Happy Birthday To YOU!  Happy Birthday To YOU!  Happy Birthday Dear Fabulous Artful Bead, Happy Birthday To YOU!!  And many more!!!

We’re looking forward to the big celebration this Saturday!  Set those alarm clocks and be there early.

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (the Yarn Harlot) writes some wonderfully funny and touching essays about knitting, especially about the connection between people who knit and the past and future.  She talks about the items you knit as being your legacy, your gift to the future, and how important that is to her.  (Mind, while she does this, you both laugh hysterically and cry, she’s Good.)

And that got me to thinking about our legacy as beaders.  So here’s my story.

My mother-in-law’s Great Aunt Margee was evidently quite The Young Thing in the 1920’s, and she saved her favorite necklace for over 70 years.  My mother-in-law brought it to me a couple of years ago, saying “What can we do with this?”  It was a six-foot long strand of crystal beads knotted on silk, broken in several places, the silk stained and yellow with age.  So I soaked it in warm soapy water and started to clean up the beads.  Beads?  Those puppies were antique Swarovski 8mm crystal AB rounds!  They are a slightly different shape than the new ones, but once they got cleaned up they showed their true colors.

I felt like I’d just won the lottery!  I couldn’t keep that kind of thing to myself, I had to share.  So I made bracelets and earrings for every female family member, and still had a lot of beads left.  They’re sitting nice and safe in the stash, in a nice box to keep them from getting mixed up with ordinary beads.  Mostly because they aren’t really “my beads.”  They’re family beads.

This summer, a friend of the family is getting married in Virginia.  We’ve decided that the bride needs Aunt Margee earrings, so I’ll make them and we’ll give them to her and tell her the story of the Roaring 20’s Swarovski necklace and how she is now a part of a very select group, the Keepers of Aunt Margee’s Crystals.  One small thing to bind us together.

Because, unlike yarn, good beads can be used over and over, years or even decades later, and they will still look good.  And they carry our memories with them.

She shouldn’t have told me. She knows I can’t keep secrets!!! I totally suck at keeping my mouth closed, and Mary KNOWS THAT! Why would she do that to me, the world’s second biggest blabbermouth, why would she EVER expect me to keep quiet?  I just can’t.

Close the door.  Be very quiet. I’ll tell you, just because I’m about to explode, but you can’t tell ANYBODY else! Do you hear?? Keep your  lips buttoned! SHHHHHH!!!!

OK. The Artful Bead is 5 years old on April 1st. And to celebrate, we’re having a very VERY special sale. SHHH!!! No squealing!!! You haven’t heard the best part! On Saturday, April 5th, all bright and early in the morning, we’re opening up at 8AM. Yep, practically in the dark.

And, for everyone who gets to the store before 9AM, we’re selling beads “on the wall” for… (deep breath) 35% off. THIRTY-FIVE PERCENT!!! Oops, I’m getting loud, sorry.  That’s 35% off of stones, pearls, seed beads, and czech glass – all those strands hanging on the walls.  All those strands in the case by the register.  And tubes of seed beads.  We’re going to stamp your hand, so you get the earlybird discount all day.  Just in case you are overcome by excitement and have to go have a little lie-down or nice cup of tea or something.

And that’s not all!  Everybody that comes between 9 and 10 will get 30 percent off that stuff.  And from 10 to 11, those sleep-all-day people still get 25%.  And from 11 till we close, if you Just Can’t Make It before, you’ll get 20% off strands on the wall and stones in the case.  And tubes of seed beads.

This sale is limited to in-stock items, it doesn’t apply to special orders. All sales will be final. We won’t be making any refunds during this sale, (so don’t even think of buying that wonderful strand early and then bringing it back on Sale Day so you can be sure of getting it at 35% off. (I already thought of it, and was told NO. you. will. NOT! and to stop it.  And I got glared at.))

So now that’s two of us that know.  Don’t tell anybody, and be sure to act surprised when we send out the email later to announce this Anniversary Spectacular Sale.  OK?  If you don’t act surprised, she’ll know I blabbed.

What??  Posted so EVERYBODY can read it??? Naaah… Nobody but you reads this, really. I’ve checked.

Remember those beautiful galvanized seed bead colors, that look so fabulous, but seem to wear off?  Get ready to do the happy-dance, because Toho has invented Permanent Finish galvanized seed beads!  And we’ve got ’em!!!

There are gold, rose, mauve, teal, and I forget what other colors, (new bead fumes make me goofy), shiny and matte, in size 11 and 8 rounds.  The dark burgundy frosted one is absolutely too drooly.  I tried to make off with all of them, but got caught.  She let me buy only two tubes, though, so everyone else would have a chance. 

Come in and say “Hi!” to the new arrivals.  After all, you don’t get to see NEW seed bead colors every day. 

I think I need the teal ones too.  Later…

I woke up on Thursday to a nice warm morning.  So warm that I wore flipflops.  Only to find out later that the expected high temprature was before 8AM, and it was going downhill FAST! 

 Snow, sleet, rain, cold and nasty, after a flipflop morning???  Am I going to actually have to check the dang weather now? 

As some famous southern writer says “That jist ain’t riiight!”

Several women at my day job (large north Dallas office) came back after Christmas showing of their new “Journey” diamond pendants.  And they were obviously disappointed by my reactions of “oh, that’s nice.”  When one pointed out that hers was nearly two carats total diamond weight, all I could come up with was “oh.”   “What do you have against diamonds!” she demanded.  And she wouldn’t let it go.

Well, ignoring the political problems of diamonds, and cost issues, I just can’t see having a piece of jewelry that is fundamentally the same thing that 23 million other women have.   That’s my biggest problem – they all look the same! 

I want my jewelry to be unique – different stones, different metals, different shapes.  It fits me perfectly and it is exactly how I want it.  My clothes tend to be jeans and t-shirts, and I tend to buy clothes to go with jewelry, not the other way around.  And if I want to wear a couple hundred dollars worth of tourmalines with my t-shirt, that’s my biz, isn’t it?

Why do you make jewelry?

After a night filled with nightmares about improperly held tools, and being chased by spools of wire*, Something worked it’s way into my bruised brain.

Why didn’t any of my friends TELL ME???  Why didn’t Someone say “Yo, BeadHoor, that just ain’t right!”  My faith in Beaders is shaken.  I need another nice lie-down.

(*see previous post “I apologize” for the full story)

I recently learned something that shocked me.  Stunned me, confused me, knocked me stupid(er).  I feel like I just learned that the thing I’ve been using to fry eggs all my life is called a double-boiler, and skillets are a completely different thing!

Specifically, I was making one of those grape-cluster kind of earrings, wrapping dozens of loops into links of chain.  And at one point I actually looked at the pattern, instead of just looking at the pictures of the finished object.  And I looked again.  And then I put down my earring and picked up the magazine and I was dumfounded.  Are you ready?

I make wrapped loops wrong. WRONG! There you have it, to my shame and chagrin. I looked at the picture in the magazine and thought “why are the pliers that way?” Followed closely by “WHAT??? That’s not right!!”  Followed by a flurry of digging in books and magazines and anything else I could find, and sure enough, I am in a very very small minority.  So either the rest of the planet is doing it wrong, or it’s me.  It’s probably me.

So, if you’ve taken Jewelry Making Techniques in the last 3 months, I apologize.  I’m sooooo sorry.  Here’s how the rest of the world does it:

When making a wrapped loop, especially when connecting links (like the two-section earrings in class) it is perfectly normal, as well as easier, to put the jaws of the round-nose pliers across the loop, instead of one jaw inside the loop.  That’s the only difference, you don’t shove the pliers into the loop, you hold the loop across the middle with the pliers.  If I could take a picture while holding the pliers, I would.  Maybe we can get that added later.

I’m still stunned.  The planet wobbled, I think, and not in a good way.  What else have I been doing, with the rest of the planet watching and saying “What a ninny, she’s not doing that right either!”  (Stop that!  I know my driving skills are “limited” at best!  And that my cooking skills are about the equivalent of the normal 18-year-old male.)

I think I need to have a nice lie-down now. 

If you were at Tucson Preview Night on Friday, you know how much fun we had!  The beads were fantastic, the food was great, the silver was incredible, and the beads were beautiful.  We had to mention the beads twice, because they were really unbelievable.  We heard comments like “Oh, my! I’ve never seen that!” and “Just look at those colors!”

Thanks to everyone who came out in the cold and damp, we hope you’re having fun with your purchases.

I think we’re going to have to start now on planning next year’s extravaganza, it’s going to be hard to top this one.

Tucson Preview Night is Friday, February 15th, from 7:00pm – 10:00pm.  The all-new, bigger and better, it’s-finally-here 2008 Preview Night is officially less than 49 hours away.

Make your plans, and be there!  If you were there last year, you know how much fun we have, and what wonderful new beads and silver we have.  

See you Friday!