Even when you can't imagine it being any better...it is! So, there I was at the Bead & Button Show: reunited with other beaders from around the globe that I have scant few opportunities to be with; offering 8 classes that were mostly filled, many with beaders I have beaded with before (such an honor and joy); with access to all the newest and best bead stuff. AND...there were gifts.
In the upper left of the photo is a small, hand bound, artist sketch book from http://www.twinklebeads.de/. See the small photo of Twinkle Beads Stores owner Saori Abe-Schroder. She was also the first chief editor of Germany's first beading magazine, Perlen Poesie. She founded both the Perlen Akademie (where I taught in Dortmund Germany during the Creativa Expo in March and will again next March), and the first PerlenExpo! Plus she is an active designer and instructor.

Naomi Sato and Yuko Watanabe are beaders from Japan who have taken my classes at B&B shows and in Tokyo. Yuko gave me the exquisite card deck, each card a completely different illustration protraying 54 scenes based on the Tale of Genji (appreciated as the supreme masterpiece of Japanese prose literature written in the 11th century), in the Yamato-e style of Japanese painting. In the next photo see the Tenugui that Naomi gifted me. It is cleverly presented as a fabric book about Japanese garments. It can be easily "unbound" to reveal it as a cotton Tenugui, a hand printed cotton fabric that originated in the Edo period. Their multi-use includes as handkerchief, tapestry, towel, lunchmat, pillowcover, neckband of kimoni, bandanna, store sign, apron and dishcloth!

To the extreme right is a tiny hand crafted kaleidoscope made by and gifted from Keiko.Upper left in photo is the lovely leather purse made to contain one's personal stamp. There is an attached small red ink pad. Motoko Natsubori had my stamp made and presented it to me in this case. I am delighted that I can now stamp my documents in the traditional Japanese way. Bottom left are the new double drilled tile beads from Muyuki I first told you about in March while I was at Creativa Expo in Germany. To the right are the new Bead Crochet hooks designed by Kazue at Tulip Co. She sent me a set of 5 sizes and I am eager to put them to use on the new bead crochet yarns by Toho and Miyuko. More on those when I know more.

Freddie and Andrea Ott, photographer and publisher of Perlen Poesie gave me the newest issue, featuring Judy Walker, kumihimo braiding and right angle weave.

On page 96-97 is the call for entries to the IBA (International Bead Award). Within the next few weeks the contest will be described in English and French on their website: http://www.perlen-poesie.de/ I am one of the jurors along with Herman Hermsen, Toshi Myoda, Evelyn Ulzen and Silvia Winterstein.