It’s that time again – we are looking for Bead&Button Show helpers to support B3 in many different ways at the show in June.  The show is always a lot of work and a lot of fun (check out some pictures from previous years for proof that we know how to have a good time!)  If you love chainmaille and Blue Buddha Boutique – this is for you!

Show Dates:
Wednesday June 6 – load in, set up and Meet the Teachers
Thursday June 7 – set up & show (shopping preview)
Friday June 8 – very long show day!
Saturday June 8 – show
Sunday June 10 – show & tear-down

Number of Positions available: 4-8
There is some overlap, so it’s possible for someone to be both a booth helper and a Make and Take Leader, for example. Preference will be given to folks who can work multiple days, but we’ll consider single-day helpers as well (particularly for the setup/teardown positions).

Deadline to Apply:
April 20 (but sooner is better, as we’ll be filling each position as soon as we find the perfect people, and we’ll begin booth customer-service training in April)

Visit our jobs listing page for complete information about what these positions entails and how to apply.

 

---

Bead&Button Show · job opportunity

We toted this big ol’ barrel of rings to The DIY Trunk Show this weekend to ask you to guess how many rings were in the jar.  We had guesses from 1,000 all the way to 1,999,999,999 with the average being 213,408.  Nearly 100 folks submitted their guess in the hopes of being the closest to the real number and winning a $25 Blue Buddha gift certificate but only one had the closest guess.

The grand total of rings in the jar was *drumroll*…

87,843

 

The winning guess of 86,000 belonged to Andy I.  Congratulations Andy, good eye!  Congrats also to runners up Lauren C. and Mira, Petrea & Alexa B.

We also posted this picture on our page on Facebook just for fun to see if any of our fans could guess the total.  We have to give props to Jen M., Ray T., and Cathy M. for making the three closest guesses!  You guys really know how to virtually eyeball jump ring quantities!

Miss the show?  Check out a few pics on our page on Facebook:

   

contest · DIY Trunk Show · jump rings · just for fun

I’m just settling back from a great weekend in Pennsylvania at Bead Fest Wire 2011 by Interweave Press.  Here’s a quick wrap-up of the folks I met there, along with some of their projects.  Enjoy!

Joe and Anat Silvera with Joe’s recently released book – Soldering Made Simple: Easy techniques for the kitchen-table jeweler, currently on the best-seller’s list on Amazon!

And of course, chainmailler Sue Ripsch, long-time instructor at this show and author of her own best-seller, Classic Chain Mail Jewelry: A treasury of weaves.

Instructor Kaska Firor was new to me.  Her chainmaille designs caught my eye (obviously) but really, I completely fell in love with her wirework, in particular the Ocean Waves Necklace (shown on her website, and also visible in the center bottom of the photo below).  Pictured is Kaska on the left and her daughter on the right.

The final chainmailler at the Meet the Teacher’s reception was John Fetvedt. I bought one of his instructional CDs, and if I like it, you might just see Blue Buddha carrying them!  (Unfortunately, they are only available for PCs….and being a Mac/Linux fan myself, well, you know.  *grin*)  If you know you’d be interested in the CD, leave a comment–that’ll also help us determine if we want to stock ‘em!

A major highlight of the weekend was meeting some customers face-to-face, especially those I’d never met before.  Here is a long-time customer wearing a scale necklace she made (using plain aluminum and iridescent gunmetal scales).  Of course, I spotted the scales before I spotted the person.  heh.

Another highlight was talking with Denise Peck, editor of Step by Step Wire Jewelry.  We brainstormed ways to make the chainmaille projects in the magazine even better….and came up with some great ideas.  Stay tuned for more info–and submission requests, because I know a lot of you have some awesome projects that really should be in the magazine!  In the meantime, feel free to leave a comment with any chainmaille-related requests you have for magazine projects or topics.

And finally, the person who touched me the most over the weekend was Maryann Corey, founder of The Portable Playhouse.   I saw her at Bead&Button last year, but we didn’t get a chance to talk, so I didn’t get to find out exactly how cool of a lady she is. The Portable Playhouse is a non-profit organization dedicated to art therapy.  As a fundraiser, she is working on the worlds largest necklace (shown below). Please visit LongestBeadedNecklace.com for more info and to make a donation.  For only $1, you can have a bead added to the necklace and help raise funds and awareness for her amazing organization.  So yes, you really can make the world a better place one bead at a time.

chainmaille teachers · Interweave Press · step by step wire jewelry

The final installment of our Bead&Button photos features the really fun stuff: the jewelry! Most of these are my favorite entries from the Bead Dreams competition. The final three images are other lovely jewelry I saw during the show. Enjoy, and be prepared to drool a little.

Variations of a Peacock by Stephanie Czaja
We are proud to say that Stephanie was a Blue Buddha intern for a short time (before an actual job changed her schedule and meant she could no longer come in). Congrats Stephanie!

---

Chainmaille Jacket by Vanessa Walilko
2nd Place, Wirework category AND People’s Choice Award
Woo! Way to go, Vanessa!
You of course, all know and love Vanessa already through her work at Blue Buddha. See more of her armor and sculpture creations at Kali Butterfly Dark.

---

Flight of Fancy by Rachel Reilly
1st Place, Wirework category
Facets of Avalon Amazing microknitted wire. (I don’t think microknitting is a word, but I’m using it anyway just to convey the eye-popping reaction I had to this piece! Simply amazing.)

And because you can’t really appreciate Rachel’s piece unless you see it close up, here is a detail shot:

---

White Clovers and Clovers by Yukiko Yamamoto
2nd Place, Seed Bead Jewelry
All you seed beaders are nuts. I couldn’t even begin to imagine how this is put together.

---

Warrior Rings by Lynn Davy
Lynn Davy Beading
*nods of approval* Though we still think seed beaders are nuts.

---

The Stone Flower by Tatiana Fitzpatrick
J & T Design

---

Himalayan Blue Poppies by Barbara Caraway
View Barabara Caraways portfolio on GlassArtists.org

---

Cigno Sinistro (sinister Swan) by Sara Sally Lagrand
3rd place, Lampwork/Glass
What can I say? I love eyeballs.
Pretty Babies Glass

---

Nitidus Quasar by Pamm Horbit
White Lotus Beading
Nitidus is a latin word meaning “explosive bloom.”

---

Beautifully Baroque by Lynn Ann Schwarzenberg
River Poet Design
1st place, Polymer Clay
What this woman does with clay is amazing. I love creating customized niobium chains to match her polymer clay pendants.

---

Finally, here’s some other jewelry that I fell in love with during the show.

Flower of Life Bracelet made by a customer of A Beadtiful Thing, by joining several Flower of Life segments together.

---

Omni bought some scales on Friday during the show, then showed up at the booth the next morning with a spiffy new badge chain. Cool!

---

And finally, one of my personal favorites from the entire show is this stunning reversible necklace made with rubber and aluminum by B3 student/customer Sarah Meadows. She’s got other beautiful pieces in the works, and I’m encouraging her to try for Bead Dreams next year!

Bead Dreams · Bead&Button Show · Jewelry · seed beading · wirework

Here’s your chance to meet some of the friendly folk in the B3 booth this year:

Gail, wearing an awesome Jacob’s DNA ladder necklace. We sold out of those kits in sterling in 1 day, and in base metal in 3 days. Whew! (And yes, we’ll post more sterling kits online soon!)

Lori, our cash-register goddess, decked out in Rebeca’s chainmaille scarf & lots of chainmaille with beads that she made. She’s grabbing a swig of water, which is typical booth behavior. It’s amazing how parched one gets workin’ the booth!

Omni. You can’t see the chain- and scale-maille neck chain he made for his badge, but it is awesome. (There’s a pic of it in the Part IV of the Bead&Button blog updates.)

Rebeca & Spider, the fabulously talented chainmaille queen of Spiderchain.com.

Per our usual tradition, we went for a group dinner to The Safehouse. Kat forgot the password to get in, and Lori, Omni & Omni’s girlfriend never knew it in the first place, so they had to waddle like penguins in order to prove their worthiness as undercover agents and gain access to the restaurant. (Jen & Rebeca knew the password, but decided to be mean and not share. And be even meaner and take a photo! On the way home to Chicago, Rebeca reminded Kat what the password was, which caused Kat to give Rebeca a little punch. But we bet Kat will remember the password next year!)

By the end of the show, we were a little loopy. Fire Mountain Gems had passed out hats to vendors and students, but no one was wearing them. So Rebeca decided to show FMG a little love by wearing the hat, but of course, what fun is a baseball cap if you can’t wear it sideways? Here are Kat and Rebeca, with the hats on, and flashing the “pliers” signal. (Yes, the pliers signal in motion is indistinguishable from the “scissors” signal. Details, details…)

But Kat & Rebeca are no where near as cute as Jen in her hat…

Finally, here is Rebeca with the pile of empty boxes of stuff we did NOT bring back to Chicago, because we sold out. Cool!

Bead&Button Show · chainmaille · employees · Spiderchain