SJ Bead Binge

Today Mom and I went to the South Jersey Bead Society’s Bead Binge. I love Bead Fest, but this one’s small and much more easily navigated.

Unlike past shows, when I attend with no plan of action and end up drooling like Gollum with hands full of shiny beads and an empty wallet, this time I had a plan of action. I wanted some big focal beads. Turns out, having a plan is great!

I bought a bunch of polymer clay beads from Rosalyn Hopkins, a local artist from Cherry Hill. Look at these!

Polymer Clay Beads

The greenish-gray donut bead came out of a $4.95 grab bag of a bunch of smaller beads. The houndstooth squares are actually buttons and I want to see about using them as toggles on bracelets. I like polymer clay because it has the look of ceramic, but is much lighter so you’re not dragging your neck down the street from the weight of a necklace.

Mom: You can make beads like this, I bet.
Me: …

(later on)

WM: You bake polymer in a regular oven, right?
Me: Kind of.
WM: You could probably make beads like this.
Me: ….

I apparently surround myself with people who think my talents are immeasurable. Moving on…

The other table we shopped at was D7 Studio, and I bought 3 Marsha Neal ceramic pendants and some bails (thingies that connect your pendants to your jewelry)

Ceramic pretties

I already know I’m going to take some copper wire, hammer it into a square spiral and “layer” it in front of that blue square — maybe wrap a smaller blue bead to the wire. (See above, re: neck-dragging) I bought the orange because “Tangerine” is the trendy color this spring (so says Pantone) and the light brown because … pretty.

They’re sitting in a saucer made by Tom Phelps Pottery. Every year I buy something of his at the Sugarloaf craft show. That vase my beady tools are hanging onto in this photo his as well, and my lucky bamboo from the flower show 4 years ago was transplanted into another one of his vases because it’s now twice as big as it was in that photo. I love his stuff.

Ugh. I’m turning into such a CRAFTER! Next I’ll be installing a beehive on the balcony or something!

All these pendants were bought with the intention of putting the finished product into the Etsy shop that I’ll never open. In reality, I’ll just end up wearing them. Not so shabby.

In the meantime, I made this last weekend — it’s my first foray back into multi-stranded necklaces.

I like how the blue beaded strand peeks out.

I wore it to work last week and it didn’t fall off!

Speaking of…

Friday marked my 2-month anniversary at TNP. I’m still performing my duties with the graceful finesse and drooly exuberance of an over-stimulated golden retriever, but I couldn’t be happier. I’m excited to go to work every day and I sleep like a baby every night.

As always, thanks for reading!