The Morning After

Is it possible to have a bead hangover? I think it must be given how I felt on Sunday morning when I woke up after attending the Pasadena Bead Show the day before. My head ached, my legs were stiff and my back felt like I’d been dragged 20 miles behind a truck on a dirt road.

Or maybe this is just what it feels like when you “come down” after a really good bead fix? I’m sure it won’t be long before I’m jonesin’ for more, but in the meantime, Saturday was a blast.

Not only was it great to see a wide variety of vendors that I haven’t seen before (the local Costa Mesa show that happens every few months is the same vendors over and over), but nearly all of them were offering great deals such as $10 a strand for coin pearls or 25-50% off entire orders because of my wholesale license with NO minimum order! Usually there’s such a high minimum order (like $500-1000 which is just INSANE) that my license doesn’t do me any good other than getting me out of paying sales tax.

This time, even skipping the sales tax was a big help because this show was in a different county than where I live and their sales tax is a whopping 9.25%! Yikes! SO glad I remembered to take my license with me.

Another highlight of the show was getting to meet Deb, who is a regular reader/commenter here. Hi, Deb! Although our meeting was quick, it was so great to put a face with one of the names I see around here frequently and hopefully, I didn’t make too much of a dork out of myself.

Okay, now on to the real reason you’re all here. Photos of my show treasures! Oh, and I did a MAJOR job of supporting the economy so you might want to go ahead and take a potty break, grab a cup of your favorite beverage (I’ll be having a Diet Coke) and/or a snack and settle in for a while. This will be lengthy (right, like I’m known for my brevity around here)…

Go ahead. I’ll wait. Really.

Before I went to the show, I made a list of the vendors and items that were “musts” for me because otherwise I knew I’d get distracted at the first booth by something shiny and drop all my money before I got a chance to really look around. One of the things on my lists was clasps. I’m running really low on cool, interesting clasps in both silver and gold.

Fortunately, this vendor had what I needed.




They were Angel something-or-other. I want to say Angel’s Wings, but I just can’t remember, darn it. They had some great clasps and other cool charms and components.







And they also had these awesome laser-engraved wood pieces. I’ve seen the plain ones before, but this is the first time I’ve seen these silvered-looking ones. I had to have some.





More silver charms from Forever Silver. I’m on an ocean and birds kick lately so these pieces were perfect.

Remember my orange and purple starfish picture?







How perfect are these beautiful boro glass starfish from Sonoran Beads?

Then I found this great Czech glass vendor who gave me a 50% off discount on everything:





So, I got some great daggers.




And the new colors of faceted Czech rondelles that look like various stones and make such amazing filler beads – I just had to get some.



Then I found this amazing button vendor and just fell in love with these buttons. I thought they’d make great clasps (as part of a loop-and-clasp finish) or work as charms or pendants or whatever. I especially liked the bird-themed ones since I’m sort of putting together a bird-themed piece right now. The bright red/aqua one I got just because I liked the color combo.





Coin pearls. Who doesn’t love coin pearls? I had a hard time deciding which colors to get so went with my standard blue and green favorites.

Then I went nuts at this stone vendor who had strands for $5-6 each:





I just loved the range of pinks on these strands. And yeah, I know, they’re dyed, but still so pretty.





Okay, this strand just made me happy. Don’t you just want to eat them?



Now, the jury is out on this strand. They are either the ugliest beads I’ve ever bought or the coolest. My initial reaction was “ugly.” But then I started to really look at the variety of sizes on the strand and the color variations and possibilities started to pop into my head. I went and had lunch and couldn’t stop thinking about them so I figured I better go back and get them. And for $5 a strand – how can you really go wrong? According to the vendor, they are dyed magnesite (whatever the heck that is).

Just for fun, I’m going to set up a poll over there ------------ > and you can vote on what you think about them.


Oh, and remember those awesome spiderweb carnelian beads I got from the Rings 'N Things show?





A vendor at Pasadena has similar stuff, but in a much deeper color combination that I just fell in love with. Now I have sort of a summer and a winter version!

And now, the REALLY good stuff!

C-Koop makes the most amazing enamel beads, toggles, pendants and various other doo-dads.







I just love that new "cone" shape at the top. I got several of those - some in pairs to make earrings and some single ones like this one to use as a pendant.





I loved these little rings of "fragment" shapes. I think they'll be really fun to design with.






And this toggle is just yumminess personified, don't you think?

I’ve seen this vendor’s stuff on-line before, but honestly, I got so overwhelmed by the choices on the website that I couldn’t make up my mind and ended up not buying anything. Sometimes, there’s just no substitute for being able to fondle…er…touch the beads.





That purple rectangular focal was literally the first thing I saw on her table. And then when I realized that there were additional beads that MATCHED (you know how I love the matchy-matchiness), I was in heaven.




Then I saw this set. Which had…a MATCHING TOGGLE! And MATCHING DISK BEADS!

I might’ve lost consciousness there for a second.




And this set which also had a matching toggle.

I wasn’t in matchy-matchy heaven…no, I was in matchy-matchy NIRVANA!

Oh, she had such gorgeous stuff. I seriously could have bought one of every set there. I almost cried when I had to force myself to put some stuff back.

Because I hadn’t yet been to the Green Girl booth. Which was my #1 MUST VISIT booth.

And boy did I lose my mind there (and only partially due to the WAY cute guy manning the booth).





I bought this stuff.





And then I went back after lunch and bought more

And then I realized they had copper and bronze (but somebody had already bought the last bronze mermaid coin dammit! so I settled for the bird) and had to buy that.

Whew! Okay, my head is spinning. This may be why I ended up with a hangover, LOL! No one can accuse me of not doing my part to support the economy. But, I probably won’t have as much to post around here for a while until my debit card cools off enough to be used again. Guess I better sit my butt down and actually MAKE some stuff!

KJ

P.S. Why is it that I can do all of that and then come home to realize I can’t finish my current “in progress” project because I am out of stupid copper headpins? WHY?

P.P.S. Don't forget to vote in the cute/ugly bead poll!