Another fun Artists' Fair past

Had my share of fun (and reasonably good sales) at the Artists' Fair today. Thanks to everybody who came by, whether you bought anything or not - with special thanks to Felisa who bought a necklace and earrings set I just finished last night -.

My next fair will be at the East Hawaii Culture Center in 2 weeks, but that's jewelry and lampwork only, no beads and beading supplies (I may have some, and if you ask I may sell them anyway, but I won't have them on display, and I won't have everything with me).

The only other fair I'm currently planning on is another one of the Artists' Fairs at Hilo Art & Glass on December 20, for those last minute Christmas presents, of for those who think they may have a bit of extra time for those beading projects over the Holiday Season.

Oh, and before I forget that: Eva (the owner of Hilo Art&Glass) had a boy earlier this week, congratulations, both are in good health.

The jewelry in the picture uses some of the beads I bought from a fellow-beader who suffered a stroke in her eye (if you read this, you know who you are - and I still would have been happy to pay more for most of what I bought) and lost sight in that eye (and is about my age).

I may go back to Hilo Art&Glass tomorrow and buy some frit (they have 104 COE frit right now) - I would have bought it today if I could see finding the time to use it any time soon, but my day job still takes most of my awake time (+ the lilikoi, yard work, and the rest) in spite of that I do a lot of thinking about what I'm doing in my off-work hours.

Mr. fuzz cat jumped into my lap and wants to be petted and combed, but at least he doesn't start walking on the keyboard.

(and as long as the spell checker only complains about works like Hilo, lampwork, lilikoi, etc., I guess I'm vaguely OK with the typing, fuzz cat or not)

Hilo Art and Glass Artists' Fairs (HiloBeads at a location at a time)

After the first one of these going into this Holiday season I decided that I want to make just about every effort to be in the November fair as well, so that's on Nov. 15, again at Hilo Art and Glass Supply (and I got some more glass rods and 3/32" mandrels to make more lampwork, because I sold some at the last one, and made some already too). I'm also going to be at the fair on Dec 20, but the intention for that one is for last minute Christmas gifts, but I will have beads there too (Christmas gifts for your beader friends?). Between those two I'm going to be at East Hawaii Cultural Center on Nov. 29 (I think), but not selling beads there other than my own lampwork.

The November Fair at Hilo Art and Glass will again include my $2/strand fresh water pearls, shell bead strands and gemstone strands - and whatever lampwork I made in between, jewelry, gemstone beads, Swarovski crystals, mgambo seed and Royal poinciana seed beads, and, should you be interested locally, I have some packaged Job's Tears too, and, yes: etc. (wire, findings, and some other stuff) -

Sorry, no pictures in this one, I hope to get around to that soon.

Artists' Fair, Oct. 18, at Hilo Art&Glass Supply

As I don't have much of an idea how many people read my blog who are in this neighborhood: I'm going to be at the Artists' Fair at Hilo Art and Glass Supply this Saturday, Oct. 18, 10-4, planning on mostly still selling supplies for your Christmas presents, rather than a lot of jewelry, but I have some jewelry as well. If you're interested I can show you how to make memory wire hoop earrings (no formal class though, you can just stop by and I can show you - and I have some round nose pliers available, not a whole lot, so come early if you need a pair). I had at some point thought of bringing my torch, but I think that's not going to work, and there are likely to be much better lampworkers around than rookie me.

Some new things came in as well: mixed gemstone strands at $2-3 each (these are over a foot long), 13 piece fan collars in several gemstones/colors. I'll have $1.- bags of findings, ranging from split rings through clasps to rubber earring stoppers and memory wire. There are still $2.- fresh water pearl strands, the only SoftFlex in East Hawaii, and of course all the Swarovski crystal colors and Jablonex Ornela seed bead colors and all the gemstones listed on the HiloBeads website. I may get around to counting Sterling Silver and gold filled 2x2mm crimps into $1.- bags, but I may not.

See you this Saturday at Hilo Art and Glass Supply, 318 Kino'ole Street, in Downtown Hilo, between Sack&Save and L&L Drive In, in front of the former Farmers' Exchange building.

Fairs, hoop earrings, lilikoi, etc,

I have finally updated the crystals page to show the new Swarovski crystals HiloBeads has in stock - and reformatted the layout -.

There are also now finally some hoop earrings on the earrings page, and I'm in the process of actually making more memory wire hoop earring wires.

I have some new memory wire come in, including gold plated, but I'm not entirely happy with the plating. It's the same manufacturer as the silver plated memory wire i have, but while the silver plating adheres well the gold plating flakes in the tight loops on the earring wires.
I also have a shipment of semi-precious gemstones on the way, some "mini-collars" that do well in necklaces as well as hoop earrings, and some mixed gemstone strands that will be really inexpensive (in local terms: reasonable).

I will be in the following fairs:
Artists' Fair at Hilo Art and Glass, Oct. 18 (which will include supplies+lampwork)
EHCC Art and Fine Crafts Fair, Nov. 28 (which may include lampwork)
Artists' Fair at Hilo Art and Glass, Dec. 20 (last minute gifts, and whatever else)

What held me up some, outside of my day-job, was rather large amounts of lilikoi

Some people may think I make up words like this, but it's the Hawaiian word for passion fruit, which are mostly yellow hereabouts, and I have been picking and selling those for a lot longer than I have had anything to do with beads (I think I put that into my first post, entitled "Ancient History"). What's there in the back of my truck is my largest weekly pick yet, 516 lb. My lilikoi customer would be happy if she'd get that every week, but things don't quite work that way for me, or for the lilikoi.

Starting to get ready for Christmas ...

For most people Christmas is still a long way away.

Not for jewelry makers. Some of my customers at the Hilo Farmers Market have been hinting at stocking up, and one has started. Most of the things I sell I just have in stock, but this is not so for things I make myself, and some have longer lead times than others. If anybody who reads my blog thinks they may need drilled seeds, be that Royal Poinciana seeds, double drilled or single drilled, or Mgambo / Velvet Seed / Weleweka / Hawaiian Pussy Willow / Maui mink (these go by more names than you can think), please let me know this soon. I still buy the Mgambo seeds from Oahu, so there is additional lead time when/if I run out. The Royal Poinciana seeds I pick myself, and I have several pounds of them.

I am also thinking about doing a craft fair again this year as I found one that's only one day and relatively inexpensive, and for that I will have to have more inventory in jewelry, which obviously will also leave me less time to drill seeds.

People who have seen them like my memory wire hoop earring findings. I have not made any for sale yet, but I'm thinking about it. If you're interested at a price of $2.- for 3 pairs (+ shipping, and excise tax if you're in Hawaii), just email me.

New Swarovski Crystals

HiloBeads has some new Swarovski Crystals in different colors, all bicones:

3mm: White Alabaster
3mm AB: Tanzanite, Montana, Jonquil, Emerald, Capri Blue

4mm: Chalk White
4mm AB: Morion, Indian Red, Lime, Caribbean Opal, Rosaline
4mm AB2X: Light Azore

Prices will be the same as on the website for the non-AB and A2XB colors, but only because
I got a good price break on these.
The prices for the AB colors are :

144: 15.-
100: 12.-
20: 3.-

Other than that, I'm back from my vacation and slowly getting back on track.
During my vacation I found the time to make this:

(It'll be for sale, but I didn't post it yet)

Memory wire hoop earrings

I may have invented these, so I want to put them on-line.

There are hoop earring designs on-line that use memory wire, but I have only seen ones that were hung from other earring hooks.
It's possible to make hoop earrings from memory wire without using other earring findings as you can see here. The lampwork is from my very first batch of home-made beads and they are not annealed, and the cages are craft wire. I never made bead cages before, but they worked out. The instructions I used for the wire cages are from wigjig (I don't have a wigjig and the wire cages have tool marks)