If you’d like to wander around a bead show this weekend, check out the Down The Street Bead Show. This will be my first time attending the show. I believe it stops in Charlotte a couple times a year. Here are that details:

The Down The Street Bead Show
at the Charlotte Merchandise Mart at The Park
800 Briarcreek Rd
Charlotte NC 28205

Saturday June 27th (10am-6pm)
Sunday June 28th (10am-5pm)
Admission if free but you will have to pay a $6.00 parking fee.

Took me forever to take a photo of them but here are the beads I purchased at the Rings & Things Bead Tour when it hit Charlotte.

I tried to stick to the color palettes I plan to work with for Fall. There are a few strands of sterling silver beads on the left. The stones (also starting from the left) include: Astrophylite, Hematine, Tourmalated Quartz, Ruby, Crackle Agate, Garnet, Kyanite, Lapis, Blue Sponge Coral, White Coral, Fossil Coral, African Opal, Brown Zebra Jasper, Sunstone, Botswana Agate, Smoky Quartz and finally, Picture Jasper. I can’t wait to begin working on some new pieces!

Woke up this morning to a suspended account from Twitter. Since they didn’t bother to notify me that they suspended my account, I have no idea what happened. I clicked the “head over this way” link on my profile page to find out why I was suspended. It displayed the following: “Entry not found. You do not have access to entry #14362. It may have been deleted.” Nice. (more…)

If you’re a Charlotte area jewelry artist with a wholesale license, you might want to check out the Rings & Things Bead Tour (fancy way of saying sale) tomorrow.  Give yourself a little time if you go.  I like to look through everything and then go back and pick out individual strands. Rings & Things lets you browse their sea of beads with no pressure. I seriously can’t wait. If you’re interested, here are the details:

Sunday, June 14th, 2-6 PM

Renaissance Suites Hotel Google Map
Terrace Ballroom
2800 Coliseum Centre Dr.
Charlotte, NC 28217
(704) 357-1414

You will need to show your wholesale license to check out. Be sure you bring it along. More questions? Read this. I promise to post a photo or two of my purchases.

Step by Step Beads magazine is holding what appears to be a series of color based beading contests. The first one is the Tertiary Colors Challenge. From their site:

“The orange-purple-green tertiary triad presents a challenge of bold and striking contrasts. Create a piece of bead jewelry (or a bead in any medium: polymer, beads, glass, etc.) using the triad from the color wheel. Black, white, or clear are welcome, but the predominant colors must be the orange-purple-green triad (any shades of those colors).”

Entries are due May 15th. The judge is Margie Deeb. Winners will be featured in a Fall issue of the magazine and one will receive a copy of Margie’s book “The Beader’s Color Palette“.

I recently purchased this book. The rich imagery is inspiring and the breadth of ideas and palettes make it a valuable resource. If you don’t have it already, here’s your chance to score a copy and have one of your jewelry designs published!

Last Saturday and Sunday, I participated in the Mint Hill Arts Spring Jewelry Show. Here’s one of the pieces I took to the show. It’s a jasper pendant with smoky quartz on one side and synthetic chalcedony on the other. It’s wrapped with sterling silver wire and has a sterling silver extender chain and clasp. You can check out a few more pieces from the show in my gallery.

It was inspiring to see other people’s jewelry and the artwork on display at the center. I enjoyed meeting the people who attended and chatting with the artists who are members of Mint Hill Arts. I feel lucky to have been asked to participate. Thank you Tammy for pulling the whole thing together. You were so wonderful to work and show with. I hope we’re able to do it again soon.

I just added some pieces I recently completed to my Etsy shop. Here’s one of my new 3 in 1 necklaces.

It is designed to be worn three different ways. The wearer turns it to the side they wish to display. It has an ornate S clasp that is functional and  works as a ”bead” element. I’m very interested in designing necklaces that are assymetrical and offer different options (I like to think of them as wearing opportunities).

I came up with this design idea after a prolonged struggle with a necklace that just wouldn’t “work”. Sometimes, things don’t “work” the first time for a reason. Don’t be afraid to cut it apart and keep playing with it.