I tried to be very good this year by not buying more of what I already have and I think I did pretty well. With so many classes scheduled, I only had about six hours to shop the floor show. Had I had more time and money to spend, I could have done some serious damage! Last year I wasn’t all that impressed with what the vendors were offering, but this year the vendors at Bead&Button had some new and exciting items. Acrylic beads were prominent in several booths and Takumi has a new line of large hole seed beads. Fluorescent seed beads are now all the rage. Preferring intense, yet subdued colors, I passed on the multitude of neon offerings. What I did purchase were an array of Czech spike beads, which look wonderful bezeled with seed beads! I succumbed to a few acrylic fish and stars and several that resemble flower petals. I found lovely strands of 13/0 and 15/0 Charlottes in metallic and iridescent shades and I filled in my present stash of 11/0 seed beads with colors I needed. Having taken Susan Lenart Kazmer’s class on cold enameling, I purchased several jars of “Relique” powders in German Silver, Pewter, Gold, and Copper to play with. I also couldn’t resist the array of beautiful ribbons, vinyl beads, vintage sequins and beads, woven brass straps, bicycle reflectors, and cool Titanium Hematite beads you see here.
As for tools, aside from a beautiful little Fretz jeweler’s hammer, I didn’t really buy anything exciting or innovative. One can never have too many interlocking tweezers, and having found these at a very good price, I stocked up. And then there are the great sets of little needle files and bead reamers that are wonderful to take to classes so I added them to my stash. These items will all come in very handy when I work with metal!
All in all I think you had a good day. What a haul!
The flower beads are lovely, I can’t wait to see a post using those and I’m intrigued (and delighted) to hear about the large hole seed beads as I could have done with just that 30 minutes ago.
Great loot! I’m going to the Santa Monica Bead Show this weekend and will have to be on the lookout for some big-hole seed beads. What kind of pliers did you buy? I don’t think I’ve seen those.
The large holes in the beads are similar to the holes in Delicas. The will come in very handy when doing a design that requires a lot of thread passes!
Barbara https://www.barbarabriggsdesigns.com Blog: http://www.barbarabriggsdesigns.wordpress.com Etsy: http://www.barbarabriggsdesigns.etsy.com
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Verda, the pliers are round nose with a Deldron tip on one side, which protects silver wire against dents. Have fun at the Santa Monica Show!
Aha! Just when you think you have all the tools you could possibly need (and store) a new must-have tool comes along 🙂
If I live to be a hundred, I will never have too many tools…there is always some new “must have” to add to one’s collection!
Barbara https://www.barbarabriggsdesigns.com Blog: http://www.barbarabriggsdesigns.wordpress.com Etsy: http://www.barbarabriggsdesigns.etsy.com
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Can’t wait to see how you transform these
Me too!
Barbara https://www.barbarabriggsdesigns.com Blog: http://www.barbarabriggsdesigns.wordpress.com Etsy: http://www.barbarabriggsdesigns.etsy.com
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