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My little booth in Santa Fe.

Gail and I, having too much fun.

Anne and I, in the booth.

Michelle Goldstein, wishing I wouldn't take her picture.

The very whimsical, Alina.

Stephanie and Gail.

Gail, Me and Terri at dinner.

Linda Larsen of Objects and Elements and Lisa Blackwell of Zoa Art.

I got back from Santa Fe late last night after a typically harrowing day of travel. I am a magnet for plane delays and lost baggage. Remember this if you ever choose to travel with me. You have been warned. I'm sorry that my blogging was so sparse while I was gone. I had fully intended to post every day, but by the end of each day I was sapped and didn't have anything very intelligent to say.

The show was great fun and I did very well. I learned so much and when I got home, I already had some invitations in my email box to participate in some other large shows, so I guess I did something right! I met lots of great folks over the last week. Thank you to all of the nice people who had such nice things to say about my work. One person who really touched me was Linda-Marie, who lost her daughter a short time ago and found symbolism and comfort in my dragonflies. She was really sweet and her strength really touched and impressed me. Linda-Marie was helping out in the booth of Lisa Blackwell of Zoa Art. I met Lisa and her husband Tony a couple of years ago in Tucson and was really pleased to reconnect with her. Next door to our booth was Jill Wiseman from Tapestry Beads in Austin, Texas. Jill sells really lovely seed bead kits that are certainly well beyond my patience level. She has a particular bracelet that I believe she will be teaching next year with 2mm swarovskis that has to be seen to be believed. Gail and I got to connect with Facebook friend, Susan Dilger, who is now an actual friend. Susan is a fascinating L.A. transplant who now lives in Taos, New Mexico full time. Another night, I got to have dinner with Gail, Anne, Terri Caspary Schmidt (lampworker extrordinaire), Jennifer, Michelle Goldstein and Stephanie Sersich. Michelle and Stephanie have a collaborative project called 'Hearts and Bones' as well their own separate teaching and jewelry projects. Over the course of the show I also met lots of Interweave people, including the editor of 'Stringing', Danielle Fox, who came over to my booth to chat. Anne had a woman named Alina back to back with her booth, who was best described as a crazy fairy god mother. She kept picking little treasures of stones and beads out of her never ending stash to give to us, because she felt that we needed them. She reminded me a little of the character of Vianne, from the movie, 'Chocolat'. Do you remember how she always could guess the chocolate concoction that was your favorite, blissful treat? Alina was like that. She also made wildly exuberant jewelry that really suited her style.

I got to spend lots of time with my good friend Gail, who handles drama the same way that I usually do, with good old, Midwestern sense and aplomb. We had so much fun. I never laugh so much as when I'm with that silly girl. Every time that I see her, it makes me wish again that we lived closer. Thank you so much for all of your help, Gail. I can't wait to return the favor in Ohio this summer. And of course, I got to see Anne, whose booth I was helping to mind, as well as my own. I saw Anne in Tucson last month, but there's just never enough time to just hang out and shoot the breeze. It would be great to see her sometime when we can just sit around and do nothing except talk and drink margaritas. Someday. I get to see all of these fine people and others, again in June for the Bead and Button show in Milwaukee. I can't wait!

BEAD FEST DAY 2

Bead Fest opened yesterday.  It was fun and we made some sales, though lots of vendors said that the traffic was slower than in years past.  I haven't done it before, so I don't have much to compare it to.  I met some great people and got a lot of great feed back about my work, so that was nice.  I met a caster from Santa Fe who I talked to about having some of my toggles cast in pewter and sterling.  I didn't remember to grab my camera from under the table at the show, so I won't have photos until tomorrow.  I didn't have a chance to walk around much and see what everyone had to sell, so I hope I get to tomorrow.  I did, however buy a texture hammer from Beaducation.  Does that surprise any of you?

SANTA FE FUN

Gail and I at The Shed.

Anne, looking good in a fedora.

Gail, in... I don't know what that is.

I love salvage yards.  There is so much to find inspiring.

I arrived in Albuquerque yesterday afternoon, waited about an hour for my friend Gail to come in from Cleveland and then we made the 50 minute drive to Santa Fe.  We went out to dinner last night to a really good place that Gail knew about, weirdly named The Shed.  A strange name for a really good, authentic New Mexican restaurant.  We had a great dinner and some nice margaritas too!  Today, we went to a fantastic architectural salvage yard that's near where we are staying.  I wish I had a U-Haul.  I took some pictures, though you weren't supposed to.  I confess, I couldn't help myself.  We walked around and perused the many galleries that Santa Fe has to offer, most too expensive to be believed, but beautiful, none the less.  Anne, Gail and I tried on silly hats in a custom hat store.  I don't know why, but every time we are together, we end up trying on hats.  It was a fun day.  

Tomorrow, we set up for the show, which has it's preview tomorrow night.  I'm happy to have my very generous friend, Gail here with me to help.  I'm sure we'll have fun. Everyone should have a friend like that.  

THE LAND OF ENCHANTMENT

I'm headed to Santa Fe, New Mexico this week for Interweave's Bead Fest.  I will be there to help out my friend Anne Mitchell while she's teaching classes.  I'll be manning her booth while she's teaching and I will also be selling my work as well.  I'll be gone for a week coming home on March 16th.  I will have email while I'm there and will try to blog about the show and what's going on.  If anyone needs anything from me, I will get back to you as soon as possible.  Wish me luck!

PS. I saw Lucy today and I think her recovery is miraculous.  I went to the store and when she saw me she got up and walked over to me.  I held her and she licked my fingers.  Cindi asked her if she wanted a treat and Lucy's ears perked up at the sound of that word.  She tires easily, but she walked around the store a bit before she need to rest.   She's not yet quite herself, but amazing that she got hit in the head by a truck last Wednesday!  I know that given time, she'll get there.  

SECOND CHANCES

Daisy and Lucy in their Hawkeye gear during football season.

On Wednesday, my friend Cindi's little 4 pound Yorkshire Terrier, Lucy (on the right in the photo) got hit by a pick up truck as she darted across the street after some birds.  Cindi rushed her to the veterinarian hospital, where initially they didn't give her much of a chance.  Miraculously, she didn't have any broken bones, but she did have a closed head injury.  When I saw her at the hospital she was agitated, and sort of semi-conscious.  The vets remained guarded when they didn't see any improvement within the first few hours, in fact they felt that maybe she had deteriorated a bit.

Then something wonderful happened.  Lucy began to show some improvement.  Her pupils were no longer dilated and unequal and the doctors felt that the swelling in her brain was subsiding.  Yesterday they took her off of all of the meds that they had her on and she was able to eat some baby food.  Today, not even 72 hours after the accident, she's going home.  I know that she will have a long and probably difficult recovery and that she might not ever be quite the same again, but that's ok. Her people are ready and willing to take on what ever lies ahead.  

It just goes to show you that you can never judge the size of some one's heart or their spirit by the the size of their 4 pound body.

Cindi has been posting updates about Lucy on her blog, here.

PMC CHARM CLASS

 9 gram PMC charm bracelet.  The charms were made by me and the bracelet was made by Cindi.

Marcia and Margaret's PMC charms.

Last night I taught a PMC charm class at Bead Haven.  I didn't get a photo of Marcia and Margaret's charms after they were fired, but the second photo was taken at the end of class.  It was a class for beginners, where you learn a simple way to set a stone in a PMC charm that will be fired in place.  The thing that I think is the coolest about this class is that it shows how many little pieces that you can make with a mere 9 grams of PMC.  It's a good class for beginners to try out PMC without a big price tag.  That's definitely a good thing these days.  

CREATIVITY

Marylynn and Allison contemplating something.

David's future bracelet.  I wonder who will get it when it's done.

Bonnie and her butterflies.

David's clock part ring and Allison's watercolor Koi fish.

At the top, Marylynn's ring with beads embedded in resin.  How cool is that?

Bottle caps galore!

Allison's cool bezel that her friend found on the ground.  

 

We had a really fun time in class yesterday.  You know it's good when no one, including me wanted to go home!  I know I've said it before, but the creativity of people really amazes me.  The uniqueness of people is apparent when you set them loose on a creative project.  You get a glimpse into their personalities by watching what they come up with.  David's style was to tinker with his teeny watch parts, carefully arranging them inside of bezels.  Bonnie sat quietly reflecting and soaking everything in while she decided which papers and transparencies she wanted to use and which colors of paints she wanted to choose to personalize her pieces and really made them her own.  That reflective nature shone through in the things that she made. Marylynn meticulously arranged seed beads with tweezers into lovely borders around the pictures that she placed in side the bezels.  Allison was wildly prolific, making so many beautiful things in such a short time and her exhuberence really came through in what she made. 

My pictures of the finished pieces were not so great, so if I get back to the store tomorrow before they all pick up their pieces, I'll post some new ones.

Thanks to David, Marylynn, Allison and Bonnie.