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!
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