Bead Fest from Prep to Recap

I did not have time to post at all about the Bead Fest prep so here are some pics of that process, as well as the Bead Fest recap.

I needed a way to individually price all of my focals. I have used color coded wire in the past but each bead really does need its own price. I used a Brother label maker with the 1/4 inch tape and the smallest text size.With the help of needle nose pliers and a little experience it went fairly fast.

If you look closely at the bottom of the photo above you can see the little price tags. They are small enough that they don't obscure the design of the bead, they stay on well until you have to take them off, and there was no residue.

I stopped making beads about a week before the show and the sorting process began. I am very visual so I literally lay out all my beads on the table and start to sort.

I match up bead pairs for earrings first and then make sets with whatever is left over. I need to make sure that there is something for everyones budget on the table.

Based on my previous shows I knew that my 8 foot table was maxed out so I had to go vertical. In the two pictures below you can see some jewelry stands that I purchased from fellow etsy seller Moxie Metal. She is wonderful to work with, her designs are hand forged and she applies a beautiful patina to every piece. I was really happy with this purchase.

I made some copper rings to hang my sets, they looked beautiful with the light shining through the glass and the customers could easily take them on and off the hook for a closer look.

I used C-Lon cord and seed beads to put my sets together, and punched out some pretty paper for price tags. I originally was going to use my moo mini cards for price tags but in this particular setting the tags were too long and covered too many beads.

Here you can see a better photo of the entire jewelry stand.

Blogger is not letting me move any photos around so the text may not appear where I want it. 

The photo below shows a new large enameled leaf, which I love and was very popular at the show. I really go crazy on this piece layering opaque and transparent enamels each one is one of a kind. Don't worry you will be seeing some of these in the shop next Wednesday.

I also decided to put my larger enamel focals in the trays without the little compartments. It's much easier for my customers to make a choice and they do make a visual impact spread out and not piled on one another.

The photo above shows glass pairs ready to go. 

Glass headpins bellflowers and assorted shapes.

The enameled filigrees look so good grouped by color in their little compartments, at the end of the show all the blues were gone, that seemed to be the color of choice.

More butterflies....

leaves...

....and diving swallows. The filigree focal above is a new enameled piece I will be offering in the shop next week.

Finally the finished product. The sign is new  and I ordered it from Vistaprint, thank you Stephanie for the great design.

The lights and fabric top are new and from IKEA which is a whole other story.

The lights are LED and I love them. The lights in the exhibition hall were fluorescent and changed the colors of some of the beads, so my customers would hold their beads under the light to get an accurate color.  I also like that the lights do not get super hot, bead lovers tend to get distracted by the beads and bump the lights.

A special thank you to my table neighbors Kim of Lone Tree Studio and Diana of Suburban Girl Studio. You can't pick your neighbors or family and I lucked out. Check out their sites Kim, believe it or not makes glass chain maille in the flame. Yup, you heard me right. Diana kept me laughing and I got to swap for a few of her beautiful porcelain pieces.

Check out Lorelei and Diana's links and their blog posts about Bead Fest.

A better view of my banner, Lorelei I think you own that middle bead.

Diana selling her wares.

A special thank you to my Let's Bead friends Jean, Mary, and Kara for all the laughter and support this weekend. Jean is the owner of Let's Bead and Bead Fest is one of many shows across the country that she attends to make sure they have the newest and hottest items for their store. If you are ever in the Upstate NY area near Rochester, it's a must see if beads are your passion.

Also a special thank you to Kara for making my jewelry samples for the show, with all the bead making going on over here I could not even wrap my head around making jewelry.

If you sell beads I would highly recommend showing examples of your components in jewelry. So many times a customer will say to me "I love it but what do I do with it." 

I sold so many of those little tulip buds, because Kara made a piece using it as a bead cap.

I have so much more to talk about and share but I can't believe how long I have been writing this post.

I will touch base soon, remember big restocking event in the shop and giveaways/coupon codes on the blog next Wednesday, August 29th. 

Thanks to all my friends and customers I met at the show. As I always say making my beads gives me so much pleasure, the fact that they make others happy is frosting on the cake.