Damn You KnitPicks!

I love to knit. One of my favorite things to knit is socks. This evening I opened my email up and there is the most recent sales mails from KnitPicks taunting me with their new sock yarns. The email asked me to choose between the "Spring/Summer" collection and the "Fall/Winter" collection. Choose?? I have to choose? I can't make life altering decisions like that! In protest I refused to decide between the two yarn collections an purchased one of each. There! That showed them! Anyway it was a bargain. The balls of yarn came out to about $4.50 each which is very very reasonable and that makes it $9.00 a pair. That's even reasonable.

Let's see. We have some catching up to do. I got back from Tucson and went right back to work. I seem to be getting better at my job. That makes me feel better. I hate not knowing what to do. At the home base I have been setting up my workshop. I also have had requests for classes. That in itself is exciting. I need to clean out the front studio as it is much warmer than my workshop. I could hold classes in the dining room but that's not professional. I really am craving my kiln since Tucson. I purchased all the goodies for PMC Bronze. I got to speak to the Rio Grande people and they showed me an example of things to come. This year we anxiously await PMC Copper!!! OOOOOOOh baby! That's gonna be great!

Tucson was a very interesting experience this year. It was definitely an exchange of ideas. We stopped off at the Art Clay World room and actually gave THEM some tips on using photo polymer plates. For those of you who use pad printers will be very familiar with these. And if you make photo positives with your laser printer and use products like "Ultimate Black" you already have the tools to make really great impressions.

I have a new appreciation for soldering and welding. I already have my tanks of gas and new soldering blocks ready to go. I just need to clean up my bench. Hubbins has been a real doll helping me get organized. He put up peg board and shelves above my work bench. He also let me indulge in two new tool boxes at the show. One is a mini Jewelry bench. Speaking of Jewelers benches we found a perfect solid wood desk at the local resale store up in Sheridan that was only $55! What a steal! then they gave it to us for half price. Awesome!

I will post my class schedule online as well as a list of projects and supplies as soon as I am ready.
Well Letterman is on. While it's on an hour earlier than it was in California and I for some reason can't seem to stay up late like I used to. I'm a 10-6 sleeper now a days. No more 2am-7am as was my usual. Thank goodness for DVRs or I would never see Craig Ferguson!

The best layed plans...

Once again at the mercy of technology. It's Sunday, day five of the Tucson Gem Show and I finally have Internet! It's not for lack of trying. At one point I tried to post from my phone. I got onto blogger. I even logged in and typed out a post feverishly wielding my stylus, but when it came down to pushing the post button? The post button wasn't active. But enough of failures,I have seen so many wonderful things and met so many wonderful people. Where do I start.

If you've never done Tucson during the Gem and Mineral Show season it's wacky. Every convention hall, hotel, motel, city park, and vacant lot is filled with dealers from all over the world peddling their wholesale gems, minerals, fossils and beads and everything else you can think would go with it. Last year was our first year and it was overwhelming. This year we came with a shopping list, a map of shows, and a game plan.

Our first stop was by chance but it was on my hit list. Deep in the heart of the Tucson year round gem and mineral district was the Madagascar Minerals and Gems Show. We encountered a dealer of mineral specimens and fossils who could win a sales award. He redefined not taking no for an answer. He was there to bargain. We started out looking at a pair of earring sized Ammonites and wound up walking out of there with a flat of them (50 pairs) a stone dinner plate with fossils in it (not sure how we only got away with buying one) and this bowl that had fossil critters arranged in them artistically. It isn't natural but it's awesome. We had dropped some serious dough but it was a very good bargain which we found out a few days later.

From there we went to the Manning House Bead Show. A very different show than last year but they had some cool dealers. The ladies from Goddess were there(they have boothes at several of the venues). I made a few purchases and we pressed on to the next show. I was taking classes at the Manning House and would be back later in the week.

Not all shows start on the same day,which is nice because it spreads it out over a few weeks but confusing if you don't look at the schedule before walking into a venue. I mention this so that you don't make the same mistake we did. We tried to go to our next show one day early. They weren't set up yet. So we pressed on.

Next on the tour was the Renaissance Bead Show. A very small show filled with some gem and bead dealers there was one with felting supplies and there was a lot of worked glass. There were glass beads, lampwork and fused glass.

We met two ladies manning a booth that sold hand painted glass beads from Ghana. It was a charitable organization called Nyame Adom Foundation of America which assists orphaned children in Ghana to be self sustaining. One of their ventures is making hand painted glass beads that are then sold through a website. The sales from the beads goes to food clothing, medicine, education and more supplies to make the beads. You can find more information on their website at www.beadtofeed.org. 100% of the proceeds goes to the orphans.

More to come... I have to go out and do more shows!!

Out of the icebox into the frying pan

I have lived in Wyoming now for three weeks. I have seen snow and ice. Tomorrow I am going to Tucson for the big gem and mineral show. I have not rubbed it in to my chilly breathren and I feel guilty for going on vacation only three weeks into a new job but hey - it's a business trip.

I have a jam packed week filled with classes, meeting with wholesalers, shopping, and rubbing elbows with the uber creative artsy crowd. I am looking forward to getting touchy-feely with the tools at the Rio Grande Catalog in Motion, running my fingers through all of the hanks of beads at J.O.G.S. and hunting for bargains at Electric Park and seeing what's hot at the Manning House and to bead true blue. I made some friends last year and hope to see my friends at Goddess and Vintaj. They are the Reeses peanut butter cups of the hand made jewelry artist set. Put Vintaj dragonfly on a Goddess leaf and voila! Art!

Also on the docket is the Steve Poltz show my first night at Club Congress. He is backed up by the duo who call themselves the Cynics. I know them as Christopher Hoffee and Patrick Dennis formerly known as the Truckee Brothers. Friends from my days in San Diego which all seem so long a go. Sunday I will have been gone for a month.

Well I know it's not 1:30 and Craig Ferguson is not on the Tele but I have a plane to catch in about 9 hours and I still have to pack!! I will be attempting to live blog from the show so say tuned!!