Leslie's Almost Annual Home Show 2010

I have an Almost Annual Home Show to sell my work before the holidays. Some friends wish I had these shows more than once a year. I love you guys! I love everyone who comes to my shows and those who track me down at dance or elsewhere to buy from me if they miss the show.

In this photo you can see a third of my display, set up in my living room. At the time we had no furniture in the room because we awaited having our floors redone. It worked great having all the extra space. The walls wrap around in a semi-circle allowing for maximum crowd visuals. The panels are MD display panels, (look for them online they are the best) with table runners (the black and tan areas) with my earrings on cards (designed by my fabulous hubs Mike), and bracelets and necklaces on tree branches and hooks I fashioned from copper 12 gauge wire. Notice the overhead lighting--constructed from Abstracta display rods and clip on lights. Good lighting is as important as good work. I also had displays on a table in another room--next to food and wine! And, I put up small cards on the display with tidbits about myself and my work--why I do what I do, about the materials in the pieces, etc.

I SO recommend hosting a home show to sell your work! It's fun just having all your different circles of pals together oohing and aahing over your work--a great marketing event to see what people like most. I send both emailed and snail mail invitations with directions to my house, and extend the invites to friends of friends.

Exhausting? You bet. But worth every ounce of energy! Fun and profit can go hand in hand.

PS: Getting a merchant account to take credit cards is a must.
Happy holidays everyone!

Tips for beading peyote rings

Everyone wants to make the peyote rings I always wear, so I wanted to share a bit of troubleshooting one beadist needed. Her dilemma was in joining the ring.

It appears to me she did not make sure there were opposite "in" and "out" beads on the ends of the strip, to enable it to be zipped up like the teeth of a zipper.














Here's my illustration of a zip-up. Notice how the red thread zips back and forth between the "out" beads. Those bead join the ends of the strip into a ring. See how they fit between the "in" beads--like zipper teeth? The blue thread path shows how to weave in your thread in a figure-8 path to secure the ring. repeat it once more (Not shown in the illustration.) Trim the end once this is finished.





























A complete tutorial to make peyote rings is for sale in my Etsy shop for $10 US.
Once you buy through PayPal, I send you the PDF. Easy! www.etsy.com/sleeplessbeader

August 2010

I only have eyes for . . .the lampworked beads of Joanne Zekowski .

evolution of Tila beads

Here's a finished cuff produced from the flat RAW foundation using the new Miyuki Tila beads. My cuff adds copper-dyed freshwater pearls, bone focal beads and round glass accent beads, with a 3-loop rhodium-plated magnet clasp from Ezel Findings.

On my table

Currently on my table: the newest TILA beads from Miyuki. They're 5x5mm flat lovelies, so far in very cool albeit limited colors. Shown here are what I call pearly ivory (TL593) and metallic pewter (TL2002).
Having two holes makes them interesting and challenging to stitch. I know lots of artists are fooling around with them and I can't wait to see what you are coming up with! Here's a sampler of my own. Basically it's right angle weave but working with two holes means a thread path that needs a real spin. My sampler will be the basis for a cuff, so stay tuned to see what ultimately develops once the base is completed. I don't even know yet what I'll do next, but with large holes in the TILA beads, there's plenty of room for embellishment and layering.

Bead Fest Philly Circle Brick class, seats available!

Sign up, learn a cool stitch!

Babes and Beads and thanks, Virginia!

Just home from an annual Babes weekend with 8 other women at the Jersey shore. More than ten years old, this tradition means food, wine, beach, more food and wine, good books, laughs, and maybe a bit more food and wine. Oh, and I bring beads.


I'm the only beader, so I play with something while we sit around and swap stories and catch up. But I sell, too– my pals always want me to bring stuff for them to buy, especially those from out of town who I don't see all year except during this weekend.


This year it was time to make some converts. Last year I brought finished stretchy cuffs for everyone. This year I had a deal: I brought huge bins of resin, Lucite and wood beads and lots of stretchy cord. Make a bracelet for yourself but you also have to make one for me.

Not everyone was into making bracelets (though everyone was interested to see the results) but I got a nice armful of cool cuffs from a few of the babes (thanks George, Sam, and Kath) and they learned about balance and scale and other design basics. It was bead camp!


I was inspired to stretch from my usual symmetry (such as the cuffs at the top of this blog) by Sam's multi-bead black and green cuff. Hey, a bracelet of all focal beads! (Duh, right?) Here's my beachy version to remind me of Babe's Weekend 2010.


You just never know what will happen when you have babes and beads together–I also got a fabulous pasta-free zucchini lasagna recipe!