Weekend Show

This weekend DH and I are demonstrating at the West Seattle Gem & Mineral Show. This is our first show of the year and I prepped for days getting everything ready. I never know how much to take or what to take to certain shows. Since this is more of a rockhound type show I wanted to take more gems and minerals but didn't know what I would demo. DH is demo'ing gem trees so I decided to do wire work, even packed my torch and soldering supplies just in case I wanted to get a little bit fancy.

Well we were so busy I didn't get a chance to get the torch going but did have fun playing with my wire. Here are a couple of different pieces. Sorry picture is a bit blurry as I used the camera in my phone.

Hand formed copper bangle with Sari silk and then wrapped with more copper wire and a few danglies of crystal. I love this look and it is so comfortable to wear.

I had in my mind to create some sort of book mark so I did this long swirly piece of copper and tied some silk at the bottom.. didn't like it so I wrapped the silk back up the copper piece and wrapped it with more wire. Much better. It works to insert your book page through the swirl to mark your place. I think I'll try a different style tomorrow that has the dangle off the edge of the book.

We sold lots of gem trees so DH will be frantically making more tomorrow as we have another show (NW Federation Show) in the Tri-Cities area of WA next month.

These are my wonderful buttons I received from Christine for the Button Swap. I'll be using a couple of these in an upcoming jewelry design and I think one of them is going on one of my art journals... fun fun. Don't you just love that tree (upside down) button? Right up my alley don't you think.

Well, it's going to be another busy day tomorrow at the show. If you live in Western Washington or are in the area come check out the West Seattle Gem and Mineral Show. Here is the link: http://www.westseattlerockclub.org/gemshows.htm.

Make and Takes?

Okay, I have a show coming up first weekend in November and I want to do something a little more interesting so I thought about having a Make and Take. Has anyone tried this and are they usually free or do you charge a little for them to cover the supplies? Here are some ideas I was trying out.

First is the wire wrapped beaded cocktail spoon. The spoons you can get for around $1.00 and then it is just adding some 20 gauge wire and beads, so not a lot of cost. The second is a wire pendant. Using copper in 14 gauge wire, I made a few curvy bends with a loop at the top and bottom then added a large gemstone as a drop. The real cost here was the stone as not much wire was used so about the same cost as the spoon but I could use cheaper stones. The third option is the key fob. The corks I have a ton of so no cost there, just the copper hardware, some 14 gauge copper wire and a few beads. I already had the copper washers but I could probably get the silver metal tone ones at the hardware store cheaper.

Which would you be more inclined to sit down and make? Any other ideas? I would love to have your opinion. Oh and thanks goes out to my good friend Glenda for the beaded spoon idea.

Show Musings

Today isn't my typical clean house and laundry day as that is normally tomorrow but Summertime is a busy time for us and on Thursday we leave again for yet another Gem and Mineral Show. We were at Tenino, WA last weekend and had a wonderful time. I demonstrated soldering copper and hubby did gem trees. Gem Trees is always a big draw and on Sunday I abandoned my copper for teaching tree design along with him. Sometimes we have shows where kids or even adults want to learn and some just look, this one was quite busy with 2 students on Saturday and 5 on Sunday. It was just a little bit more on Sunday than what hubby is used to dealing with. Teaching always gives us a sense of satisfaction and of passing along the knowledge that someone else so generously gave us. We have found that at these shows we teach for free if we have the time, these free teachings usually get paid back to us 10 fold of which we are so grateful. Unfortunately, I didn't get any photos of us teaching but I did get a pic (with my phone) of hubby at the table.

Here is another demonstrator, Robin, who was showing how to carve soapstone.

I can appreciate what she does as carving one piece of stone takes her about 4 times as long to finish as one of my gem trees or several pieces of jewelry. She worked on this fish all weekend.

Here are a few copper pieces I finished on Saturday. The mix of circles will be a bubble pendant after I construct the bail. As some of you know I usually work with fusing fine silver but with the price of silver I really didn't want to just sit and play so switched to soldering the copper. A bit messier with the flux, solder and pickle that you have to lug around but I'm able to create much the same styles with the wire.

I wish I could say this was a relaxing week but yes, we are once again getting ready for another show. This coming weekend is the Northwest Federation Gem and Mineral Show in Chehalis, WA at the Lewis County Fairgrounds. This is a new venue for the show and hopefully one that will be successful for the sponsoring club. I still haven't decided if I want to demonstrate just trees with hubby or take my copper along also. I may e-mail the organizer to see what they think. I'm sure the more different types of hobby related crafts the better.

I think after this show we will be finished for the Summer before the couple of shows we have scheduled for the Fall start up. Maybe a few weeks breather.

I do feel that anyone that donates their time to demonstrate or teach for free at any show deserves to be congratulated on your selfless generosity. I know of several wonderful craftspeople that would not be so willing which is a shame to keep all that knowledge to yourself and not share with the world. I do know that a lot of us paid for classes to learn what we know and others are self taught but others are not so fortunate. Thanks to Tony, Kari, Robin, Chuck, Paul and Sandy for so taking time out of your busy life to share a weekend of knowledge with so many.

If you want to get out and do something a bit different this weekend, come to Chehalis at the Lewis County Fairgrounds, Friday-Sunday. You'll find us at one of the demonstrator tables.

Big News

Sometimes fate has a way of knocking you in the head. Take for instance the last gem show we did in West Seattle. It is just fate that we happened to be at another gem show where the organizer saw us and asked if we would demonstrate at her show at the last minute and we just happened to have that weekend open. Then at the show I met a woman who purchased one of my gem tree books and was commenting on how wonderful the gem trees were and how they would be great in a gallery in Oregon that she had visited.

As fate or luck would have it, I contacted the gallery (Pacific NW Gem & Art Gallery) and sent pictures and low and behold I will be commissioning some of my gem trees there. Yea, what fun. I've already made one special tree to be sent to them and am working on one more. The other trees I send will be from stock I already have. Happy Dancing....woo hoo. We actually did pretty well at that show in terms of sales. A few books, a couple of custom jewelry designs that I was able to make there and lots of gem trees were sold.

Here is Hubby with some of the gem trees.

This is one of the new designs I made at the show. All in fine silver except for the sterling silver chain.

In one of my last posts I was complaining about our office not being finished, well today the contractors showed up to finish the job....yea. Hopefully things are now coming together here at home so we can finally get the house back in order and all the office stuff out of the living room and in the office where it belongs. I'll post finished photos soon.

I still haven't given up my charm swaps or bead swaps and in fact will have a blog hop coming soon. Lori Anderson organized a Spring Fairy Tale swap and we are shipping our beads to each other today. My partner is Loretta of Designs by Loretta. She does some wonderful polymer clay work. You can check out her Blog or her ArtFire studio to take a look. I only hope she likes beads.

Okay, I'm off to get some beads shipped and finish my portion of a Round Robin necklace. Have a great day everyone.

Dana

Whew, Glad That is Over

Just finished up a 3 day show at the Puyallup Fair Grounds. My fingers are now tired of making gem trees but I did get a few done for a special order that needs to be mailed after the first of the year. This was a good time to get started on them with the holiday's fast approaching. I sold several books to folks wanting to make trees for holiday gifts which is a great idea. The picture above is just a portion of my table. By the time we started packing up we had a full forest of colorful trees. I should probably list some for sale on my Etsy or ArtFire studio in case someone wants one for a gift but does not want to make one.

Today was Create Day 14...I'm really not having any trouble creating every day especially when I do demonstrations or teach. This week we will be getting ready for an upcoming trip so not sure how much creating I'll be able to do....humm might be a good time to start writing again on the book, that qualifies.

I do have a question for all you crafty people out there. Do you craft or take your art with you when you travel? If you do, how and what do you take?

Don't forget to hop on over to visit the other bloggers who are participating in Create Every Day. Links are on the right.

Cheers

Time for the Show

It's that time of year where I don my kitchen apron and cook for our local gem and mineral club show. If you are in Western Washington you might like to attend. It is free to the public and we will have vendors, demonstrators, display cases, silent auction, kids activities and a raffle area as well as the lunch counter. Everything from rough rock to polished gems and beads will be displayed and for sale.

When June 4-6, 2010
Where:  Fruitland Grange
112th Street and 86th Ave East
Puyallup, Washington
Time:  Friday  12 Noon to 6 PM
Saturday 10 AM to 5 PM
Sunday   11 AM to 4 PM




I hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Weekend. We went to the beach in the rain....oh so much fun with all the rain and mud. We did have one day of no rain, but obviously at the beach it was cold and windy but the dogs loved it.

If you want to follow along I joined the bead soup party (see link at the side) as well as the {Make} Sew Along. The beads I received from my partner are great and I already have my necklace started. I haven't started my sewing project yet, but will after this weekend is over and can concentrate on it.