To Bead True Blue.

Today was another really good day. We're still pretty tired from it though. We woke up, had our marvelous breakfast, and headed out to the shows. We went to the Tucson Bead Show/To Bead True Blue, which is where most of the artist booths are. We definitely stocked up on Clay River Designs. My mom, Rhonda, pretty much handled that part. She has a good eye for those kind of pendants. My aunt, Hanna and I headed over and picked out a generous selection of C-Koop Beads, which are a little more my style. Sara, who is the artist of C-Koop makes fabulous enameled pieces over copper. She is one of The Bead Place's favorite artists of all time. We're really excited about the flower components that she has started to make, especially because... WE ARE GOING TO DO A RIVETING MAKE-AND-TAKE AT THE LIFETIME EVENT. :) Shhh, you didn't hear that from me. But seriously, we got some awesome new design stamps, the best tools to do riveting, and a metal punch, which will make pendant-making oh so easy. The booth that sold us all of the great metals things was run by Kuie (sp? pronounced "Q") and Andy. They're a married couple from Cincinnati, Ohio who are just adorable and easy to fall in love with. We had a great time with them, and hopefully this won't be the last time you'll read about them. Okay, on to other things. We watched a demonstration on resin-free glass image pendants. Apparently, working with resins can be very harmful to your lungs. Resins also contain tons of toxins. So, in order to avoid exposing our beloved customers to this, when they want to create custom image pendants, we decided to carry glass domes that we can teach you how to personalize (and water-proof). While my mother was off on her own, she picked up a bunch of cool czech glass, daggers, and beautiful seed beads. I think I also heard her say that she picked out some lucite flowers. Today we got a little bit less semi-precious than the other two days, but they were still some awesome finds. I was pleased to find a minerals booth who had some incredible pyritized ammonites. I couldn't help myself, so I picked one up to make a necklace with. I just have a thing for ammonites. I know it's weird, but I had never seen anything like it before and I thought it was simply breathtaking. Then, we were on to the strictly wholesale side of things. We had a great time at the Tierra-Cast section. I think they are about the only company who has an impeccable track record with us. We've never had a single complaint, broken piece, or any plating wear off. That's just cool. We met Christopher, who does all of their graphic designs and photography for their catalogs and flyers, which are stunning, by the way. He was fun! We got to put our own images into their incredible frame charms, and they put a resin dome over them for us. They also let us pick out some awesome charms to put on free ball chains. It was so fun. I love free stuff, especially when it's beautiful. We saw a fiber artist who makes pendants in millefiore style, only with cloth, ropes, fibers, and string. Oh, I can't even describe it. You'll just have to wait and see them when we get back. Well, I think I'm gonna head back to the room from the computer lab here at the hotel. We have some things to go through tonight, and I think we want to hit the sack early so we can be there to open the shows tomorrow morning!