Just Around Here

It is the end of a wonderful spring day, full of sun, light and warmth even if it was a tad noisy in the shop today due to all the construction on the road outside our front door. We are excited because, cross your fingers, paving in our beady neck of the woods should be done next Thursday. Although, like much else in life, it is weather dependent. Plus, the construction does not happen on Fridays through Sundays, so park away downtown!

We will be open until 7:30 this coming Saturday, the 5th, for Gallery Walk. We will have our classroom upstairs open for a continuing trunk show and sale along with the bead shop being open downstairs. I hope you will stop by as Lucas, who is maybe coming out of his puppyhood, may be working the shop and he loves to meet and greet!

I thought I would just show you a couple of pictures and then head off to dreamland myself for the evening. I am also posting the first blurb here about our upcoming POP UP SHOP at the BEAD SHOP, on May 11th and 12th, Friday and Saturday. The shop is a fair trade for craft supplies, baskets, candles and more from Africa and my friend Richard, will be on hand to tell you of his journey, his goods and his crafts.

Here is a picture of a very limited supply of a glass grape colored agate bead from the Czech Republic, one of my favorites. If this bead needs to hold a spot in your stash, stop in soon and pick a strand up!

Also, this lovely, vintage scrimshawed bone beads are just about gone. We still have a few remaining and if you need something special to add to your bead collection, this could be THE bead!.

Wishing you the best of sleep and a beady good evening. 

Spring!!

Spring makes me sing! The sun, the warmth, all the colors and flowers popping everywhere! Throwing open the windows in my studio and letting all that glorious light in! I may be taking a chance here but the heater has been turned off, the grass mowed about the outside of the studio door and all the the stinky, creative work I have been aching to do over the winter,  has commenced beginning with today.

The shop hours are 11 -5:30 everyday except Tuesday. You can also give me a call during those hours to make an appointment to see our trunk show upstairs or the warehouse just outside of town.  I am even entertaining the idea of a regular open studio day. Oh, but the possibilities on an endless spring day just seem endless!

ABALONE!

Then, there are abalone beads. Straight from the Philippines making me think of surf and sand and the crinkly hairdo I get from salt water spray at the ocean. Shell jewelry is perfect for your spring accessory. Mother Nature's own miniature paintings in shell form. Stop in and make up some abalone earrings or a bracelet today.

Lapis. What can I say about this gorgeous deep blue? It reminds me of the deepest seas. The bluest eyes. The sweet smell of spring rain. It is a must have bead for me. We have beads, jewelry and specimens in this beautiful stone in the lobby case.

Hoping to see you soon about the shop or downtown. Let's  go have an ice cream and talk spring and beads and dreams and of the future.

It is a wet and windy spring day. Cold enough to turn on the heater! I have spent the morning in the studio making earrings and contemplating the warmer days so I can get to my other metal and glass studio and do some new work. It has been way too long since I have been out there. I need to do some rearranging and put up some shelves too. Summer will bring on new studio adventures!

I love this picture of Kathy. She is officially retired but we keep drawing her in to both the bead shop and the yarn store. She has become quite an accomplished knitter, by the way. Last Sunday she crimped off and priced the new collection of daggers into the shop. These are the new Laser Tattoo daggers with awesome patterns on each little spike. The surface is like velvet in your fingers and how the tiny patterns are placed on the daggers must be magic! We have some that have flowers and leaves on them and some that look like peacock feathers and best of all, some that are lined as if they were an insect's wings! Those are my personal favorite. Anyhow, I think this picture of Kath in her red shirt with the long length of daggers against her, is very artistic.

And then, there are these beads. part of the Picasso finished seed bead collection we have in from the Czech republic. This color palette is a favorite. They can be incorporated into your bead work or strung on elastic to make an armload of stretchy bracelets. Perfect for the shorter sleeve weather coming up!

Just a reminder, we are keeping our new BEAD SHOP ANNEX room open by appointment, or you can ask to see it if there are two of us in the shop. The Annex is in the classroom upstairs from the bead shop and features a trunk show of gems, jewelry, artwork, sculpture, scarves and found objects and treasures. All at discounted prices. The room will be open for first Saturday Gallery Walks too from 5:30 to 8:00 ish. Like my ad says, " You have to see the selection to believe it. "
xo, Lois

Tucson Treasures & Beyond

March 25, 2018

It has already been a year, a wonderful year filled with bead adventures and lots of friendship. I have been creating as usual in the studio so my charms are abundant. I am painting and drawing and making jewelry and so much more. It is a good life and a fun living.

The event coming up at the shop is our annual trunk show and sale. Beads from everywhere, picked up in my travels and from my personal lifelong collection will be on sale and display. Prices are discounted and we will be paying your sales tax.

The date is set, MARCH 29th form 5:30 to 7:00 pm in the bead shop's upstairs classroom at 940 Water Street in Port Townsend.

Merchandise will remain on display and for sale for a couple more weeks so stop by the shop, we are open 11 - 5 ish daily and of course, you can call for an appointment at 360-385-6131.

I wrote a lovely post last night which as totally disappeared. Where do things go that you so diligently post on the internet? Is there a large  accumulated junk yard somewhere out there in the great voids of cyberspace? I am not at all sure there is not.

In any event, Happy New Year! Doesn't it feel great to have a fresh start, a new outlook, a chance to begin again? I have so many plans and ideas racing around in my head!
Drawings, paintings, charms, knitting - every minute seems like an explosive new idea arrives in my brain. I am excited to see what I can accomplish this year. How about you?

These are a few of the quotes I have saved on my desktop. I thought I would share them with you in lieu of all the other things I want to post here. Stay tuned. The ride is just beginning. Keep your arms and legs inside the life mobile and here we go!

This is a test. Only a test. Do not be alarmed. I am trying to post to the correct blog and not my yarn blog. I will let you know how it goes. Sometimes when I am working on line, I feel like a total neanderthal and can not go the way I want to travel. If only computers had been in use when I was a kid so very long ago! Much love, Lois

So this has been summer. There has been sun, lots of sun and heat, way more than I like. Time has flown by and I moved from one day to the next, from one project to the next; never forgetting to do over and over, the jewelry that customers love. I spent time thinking, drawing, making, knitting. I had awesome visits with old friends and quick rendezvous with new friends. Plants grew, a tree came down and a new one planted in its place. Always a dreamer, this little tree, like me, will grow into s strong, straight one giving so much to those who come to love it.