Dawno's Weekly Wanderings Around the Beadosphere

I'll start off with some of my favorite bead/jewelry/crafts blog posts of the week and wrap up with other sites of interest (I hope!) for you to visit and hope you'll consider adding to your RSS readers or bookmarks.

• JustATish had been rather busy, so her blog was quiet for a while, but she's come blazin' back this week - Father's Day ideas, Rings & Things challenge catch-up - silverplated serpentine chain, gold plated serpentine chain, Russ Troll (that guy gets around!) and this month's challenge where we each get to pick our own assortment to review (haven't even started looking yet, gotta get to it!)
• Lisa at A Bead A Day shared a lovely green stone she identified as Russian Jade, a "harmonious diversity" of glass hearts, some blue beads she's taking out of older pieces and re-purposing, a bead that looks just like her darling pooches, and you won't believe this gorgeous bracelet was made in 3 minutes! (the story behind it is a blast to read).
• Margot Potter shared her "Blogging for Artbeads" featured product Chagall Pendant and the design she created for it. She chose one of the Russian painted onyx pendant focals, like I did, but the necklace she designed - wow! I'll be making my final design for the focal I got one of these days, and I must say Margot's idea has given me some inspiration.
• I couldn't help but salivate over Humblebead's Bead & Button Show booty
• WillowWalker's experimentation with gold decals that she fuses into her glass pendants looks like a success to me! (I'm glad she's blogging again too - was quiet for a month!)
  
• Check out the colors in this Nikon Sniper picture! If I'm ever at a loss for ideas, his blog always has a lot of inspiration.
• Shoozles makes a really good point. Let her know you appreciate it, if you do.
• Melanie at Earthenwood Studios is going copper crazy with her Rings & Things challenge (and that Russ Troll is right in the middle of it - hope he avoids getting dapped!)
• More photographic inspiration (from England) on NiftyKnits - and earlier in the week she featured some beautiful work from a couple of very talented designers, too.
  

There is one other post from last week at A Bead A Day that I didn't mention above - it's her Friday Featured Designer post. The designer, Molly, has a lovely banner and does a great job with her Etsy store and photographs of her lovely vintage button (and other media) creations.

Then I visited Whimsy House's blog. I wish three things:

1. she'd post more - I like her friendly 'voice' and she's got a fascinating niche
   
2. she'd change from white text on black background, which is very hard to read, at least for me
   
3. she'd not center all her text which is also difficult to read.

Maybe nobody has mentioned it to her so she didn't know? How often do we visit blogs that might have promise but not go back and establish a rapport for any of the above reasons or others? I'm guilty as charged, but working on it.

That brings me to wish #4 but it's for myself - I wish that if you ever have constructive criticism to give me, that you will. I want my blog to be a place you'll keep visiting. If I'm doing something that might prevent that, let me know!

Apparently there's quite an overlap in the tech world and the crafts world - I guess I knew that some techie folk liked papercrafts (my husband helped me realize how many techies are into Origami), and I knew there were a number into Steampunk, but I really didn't know the extent of it.

Take Maker Faire, for example. Since it was the weekend right after Bay Con, I didn't go, but you can see from the Maker links at the 2009 website, where the two interests intersect.

Speaking of Makers at this year's faire, one of the crafters linked above (link: "two") was Absolutely Small who is a new friend of mine on Twitter. Get over to her site and get in the know about Chickenpants!

Another intersection of tech and geek and craft (and so much more) is BoingBoing, where many arts and handcrafts are often featured, like the Trekkie Meerkats or Steampunk jewelry.

Also, this week Wired magazine featured an article about Geek Art: Needlework Brings Together Programmers, Crafters and shows some beautiful embroidery and quilting with a techie slant.

Via a tweet from Dave (@Rings_Things), I wandered over to Flapper Girl, where she showcases this wonderful Vintage 50s Bead Kit.

Artbeads "Tweet your Prize" Twitter promotion is going strong - there's a new contest through Tuesday synched up with their Express Yourself sale.

The Beadin' Path has finally opened for business in their new space - here are a couple "work in progress" pictures Heather posted - from the floor and the next day - wow, the colors! I wish it were possible for me to visit in person (and probably break the bank on vintage beads).

SoftFlexGirl Sara posted about Beading Wire Diameters - extremely helpful! Thanks, Sara!

I got a Lima Beads newsletter the other day informing me of the creation of a new community section: The Garden

This week, we launched an exciting section on our web site. It's called The Garden, and it's a community section dedicated to meeting new beaders, sharing ideas, asking questions, and more.
...

Get started by seeing who's online, creating a profile for yourself, checking out groups to join, or browsing the beader directory.

Ok, I think that's plenty to keep busy with for today - see you tomorrow, I hope - I'll be showing a re-make I've been working on this weekend, if you visit.

Friday Guest Post - The Beadin' Path's Heather & Her Phenominal Stash of Vintage Lucite!

The wonderful Heather DeSimone whose Twitter bio says: "Mama. Wife. Bead Store Owner. Lover of vintage and Lucite Maven." Has given me permission to reprint one of her blog posts from The Beadin' Path blog "What's In Store with Heather" in place of an original piece of my own today, as I am still a little too blue to be creative.

One of these days (maybe when she's not wiped out from moving her entire store!) I will see if I can wrangle her into being the subject of a Thursday interview post. Until then, I offer you a post from last summer she wrote that simply fascinated me. It's an inside peek into the bead store owner's world and a simply wonderful tale! It's the story of how they acquired their huge supply (over 40,000 lbs!) of vintage Lucite as well as information about its provenance and how it has been used.

Learn Where We Got Our Vintage Lucite Beads
by Heather DeSimone
Friday, 18 July 2008

Want to know where our vintage Lucite beads all came from? One of the most frequently asked questions when a shopper enters our store or shops with us online is "Where did you get all of those fabulous vintage Lucite beads?"

It could be because when one walks into our store at The Beadin' Path, they're greeted with a 18 foot wall full of it. It's colorized from left to right and spans almost the entire back wall of one room in our store. We try to merchandise our entire store & our website in color blocks so that each room or page is a virtual palette of beads. I think those who ask, expect a quick or secret answer. However, there's a much longer & more interesting story to how we acquired over 40,000 lbs of vintage Lucite.

We were approached 2 years ago in the early Summer by the manager of a plastics company in Rhode Island via. email. (You've got to love that world-wide-web). They did a search for vintage Lucite & saw on www.BeadinPath.com that we stocked and LOVED vintage Lucite beads. They were looking for a buyer to come and clean out a couple of rooms in their very large warehouse. We get approached all the time by exporters, manufacturers or companies that are liquidating jewelry components. Yet this contact really intrigued us. You see this company had not manufactured beads or jewelry components since the late 1970's and early 1980's. They simply had a 10,000 + square foot room stocked floor to ceiling with these pesky beads and hoops and cabochons that were just in their way.

Currently the company (Plastic Development) is one of the leaders in the industry for manufacturing earring cards & other plastic-based merchandising for jewelry and accessories. When you order these from many well-known companies that distribute them, chances are they're made by these folks in R.I. Because they had the need to expand their business and move some of their less physically-able employees to the first floor space, currently housing all of 'those beads,' they needed them moved out and moved out fast.

My mother Jan & I decided it would be worth a trek down I-95 South to at least check this stock out. And if it was a wash, we'd head on over to Providence Place & do some shopping (they have an H&M and a Restoration Hardware there!). Well we never made it to the mall! When we met with the manager of the company we learned more about vintage Lucite than we had ever known before. He had worked at the same company for over 30 years and was there when they had actually made these great beads & parts.

They had been commissioned by well-known companies such as Avon, Coro, and Trifari to custom-create colors and shapes for their seasonal lines of jewelry. The quality of these 'plastic' beads was just unmatched. (Yes, I too used to be a 'plastic-bead-snob'!) He explained to us a little about the process where the beads are actually made in a relief process or 'carved' from a rod or cane of Lucite. They were not press-molded like many plastics that show seams and are lighter-weight. So, when they had overstock, slightly off-color beads from the special order, or simply orders that were not picked up, they stashed them in 'the bead room.'

After some research and much number crunching [we] decided to bring a group of helpers down to Rhode Island the following week with 2 20' UHaul trucks. Wow! We had no idea what we had gotten ourselves into. We worked a 12 hour day with 10 people we brought down as well as many of the warehouse workers who chipped in to help us.

Sure there were lots of us 'bead girls', but our group also included many big burly guys, all bagging, packing boxes, stacking boxes, wrapping and loading palettes. We finally got the 2 trucks loaded to the ceilings. But we had only packed up about 1/3 of the stock! There was still a whole room of beads & parts: it almost looked as if we hadn't even been there.

A week or so later, Jen our store manager came to me and told me that her Uncle was a licensed trucker and could drive a big old, not sure what they're technically called, 'semi' type truck. And her dynamo of a mother Sue, who also worked for us was inspired to ride down there with him and get the semi loaded up if we could get down there in the days before & get the rest of the warehouse packed up. We were so overwhelmed by the first trip that (and I can't even believe this now) we had been contemplating just leaving the rest of the stock down there and having a rubbish company come & remove it. It was costly to move beads! So with Sue's encouragement, we made another trip down to RI and packed & boxed & stacked our little hearts out once again. Sue & her brother drove the 'semi' down a day later & filled it from front to back!

…and that's how it all happened. That's how we acquired over 40,000 lbs of vintage Lucite beads & parts. Surprisingly, two years later we have sold almost half of the stock. When we first brought it home to Maine, I made the comment that I would be that little old lady at 80 years old with a barn full of rotting boxes full of beautiful beads. I guess I was wrong… nah, I'll be that old lady who dies with the most beads yet.

For the last couple of years, a really fun gal named Danielle has been purchasing lots of our vintage Lucite stock for her very funky & successful line of jewelry. She has a great business and sells her wares mostly over in Europe (smart chic, considering the plight of the US Dollar right now). Anyway, this lady knows her plastics. She was teaching me a thing or two about our very own stock. And as we'd discuss the differences between Lucite and other vintage plastics, she kept using the term 'Best New England Warehouse of Vintage BeadsPlastics' to describe where our beads had been made.

I kept thinking "What is she talking about?" but I didn't say anything because I was afraid that maybe she'd misheard something that I said or maybe I'd misheard her. After all: the company we purchased the beads from was called Plastic Development in Warwick, Rhode Island. And Norm, the man who sold them to me had worked for that company for the last 45 years and knew his stuff. He told us all about making the beads himself back in the 70's and 80's. So for the first couple of conversations I didn't say anything to Danielle.

Finally, when I KNEW that I had heard her say very clearly "…and the beads that came from Best Plastics in Providence…" I interrupted. "What a sec, WHAT are you talking about? You keep dropping this name and I thought I was hearing things. I've never heard this name before. As far as I know, these Lucite beads were made by Plastic Development in Warwick, not Providence." There's always this veiled mystery that many vendors like to perpetuate. She was buying a lot of beads from us and I didn't want her to think I had anything to hide about where they were from and where we got them. Danielle's answer was "Geez, I don't know. I thought YOU told me about Best Plastics." I said "I'd never heard the name until you mentioned it." And we moved on.

Fast forward a few more weeks. I was at one of our favorite job lot warehouses where I had not been for over 2 years! And evidently I've missed out in the last 2 years too because we didn't find a whole lot. Between being pregnant and having a newborn, it's hard to travel a few hours each way, dig through dirty boxes that are 15 feet in the air, etc etc to do your buying. So we've been doing a lot of buying via our manufacturers overseas lately, because I can simply send an email from home and viola! Beads!

Anyway, I was talking to Anthony who has been in business in the Rhode Island area for many, many years and his business was handed down to him from his Father-In-Law so he knows the industry. I mentioned Best Plastics and asked him if he'd heard of it. He said "Yeah, that's that warehouse you bought out!" I nearly fell on the floor. I said "But that company was called Plastic Development…" And now you're about to hear a thing of fables… bead myths from years past.

Best Plastics had been manufacturing beads for years, right across the street from Anthony's warehouse in Rhode Island. In the early 1980's, Best decided to shift their focus to manufacturing pressed plastic earring cards and other merchandisers. You know the type: when you go into WalMart and you see tacky earrings on a rounder, they're hanging on these grey plastic earring cards with a patch of velvet on them that read "Fashion New England Warehouse of Vintage Beads Earrings."

No matter what part of the world you're in, when you see these, they're probably made by Plastic Development in Rhode Island. Anyway, when they decided to shift their focus, they moved their company from a warehouse in Providence to a warehouse in Warwick and you guessed it, changed their name to Plastic Development. Anthony said "you know, they offered me that lot of beads and I just had too much plastic." We purchased over 40,000 lbs so I can only imagine how many thousands of pounds they had offered him.

So, thanks to Danielle, I learned the real name of our beads' manufacturer. And thanks to Anthony, we have thousands and thousands of pounds of Lucite beads to sell. These are the things that intrigue me still after all these years in this business: the lore of the beads. The history. Sometimes you hear these things from vendors and you think "They must have made that up to get me to buy this strand of beads, but it's cool." But the great thing about buying anything vintage, is that it has history. And the most mundane story can seem so riveting when it's told in the context of something you love. Like beads.

Post and pictures courtesy of, and with permission from, The Beadin' Path - Learn Where We Got Our Vintage Lucite Beads (11 June 2009)

One final thing - last Friday I wrote about "Follow Friday" for bead/jewelry artist bloggers - here's the link. I didn't get any comments last week, but perhaps if I remind you, you'll have some ideas this week?

Dawno's Weekly Wanderings Around the Beadosphere

Thank you to NiftyKnits for giving me such a lovely feature post on her blog! And, putting me in an Etsy Treasury, too! In this post she also talks about how we became acquainted.

As always, it's been a week of great beads at A Bead A Day, be sure to scroll down and read the whole week's worth!

Tish told us on Monday that Corporate was in town and she's been quiet since. Hope she gets back to her usual chatty self next week!

Jessica at SmuTopia "spaced out" on Friday. Ok, not really, but she did share some great space/sci fi themed finds on Friday - including the NiftyKnits Trekkie meerkats mentioned above!

Blanche at the Sha-sha Handcrafted Jewelry Blog shows the Canvas On Wood Pendant she chose from Artbeads to review and the lovely necklace she created for it.

The other day I was looking around for Twitter-themed graphics and happened upon the lovely blog of Amanda Davies, "articulations". She has created the most adorable birds she calls "Tweets" which are available in her Etsy store.

I recently bought some lovely vintage buttons from The Beadin' Path to add to a stash I'd started collecting and this post from Design*Sponge about making your own 9-hole buttons is great synchronicity!

Speaking of The Beadin' Path: do I ever love this Betty Paige Necklace (when I was young I thought Paige would be a cool first name. Guess I was reading a lot of 50's books as a kid in the 60's).

How do you get from 'dapping blocks' and Russ Troll beads to 60's era anti-war songs? Follow me, @Rings_Things and @wendytgibson on Twitter! Also, Rings & Things has a new contest for June, write a product review, get entered for a drawing for a $50 gift certificate!

Tammy Powley at The Crafty Princess Diaries talks about Project Ties that Bind, which asks bloggers to spread the word about their raffle "with 100% of the proceeds going towards the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund." I hope you'll help spread the word, too.

Margot Potter's ReclaimU Radio interview was great. Valuable insights, interesting life story, well worth the time.

Dee at Watch Me Create blogs about the inspiration for, and shows the steps used to create, her beautiful African Sunset piece.

Lots of folks last week were getting ready for, going to, and arriving at the Bead & Button show. Wish I could be there, too! Here are some links I rounded up:

• Earthenwood Studios
• Andrew Thornton
• SoftFlex Girl
• Sun Daisy Gems
• Here's What I Think
• For the Love of Beads
• Cristina Leonard Metal Designs
• Right Turn ArtWerks

Well, that's enough of a round up for today. Please remember that I archive these at Dawno's Beadosphere and would love to have you bookmark or follow there. Also, that blog has a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Which means you are welcome to copy and use those posts, or pieces of them, at your blog non-commercially (and other stuff you can read about if you click the link) if you'd like to spread these links around, I wouldn't mind one bit. It would be especially nice if you'd add a kind word about my blog, too.

"Follow Fridays" for Bloggers

Fridays on Twitter have become a day to share lists of people you follow with others, called "FollowFriday". On Twitter you can use a # sign before a word (this is called a hash tag) or phrase to make it a indexed term where all other posts with that tag can be searched as a group and read.

Thus, every post on Twitter (called a Tweet) that has #FollowFriday is conglomerated into a massive Twitter stream. You could just go and start following everyone who comes up on that search, which I don't recommend, or you could start following just new people who people you follow recommend. Or you could just sit back and enjoy the show...I do a little of both and I recommend many of my followers on Follow Friday. I'm going to try to be more descriptive of why folks should follow to add some signal to all the noise.

In blogging, our "hash tag" is our blogroll, I guess, but that's such a static and often forgotten thing. I think it would be wonderful to share on a more frequent basis the blogs we wish more people would read. If you read The Art Bead Scene or Margot Potter or The Crafty Princess blogs, you'll see that every week they do a link round up of each other and a handful of other blogs. While that's great for them as a group, what I'm thinking of is much more expansive - sharing different blogs, could just be one or two, each week.

So my idea is to request that you please leave suggestions for me of new, and maybe you think, little noticed blogs, in the comments. Consider doing a post like this on Fridays or whatever day you'd like. What are the blogs you'd like other people to be reading because they're important reads for you? I'll visit those blogs and add them to my Wanderings post on Sunday, and follow them in my blogger list. This is just one more way to build community and 'pay it forward'.

Edited to add: Look what I just found: a cute Twitter bird pendant at Etsy!

Please don't forget, on Sunday I post a weekly Wandering Around the Beadosphere to share blogs I found interesting, inspiring, or amusing. I also archive it and my Thursday review/interview posts on a separate blog called Dawno's Beadosphere so you can easily scroll through and find past links more easily (it's also got a search tool). I'd love for you to 'follow' that blog using the widget on it or add it to your RSS feed.

You are also welcome to cut and paste my "wanderings" on your blog (it'd be nice to get a mention, too!) and add some of your own.

hey! I found this Twitter Tutorial [ Twitorial? :-) ]

Dawno's Weekly Wanderings Around the Beadosphere

Summer isn't far off now (officially starts June 21, 2009 at 1:45 A.M. EDT) and that has me thinking of sandals and shorts, beaches and shells, bbq's and picnics. What summery ideas are out there in the Beadosphere this week?

Margot Potter's fun flip-flops project I don't have any rubber flip-flops but it still gave me an idea for sprucing up my plain black Reefs (my pair are the 'black/black' shown at the bottom right of the color choices - so very comfy and 3 summers old and still holding up, worth every penny)

Mad Designs, Marcia deKoster shared some kaleidoscope designs she captured from a sculpture at an outdoors San Diego art installation. What kind of summery beading project ideas could you get from kaleidoscopes? I immediately thought of a filigree assemblage with pearls and chain and glittering faceted beads - look at the diamond shape in the middle of the pictures she features - Swarovski gem, perhaps?.

Lima Beads lets you search through their listings and create a "Fresh Pick" montage. You can put different beads, stones, pearls and findings together and get an immediate look at how the colors and picks look together. Give it a try! (I ended up buying my picks - the feature puts them on one page together so you don't have to hunt them down again). You can also see other picks on the front page or browse pages of picks.

SmuTopia shares a Sailor's Valentine - made from shells

Heather at Art Bead Scene shares a whole assortment of sea-inspired picks

A Bead A Day would love to hear from you if you're familiar with the purple stone she featured last week. It's a great color for a deep hued design inspired by standing under the stars in the middle of a short summer's night - perhaps in the mountains near a clear lake or maybe on the beach of some tropical island?

Krista QQ posted about some bead and jewelry fashion trends on the SWCreations blog

Other blogs of note:

JustATish had an important interview and gave us some insight into how she created a 'tantrum' necklace to help her channel energy into something positive.

Artbeads products for May were sent out for review and although I got mine last week, I was too busy over the weekend to do much with the bead (or talk about it). I'll have a review up tomorrow, though. Meanwhile you can check out what Hammi Jammi Jewelry did with their Venetian glass, or what (and how) Jennifer Perkins did with the Garden Snail stoneware pendant, libeado used Swarovski rivoli's in a lush woven seed bead creation.

Sugee Andersyn published an important warning on her blog about the new Amazon Kindle Blog publishing service. I immediately went and claimed my blog. It was easy to do. Once it's up (48 to 72 hrs) I'll post more about it.

Would you like some back issues of beading magazines, or some how to books? Simply Shiny is de-stashing!

And, lastly, something that has simply nothing to do with jewelry design, beads or trends or summer - typewriter art posted on the Blankney Journal, a blog by Rodney Garlant. I found it via JustATish and became a follower (you should to, it'll bring a daily smile to your face). It's an adorable blog full of trivia and interesting tid-bits. I wish I could leave him a comment to say how much I enjoy his blog!

Dawno's Tuesday Tidbits - Post BayCon Wrap Up

I got quite busy today and didn't find time to take a picture of my tiny, cramped display (really, no great loss). I'll take a bunch of good ones at LosCon, and if I get into World Fantasy, there too. Those are "real" dealer's booths, so I hope they'll be very nice. I have 5 months to plan and obsess over them.

I put out an assortment of my quick and easy glass lanyards and a sign:

These lanyards turned out to be a great idea. People stopped, looked and I sold quite a few of them. But I also sold more of my higher priced ones today when people took the time to hear about the purpose and the convertible qualities and decided they wanted something that was more like "real jewelry" to wear when they weren't wearing a badge.

Overall, I did about 70% of what I made last year this time. Today's sales in the 4 hrs I was there actually selling were equal to or better than any one of the three prior 8 or 9 hr days.

So, I learned something important today - when I promote something that will get people talking about my product to me, my chances of selling something are much better. I also had a couple people bring friends by who saw their lanyards and wanted one. I'm thrilled at how many immediately put their convention badges on the lanyard and wore them over the weekend. The ribbon may have helped, too. I'm definitely ordering more!

Speaking of ribbons, here's my collection. I'm missing Archon from 2007 and Potlatch 2006 or '07 (can't remember) but these are the ones I hung from some lanyards to try and show how they look. I ran out of "I Know Dawno!" ribbons, and most of my "Do You Know Dawno?" ribbons are gone, too.

When I speak about ribbons, you can see from the current '09 BayCon badge that people at BayCon are really into them. My collection is tiny compared to some - there were people who could wrap their ribbons into a sash that wound around them like the ones that Scouts put their merit badges on, and still have a length going down from that! (sorry about the reflection - I didn't realize the flash was on).

(click to enlarge and read the ribbon messages)

Last tidbit - made some hair clip/hair charms while I was there. Didn't sell any this weekend. Daughter insists I need to make bookmarks, I agree. Will be working on those in days ahead. Took this picture outside and the sun was pretty low, so the shadows are annoying, but my worktable is a total wreck and I couldn't photograph them inside.

Thanks for visiting and patiently listening to my convention blather. See you tomorrow. (or, if you're on Twitter, see you on and off thru the day!)

Editing to add:

I got a Google Alert that there was a post up out there in the Blogosphere with the exact same title as this one. I went to the site and saw the following, which I think is a weird and keyword laden translation of my post into Quebecois French and then back to English (try doing this sometime using Babelfish - it's hysterical) of today's blog post :

I got unquestionably affected today and didn’t chance frequently to sign off a discernment of my pint-sized, incommodious evidence (really, no sterling loss). I’ll sign off a bouquet of robust ones at LosCon, and if I seep at liberty into World Fantasy, there too. Those are real dealer’s booths, so I rely on they’ll be selfsame amiable. I deceive someone at liberty an corps of my instantaneous and acquiescent specs lanyards and a exceptional:These lanyards turned at liberty to be a sterling intention. I sire 5 months to design and hold closed them. People stopped, looked and I sold unquestionably a faulty of them.

Overall, I did in all directions from 70% of what I made most late year this frequently. But I also sold more of my higher priced ones today when people took the frequently to give someone a bribe attention to in all directions from the determination and the convertible qualities and stooping they wanted something that was more like real jewelry to have on when they weren’t wearing a badge. Today’s sales in the 4 hrs I was there in Aristotelianism entelechy selling were colleague to or best than any unified of the three until 8 or 9 hr days. I also had a join people advance a respectability friends alongside who dictum their lanyards and wanted unified. So, I well-trained something emotion-charged today - when I side with something that on gets people talking in all directions from my produce to me, my chances of selling something are much best.

I’m thrilled at how tons not to be sneezed at neaten up away deceive someone their congress badges on the lanyard and wore them closed the weekend. I’m unquestionably ordering more!Speaking of ribbons, here’s my accumulation. The ribbon may sire helped, too. I’m missing Archon from 2007 and Potlatch 2006 or ‘07 (can’t remember) but these are the ones I hung from some lanyards to adjudicate and brag how they look.

When I admonish in all directions from ribbons, you can be Argus-eyed from the rip current ‘09 BayCon badge that people at BayCon are quite into them. I ran at liberty of I Know Dawno! ribbons, and most of my Do You Know Dawno? ribbons are gone, too. My accumulation is pint-sized compared to some - there were people who could wrap their ribbons into a sash that swaddle in all directions from them like the ones that Scouts deceive someone their respectability badges on, and silence sire a completely flourishing down from that! (sorry in all directions from the proof - I didn’t bring about the frown was on).

Didn’t vend any this weekend. (click to amplify and assume from the ribbon messages)Last tidbit - made some suggestion clip/hair charms while I was there. Daughter insists I paucity to impel bookmarks, I allocate. Took this discernment farthest and the bake was graceful improper, so the shadows are annoying, but my worktable is a unalloyed annihilate and I couldn’t photograph them Achates. Will be working on those in days ahead. Thanks owing visiting and patiently listening to my congress blather.

See you tomorrow.

Dawno's Weekly Wanderings Around the Beadosphere

I'm at BayCon this weekend, but I prepared this in advance so you wouldn't miss this weekly feature. I may pop in a post later on about the con, so check back!

This week is all about inspiration:

• This Artist's Journey - always inspirational writes about what has inspired her this week and asks "What Has Inspired You This Week? And maybe another question would be: What are you going to do with that inspiration?"
• Margot Potter - inspired me with a design idea when I saw this post
• Inspired to elegance? Read this interview by Guy Kawasaki of Matthew May, author of In Pursuit of Elegance. Guy blogs at How to Change the World
• Waiting for inspiration - Bead Origami found these at the Rings & Things tour - she's not sure what she's going to make with each strand, but did this lovely beaded bead with the amethyst. She's also a finalist in the seed bead category for the Bead Star 2009 contest - if you haven't voted yet, you only have 'til the end of the month.
• Bev's Jewelry - I just read about her Lexie's bracelet inspiration and notice the blog has been "dark" for some time. Hope she's considering posting again, her comments here have been lovely.
• Tish is also a finalist at Bead Star - here's her inspirational piece.
• I could just post a link for every day of A Bead A Day - but I'll link to the home page and trust that you'll scroll down to every post!
• I saw these in Earthenwood Studio's blog - I'm inspired to buy some as soon as they're listed! What wonderful designs and colors!
• Kelley of Kellscreations posted some fantastic polymer clay focals she was inspired to work on by the Beading Daily polymer clay contest (entries must be in by June 5th!) - I got some Fimo on sale at Michael's and I'm inspired to start playing with it soon, but probably won't try anything until next weekend and certainly am not ready for a contest, but maybe someday!
• What creation might this Nikon Sniper photo inspire?
• The ocean's bounty inspired SmuTopia to break out the glue.
• One last link - not really inspirational, but about an inspired idea - we all, from time to time, have to hammer a nail into something. Kevin Kelly at Cool Tools reviews this nifty gizmo "Nail Driving Utensil" and a couple days ago he reviewed Tear Mender - if you have to assemble things from cloth, or have something that needs patching, this sounds like a good product. Click on his "crafts" tag to find yourself checking out all sorts of neat gizmos!
  

Monday Miscellany

Saturday wasn't a very productive jewelry making day, it was very hot, but I did manage to tidy things up and decide on some things I wanted to make - even started the necklace pictured below. Sunday I managed to make new earrings, finish the necklace and another one I'd had hanging unfinished for months, and put the findings on bracelets that had sat around for awhile.

New earrings

Couldn't get all of them in a square pic, so I cropped out a few

Victorian inspired choker with tiny glass pearls with a brass stamping and
Swarovski crystal dangles

Three new bracelets - the one on the right has freshwater cultured seed pearls, the one in the middle has really interesting ornate bead caps.

Temperatures here were in the 90s - makes it hard to focus when it's hot. I ended up watching a lot of last week's TiVo'd shows until it finally got cooler, but since tomorrow is a work day, I had to stop and finish up, get this written up for early Monday a.m. posting and get to bed. Back tomorrow with some Tuesday Tidbits!

Mid-Week Mutterings - Big News About Tomorrow's Post

Why is that sketch of a dog in a sailor suit up there?
Why are his hands oddly shaped flippers?
He's an odd mutt!
Wednesday's theme is going to be Dawno's odd mutterings.

Wednesday's I will mutter about things to come and things I have done and things I may be imagining.

This is primarily because I'd yet to come up with a theme for Wednesday's posts and here it is, Tuesday night, when I need to write my post.

It may still come to me to do something different, and it may stay this way - I'm feeling quite flexible about it.

In light of the decision I've made to try and organize my posting around themes for each weekday, I have decided that on Thursdays I'll be doing a review of either a jewelry, crafts, or beading book/article, or a jewelry/crafts/beading blog or shop *or* an interview of someone whom I hope will be of interest to readers.

You may recall my interview of Tish from Just A Tish, and I would love to do more interviews of bloggers who comment here, or who I know from Twitter. I'm looking forward to featuring you - and I'm hoping you won't be shy when I ask.

So, for tomorrow's interview: Big News! Tomorrow I will post my interview of John A. Jacobs, CEO of Art Fire. I'm really thrilled he agreed to be interviewed for my tiny blog way out here at the end of the long tail of the Beadosphere. And it all started with Twitter, by the way - more on that tomorrow. I hope you'll visit (and tell a friend or two to drop by).

Back to the muttering -

Time is getting short for me to prepare for Bay Con, so I really need to get the whole thing organized in my head. I talked about making a project plan, never did it, though, and am quite regretting it. I may still try to get these final 9 days charted out. I want to bring a good selection of steampunk style things, but I also did pretty well last year with my basic lanyard fare - which was all I was doing at the time. I'm a bit stalled by the indecision of it all.

Even so - I got back to work last night on my steampunk-ish mini-charms. Added one new one (in the center), added a touch to another - there are some nearly microscopic-ruby jewelelled bits in two of them now.

(click to enlarge for detail)

I also started on this mixed metal medallion. The two larger pieces in back aren't glued in yet, and the brass wedge at the bottom of the centerpiece, which has two tiny ruby jewels in it, isn't glued in yet, either. I think I'm going to try and clean that piece up a bit before gluing. I'm considering putting a pin/bail back on it so it can be worn either way.

While I was rummaging for a part, I came across this found object I picked up in a parking lot. It was very scratched and dirty, but I cleaned and buffed it with an emery board and then again with a 3-part nail buffer board. Someday I may actually get real sandpaper and polishing stuff... I have no idea what it's made of, could be full of lead for all I know, but I think I'll work it into something and make sure I put a tag on it with all the requisite warnings about unknown material, etc.

Ok, enough mutterings. Please come back tomorrow for the interview - post goes up at 6 a.m.!