Amy and I had a great time at Beadfest, one of 4 annual bead shows by Interweave. This is the one that has consistently been identified as the Philadelphia show though circumstances over some of its 9 years has forced it to change venues, from Fort Washington to Reading to King of Prussia, PA. The other three Beadfests are in Santa Fe, a new one in Texas and a wire focused event at the same King of Prussia venue in April.

For two years now, I have not applied to teach at Beadfest, but have attended to schmooze and shop and spend a little time with my pal Phyllis Dintenfass from Appleton WI. She taught there again this year. Her table was so swamped at the Meet the Teachers event Friday night that I was presed into service simply writing up the sales of her kits and email addresses of her fans. I handed off my camera and asked for someone to snap a photo of Phyllis as she helped some of the beaders select their kit color choices and this is the best of the lot. Sorry it does'nt show her face so well but, you can really appreciate her necklace, right? It is a strand of many of her wonderful beaded beads: Empire, Puffin and triangles among them. On her jacket she is wearing her Sea Whirl brooches.

Once again I had the chance to visit with Jolene Star of Bazaar Star Beadery and her friend Allison Lara. This time when they inquired, I was quick to whip out my trusty iPad to show them my current roster of workshop descriptions. When shown the description/proposal for a workshop that tickled their fancy, they had only to press a button to wisk it off to their email inbox. Later this week I expect them to call and invite me to teach some workshops in Ridgewood NJ. Hope we'll share a day of joyful creativity together there soon. You, like me, will be completely jazzed by their enthusiasm and bright spirits.
Kathy St Martin is a PMC jewelry instructor I met at Meet the Teachers on my way to Phyllis' table. The work she had on display was quite lovely and since she was a new name to me, I snapped her picture so I could share her and her jewelry with you here.

Photos were forbidden at the show. But, I'll share some of my personal highlights. A huge fan of Bob Burkett's for many years, this year I succumbed to one of his incredible bat beads. He makes gorgeous metal beads or small sculptures, capturing the detailed likeness of a creature such as a sea turtle, crab, cicada, beetle, or bat in a copper silver alloy called shibuichi, resulting in interesting patinas and colors. Many are articulated, having moving silver wings, legs or claws. His work stopped me in my tracks as I walked by the Green Girl booth. He was quick and courteous to answer my questions and I noticed that his name tag simply read Green Girl so I had to ask: "Who are you?" and was delighted to know that it was indeed Bob Burkett, incognito, and his amazing work. I just might have to interview him to find out more about his work, that I know so little about but that has intrigued me so much over the years. It has to be over a decade since I read an article about him in, I think it was Ornament magazine. Perhaps I'll gather enough info to write a long overdue feature about him.

Bert and Dana from the Well-Done Experience were exhibiting their wonderful beading-to-go items that I shared with you last year. Here is that pic again. Clear, zippered project bags snap into the pocketed beading mat so you have everything you need at hand for beading on the run. Among other things, we share in common is our love of bead crochet, Tulip Company's new line of silky cushioned bead crochet hooks called Sucre and the desire to share new and exciting bead crochet techniques. They live and teach in Manhattan and have, for the first time, proposed some projects to teach at the Bead and Button Show for 2011. We're meeting soon to discuss collaborating on, oh ... more on this when something concrete develops. It is these opportunities to share and give each other a leg-up and network that make events like this magical.

Sara of CKoop Beads and I discussed my using her gorgeous enameled components in my felt component jewelry workshops her and in an upcoming weeklong workshop I'll be teaching in Australia. I teach an array of feltmaking techniques to produce small felt sculptures, beads, ropes and bands. These are then combined with beads, metal and chain to produce finished jewelry. Browen Heilman said she would be happy to provide her silver capped focal beads if I can find the marcasite charlotte 15's necessary to once again offer the Marcasite chain with Focal Bead project that was so popular at Bead and Button Show in 2009.
My mission at the show was to find lustrous stick pearls and I did at Pearl Concepts, Inc booth> Even better was the assurance that by emailing Helena with the code number, I can get more! Perfect for kit making.
And I have to say that the weekend culminated with my being convinced to resume teaching at Beadfest. Next week I'll start putting together some proposals for next August.