Bead Fest Philly August 23-25th 2013- Genea Beads & S L Artisan Accents!

Hello friends!

OMG, OMG, OMG! It's ALMOST here! Can you believe it?! I just received the info from Dana Groves(our event sales manager. Who is amazing, btw!)! So here is some quick info for you. Now I personally have not been to or vended at a bead show this large before, so I am SUPER EXCITED! Can you imagine this bead show is SO big that they have a map like this and you may actually get lost and not be able to find us without this information??!

So here it is! Staci and I are at booth 371 over by Artisan Alley. You can view the entire Bead Fest Map here.

I would hope by now that from our blogs you would know what Staci and my work look like, but here is a quick collage of some newer work ;)

  We will be sharing a corner with our friends, Karen Totten of Starry Road Studio and her daughter Nellie Thomas of Spin-Culture! Yay!! Oh and our across the way neighbors will be Patti Cahill of Dyed in the Fire Designs and Joan Miller Porcelain! Wow! Did we luck out being surrounded by some amazing artists, or what?! :D

So what other news do I have for you? Well how would you like to save $10 on your ticket entrance to Bead Fest?! Just print out the coupon below and bring it in for your discount! That makes your entrance fee only $5! Just think of all of the wonderful beds you can buy with that extra $10! You're welcome! :D

So come and be our guest! Are you singing the "Be our Guest" song on Beauty and the Beast now? LOL I am. Well in my head at least! 

For any more info you may need you can check out the Bead Fest Philly August 2013 page!

Thanks for stopping by! Can't wait to see you there!!

xo Genea 

Shop Update-PAIRS! Lampwork Glass Headpins.

Hello friends!

Well you've asked and here I am to respond. I have been asked for pairs so there they are! I have just stocked the shop FULL of wonderful pairs of your favorite headpins! Perfect for that one pair you may need to create for a special gift or just for yourself(cause surely you deserve one for all of your hard work this Christmas season, right?! RIGHT.).

A little bit for everyone. If you like BRIGHT, got it. Distress and stone looking? Got it. Recycled glass? Got it!

Recycled bottle glass headpins

One of your favorites Ice blue on Copper! Earth Droplets "Ice Blue" on copper

No, you aren't seeing double, I did do them on both metals! This pair is especially cool. See the little tornado inside? he he Earth Droplets "Ice Blue" on steel.

Be green and wear it! Earth Droplets "Kelly Green" 

You get extra points for not only drinking your beer, but for making it into something :D Earth Droplets "Root Beer" 

"Cream Silver" headpins. A super funky mix of yellow green ivory and SILVER. Yum! I made these JUST so I could use them in one my earring pairs I was creating :D

Suh-weet Huh?!

Distressed Stone Headpins

Droplet Earth Stones "Black Lava" a perfect mix of stone, black and color! 

Droplet Earth Stones "Frosted Fiber" perfect for the color shy. Oh and they go with everything ;)

BRIGHT headpins!

Swirl Pod "Lime and Aqua"- You all have LOVED seeing these on facebook so I suspect they will move quickly! Oh and maybe even more so when you see what I made with them!

Um... AWESOME! and they are light weight too with lots of negative space! 

Swirl Pods "Pink Ribbon"- pretty in pink and black! 

You may have noticed the super sweet Wooly Wire in my earring desings! You can expect a post on those coming up soon!

xo Genea

Finishing the end of Wooly Wire- Tutorial

Hello friends! 

While working with Wooly Wire I wanted to make a quick tutorial on how to end the wire. Here are some photos showing the steps ;)

ENDING WOOLY WIRE TUTORIAL

Wonderful Wooly Wire! 

SUPPLIES

Wooly Wire

Cutting Plyers

Round Nosed Plyers

Bent Chain Nosed Plyers

Fray Check

Here is the card that comes with your Wooly Wire. So this tutorial is my interpretation of how to end the Wooly Wire according to the last instructions.

A FEW TIPS ON WIRE-WRAPPING WITH WOOLY WIRE

Here are a few tips for making your wire-wraps with Wooly Wire.

As you begin to wrap your Wooly Wire(WW for short) you can wire wrap it just like you would wire wrap any wire. The nice thing about ww is that unlike "naked" wire it won't get snagged and cause a kink in the wire. When you do your wire wraps for ww I have found that if you need to thread your wire through something like a link of chain you see here you want to thread it in a circular motion. This motion will help you easily maneuver your wire where you want it to go for your wraps. So begin with a nice loose circular loop like this as you begin to wire wrap.

As you get closer to doing your wrap your circle will get smaller and tighter until you can pull it snug into a wire wrap. 

If you would like to make a nice circular "cork screw" looking wrap around chain or other materials you can easily bend the wire around your finger and shape it until the desired look is achieved.

Here is an example of the "Cork Screw" type wrap about which I am talking.

Ending your Wooly Wire

Now onto the ends and finishing your end of Wooly Wire.

When you come to the end you will want to take your cutting plyers and snip yourself a little bit of a "tail." Longer than the tail you would cut if you were just wire-wrapping wire.

Next you will take your fray check and add a dot to the end of the wire.

Here you can see the wet dab of fray check on the end.

Hold your piece with one and and with the other take the piece of fray checked ww and twist it "with the grain" of the fibers. You will know which way is "with the grain" because the fibers will get tighter as you twist. If you are not twisting in the right direction the fibers will puff instead.

Next grab your round nosed plyers. Grab the end of the ww and turn into a loop. This will "lock" in the fibers and secure the wire.

Now grab your bent chain nosed plyers and pinch that little loop you made to further secure the wire.

Next using your chain nosed plyers "tuck" the wire wrap into itself to finish up the wrap like you would for a normal wire-wrap. 

Add another dab of fray check to the finished wire-wrapped end.

You will have a little fuzzy from the end of the fiber wire. You can take your finger and now gently rub the fibers into the direction of the ended wire-wrap. You can let this try and then come back and add another drop of fray check and rub the end against the wrap if you still have some fuzzys that stick out. 

I hang my earrings or leave my necklace flat to let the fray check dry several hours or over night. Once it is dry you will see the fiber has blended into the rest of the wrap and the fiber is still soft, but secure :D

I hope this quick tutorial has helped you learn how to end your Wooly Wire!

Enjoy!

xo Genea

MEGA BOX from Karen and Nellie!

Hello friends!

Ok so I am doing this a little backwards! I did receive a few more packages and goodies previously so I will for sure blog about those just not in the right order ;)

So today my MEGA BOX arrived from Karen and Nellie! At first when I checked the mail I thought it was the pair of Vibram shoes my husband had ordered. Upon picking up the box I looked at the address label and saw it was for ME :D

When a box this LARGE arrives at your house and you know there are beads inside, it's a GOOD day! 

Underneath a few layers of packing paper laid my buried treasures!

I pulled out my beautifully knitted scarf from Nellie and put it on as I dug through my box of treasures, clicking pictures as I went. Isn't this scarf GORGEOUS?! Not only did Nellie dye and spin the fibers in my scarf, but she also KNIT it and she even used my favorite ribbing so that the little "V's" go up and down :D Isn't she MAD talented?! She must get it from her mother ;)

OH..MY...GOD.... Are you seeing this?! Nellie sent me SKEINS of her beautiful hand dyed and spun yarn! They are so amazingly gorgeous! I don't even know what I am going to knit yet, but I will keep them safe and sound until I find a pattern I can work up. I will, of course get cheap yarn for the first project before moving onto my precioussssssssssssss ;)

Also inside the box was a sweet little plastic draw string bag with THESE goodies inside! Know what these are???

WOOLY WIRE(fiber wire)! and GOBS of it!! 

Here's a closer look! Pretty much every color you could EVER WANT. See my "Bright Earth" color palette match?! OMG! I LOVE them all! 

Here is a photo of the "Bright Earth" Wing Dings and the "Bright Earth" match in Wooly Wire! Not to worry, Nellie and I are working on making more wire and beads for your designing pleasure ;)

If that wasn't exciting enough, here you can see her color match to my "Ancient Pebble" series of beads! You can see those focals in my shop here.

Um HOLY AWESOMENESS BATMAN! Aren't they fantastic together?! Again, Nellie is SWAMPED at the moment, so you can expect some matching Wooly Wire in the nearish future ;)

Ahhhh and now for Karen's box! Isn't this beautifully wrapped?! I just LOVE batiked fabric and look at the sweet bee ribbon :D

I love that my friends know me so well. Did you notice the ties were blue and green silk? :D I love this sweet daisy card as well! Some of my favorite flowers!

Opening of the box.

Layer 1- Look at the gorgeous Black Raven clay, some "naked" and some with the print shiny! Some lovely curry colored patinated rings and what I call "ripe banana" looking glaze. Oh and a pair or coraly stars! I do LOVE coral!!

Layer 2- some gorgeous amber dust beads, beautiful copper sooty patinated pendant and rings, and this lovely sagey green on black!

 Layer 3- Some of Karen's sweet little flower connectors, some really pretty ivoryish and sagey forest green connectors and copper sooty patinated charms!

Layer 4- Some of Karen's AMAZING little charm drops, darkened jump rings, curry patinated hoops, and sooty black copper and I forget the other golden patina name pieces. Remember those pieces I got from the bead show awhile back? 

Layer 5- A little leaf focal, a yummy green and blue patinated brass charm, some sooty rings and s'hooks and a really pretty black and ivory stamped focal!

Layer 6- You can't really see the heart, but if you look in the top left on the rightish side you will see the blue grotto glaze. Inside is an AMAZING spiral stamped heart! OMG Karen needs to make more of those!! Love these ivory daisy stamped connectors, one of Karen's amazing lentil beads, and sooty copper chain.

Layer 7- Maybe you can see that heart better now? Kinda? Some Yucatan clay dings(my very FAVORITE glaze because it's green and blue and matched one of my favorite odd lot glasses, Okey Dokey Artichokey), some sooty hoops and some gorgeous verdigris color blended hoops and charm!

Layer 8- some sooty stamped thick rings, sooty chain, sooty hoops and sooty copper clay dings! 

All of my loot from Karen spread out on the table! Good things do come in tiny packages! 

Thanks so much for stopping by to see my new goodies! Now to get to work CREATING!

xo Genea