The 2009 Bead&Button Show is complete and it feels like the week after a major holiday! Even though the show staff, teachers, and exhibitors organize everything — make all the food and wrap all the presents, so to speak — hosts and guests alike are still winding down. Monday morning found me barely able to lift my coffee cup. Why? Because I TALKED TO A JILLION PEOPLE!
This was my third show. I lived in the Southwest until recently moving to Wisconsin, and now I’m near enough to Milwaukee that I can go back and forth to the show from home and sleep in my own bed. I know — it’s an incredible luxury. That said, if you haven’t been to the show, I feel your pain, sistah. Simply explain to your family or friends that Wisconsin is a terrific vacationland, especially the first week in June! E-mail them links to Milwaukee and Wisconsin travel sites and suggest quality-time ball games, festivals, museums, and water parks that they can take in together (while you’re at the show).
If that doesn't work, live vicariously! Make plans to get together with a lucky friend or acquaintance who just returned from the show. The crazy cool thing about the Bead&Button Show is that people from all over the place come together for a week and then return home with knowledge of the latest techniques, fabulous purchases, and most important — new friends.
When you’re at the show, you can feel the creative energy coming off the showroom floor. It positively buzzes (and no, it isn’t the coffee)! Explain to your significant other that it’s like the last inning/quarter/period of a tied baseball/football/hockey game. Everyone is focused, connected, and energized. The Bead&Button Show is also like a huge think tank for beaders. They take the show’s energy home, spread it around in their corner of the world, and it’s a beautiful thing. Many take pictures and even blog about their experiences. Find someone who has been to the show and ask her to dish all the details.
Now, back to me talking to a jillion people. I did talk to a lot people, but mostly I listened — that’s how we learn. If you’re a loyal reader of my blog, (and who isn’t, hmmm?) you may remember that I was up on my soapbox preaching the value of handcrafted jewelry in "Make your jewelry one of a kind." I stated that "handmade now means luxurious, unique, limited edition." I heard this sentiment echoed over and over again as I walked up and down the aisles of booths at the show. Art glass people, seed bead jewelry designers, polymer clay artists, gold and silver smiths and, of course, finished jewelry artisans — everyone talked less about the economy and more about a movement that’s taking place within the hearts and minds of handicraft artists. I want to make one point clear: These ideas and concepts being bandied about aren’t just for those wishing to sell their pieces in galleries. The move toward high quality, specifically seed bead jewelry, starts with beginning beaders receiving top-notch instruction and selecting high-quality materials to work with.
Speaking of receiving top-notch instructions, I took a polymer clay class, "Fabulous Foliage: 8+ from 1 Leaves," from Lynne Anne Swarzenberg of River Poet Designs. You know, I’m always talking about how people become stagnant in their craft and that everyone should learn something that’s a little out of her comfort zone, so I signed up for this class.
Let’s just say that I was challenged. Conditioning the hard Kato polymer clay was, well, look at the pic at the top of this blog and you’ll see what I mean. My pieces of conditioned clay looked like a map of Italy. But it was cool because Lynne Anne is an awesome teacher and a real trooper when you consider that she was teaching with a badly sprained ankle. That’s dedication.
I learned so much in this class about caning. Who knew?! You can do so many things with basic caning skills. I’m inspired to take what I learned and apply it to some new designs floating around in my head.
May I ask you, gentle readers, to please take time, however much you need, and re-charge your creative batteries.
Maybe you were able to go to the Bead&Button Show, perhaps could not, it doesn’t matter. Regardless, set aside a few moments to prioritize, make lists, and draw sketches for new designs as your work your way through the latest issue of Bead&Button. DAYDREAM and find that new spark of creativity that lives in all of us. After that, thread that needle, whack that clay, hammer that silver and see what you can craft by hand.