A customer in the store today said she had read the post about the yelling raised voices about buying so much glass, and wanted to see some of what had caused the fracas.

So I showed her:

1. The nifty rondells that are variegated like stone, except in colors that are really unique. 
2. The big drops that look kind of squishy with a milky gleam on some of them. 
3. The funky new “axhead” shape in two sizes. 
4. The Carmen Miranda fruit beads. 
5. The Swarovski jet bicones with the Czech blue, green, and purple AB coatings.
6. The maple leaves with colored veins.
7. All the new tiny drops.

And she said that I should’ve bought more.  HA!

I would’ve taken pictures, but the camera has evidently rethought its position on recovery after immersion.  We’re negotiating the return to work, but it wants more sick leave.  I’m offering a dunk in Sprite and a brisk underhand toss into the dumpster.  We’ll see who wins…

It was the usual Preview Night scene, with the chocolate pretzel sticks and amazing beads.  We saw a lot of old friends, a bunch of new friends, and everybody was having a great time.  It’s soooo much fun to hear “This is BEAUTIFUL!” and “I’ve never seen that before!” and “Are you getting that one?  Then give it here!”

The Carrollton Preview Night is next Friday, so if you missed out on the Fort Worth one, come to Carrollton, we have some of the same great stone, and some wonderful copper beads that weren’t in Fort Worth!  We’ll be sending the email about it on Monday.

And please have a happy Valentine’s Day! 

Well, our bodies and the beads are back, our brains are still trailing behind somewhere on the road, they should arrive sometime Sunday.

The Fort Worth store’s Tucson Preview Night is next Friday, the 13th at 7PM.  The Carrollton store is having one the next Friday, 20th. (This used to say Carrollton’s was on the 13th, but that’s because I couldn’t track days of the week, and lost several.)

What better Valentine’s day present could you ask for than a stop by the Artful Bead?  Flowers don’t last, candy goes straight behind us, but beads are truly forever!

And because we don’t want to cause anybody undue stress while waiting for Preview Nights, we’re putting out huge piles of pearls (for $4.00 a strand) and slightly smaller piles of stone (for $5.00 strand) on Monday.  And some of the Czech glass, also.

Oh, the Czech glass…  That was a memorable night when Mary said (just a bit louder than necessary) “YOU SPENT A THIRD OF OUR TOTAL BUDGET ON GLASS?????”  Followed by several other comments along the same lines.  Sorry, but she knows I’m a glass whore, it shouldn’t really have shocked her so much. 

Besides, it wasn’t all my fault.  She walked off and left me to the mercy of the beads.  A hank of new glass would sparkle at me and say “Buy me, I’m wonderful and unusual” and I would say “but you’re too expensive, you would sell at $7.00 a strand!” and it would say “BUT I AM FREAKING FABULOUS, BUY ME NOW!” and I’d say “OK!”  This happened a couple of hundred times, I’m sorry to say.  But they are truly all freaking fabulous.  And I’ve promised to let all of them come to the store, I’m not keeping any for myself.  Really.  OK, maybe only 3 or 4 strands, though.  Oh, those great rondells!!!  10 or 12 strands for me.  Sorry.  Oh, the teensy drops!!!  Ummm….  

We shopped all day yesterday, hit 3 shows, but not very hard.  Got the last really cool things, got whatevered by the singing bowl lady, and finished pricing on the sad side of 3AM.  Now we’re finishing the packing, then we’ll load the truck. 

Truck is going to be sad too.

And there are another 4 boxes, too.  And a suitcase full of glass.  And our exhausted selves.

The top one under the bag has pricing supplies and tape, so it really doesn’t count.  But the others are Wunnerful!!

See you soon…

So you can see these:  Electroplated leaves, in pinks, coppers, even blue and green!!!

And gunmetal (OK, they’re nearly black…) 

They are incredibly lacy, you can see through most of them.  But they’re sturdy, the vendor was bending them, and it takes quite a bit to actually bend it till it snaps.  We saw a lot of these leaves, these were the only ones we even looked at closer.

Today we bought pendants and other unique items.  More Tibetan beads, and some of the prettiest bone (I know, but I really LOVE these) we’ve seen.  Really.

Imagine a thin rectangle about 1 1/4 inches wide and 2 inches tall, with a teensy kimono painted on it, with flowers and border prints, in about 4 colors.  And the most adorable frogs with teeny green lines painted on them.  Why are you having to imagine them?  Well, that’s the possible tragedy.

It seems that putting a bottle of water into a leather tote bag without first tightening the lid is a serious problem.  It becomes even more of a problem when the digital camera is sitting in the bottom of the bag.

Did you know that leather can hold a lot of water an amazing length of time?  It can.  Right until it starts dripping into someone’s shoes.

Cesar spent 20 minutes shaking water out of the camera, and while it seems to kind of work, we’re letting it dry out over night and then asking it very nicely to continue functioning. 

We also bought some of the most amazing plated leaves on the planet, really.  We’ve seen lots of plated leaves, but these are UNBELIEVABLE!  Breathtaking, in fact. 

We got more great unusual stone, like delicious blue Madagascar chryscolla, and dyed aventurine.  The dyed aventurine?  It has this shimmery business just under the surface of rich browns, golds, greens and burgundys.  Amazing stuff, and not horribly expensive. 

I just counted.  Right now we have about 22 of those 28qt flat tubs full of beads and all.  And there are still 2 60 pound boxes of beads to pack up.  I hope the pickup springs are in good shape.  It looks like half the back seat will have boxes in it.

I’m going to bed now.  It’s already tomorrow.

First Woman:  “Bolos are now the official tie of Arizona, everybody will be wearing them!”

Second Woman:  “Humph.  I have a ton of bolos, and haven’t sold a one!”

First Woman (sweetly):  “That’s because yours are ugly, dear.”

 Also, we know that over 400 different computers have looked at this blog in the last few days.  Is it not letting you comment?  Is it some vast conspiracy to make sure Beth and Angela get all the prizes, ensuring that we can’t give out 30 of the same thing?  OK, Paranoia aside, if you’ve tried to comment and it won’t let you, email me at info at artfulbead dot com.  OK?

Way too tired to get to it, unfortunately.  This was the “EEEEEEKKK!!!!!  We’re halfway through time and not halfway through shopping!!!!!” realization day.

However, we did get:

• Vintage chain in wonderful brassy gold and silver
• Some unbelievable jade and quartz in great spring colors
• Tibetan beads, prayer box pendants, and prayer wheels
• Yowza turquoise
• Sapphires, dainty tourmalines, iolite, pink amethyst, and other clear fancies
• Magnificent agates etched and ancient looking
• Wonderful blue agate
• Adorable bone trinket boxes
• Huge honkin’ jade rondells, carved jade pendants, and other carved beads
• Glass fruit beads, glass flowers, glass in new shapes and colors.  (FREAKING TONS OF GLASS – REALLY)
• More wonderful high-quality stones in great shapes at fantastic prices.
• “Torched copper” beads that grab your eyeballs.
• Akoya pearls, huge coin pearls, and king-size keishi pearls in warm colors
• three milkshakes and a pretzel for lunch.
• 4 asprin tablets for dinner, with two bloody marys and one beer.

The room smells like menthol and Ben-Gay… 

Just so you don’t think it’s all fun and games in Tucson, here’s a typical day for us.  This is day three, we’ve settled into the groove.

I wake up with the sun peeking around the curtains in the hotel room.  Look at the clock, just before 7AM.  I pull the covers over my head and think about going back to sleep. 

Then I realize that if I do that, the hottest water will be used up.  Hate that.  Get up and get the shower first! 

By 9, we’re sitting down for a nice big breakfast.  Lots of coffee and protein, lunch is a long way off.  We go over the show floorplan, refining our attack.  More coffee. 

At 10 we walk into the first tent of the day.  These aren’t “tents” like the thing at the company picnic, these are huge honkin’ structures that could hold multiple 747’s.  They are nearly 3 football fields long and 1 1/2 football fields wide.  The ceilings are 18-20 feet high.  There are two of these tents at this show.  And they’re crammed with hundreds of booths of all sizes, selling beads, watches, carved trees, and velvet scarves.  Plus a lot more that we aren’t looking at.

We will walk around 5 miles today, dragging suitcases that get heavier as the day goes on.  We will spend most of the day leaning over tables grabbing hanks of stones, looking at each strand to pick the best ones of each.  Grab, look, throw back.  Grab, look, put on tray.  Lean farther to get that really cool one on the bottom at the back.  Look, lean, now straighten that back! Put strands in bucket, and repeat. We don’t browse or leisurely examine other booths, this is Power Shopping, and it qualifies as aerobic exercise.

At 3:00, we have to go empty the bags at the pickup (about a quarter mile from the entrance), they’re full.  While we’re out of the tent, we grab lunch from one of the food vendors around the entrance.  Lots of tea and water.  Hurry, it’s 3:30, only two and a half shopping hours left today!

At 6:30, we’re eating dinner, but no happy hour, because we still have a lot of work to do.  We go back to the room, pull out everything we bought today, and start pricing it.  We watch movies on TV and make fun of them.  Put the priced strands in a box with bubble-wrap.  Change the Therma-Care on my back.  Throw the pen in the trash, find another one, and write more pricetags.

Finish around 1:30.  Yes, that’d be AM.  Wash hands several times (stones have oils on them sometimes, smells nasty) and go to bed.  I’m asleep before my head hits the pillow.

I wake up with the sun peeking around the curtains in the hotel room.  Look at the clock, just before 7AM.  I pull the covers over my head.  It’s day four already?  I just went to bed…

We bought pearls – pounds of pearls.  Some so beautiful that you would be willing to go through a wedding just to get to wear them, and some inexpensive that you could buy 15 strands and wind them together in a magnificent choker.

And we bought amazing sterling clasps, unique and sturdy and even some “real girl” magnetic ones!

And vermeil and Hill Tribe, really different beads and even some that look like artichokes!  Glass hearts, hollow large ones and dichroic smaller ones.  Even lapis hearts!

And matte white-line onyx, words can’t describe it.

Fluorite in 5 colors per strand, or a heartbreaking blue.

Bling out the wazoo!! 

And if that isn’t enough, translucent dyed jade in colors that make your mouth water,  like a mango margarita or limeade or strawberry smoothee.  In all kinds of shapes and sizes!

OK, time to go now.  can’t spell anymorel.