Wire Wrapping Tutorials and Helpful Hints

I know!! It has taken me forever to write about this but I have been so very busy.

I love doing shows – it is such a pleasure to meet so many wonderfully talented artisans! My good friend, Lis, went to the show with me along with my business namesake, Jules.

Lis, as always, is a blessing. She keeps me organized, which is no easy feat to accomplish, she takes inventory, and best of all, she is a dear friend to me and it is so wonderful to spend time with her.

Jules ate her way through the show, sold 4 cabachons, played a lot on her computer, and spent a lot of my money buying products from other vendors….gotta love them 11-year-old girls! She took three free classes, two from Art Clay World and one from a vendor who made beads that look like little cakes, cupcakes, and donuts. I don’t remember the name of the business but I will ask Jules. Jules is completely ADDICTED to silver clay now and is begging me to buy material and tools so she can make things here at home…….

I am the WORST about taking pictures but here is my “booth” which was one 8′ table:

Kind of hard to see but a hotel restaurant was right behind us (which worked well for Jules) and Starbucks was at the end of the hallway (which worked really well for me). On the left is a board of pendants. At another show, I had the pendants in bowls and sold 2…live and learn. With the display board we sold nearly 40 pendants! Next to the pendant board is an angel necklace holder that has a Greek leather cord with a pendant on it. Next to that are my Greek leather cord bracelets and African trade bead bracelets, then rings, then sterling silver and semi-precious stone wire wrapped bracelets.

The last angel on the right side has another Greek leather cord with a recycled pendant on it made by another artisan, Judy Payne of Cool Artwear. Judy makes reversible pendants. I met her at the Tucson To Bead True Blue show in February 2009 and she asked me if I could make a reversible bail for her pendants. But of course I can!

Judy’s pendants come in three sizes and all are two-sided, meaning that the designs on each side are different. Judy uses recycled material to imprint the pendants. Starting on the left is beehive, corncob, eel skin, and at the top is nuts. I designed the bail so that the pendants can slipped on and off and the bail is reversible also – check it out -

Most of Judy’s pendants are earth colors so the copper bail is far more popular than the sterling silver bail.

This is my good friend Becky of Becklin Bead Designs. Becky makes beautiful lampwork beads and she also makes metalsmithed jewelry. We trade – she likes my bracelets, I like her beads – works out well LOL.

Last but not least, my friend Tomas was at the show with his wife Susan. Tomas owns a wholesale bead store, ABC Direct, here in Tucson. I have known Tomas for several years and do my best to stay away from his store haha!

It was so nice to meet some of my internet friends – Stephanie and Deb from Facebook and Jeff from LinkedIn! I know I met more internet friends….old age is affecting memory….

I have signed up for next year’s show and I will be teaching, too. Lis, Jules, and I had a great time and the show was not only a success but a learning curve, too (like the pendant board after my first show)!!

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 18th, 2009 at 2:00 pm and is filed under Announcements . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.