You’re Invited!

So, what are you doing on November 28? It’s a Saturday and Susan (my teaching assistant) and I are hosting the first annual Christmas Meet & Greet at her place in Chilliwack from Noon to 3pm!! There will be coffee, tea, a few goodies and snacks (feel free to bring a treat if you want to share!). We’re hoping people will bring some show and tell (what have you made lately? any new tools? Whatever!!). I’ll have some used magazines, books, and general ’stuff’ from my studio cleanout that I’m hoping to re-home as well as a few tools for sale. I’ll also have my gemstones available for sale for those that are not currently taking one of my classes but want to shop. Matt of Just Screwing Around will probably be joining us with his texturing hammers, bracelet bending pliers, etc (we’re going to demonstrate how to make a hammered cuff in less than 15 minutes!!). I’m going to show everyone how to use Sue’s brand new rolling mill. I’ll have a few texture samples to share so students can have an idea of what’s possible. We’re also hoping Melanie Rowe will join us with her dichroic glass cabochons for sale (she makes AMAZING cast glass faces as well). And anyone else that would like to have a little space to sell stuff should contact me so we can set something up!! Mostly though, we’re hoping to get together with former students, jewelry designers and others interested in what we’re doing for a great time and to network, share and have FUN!! Wanna come?? Send me an email at bedwards at aebc dot com (you know how to fix that!) and I’ll sign you up!! A fun time is in store for everyone!! Hey, I think we could even come up with some door prizes!! I have a couple of ideas!! YAY! It will be wonderful to see all of you – and for those of you who can’t make it because flying in from across the planet is a bit far, we’ll make sure we take pics and share with you too!

No new jewelry – yet!!

Nope, I guess I’m still recuperating from the show. Turns out I have a million classes right now, so that’s not helping the creative juices flow. Okay, maybe not a million, but there’s my Tuesday night beginner’s class in Chilliwack, my home beginner’s class on Wednesday afternoons, and my Wednesday night drop in class. Can’t forget the upcoming Surface Textures class (full details on my website! That’s coming up on November 1 & 8th (two Sundays). There’s still room for one or two more people, so sign up now if you’re interested! And of course there’s my Beginner’s Saturday intensive coming up November 14 &21, only one space left in that one. And a special announcement coming soon. I’m also working on setting up a regular newsletter for my jewelry friends. Kind of a way to let people that might be interested know about upcoming classes, sales, deals, etc. I figure I always know about this stuff, might as well pass it on!

Hopefully next week, I’ll have some jewelry to show you – it’s been altogether too long since I’ve spent any quality time in my studio!! I miss it! Cheers!

Bead Show Mania!!

Whew!! It’s done for another year!! A successful show, lots of fun and so many memories!! Check out my Flikr pagewith lots of pictures from the show. We had SO much fun!! And no, there are no pictures of me, pretty tricky, huh!?!

I would like to thank each and every volunteer, vendor, teacher, student, shopper and visitor for helping to make this the best show ever! There are so many special people that deserve a very special thank you – and you all know who you are!

On another note of thanks, Capilano Rock & Gem really stepped up and made sure the classes and students had everything they needed with no fuss and plenty of wonderful customer service!! Two thumbs up!!

Now, back to my real life. I have a new class this week, a couple of weekend workshops starting in early November, and so much more. For full class details, check out my jewelry website! There are still a few spaces left in most of my classes.

Hopefully I’ll have some jewelry to show off soon. I’m feeling the call of my workbench. Hmmm, speaking of which, I must get back into renovation mode too – that room needs to be finished soon! It’s going to be great!! Hope you check back soon, and hope I have some jewelry to show you! Cheers!!

I have the BEST friends!!

I want to thank each and every one of you guys that responded to my little drama in the previous post. Your overwhelming support is so much appreciated. I do agree with all of you, by declining my application they are the ones that lose. And I’m the winner because I have the BEST friends, even the ones I haven’t met in real life. I did send her an email that was honest, to the point and very diplomatic – let’s just say that I probably won’t be hearing back from them. The main point I made was that word of mouth (good or bad) is a fantastic marketing tool for any event and that she could rest assured that I would not say anything negative about her event at my show, in fact I wouldn’t discuss her event at my show at all.

Speaking of the show, things are rolling along very well. I think I’m on target, though I’m sure I’m forgetting something. But with the wonderful support of my amazing friends and volunteers, I think it will all come together yet again! YAY! I have a new camera this year, and it is getting a serious workout at the shpw – I want to share as much of the show as I can with everyone! At this time next week, we will be in the middle of it all – WOOHOO!!

On being an artist……

Well, I write this now because I had my feelings crushed today and after turning to my friends for moral support and encouragement (which they are spectacular at!), I realized I wasn’t crushed, I was offended and rightly so, I think. Here’s the scoop:

I was invited to apply to participate in a new studio art walk for our little group of small towns (Langley City, Township of Langley, Aldergrove). Most small towns have these kinds of things – a map is published for people to drive around to and check out the artists working in their studios, purchase work directly from the artists, etc. Now, I live in an older 70’s style single family home. The yard is messy right now as I am not able to do the yard work and my hubby hasn’t had time. But it didn’t rain that much this summer, the lawn needs cutting but isn’t quite ready for a hay bailer, there’s some wood and stuff that is destined for the dump sitting in the driveway (hubby just has to have the time to get it there). My shrubs need trimming – I really like to leave them to grow on their own, but they are looking quite raggedy this year. Sure, my house could use painting – but it’s not a hovel, I don’t think (correct me if I’m wrong, but it’s not THAT bad, really). By signing up for the art walk, I figured that would give hubby a deadline for front yard maintenance – really it’s about a day or two’s worth of cutting, tidying and a dump run or two, no big deal. I live in a very modest neighborhood that is filled with lower/middle class families – VERY typical of the three towns to be included in the supposed tour. There are lots of kids in the neighborhood. The guy across the street has his big old work trucks in the driveway, the guy next door has a chain link fence (not pretty, but keeps the dog in), and the list goes on. You guys have seen my jewelry, right? It’s not ugly or anything – and my studio (while cluttered and in the middle of a remodel – which would have been done by this little art walk gig) is quite large and bright and cheery. But the state of my studio and the quality of my jewelry are apparently irrelevant. This is the email I got back from the woman -

Thank you for sending your application for the Langley Artists Studio Tour. We absolutely love your work! However one of the Studio Tour committee members had the opportunity to drive by your studio over the weekend and reported that she did not feel it represented the kind of professional setting that we have established as the standard for the tour. For that reason, we are sorry to say we can’t accept your application for your home studio — I hope you understand. However, we would like to strongly encourage you to consider partnering with another artist or securing another Langley-based venue for your work. We are going to leave your application open in the hopes that you are able to do this and will extend the deadline to October 14th (that’s our absolute final deadline to add listings to the Studio Tour guide-map prior to printing). Some of the other artists, who don’t have appropriate studio space, have been creative about finding alternatives and we hope you will be too.

Well, knock me over with a feather!! I run the largest bead show in Western Canada. I’ve taught classes all over North America (okay, Chicago, Washington, and a few places in BC, but that’s N America, right?!), I’ve been featured in online articles, local newspapers, etc. I sell at a small exclusive gallery in Port Moody. You can’t mention my name in the jewelry industry without someone knowing who I am. For the past 16 years, I have sold my jewelry at all kinds of art fairs locally – very successfully I might add. But my house doesn’t measure up to their standards. I don’t live in a fancy neighborhood. I don’t drive a fancy car. I don’t spend countless dollars landscaping my yard and manicuring my driveway. I spend my time and money making a meager living at my art. I am infinitely happy with my life and my surroundings (cluttered and messy though they may be!). And someone I’ve never met, and has never spoken to me in person has judged me on the appearance of my yard. And obviously found me lacking. Hmmmmmm…….. I’m not so sure I want to let this go. I find it highly offensive. I find it highly degrading and I find it highly unacceptable. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing on heaven or earth that could get me to participate in their little ‘art walk’ now – they don’t measure up to my standards. But I don’t thing I’m going to let the fact that they dismissed my studio from their group because my yard needs grooming go without some sort of protest.

I am an artist. I am very creative. When I set my mind to something, amazing things happen. It’s what I do. I think I do need to come up with a creative alternative to their little art walk. Oh wait, I already did that. It’s called the Fraser Valley Bead Show – featuring 50+ vendors and artists. And I did it long before they decided I wasn’t good enough for their little group. Go figure!

Bead Show Poster is DONE!! Yay!!

Finally, I got this darn thing done!! It goes in the mail to local stores and others tomorrow. Not long til the show now. Oh, did you want to see what it looks like? Here you go!

Pretty loud and colorful – hope it gets attention! On a plus note, it’s done and I can work on something else now. I really do have to get cracking and make some jewelry for the upcoming show – I really really do! LOL Hope I get some inspiration soon!

Oh, here’s that custom ring I was working on the other day – it’s a square white coated druzy ring for my hairdresser. She keeps the gray hair at bay – worth her weight in jewelry, that’s for sure!

it actually turned out okay, though I can see blatant flaws. That’s the hazard of needing magnifying glasses – they magnify the good and the bad!

Tomorrow morning comes early (my granddaughter arrives at 6am – I take her to school at 8:45), so I best head to bed. It takes a good night’s sleep to be as perky as she is at that hour! Cheers!

Facebook

Good grief! I so don’t get Facebook. I decided it would be the better part of smart to put up a Fraser Valley Bead Show facebook page, but I just don’t get how this crap works (I feel so old! LOL!). I will get it figured out, and I will enjoy it – eventually!!!

Custom work to do today, so nothing to show yet, if anyone wants to be added to the bead show facebook page, let me know and I’ll figure out how to get you a link – and will figure out how to post one here. Jeeze!!! You’d think I was a computer noob or something! LOL

Finally some new work!

Or at least one new piece to show off! LOL It’s a custom pendant, using a freakishly huge amethyst. Its supposed to be a vintage amethyst, but the cut is wrong, and I really don’t think it’s an amethyst, but if the customer loves it (it is her stone btw), then who am I to argue?! Anyway, the stone is over 1 1/4 inches wide by almost and inch high – just to give you some perspective! While the pendant is too clunky for my liking, the design actually worked well. What do you think?

Still alive and kicking!!

Good grief!! It’s been ages since I updated my blog!! Sorry! It’s been an odd summer. My wonderful assistant and I have started the big remodel of the studio, and it’s not been easy I have to admit. First of all letting someone else going through all my crap is stressful, but I’m learning very quickly to let go. Dea is AWESOME and so incredibly understanding of me and my temptation to hoard! LOL Seriously, I could totally see myself becoming one of those crazy hoarder people you see on Oprah! I think A&E even has a show devoted to hoarders. Yikes!! So since I know it’s a horrible possibility, it’s much easier to stay on top of. Sort of! LOL Anyway, Dea works diligently while I work at my workbench (it’s much more productive, trust me!!). You see, if I start going ‘through’ stuff, I can’t let go of it. For example, I decided to be helpful today and empty out one of the endtables full of stuff – top drawer held a couple of 99% empty notebooks (I have a notebook fetish), a plastic bag with 8 little gauze gift bags in it, 3 or 4 bags of Pixie Dust (no I’m not crazy, this is a fine powder you roll hot glass beads in to give them a sparkly frosted look), a handful of beads I made about 8 years ago (one of’s that were my ‘first try’ at certain techniques), a ziplock bag of tiger pattern beads that had broken in half, a huge handful of ruined bent bead mandrels (USELESS!!), and the list goes on!!! Then the next drawer down had some rocks and shells shoved in it, along with some art my kids did about 10 years ago. The third drawer is mostly missing (the front anyway) and just had an old phone book and more kid art. The fourth drawer held the real treasures tho. I found a box with a whole bunch of vintage postcards my grandmother had collected over the many years she and my grandfather used to travel. The vast majority of them were unused, but there were a couple from 1957, written by my great grandmother to my dad and uncle as she was traveling with my great grandfather down to California and Mexico. How cool is that? (of course, I had to read them all) But what the heck and I going to do with the 100 plus unused ones?? It’s not like the places look anything like they did in the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s or even 80’s?!? Then there were the family pictures, and the handful of programs from my father’s funeral in 1999. Sigh! It just degraded into a big sentimental walk down memory lane, that stupid bunch of drawers. Should have let Dea deal with it! LOL So I have walked away from it, will deal with it properly tomorrow when she’s here to gently urge me to ‘ditch the junk, keep the good stuff, and move on to the next batch’! The woman is a machine with this stuff! Woohoo!!

Anyway, that’s why there hasn’t been much jewelry made lately. But there is light at the end of the tunnel and I’m sure I will have something to show off later this week. Hope life is treating you well!! Cheers!

PS: If you have ANY idea what to do with those stupid postcards, I’m all ears!

Missing in action!!

Sorry to be so MIA lately everyone. It seems my muse has skipped town, but I think I know how to entice her back. I have a friend coming over this week and we’re going to start a MAJOR overhaul of that disaster area I call a studio. It’s too cluttered and icky for me to be able to feel comfy in there, so I’ve been avoiding it. Not good!! Plus our new saltwater tank has sucked up a lot of attention from both dh & I. It’s kind of silly, but we’re really enjoying it. It’s something we both know nothing about, and are both fascinated with, so it’s fun researching, learning, experimenting, etc. We put the clown fish in last week, and they’re ADORABLE! But we’re also finding the crawly little critters like the snails, shrimp and hermit crabs are amazing! We spend quite a bit of time with a flashlight at night looking in the different nooks and crannies of the rock for critters that hitchhiked their way into our world on the live rock (live rock is rock that came from the ocean and the critters are still living in it!). I do believe dh has lost his marbles though – he’s talking about propagating corals now. Good grief – can’t we just enjoy the one tank we have?! LOL!

Hope you’re all having a great weekend. I’m going to give it a really good try to get some jewelry made this week! I do have a couple of custom orders, so hopefully they will kick start my creative energy!! Cheers!