CREATE YOUR STYLE Lights Up the Main Line Bead Society

It was my recent pleasure to illuminate members of the Main Line Bead Society in Springfield, Pennsylvania about being a CREATE YOUR STYLE ambassador, share current Innovations and Trends, and introduce them to the www.create-your-style.com web site.

 

The group learned how we become ambassadors and what our responsibilities are in exchange for our association with the Swarovski family and legacy. They were impressed when I listed the global regions we come from and how we recently welcomed our first Russian Ambassador. They had no idea there were so few of us but that we came from so many places!

I showed them several of our sampler "candy boxes" to see how we are introduced to new innovations, our  "bible" of products and how we were recently bereft at the discontinuance of crystal yarn, to name a few of the now "vintage" products. We talked about the current hotties of gemcolor pearls, crystal rose and luminous green, as well as upcoming colors of nature blends and birthstone beads. I made up little sample bags that members passed around, and also displayed my own designs using some of those elements. 

There was no internet where they meet so I simply chatted for a while about the Create-Your-Style.com web site. No one knew about it! It was great fun to turn people on to the wealth of information and inspiration there from the interactive features such as the online design tool to the videos from the Professor of Crystal Nick Regine, the APPS, the Ambassador blogs, and the shopping! Lots of questions and note-taking ensued.

And their favorite part of the meeting... maybe, might have been, ya think? SWAG!

Thanks to the VERY generous support of Swarovski, I came loaded down with CYS gift bags for everyone with issues of Water and several packages of elements, plus a few cool things for which we had a drawing including copies of our Crystal Jewelry Inspirations (which I signed for them), color carousels, a couple issues of Sound and little books of designs and projects.

I am looking forward to workshops with this wonderful, enthusiastic bead society. I think the fave designs being considered were my Deco Rose bracelet and my Filigreellipse earrings. I'm looking forward to teaching them.

 Thanks, MLBS for such a sparkling evening!

CREATING SWAROVSKI STYLE in TUCSON 2012

The CREATE YOUR STYLE with SWAROVSKI experience in Tucson this year was beyond my expectations.
First, being together with the other ambassadors was as warm and fuzzy as it was sparkly! I heard this event brought more ambassadors together in one place than ever before.
We had a special showroom with tables to share our creationss, kits, books and more with everyone. Seeing the diversity of work and astounding innnovation in materials and techniques among us was simply cosmic.  For example, look at Diane Whiting's Crystal Balls necklace--and the issue of Step by Step Beads in which it appeared. (True story--I was the editor in chief of that magazine and brought that project in from Diane before we even really knew each other!)

Kristal Wick's collection of finished jewelry and kits featured some of the most lush combinations of crystals and her original fabric beads, plus more yummy luxe materials. if you haven't made one of her necklaces, check out her kits and her fabulous books online--because you are missing out on making something extraordinary that will have people oohing and aaahing.

The vunderbar folks from Austria presented the new shapes, colors, materials, tools, effects and trends for the next year.  Everyone was so eager to see the presentation and listen to Chris, Raphaela and Katrin "romancing the stones!" (But we missed Nicole and Marlena, who could not attend.) Here are ambassadors Debi Simon, Brenda Schweder, Kelli DeFries and Stephanie Dixon.
Among other new tools and web enhancements, we'll all be able to add a fabulous color wheel tool to our own web pages, showing how to mix and match all the Swarovski elements styles and colors.I love getting our little "candy box" of samples of many new elements.



Classes, workshops, and make and takes were a huge success--can you tell from my student that she was happy with her Chessboard earring project?

The newest part of the event was a showroom for Ambassadors to display (and sell) our finished work, kits, tutorials, books and DVDs, and demonstrate our favorite techniques.It was so incredible to meet people face to face! The best part for us was being together with the other Ambassadors. I am sure our camaraderie was tangible. We just love being part of this group! (And we really missed those who coud not be with us.) Personally I can't eait to do this again next year. Thank you Swarovski for making this possible (and for the nightly Happy Hours). Huge hugs to our Ambassadors who helped put it all together (Tammy, Diane, Debi). Thanks to the local bead society folks who were just as nice as could be on helping us in any way we needed.
And thanks to everyone who came to see us!


Make the world beautiful!