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!!!

July 2014 Gem Expo... The Good, The Great & The Incredibly Bad & Ugly...

First of all, Pickmonkey.com is down yet again, so I -- and you -- will have to make do with some unedited photos.

I had a fabulous time once more this past weekend at The Gem Expo, July 2014 edition. Many, many thanks to Salim and Zulekha of Blue Sapphire Beads for all their work -- and the work of their great kids who helped out by taking tickets and, most wonderfully, brought around pastries and drinks throughout the day to the vendors. That in particular was so very much appreciated.

On the road Thursday at 9:00 a.m., truck packed to the gunnels, and facing a 3-hour drive, but the sun is shining and I have a whole four days of what I know is hard work to look forward to, but also the mystery of which old friends I'll be seeing again plus a whole raft of new people to meet.

Because the setup time had been pushed to 8 pm at the hotel and with lots of time to kill, Ruth met me mid-Thursday afternoon at the wholesaler's where we hung out for a while. I've found another secret parking spot, so safe from being ticketed and/or towed we ambled over to the St. Lawrence Market where we had an early dinner and Ruth bought a bag of dark chocolate-covered ginger. I have to say that over the next three days those were the most amazing energy-blasting-without-being-sickeningly-sweet brain boosters I have ever eaten. I don't know the name of the bulk store (or what was in those chocolates) but it and they are located in the northwest corner of the lower level of the south market. (When in doubt, look on a map -- so, uh, no, your GPS won't work here :-p. It's Domino Foods.) I will be stocking up on those chocolate ginger things before every show from now on. Then we wandered over to the little parkette behind the Flatiron Building and sat on a bench watching the dogs, the birds and the people for an hour or so in the early evening sun. It was lovely.

On our way over to the Hyatt, I checked in at the Strathcona and found I had been upgraded from my Eco (b)room (closet) to my old king room on the 4th floor. After all these gem shows I've taken part in in Toronto, so having to stay in a hotel, I have to say that those ads are right when they babble on about "coming home to blah-blah-blah". I know where everything is in or out of the hotel, I don't have to wonder which way to turn coming or going: the Strath is now an equally familiar but far, far more fun version of my own home and locale.

Living a quiet(er) life in a small town as I do currently, but for many years a denizen of many large cities across Canada and in Europe, I really appreciate the opportunities presented by big cities and the people one can potentially hang with... even if they're only hanging on a wall, and even if for only a few hours or days. It's the potential...

Gawd I love that picture. Okay, back to reality...

...and, we're in. Time to settle down, find our booth and get to work.

That carpet is driving me insane.

All set up and ready for customers.

Even though this time I had a corner booth around a pillar rather than against a wall, I replicated the March setup where instead of butting two tables together which is the normal way to do things (I rarely do things the normal way), only the corners touched and I was able to set up the grids with all the strings so people could walk right in and get face to face with the beads. I reeeeeally like this setup.

The show started out well. Friday was incredibly busy for everyone. Way too busy to take pictures, unfortunately. My neighbour was Paul, owner of Nharo!, Fair Trade African arts, beads, stones, weavings -- he's got beautiful mud cloth -- and other cool stuff. All the sticky-up horns you see in some of my pictures are from African animal skulls. Paul knows every craftsperson personally who makes the store's goods, and the store is up on the Danforth. We've known each other for years, back when I first started making jewellery. Regular readers will know that food is a huge theme, for me anyway, at away shows. Paul and his crew and Ruth and I all shared Pringles, fresh local blueberries and chocolate-covered ginger: who woulda thunk they'd go so well together!? At 10:00 a.m. no less.

Many customers bring the piece they're working on to a show to find the perfect bead to finish it off. This is a soft-sculpted, free-form embroidered cuff and my customer found the perfect turquoise nugget to fill the sterling frame. I wish I'd taken pictures from different angles to show just how 3D this was. It was absolutely lovely -- and she told me it was her first effort at this type of free-form work.

After the show closed at 8, Ruth and I headed to the Strath Pub where we scarfed down a ginormous platter of nachos. I believe they are intended to be shared by six people...???

Gone in, oh, mmm... 20 minutes?

Saturday was another busy day with lots and lots of people in attendance, but for some reason it wasn't great for sales for a lot of us. Friday had been surprisingly good -- well-attended with better than average sales for a Friday -- and that seemed to be the experience of many of the vendors I talked to. It's not like we're being nosy per se asking other people how they did, but sometimes there's a small comfort in knowing that a given day ended up being a down day for other people, too, and it wasn't due to something I (or someone) did or didn't do. It just was.

One thing I am often called upon to do at least once during a show is string someone's purchase into a necklace or a bracelet while they wait.

Note to those of you contemplating your first show: bring your tools and a little kit of stringing wire, clasps and jump rings and a bead mat. This is a great service to be able to offer a customer: making up their new beads for them for pickup later in the day, the next day, to be dropped off later on the way out of town and/or mailed. In this case, Ruth offered to meet my customer Iris during the week if we (really, because Ruth helped with the stringing while I dealt with PITA Man -- more about him below) were unable to finish the work. There's almost always downtime during these shows.

In this case, Iris wanted me to make her a bracelet out of the pink quartz hearts she'd just bought from me. Because I was dealing with PITA Man, Ruth took Iris over to another vendor to buy some filler beads and discuss the design. Iris picked out a clasp from my private stash and said she'd be back later in the afternoon on Sunday to pick it up.

Another note to newbies: always, always, always get a contact phone or email address when you take a stringing order at a show, even if it's a case where they say they'll be back in half an hour type of thing. I can't begin to tell you the number of people who leave, even after paying in full, completely forgetting to pick up their item. It happened that just after Iris left we found a bag of beads left on the table right where we'd all been standing talking. Ruth was fairly sure they were Iris's. I was able to email Iris to ask if they were hers -- it turned out they were -- and she knew they were safe.

Ruth's and my deal is I swap all dinners and drinks, her choice of beads and admission to all three days of the show for her tireless and invaluable help over the four days of setup, show and packing up, plus I get to sample her mom's wonderful (and healthy) lunches of homemade soups, chicken and vegetables that she makes for us. Saturday night, released from the show relatively early at 6:00 p.m., we were too tired to decide on any of the restaurants along Restaurant Row which front the Hyatt, and we landed back at the Strath Pub.

These were really, really good potatoes!

Sunday morning the Gem Expo sleeps in:

By 10:00 the covers have come off, the lights are on... and right out of the gate I sold my bone bird and Afghan turquoise necklace to a lady who told me that, while she had a room full of beads at home, this particular show she wasn't here to buy more beads; she was here to buy herself a finished necklace. Out of the whole show, she picked mine.

What I found interesting was that over the previous two days I pretty much sold out of all my bone and shell bird beads just because of this necklace being on display. Good thing to note for next time!

Sunday was so busy I didn't even get around to take pictures of more of the vendors. You can see pictures of all the vendors on The Gem Expo Facebook page.

Late Sunday afternoon, Iris came back to pick up her two bracelets. Because we only used a few off of the string of peridot heishi between the pink quartz hearts, she'd asked if it would be possible to make a double-wrap bracelet of the remaining heishi. No problem. Note her black chakra/mala bracelet -- I saw this stacked wrap style with a single type of bead, as well as the single bracelet style, on so many people, and made many sales to people looking for one special focal bead to put on yet more bracelets that they were making. From what I saw, I was one of the few people selling individual beads at the show.

Stay tuned for pictures of new jewellery made with all the goodies I bought at the Gem Expo (coin silver, lapis lazuli, amber, agate, malachite and jade) -- and... my big, big excitement will be to see the shipment of Roman glass beads now winging their way from Afghanistan.

-------------------------------- Now for the tirade.

Yes... The Incredibly Ugly part of doing shows: the customer from hell, aka PITA Man.

A lot of discussion goes on both online and in real life about how to deal with difficult customers. None of the advice I have ever received could help me here, this being the show I had to deal with the winner of the World's Worst Customer Award.

PITA (or Pain-In-The-A--) Man was in his 40s or 50s, came to the show with his family (who all seemed very nice and friendly -- and more and more apologetic as the days wore on) on both Saturday, and alas for me, on Sunday, and his way of looking at merchandise was to literally rip $50-$75 turquoise beads off my display boards so that pins were flying everywhere. Displeased at what he was looking at, he would contemptuously fling those items down on top of bead strings on my table, then pick up $200 and $400 strings of turquoise beads and Hebron glass and throw them down with contempt, letting them knock on other beads and metal display units. He'd swish through the strings of turquoise beads that were lying on the table, and then stomp off leaving a mess behind. He behaved like a three-year-old on a single-minded rampage through a dollar store. Then he'd go around the corner to my second table, do the same thing, and stomp off again after expressing his contempt for both my beads and their prices.

After I'd put everything back, 20 minutes later there he'd be again, pulling things back off the boards, demanding discounts. I'd plug in a number on my calculator, he'd grab the calculator from my hand and plug in a number that was a quarter or even as low as a tenth of my number. He pretended he didn't understand the word "No." Repeatedly. "No! No! No!"

One time -- and, I mean, this guy was at the show ALL DAY and kept coming back -- I was standing on the aisle side helping a customer, he came past me and deliberately poked me in the bum, gesturing with a contemptuous flick of his wrist that he was back and to come and serve him! Technically, that's assault. But no one around to complain to, right?

He was a thief, as well -- and I found out later, he pulled this particular trick on other vendors as well. After I thought we'd reached an agreement he would haul out cash, and, taking his beads, he'd throw down on the table LESS than what we had agreed upon, $15 or $20 less -- and then, adding insult to injury, as he was stomping off he would GRAB MORE ITEMS off my table as his "gift" and disappear into the crowd. I had five, six, eight people still to serve, my booth was located in the far corner away from the ballroom entrance and Security, and the one other (male) vendor who was near enough and who could've helped me was busy.

The final time he pulled this, just before closing time, my vendor pal across the aisle from me happened to see what he did, and told me later she was shocked and couldn't believe her eyes: PITA Man took the tray of beads, stomped over to his long-suffering wife who was sitting by the wall, opened her purse that was on her lap and dumped all these beautiful and fragile turquoise beads into it, and stomped off, leaving her to follow in his wake.

I have had ignorant and rude people tell me over and over for years at markets and shows that my beads and my jewellery prices are too high. Hey. Fine. Get thee to Wal-Mart. I've also been informed many times with utter contempt that they can buy exactly the same stuff at Wal-Mart and Dollarama and who do I think I am? I don't know how that's possible since I am not a Wal-Mart and Dollarama supplier, but great. Fine. Go crawl back under your rock. But this. This was beyond the pale. And it went on for two days with this guy.

If PITA Man or his ilk ever show up again, I'll be prepared. This is not about some cultural differences around haggling and bargaining that I can learn about. I refuse to sell to him ever again and I will call Security immediately. For all our sakes, I hope PITA Man never goes to another bead show again and spares all the other vendors. He truly had it in for female vendors. The guys all told him to go away if he didn't like their prices, and he did.

That was truly the worst experience I have ever had with a customer. I'm used to bargaining. I'm used to bargaining in different languages (and where I don't even speak the language) and cultures and countries. I always give a courtesy discount to frequent customers and to one-time customers who buy multiple items. But this? This was beyond anything I could ever imagine.

------------------------------------ End tirade.

So endeth the July 2014 Gem Expo, truly the best of times and the worst of times. Just read this morning that nonsense with Ira Glass, the twit... I mean, tweeter dismissing Shakespeare. Good grief. But hence my occasional classical turns of phrase.

Thanks for looking!

bROOMcloset -- Ask & Ye Shall Receive...

It's GEM EXPO TIME... well, almost -- it's coming up fast in July. Today, I booked my usual Eco bROOMcloset at the Strathcona --



-- yeah, well, it's tiny and cute, and when I close my eyes I don't even know the difference between it and a real room -- and just about had a heart attack. Rates have gone waaaay up since last summer.

One of the advantages of getting old(er) is a little thing called the senior discount. And for some reason they are kicking in at a lower and lower age, you can get some discounts as early as 50, and many more start at 55. Not that I've been 55 for a few years, but... anyway.

I do the online booking thing and get my receipt emailed back. Recovering from my heart attack, I email the hotel back to ask if my usual senior discount has been included. Ravi emails me back within minutes with an adjusted invoice. I ended up getting almost a $50 discount. It always pays to ask. If I'm reeeeally lucky, I might get an upgrade on checkin.

I love the Strath and here's why:

Retro decor:




Ice cold Alexander Keith's awaiting me every evening downstairs in the Strath Pub:




Coconut shrimp with extra sauce ('cause I asked):




More ice cold Alexander Keith's, although now I get the half-pint:




Really fine burgieham flips and another AK:



A burgieham flip, you ask? Back in the '70s, in lieu of actually working, my pal Rob and I would hang out in the plate room and swap syllables (not spit) to try and come up with better-sounding words. This was one that stuck.

I so look forward to all of this and more (new friends, beads, old friends, beads, vendor pals, beads and fascinating conversations!) when I do the Gem Expo.

Thanks for looking, and see you in July -- 25, 26, 27 -- The Gem Expo, Hyatt-Regency, King Street, Toronto!

March 2014 GEM EXPO Photos... finally

I've had to take my computer in to have XP wiped and 2007 installed, and forgot to transfer all my edited photos to a thumb drive so I could load them onto my new backup laptop, a refurbished and fully loaded Dell Inspiron that I got for a real deal from Anibal at PC Farm in Toronto. Personally, except for the all-important portability, I've never seen the point of laptops. To see the screen, the computer has to be elevated so high I can't type on it, I have to add a keyboard so I can achieve some blistering speed, not to mention a mouse, which equals even greater speed and accuracy. And there's my footpedal and head phones, and by the end of it, I seriously don't see the point. To lug all this around would require a suitcase on wheels at least.

Blech. But it works.

In the meantime, here are the pictures from the March 2014 iteration of The Gem Expo, which was a total hoot. Many vendors predicted a slow Friday, but attendance was way up and continued all through the weekend. I saw many familiar faces and made new friends and I hope customers for life. I got the sense that we all did well in terms of sales -- I sold out of several styles of beads and quite a few pieces of my jewellery which was truly gratifying.

I stayed again at the Strathcona Hotel on York Street (across the street from the Royal York, which is itself across Front Street from Union Station) and walking distance to the main tourist and sports venues, if anyone is planning a home game weekend). The Strath Pub grub hit the spot each night after a full day on my feet.

To me there is nothing in the world like an icy Alexander Keith's...

Crispy Coconut Shrimp with Thai dipping sauce...

Neither of which lasted long... These are soooooooooooo good!

The shrimp were Friday night. Saturday night I was debating whether to have the lobster quesadilla again, but I finally decided to try out the Strath Hamburger. It was very, very good, with a profound grilled flavour. Yes, I ate the whole thing, I was that hungry.

Also good enough to eat are my beads... On the left is Ruth's mother's homemade chicken and rice soup with cilantro, and shredded vegetables. I ate so healthily at this show thanks to her mom and for which I am profoundly grateful. Anyone who does away shows knows how difficult it is to eat properly. Those luscious blue beauties are ginormous chunks of raw lapis with very clean 2mm holes. Imagine blue chocolate... that's how delicious these look.

I was given the loan of a magazine with an article documenting the lapis lazuli mining process as it is still conducted today. Absolutely mind-boggling. The photo shows a man about to hike a day or more down the mountain with a 100 kilo chunk of lapis on his back. And we complain about how tired we are after a day sitting in front of a computer. Us and our first world problems, eh?

The sense I got when I received these chunky lapis beads from Nelson Gemstones was that I was holding the mountain in my hands. They really are something.

Shots of the table as you would see it coming from three different directions. I was kind of up at the top of the T when you come in the ballroom door...

The layout of the grids was perfect. This is definitely the way to do it. People can get right up to the beads, and there was sufficient lighting, as well. I also used the bed risers on the tables, as well. It also helps to be situated near another vendor who has really good floodlighting -- that glow of light you see on the table coming out from the wall is actually from Rainbow Beads, who in terms of lighting were still a considerable distance along the wall, but that's how powerful their floodlights were.

Shots of some of the beads... this is my loose bead table.

Detailed photos. If there's anything that looks intriguing to you, email me for availability/price.

Thank you again to all my returning and new customers. You really do make the show for me and I look forward to seeing you all again. Email me with any questions and comments.

Thanks for looking and see you at the July 2014 GEM EXPO!