Beads, Beads, Beads!

Wow!  Three different bead shows in one week!  How lucky can a bead-a-holic girl get?  It’s spring break, which means I have a whole week off, AND there are 3 bead shows!  There’s just something about seeing the beads in person and feeling the coldness and texture.  A real sensual experience!  If you live in the Austin, TX area – check ’em out!

The first one is today and tomorrow (March 13-14).  It is “The Whole Bead Show”, held at the Palmer Event Center, in Austin (900 Barton Spring Rd.).  It’s $5.00 admission, but you can get $1.00 off if you go to their website and print a coupon:  www.wholebead.com This is for wholesale and retail buyers.  It’s usually a fairly small show, but I have found some interesting beads there before…

The second, is the “Rings & Things Bead Tour”, Sunday, March 14, ONLY, from 1:00-5:00 p.m., at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, in Austin (6121 I-35 N.).  The admission is free, but it is WHOLESALE ONLY (must have a tax ID#/resale # to enter).  This is a fabulous show.  Rings & Things is one of my favorite wholesale bead companies, based in Spokane, WA.  They have many things on the bead tour that are not in their catalog or in their online store www.rings-things.com, PLUS they offer an extra 15% discount ON TOP of the wholesale price.  They also bring along popular findings, cord, wire and tools for sale.  I always spend WAAAAY too much money at their annual bead tour!

And last, but certainly not least is the ever popular “International Gem & Jewelry Show” www.intergem.com, March 19-21, again, at the Palmer Event Center (see address above).  This one comes twice a year to Austin.  It’s not as large a show as when they go to Houston, but I always enjoy going, and ALWAYS come home with a new stash.

I’m hoping that while I’m off this week, I will have time to create some new and interesting jewelry with my finds from this week…  More to come…

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Ah, Valentine’s Day!  A day of love!  A day to celebrate the heart!  A day to enjoy staying home (it’s Sunday) and playing with beads (ONE of my loves)!

Although they’re not heart or valentine related, I pulled out some great beads that have been patiently waiting for me to do something with them since I bought them at the last International Gem and Jewelry Show.  I think it was October.

Here are some cool peace sign beads that make a great basic pair of earrings:

I think they’re ceramic, but I’m not sure.  I purposely broke one so I could see if it was stone or ceramic, but I still couldn’t tell for sure.  They are turquoise color all the way through, except where they the design is  cut out and the hole drilled.  There, it is brown.  I really need to remember to ask the vendors about the beads when I buy them, but they are always so busy!

Here’s some other beads that came from Inter-Gem.  Dyed Mother of Pearl cut outs:

I got the cut outs from one vendor and the round beads from another, but they match!

Both of these earrings can be found in my shop: www.sarascreations.etsy.com

Houston’s “Jade House”

I went to Houston this past weekend to visit family and while I was there, I went to find one of my favorite vendors from the International Gem and Jewelry Show (www.intergem.com), the Jade House (www.jadehouseweb.com).  Although I had their address, I had a little difficulty finding them.  I had been there before, but it had been a couple of years, so I thought I knew where they were, but they weren’t there!  Apparently they moved about a year ago… still on the same street and the same vacinity, but tucked away in a back corner of a shopping center.

It’s much like a treasure hunt going there… it is a very small, narrow shop.  When you walk in, the main aisle is only wide enough for 1 person, and there are bins upon bins stacked on and under open shelving, full of semi-precious gemstone strands.  You have to pull out each one to see what’s in them!  On top of the bins, there are trays of loose pendants, loose stones and Cubic Zirconia beads.

What I mainly went in there for were some wavy silver beads so that I could make a custom request necklace for a customer that matches these “Dangling Daisy” earrings in my shop:

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=28081124

Fortunately, those were easy to find.  They had all of their silver beads and findings in little bags on one of the walls.  But, as always, I leave there with more in my bag than what I went in there for… more to come on my other finds…