Cobra, my first wire-weaving...

Finally, after a week of typing, I got a chance this afternoon to finish my first "real" wire-weaving. Just to remind you, the heart pendant is my first effort made about a month ago before I hunkered down with Debbie Benninger's book and Sarah Thompson's Craftsy video and book Fine Art Weaving Techniques and got serious.

This is so gross. The base wire was 18 gauge, way too small, and I think I used 26 gauge instead of 28 to weave with. And look at the gaps. Gaaaaahhhhh...

However, this is what you get when you follow the pros. Yes, I can see every mistake, but it's so coooooool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As I wrote in the bead show post, with nothing in particular in mind except knowing this was the bead I wanted to use, I started out randomly weaving wires and dropping a wire, and adding other wire bits here and there, and then inserted one wire into the bead hole and started pressing and shaping the woven sections around the bead. If I didn't think something was working, I undid it and went in another direction. The woven wire is surprisingly very forgiving. The bulgy shape started out to be a leaf, but since it looked more like a cobra, I went with that.

I think the best and cleanest view is the side view.

Kind of a dog's breakfast in the back, but I was trying out different things I'd seen and kinda got lost in twirling and hammering and wrapping without considering what it was really starting to look like while I was doing it.

Pendant is finished. Bonus is I got the twisted angle at the top correct and the pendant hangs perfectly. Unfortunately, I think I wrapped too much in the middle there to secure the centre curl to the left hand bit. I should've just done a couple of wraps and left it. My great failing is I never know when to stop. Next time.

It sure looks different in a photo than in real life. All the mistakes show up so very clearly, but, hey, that's good for learning, right?

Other than the market tomorrow morning, I have a whole long weekend free to play. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone (send me some leftovers), and thanks for looking.

Grand River Bead Show Booth -- How to set up in a tiny space

Wowee zowie, 4 feet by 2.5 feet is a hard table layout to do. Anyone who knows me or who has taken a look at my various show setup pictures knows I have a ton of stuff and usually fill 1, 2 or even 3 tables plus grids. But half a table? It is to laugh.

Pick yourself up off the floor and I'll show you how I did it.

The trick is to go UP and use grids, shelves, risers...

4:45 p.m. Friday night. The Embassy Room at Bingeman's. A few vendors have begun setting up. Several people got stuck in Friday rush hour traffic getting out of Toronto. I've been here since 4:00, saying hi and catching up with people I haven't seen in a while. Time to get to work.

The van has been unloaded, the bed risers have been put under the table (see how the table looks like it's levitating?), grids and lights set up and trays, shelves and risers roughly placed.

Back view of the table showing the placement of clamp lamps, and small (invaluable) folding table which will have a black cloth draped over it. Roxann Blazetich-Ozols put a dressmaking Judy on her back table, draping it with her large ducette/lucetting x 2 fibre necklaces. It's a neat trick to expand your table footprint -- to go back behind if you can't go up or to the side.

5:18 p.m. Friday night. Starting to fill the type tray and thinking about what will go where...

Ick, this is the worst part of setting up... I truly have no idea where it will all go. To the left of the type tray are small angled dollar store metal frames, that come with glass which I take out. They are great for tilting bins and trays up at the back so contents are more easily seen.

6:00 p.m. Friday night. People seem to be quite happy poking through my bins, so I have stacked as many as three on top of each other. After a few moments, I'll ask people if they're looking for anything in particular, and if I sense more than a passing interest I'll come around to show them where everything is hiding.

6:42 p.m. Friday night. Done setting up for the night. Still no turquoise out and no way was I going to get all my curtain rods full of beads in strings on the rack as shown, i.e. facing into and over the table. Bah... I'll worry about that tomorrow.

9:35 a.m. Saturday morning. I wasn't happy with draping the necklaces around the neck of the bust, so I pinned them cascading down the front.

9:35 a.m. Saturday, 25 minutes to showtime. I stole my computer monitor setup of glass bricks and board for this show and, I like it so much I'm now using it exactly as shown at the Saturday market. I think it looks very nice.

It's hard to see in the picture, but the T-bar to the right of the bust in the centre is sitting up on a clear plastic set of three drawers. I put several strings of beads in each drawer and opened them slightly so people would be encouraged to look further.

I've already been asked by several people where I got the glass bricks (used, cement cleaned off, from our local Door Store, aka Habitat for Humanity Re-Store). Figgers -- they're not interested in the beads or jewellery; they want the bricks. Sometimes I really do get the sense that I'm in the wrong business.

You can't see in these pictures, but there is about three feet of space between each table. By the time I arrived just after 8:00 a.m. my neighbour to the left had put bags of findings on hooks on her grid facing into that space. This is great -- we can use that space! I ended up putting all my bead strings that are on curtain rods on the hooks on the other side of the grid that faced into the space, too -- this meant I could put out a ton more beads and people had room to get up close, nose to bead, to see them.

Since Sunday mid-afternoon was considerably slower than Saturday (okay, it was dead), I got lots more weaving done on this pendant. I took advantage of the fact that Debbie Benninger from I.D. Jewelry and Design was also a vendor, and she gave me some great feedback (and tips that I've never read anywhere) on this, my first wire-weaving that I would actually show anyone.

That bloopy bit to the top right of the bead was supposed to be a leaf, but once I wrapped it around the pendant, I decided it looked more like a cobra.

By 4:30 p.m. on Sunday my pendant was looking like this. (Here it is a week later, and I'm still trying to get around to hammering the "tongues" which I'll wrap behind to secure the wire to the pendant.) That little plain wire tail bit in the centre I'll also be unwrapping and hammering flat as it looks really stupid all by itself. I shouldn't have cut the other wires short before thinking it through a bit more. Y'know, they warn us about this all the time. Do I listen? Rhetorical question.

The beauty of this technique is the woven wires are so very flexible. I can change my mind in mid-design, unwrap things, straighten bits out and nudge them in another direction, and the swoops and curves that are possible are enchanting... you canNOT screw this up! My favourite type of activity.

5:05 p.m. Sunday. The show is over for another year, and we're all madly packing up.

The organisers are already talking about renting the same venue for next year. The natural light that poured into the room all day was fabulous.

Reminder, unless there's a ginormous ice storm or some other pesky weather phenomenon, I will be at The Gem Expo at the Hyatt Regency, King Street, Toronto, November 20th-22nd. Hope to see you there!

Wire-weaving...

On Saturday, I got Debbie Benninger's book from my mailbox on the way to the market. Wheeeeee... so many mysteries solved! Not so wheeee is that my first effort kinda sucks. But the things I was able to learn... Things like:
... how much wire this eats up so buy by the ounce, pound if you can;
... always cut extra wire;
... do NOT let it kink;
... don't hammer too hard where wires cross or they will break.

For my first piece, I wasn't intending to make a heart. I cut two pieces of wire and started wrapping about one third in. I just wanted to play, to see what changing weaves would do, which is why the heart that the two pieces of wire became is so... scruffy. There's no other word. The silver-coloured wire is 20 gauge tinned copper. Next time, I would use 18 gauge. Even doubled up on the right side, it's very flimsy and bendy. Those mean little curls at the base of the bail are a result of cutting the wire pieces too short.

Front:

Back:

While I was making the above, I took a little detour and made this. What I really, really like to do is hammer and I love the way that flat hammered bit wrapping around the neck of the bail looks.

Then in between both of the above, I worked on this -- ideas come so fast, I have to stop what I'm doing and start another so I don't forget my idea. Kind of a mish-mash of techniques and still learning how to do wraps -- but this time, keeping them tight together, as Debbie reminds in the book.

The day's production:

Hydro, in its infinite wisdom, decided to cut the power out along the highway from 8 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. without telling us, and so I was forced to work outside. No biggie, it was something I had been thinking about for a long time, and now had no choice. It was LOVELY. Cool breeze all day, no humidity, no baking in the heat like all my pals were doing north of me in town. Hah!  

On the wildlife front, Friday morning after the rain I happened to wander over by the sliding door and saw what I thought was a bit of stick or leaf. That's funny, because there was no wind. I looked closer and the stick had legs.

Picture taken through the screen from inside my house:

Picture taken from outside:

Yesterday morning around 8:00 I was outside wandering around and my eye was caught by bright sky blue moving on my windshield. I could not capture the blue -- it was a more sky blue than the sticker on the windshield, point being I have never ever seen a butterfly this colour here in southern Ontario (nor a stick insect like the above, either).

It looked like it had maybe just hatched and was drying its wings in the sunlight.

Where it's white along the outer edge of the wing span was an intense light blue.

I've seen a hummingbird twice here in the past couple of days. Even while I'm sitting on the deck reading he'll come by to check out my hanging baskets. I've only ever seen a real hummingbird once before in my life.

Contact Debbie Benninger here or here.
I buy dead soft copper wire from Robert Hall Originals in St. George. You can also get dead soft sterling silver wire there, as well.

Thanks for looking and, if you're ever in the area, bring your beads and come and play in my outdoor studio!

March 2015 Gem Expo Setup & Recap...

Thursday was a gloriously sunny day to drive to Toronto and hang out. In fact, the whole weekend was pretty nice, if a bit bitter-windy at times. But after such a stinking cold winter, any day above freezing is a gift.

11:00 a.m. Thursday, all loaded up:

While I ended up leaving home an hour later than I'd planned, the drive to Toronto was fast and easy-peasy. Very light traffic on the QEW/Gardiner. Guess everyone in Toronto must've left early for March Break. I had to laugh, though -- just before the turnoff onto the Lakeshore, I saw two clowns both pulled over for speeding. Something about sun, dry pavement, light traffic... brings out the idiots who believe driving is just another video game.

I found plenty of parking spots downtown and I even found a new secret parking spot safe from the tow trucks at rush hour because I can't get into the Hyatt parking lot until after 6:00 p.m. Ten bucks overnight parking beats some obscene half-hourly parking rate up until then.

Once I got to Toronto, I went to Arton on Queen West for colourful gauze bags for one of my vendor pals at the market (can't get anything remotely like these in pokey little Woodstock), then parked over on Mutual Street, safe from any mid-afternoon tow truck predation. Picked up a map of Tibet at Open Air Books & Maps and continued walking to the Strath to check in, marveling at the dearth of people on the streets. Where on earth have they all gone??? On getting into my room on the 2nd floor, I discovered I was directly above a live band tuning up who would be playing that evening. Uh... I don't think so. Hiked myself back down to the front desk and they very kindly moved me up to the 7th floor, where for the first time I had a room with a view over York Street instead of a restaurant vent.

On the way back I stopped in at Lacy's to buy more Stretch Magic, which of course were all on back-order, but I was able to get tall skinny bags for Chris the Honey Guy's organic herbs that he's growing this spring and summer. Wandered around the St. Lawrence Market and bought chocolate-covered candied ginger, which believe it or not is a great brain zapper when you're really flagging. My early dinner was simple steamed rice with a squirt of sriracha and a spring roll. Yikes. Less than $4.00 and I was stuffed.

Killed some time people-watching from my free parking spot on Mutual Street and got to the Hyatt just after 7:00 to unload and start setting up.

Remember ol' JD? He's still hangin' by the escalator in the Hyatt lobby. Get a life already.

Found my table this time far off in the back left corner, which I personally quite liked. This way, with my back against the wall versus back against the whole room, every time I glanced up I could see the whole ballroom, except for the pesky pillars everywhere. Only problem being that far from the front door was that by the time many people found me they were already broke -- and heartbroken -- when they saw all my goodies. Oh, well... next time they'll come looking for me first, right?

Isn't that the pukiest carpet you've ever seen in your life?

Okay, time to unload the truck. Lovelovelove my dolly. First thing is to dig out are the bed risers, to raise the table height. Notice how the table is now magically levitating?

Next, get the grids set up. The back table edge is four feet from the wall, perfect to fit two grids edge to edge, then the third grid goes in line along the end of the table, and one grid comes in behind the table. Kind of a wonky T formation. I use plastic cable ties to tie them together. Just don't snug them too tightly or you'll never get your pliers in far enough to cut them apart when you have to take everything down. I have two triangular grid pieces that set into the inside angle up top and just above table height for stability, under which I'll set up my little folding work table perpendicular to and between the main table and the wall.

Got the lights up and checked that all the bulbs work. There's a Shoppers Drug Mart on the corner across from the hotel open until midnight every day, so anything needed after this point can easily be sourced there.

I have to say, though, that those stupid spiral bulbs produce an awful light. I almost lost a couple of sales because the beads looked dead under them -- and that's a quote from one of my customers. I showed her what the beads looked like under the regular warm light bulbs and she was happy and bought the beads, but it really makes me wonder now just how many sales I may have lost.

Started loading the curtain rods and filling the grids.

This far into the setup took about 2-1/2 hours and was about as much as I could accomplish that night. I desperately needed to sit down and was looking forward to my allotted half pint of ice cold Alexander Keith's... Strath, here I come. 10:59 p.m. Just made last call. Whew!

Friday morning: The ballroom was going to be open at 7:00 a.m. for setup. The show opens at 11:30 on Fridays and goes until 8:00 p.m., a very, very long day I knew I'd be spending mostly on my feet so I stopped for my usual Friday morning breakfast at Dunn's, a couple of blocks east of the Hyatt on King Street. I'm a complete sucker for the whole bacon, eggs, homefries, toast and coffee breakfast. Saturdays and Sundays, Dunn's doesn't offer the $4.99 breakfast special so I make do at Tim's a block away. But I do like Tim's cappuccino, so not a total hardship.

Got to the ballroom around 8 or so, finished sorting the beads on the grids and started in on the table surface. I was still fiddling and fine-tuning when the show started.

See those clear plastic boxes in the middle? They're not only divided, they have lids, and are also great as risers set here and there. Got them at Winners. Just to the left of them are turquoise strings on a clear plastic T bar with ridges to separate each string out evenly. I get those at Winners, as well. Any ambient light seems to glow and refract through them and whatever you put on the clear plastic boxes or T bars appears to float.

Sold lots of skulls this show. And earrings -- what was with that? They flew off the table.

Many thanks to all my return customers -- and new ones -- and especially thanks to JR, a veteran market vendor herself who knows what we really go through doing these events, and who brought us a box of organic strawberries, which were soooo juicy and refreshing.

Friday night, Ruth and I went to the Strath Pub for dinner and split an order of fish and chips. She had an absolutely perfect and perfectly hot hot Caesar. Oh, my. I think next time I'm going to have me one of those. Saturday night, we went to Kama -- Classical Indian Cuisine, a block east of the Royal Alexandra Theatre, which serves a really good buffet and it is not at all expensive.

Saturday morning I took this picture on the way to the Hyatt:

And that's it for my show pictures this time.

At the July 2014 Gem Expo I'd sold one of my Kingman turquoise hearts to Debbie Benninger of ID Jewelry Design, and her sterling silver wire-wrapped piece sold at this show!!!

For anyone interested, I still have two or three more of these Kingman turquoise heart cabs. They are spectacular. Email me for availability and pictures.

Meanwhile back in the real world, I had shipped a bracelet to Brooklyn, NY, the day before I left for the show. Unbelievably, Brad got it on Monday. FOUR days to the US. He's a very happy camper and I was so relieved, A, that he likes it, and B, that it fit him:

Hi Barbara,

I got the bracelet today looks amazing and fits perfectly! Thank you again! I really like it a lot. I'll be sure to pass your card along to anyone who asks about it.

Best,
-Brad.

I've already booked my hotel for the July 2015 Gem Expo, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the 24th, 25th and 26th. See you there!!!