February 10, 2010

Tucson Gem shows - last day 4

Tuesday was my last trip to Tucson, mainly for general supplies and gifts for some of my female family members. My feet are tired and I'm in complete sensory overload.

Every year I seem to come home with something that is pure impulse and haven't a clue what I'll ever do with them. When I put the newest ones away I fondle the buys from past years. Maybe some beads are just meant to be, looked at, played with, admired and put back away for another year. This time it was a couple of strands of the newest Chinese faceted crystals. I was told that these are handmade cane beads that are then machine faceted. The colors are rather unusual and very few of them are the same. They were just so different and happily colored that I couldn't resist. I can see summer earrings made with these - perhaps.

I need to try and get some good photos of my partner, Ken's, crystal flags though. He fell in love with the 3-4mm crystal faceted roundels at the shows and did a bead crocheted American flag to slide over a fringe on his motorcycle vest. Oh my, you can see it from across the room. He's been playing with flag and military designs in 10-14 around that are perfect as Biker regalia (can you call it that?), zipper pulls or key chains. I'm hoping I can get him to publish some of the designs on www.bead-patterns.com, both in BCED and PDF formats.

I'm sure there are things I'll wish I had gotten or stocked up on. Even with a list of needs, it's hard to stay focused with so many beautiful and different things from all over the world. I guess there is always next year.

Chains - chains, and more chains ...... I think we are going to see a lot more chains in bead stores and incorporated in with bead work this year. There were a lot of booths with fascinating and different inventories of chains. More than I have ever seen before.

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