Artful Adventures

Rings & Things Strikes Again!

For months now, our calendar has had the innocent enough looking words "bead tour" written on yesterday's date.  But let me tell you, everytime I saw those words, my heart raced a bit, a little smile crept over my face, and then I'd count the days.  This event, put on by Rings & Things, hits Green Bay in September & then again in the spring.  Gary & I met Amanda & her Mom there, and we had a friend, Julie meet us there.  Julie & Amanda's Mom were BSV's (bird show virgins), a little term I just made up-they're the ones with the biggest smiles and normally you hear the word "overwhelming" coming from them, all good things!  This event runs so smoothly, that I'm always amazed.  After working retail my entire life, I know all too well that it's not always easy to be calm, cool, and collected in a room full of women all shopping with enthusiasm.  In fact, last year when we checked out, it just happened that the lines were particularly long at that time, and yet, the gentleman that checked us out actually chased us down out in the parking lot to make sure that we had gotten our coupon for free shipping on our next order. THAT'S service!  Now the fun begins, pricing & putting the beads to bed (almost done), where they'll patiently wait for me to create something with them.  But they won't wait long-tomorrow morning it begins:)  Oh one more thing, after we got in the car to leave, Gary mentioned the tray of beads that he was carrying around, which I just assumd he wanted since he's played around a little with making jewelry and wants to do more.  Turns out, he claims they were beads he thought I might like and I was supposed to go through them and choose what I wanted, not just buy them-whoops:)  Personally, I think he really wanted them all along, he's not THAT easy when it comes to spending money!  If you hear of a Rings & Things show coming your way-go!  If not, you can always shop their website, you won't be disappointed either way.

Beads, Beads, and more Beads!

 

It's that time!  Time for the folks at Rings & Things to hit town with their bead show!  They're here twice a year and it's an event you don't want to miss.  It's such a well run event, the staff keeps smiling ( hey Dave!) even with a roomfull of women with glazed over eyes, grabbing & fondling strand after strand of beads, occasionally hauling out a calculator to see how bad it is, others just heaping tray after tray of beads.  My rule of thumb is if I can't fit it on one tray it can't come home with me.  But then I do that with drying dishes too, and it's amazing how well you can learn to stack 'em up:)   

They're the ones that got me started on trade beads, and I love them!  Last year that was the first table I headed for and the last one on my way out the door, just to make sure I didn't miss something.  But like I said, they only come to town twice a year, so if a trade bead fix is needed in between, you can either order from them (quick delivery!) or head over to my other favorite place for those special kind of beads, Africa Direct to make sure you're getting everything you need, including good service.  You could spend days on that site & not see everything, it's crazy-actually I'm the crazy one because I've tried!  Once again nice folks to deal with, I swear bead people are the nicest lot of vendors to deal with.     

But the real danger (for the wallet) is my favorite local bead shop, The Mother Bead.  She has, hands down, the best pearls, all the time.  But she also has a ton of other stones to choose from, as well as a lot of jewelry made up to show what can be done and to show what's being taught.  And once again, a super friendly staff to work with.  If I lived right in town, I'd have to get a job to support my habit!  See those chunky purple stones in the middle of the above picture?  They're amethyst, but big and rough cut, very organic looking and they're going to be a lot of fun to work with.  That's the other thing I like about shopping there, I always find something that I've never seen before and finding something outside the norm is always more interesting, don't you think? 

Considering that this is only part of one wall, it's hard to hold back & not break the bank.  Can't be doing that everytime I walk in there, or I'll be banned from the place-by Gary!  The funny thing is, he's getting as bad as I am about beads-hard to believe, but true. 

Don't you just love this necklace?  I'm hoping that it's a class that they're teaching so I can go learn how to do that.  Tara, the owner, was wearing one like this that she had made, and it was fabulous!  I've never learned anything about stringing at all, and now I think it's time.  There's a lot of news to catch up on from this past week or more, so keep checking back this week.  I finally have a lot to chat about and show you! 

Rings & Things were back in Town!

 

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Yesterday was a day for any bead junkie to dream about, count down the days, and yes even salivate at the thought of it-another visit from the folks at Rings & Things!  They come to town twice a year, with the last time being in the spring, which was my very first time attending a bead show.  If you need to refresh your memory about how excited I was about it, just click here to read about my first show.  Now that was back when I was a bead show virgin, this time there was a plan, a plan to power shop rather than stand there in awe for the first 1/2 hour:)   

Amanda and I met well before the show started, so we were among the first to walk in.  First thing I aimed for was the table of trade beads, something that I didn't even see at the last show until I was standing in line to check out.  By that point, one more strand of beads would've been one more strand than I could carry in that tray.  So how did I avoid the aching arm this time from toting all those beads around, you ask?  I brought my husband along, a daring move, but armed with a roll of duct tape in my purse & blinders in my pocket, I was prepared for any objections on his part:)  No, I'm kidding, he was a good sport about it all & didn't bat an eye, although I stil haven't told him the grand total yet-details!    

Like last year, this show was well organized.  I don't know how they do it, but they do & they do it well.  Every single strand had a tag that identified the stones with the price on the back side of the tag, which eliminated having to track people down to figure out what was what.  The staff never looked stressed for even a second, this calm demeanor of the staff seemed to set the tone for everyone shopping.  Everyone there, both staff & shoppers seemed at ease and friendly-considering this was only a 4 hour event, that in itself was pretty impressive!  So go check out their show schedule  and treat yourself to a feast for the eyes, stock up on beads to keep you busy throughout the winter, and have some fun! 

Here's my pile of goodies, yikes!  One thing I've learned is if you find something that's just ok, leave it there & keep looking.  If on the other hand, you find something that you can't live without, get a bunch because you may not find them again.  Keep an eye out for new designs using these new beads, and as always, you can find my jewelry for sale at The Flying Pig in Algoma, and online at the new MMCA Marketplace.  One more photo for tonight-while at the bead show, Gary did a little shopping himself, and I do mean a little!  Here's all he walked out with-can't wait to see what he does with them! 

Thank you Rings & Things for coming to town and helping everyone do their part to stimulate the economy by spending some money!  Does that sound like a good justification for shopping?  Yeah, I thought so:)