten free chocolate lava cake with ice cream and a coconut macaroon! OMG was it amazing!

After being fed, watered , and desserted the groups formed for some photos! From Left to Right: Diana P(Ha ha you try to spell her name correctly without looking!), Me, Diane Hawkey, Staci, and Linda Landig. 

I love this group hot of : Ricky, Karen, Staci and me!

I have so many more photos and memories to share, but I will leave you with this awesome photo of Staci and me until my next blog where I show you my Bead Fest Bead Swap loot! 

Staci and me the last day of the show. You can see the happiness in our faces. We had such an incredible weekend!

More Bead Fest stories and photos to come soon!

xo Genea

Bead Fest Philly Booth- Part 3- complete!

Hello friends!

Wow what an exciting ride it's been. It has been so amazing watching my booth transform! I seriously have a million things I could write to you about! 

So I will start out with the glass headpin display. Displaying loose headpins was easy. Sweet little bud vases from Walmart worked out great, but what about the pairs? When they are in the shop they are bagged up like this. The shiny bags make everything look nice, but when you are looking at a table you lose the detail :( 

BUT... my dear sweet friend, Marsha Minutella had the perfect solution for me! Itty Bitty rubber o's! Look how sweet and tiny! The 3mm rubber o's from My ELEMENTS work perfectly to hold 2 (even 3) glass headpins together, AND I have even put 2 on the pairs so that you have 2 sweet little rubber o's to use in your designing(thanks for the tip Marsha!).

Just look at how much better these look displayed! You can see the texture in the stone headpins and everything! Yay!

I decided on using Kraft colored price tags with this amazing "Bohemian Typewriter" font. I LOVE how the look! Here you can see them in action! 

Look how clear the font is on this large sign as well! Love it! Nice and easy to read.

Here is the "Bright Earth" tray of beads. They are even more saturated than they appear in the photo. Aren't they soooo pretty all in their home together?!

I also came up with a GREAT IDEA! So say you don't get to go to Bead Fest with your friends. Well you know all of your "True" friends couldn't leave the bead show without picking you up something, right? (hint hint to all of you out there going to the show while your poor friends sit at home ;P) So I thought how fun would it be to put a wonderful bead in with a super pretty mini card for a "Bead Souvenir"! You could pick up your dear friends a special beady gift of awesome on your travels! Sure is better than that hokey shit you find in the airports! :D

Some things just need a teeny display. Well my spiral s-clasps were no exception. My teeny ramekin was still too big believe it or not! I went on the hunt for a sushi dip container, but they didn't have them at the World Market by my apartment. I did, however, find these super sweet and teeny little squarish bowls!

OMG look how cute! I had a TON of wine corks lying around from these ultra awesome succulent plant holders I made for Christmas gifts.

Since "Necessity is the mother of invention," I used the rest of these wonderful little corks to create my tag holders. I am so pleased with my sweet little handmade elements for my display! 

Next I saw these INCREDIBLE wooden patinated looking boxes that my friend, Barbara Bechtel made for her booth. *swoon* I LOVE verdigris patina! I asked Barbara if I could borrow her boxes for the show. Since she was traveling over the summer she only had one on hand, but she very generously offered to tell me how she made the boxes. 

Ricky and our friend Brandon assembled the boxes while I did the painting.

Here was the first layer. They started out really blue so I was a little worried we weren't going to get the right green.

Second layer. This one was sooo pretty! lots of nice streaks of color. 

Third layer. I was a little scared that I over did the metallic. By this time it was midnight and I was working in a dark garage. 

Here is a photo of the box in the sun. It sure is GA-REEEEEEEEEEEN in the sunlight! I still wasn't totally sure about the box. I really love the free spiritedness of Barbara's boxes. You can tell mine or "more stressed" out and "tight". Everyone else seemed to like them and I was worried about over working them so I stopped here. 

Here are the boxes with my display. They are nice and green and have a good contrast from the more aqua table covering.

It looks so pretty with the sea themed beads displayed on top! 

Only a few finishing touches that will take place at the show. Staci was such a sweetheart and created these GORGEOUS drift wood bead displays for me as my "First Bead Show" gift :D So I will be working these beauties into my table set up framing a few trays in the center of my display :D

Thanks so much for stopping in to enjoy the process of my booth set up with me :)

Have  a great upcoming week!

xo Genea

Bead Fest Philly August 2013- Continuing Show Prep

Hello friends!

Wow is it getting INTENSE! Bead Fest Philly August 2013 is RIGHT around the corner! I have been busily working behind the scenes getting ready. You can see my first post about show prep at the Love My Art Jewelry blog here. So much has come together since that post. I have been steadily receiving orders for displays, Staci and my collab magazine in Belle Armoire arrived, my banner, and business cards arrived, and I have a small box of glass on the way! 

So before I spiral off on a tangent here is a coupon for $5 entry to Bead Fest! Just print this off and bring it to the show to receive your discount! Please feel free to share with friends! 

I started this little Pinterest board to show some Sneak Peeks of some beads some of my friends and I will be bringing to Bead Fest. Some are beads that have not been sold before and will debut at the show!  I need to add some more things to the board, but you can be sure to see a wonderful selection of my body of work from the last year as well!

So now is the fun part where you get to see what I have been up to in photos and who doesn't like photos?! :D

What is making beads without some burns?! Ouch! 

I caught the glass in between my fingers before dropping it on the floor! 

Bright Earth "Weeny Dings"! 

Some "Ocean Urchin Serpent Eggs" and "Ocean Serpent Eggs"! Aren't they AMAZING XL size?!

At first I wasn't sure about these black necks. I had originally wanted to do all Linen cause I wanted to have that "recycled" look to them, but the black necks really make the beads *POP*.

My little earring hangers. Ricky helped me order. We thought we were only getting 5 and they came two in a bag! Awesome cause I LOVE to make earrings! He he.

After looking over my table of beads I thought, "OMG I need to make more of THOSE!" So here they are!

I was bummed to not find kraft paper bags, so I had to settle for the white bags. They are kinda crappy quality, but they work. I thought maybe I could get away with just stamping them in a solid color, but they are way more dynamic multi-colored. *sigh* 

I loaded up my counter top with them. In this photo there are 56 bags strewn across the counter! I must have stamped almost 250 bags!

Each bag was then loaded with my new simpler style business card. Sorry for the dark cell photos. 

Here is a look at my table display. It was more laid out to see how things looked on the different color tray backings and to see what beads I needed to make versus actually doing the display. I still need to make my wooden boxes for height.

Who knew?! The black looks AMAZING on the linen. I also put the store textured beads on the linen as well. I really want you to be able to see the texture well.

The bright beads looked good on the light bamboo mat. I also made a little sign. I heard awhile back that having eyes watching you made you less likely to steal. How about the "Wisdom Eyes of Buddha" watching you with  a friendly little reminder?! :P

The ivory urchins look really amazing on the black!

Doesn't this "Ocean Serpent Egg" look awesome on the chocolate brown bamboo mat?! Oh and I was trying out the idea of doing smaller GB tags in the future. I sure can't go back now and re-tag everything... or well... NO, NO.. they will have to be just fine. Lol.

Oh and you know I had to make some smaller "Seahorse Hearts" and a HUGE "Seahorse Lentil"! So amazing! 

Did you see my BANNER?! YAY!!! I am so happy with it! Looks like I got the 6ft one instead! Lol. 

Well that about does the post for today! I am so looking forward to seeing and meeting you all at Bead Fest!

xo Genea