January 30, 2014

Tucson Gem Show - 22nd St Fossils

Spent the nice warm afternoon with a good friend oggoling fossils and minerals at the Tucson 22nd Street Show.

So starts the several weeks of the biggest Gem and Mineral show in the world.
The show isn't quite as good as it was the first two years.  Favorite vendors were missing and there were lots of empty spaces.  For a show that said it didn't want bead vendors this year, it did have a lot of Chinese crystal beads.



My overall show impression = FEET.

It seemed as if almost every booth had fossilized feet.








and more feet.

January 29, 2014

Bead Crochet Ropes Republished

Republished edition of the original 2002 booklet.
will be available through Amazon's print-on-demand services in about 5 days. 
It will also be on Amazon Great Britain and Europe.

This is an exact reprint so the original tips and material information will not be current.  As the printing process is different, it's on different paper and had a long printing history, the price has been changed to $16.25.  The core information, clear how-to photos and patterns are still some of the best out there on the bead crochet technique. If you want to learn, this is how-to-do-it.  

So keep an eye on Amazon, but make sure it's the "republished edition"  

The price on the eBook has also been lowered if you like digital editions.
                                          ENJOY

January 23, 2014

Creative Thrifting

 I had to re-set a few priorities today and the moth project goes down the list quite a ways.  Evicting the overlarge dust bunnies becomes first due to visiting Midwestern friends first of the week.  To that end we went grocery shopping to stock the pantry for guests.  Going down Highway 90 turned up a brand new thrift store.  Turns out it's a rather large, neat one somewhere between a junk store and an antique store.  Thrift stores are as hard to pass up as bead stores......
I picked up this rather nice vintage Lucite (maybe) necklace for $1 that I doubled on my wrist so I wouldn't lose it.  It's one of my favorite shades of red.  I guess I might not take it apart for the beads as I was offered better than $25 for my "wrap bracelet" while I was in Staples.  I guess it's how one sees a piece like this that makes it a specific piece of jewelry.  I now have a red wrap bracelet and later on it can be a red necklace.

I haven't taken this case of yarn tools apart yet.  I'm sure there are treasures in the pockets here and there. I'm saving the fun for after dinner.

What I can't show you yet is the 1960's storage unit I bought.  One section is wood flat files in that glorious, beautiful (ahem) late 60's orange - the other section is two-sided shelving.  I have to go back Saturday and pick it up.  I've been looking for more studio storage and I think this will fit the bill.

Now  have to get organized to go back to Phoenix. It would have been a lot easier if I'd have left my toothpaste there last weekend.... but no, I left my laptop there.  It's way too expensive to ship so a 7 hr round trip is in order tomorrow.


January 14, 2014

Moths, Books & Beading

Well, I have a real mess of fabrics, paper patterns, old shoe laces, wire, beads and this huge reference book of moth photos that are larger than life sized -- way larger.  However, I have no soft sculpted moths yet.  I've been bending up wire, trying to figure a stable way to embed 6 moth legs in the middle of a stuffed cloth body.  So far all of my moth bodies wobble and promptly fall over.  So back to the drawing board as I really want legs on my moths.

As I travel around, running errands, I've been crocheting.  No, I've not been doing the driving!  Here is my Sister's "essence of snake" lariat that needs only another couple of inches to be done.  It sure does have that look of snake.  In the background is a pile of bracelets waiting to be joined.  I love everything but the bracelet joining.  It's right up there with doing my IRS taxes and I can procrastinate on both things almost forever.


Bead Crochet Ropes is the first book that I published, 11 years ago.  It's been out of print for some time now with only an eBook version.  I've had so many requests from different people, bead stores and bead crochet teachers for a print copy.

My Graphic Artist daughter has changed software 3 times and now lives half a country away in Chicago.  We've worked out the conversions, tweaked layout and photos back into place and as soon as Amazon's Print-on-Demand agency quits fiddling about the correct ISBN #,  there will be a republished, ink on paper book once again.  I'm in hopes of seeing something in 10 days to 2 weeks.  Cross your fingers.  The paper won't be as nice and it's one of those instant print processes .... so the price will be a lot lower at $16.95.  I've also changed the eBook price on Bead-Patterns.com.

I've been told that the set of how-to photos are some of the best out there for learning (or reviewing) the technique.   This edition is an exact republication of the original book.  Many things have changed over the past 11 years, however I've left the original information exactly as it was originally printed.

If you have an original copy, you may want one of these to cut apart and make notes on the pages.

I have a treat coming up as I'm heading North to bead with long time beading friends for a day or two.  It will be nice to see everybody and even better to share creative solutions.  I hope they help and push me further along the Moth pathway.