Congratulations to Amy Waldman Smith!

Everyone at beadFX is proud of Amy Waldman Smith, one of beadFX's lampwork instructors!

FIRST PLACE WINNER: Bead Dreams 2012 - Lampwork Beads

Cool Blue Ottoman Beads

Amy has been making glass beads since 2001 and was first asked to teach beadmaking in 2003 and has been teaching on a regular basis ever since. Amy’s attention to detail, form and symmetry are the foundations of her work. Intrigued by the possibilities of creating in glass, Amy’s work continues to evolve and change. Amy’s beads have been seen in numerous exhibits across North America and can be found in publications including 1000 Glass Beads, The Complete Book of Glass Beadmaking, encase It! and The Flow Magazine. 

 A recent article about Amy in the most recent issue of Hot Glass.

 Keep an eye on the class calendar for upcoming classes with Amy. 

You can also visit her website at www.amywaldmansmith.com to view her teaching schedule.

Calling All Canadians at Bead & Button! Party Time!!

For all Canadians and friends attending the Bead & Button show:

The folks at John Bead have asked me to tell you that they are having a party/reception on Saturday night in their suite at the Hilton hotel starting at 6:30PM Saturday night, right after the Market floor closes. Stop by their booth 935/937 for the Suite number.

Look out, Bead and Button, here I come!

Now that the renovations on our newly expanded store are almost complete, I'm off for a little R&R at the B&B. My idea of a relaxing time is to spend the day playing with teeny-tiny seed beads, so I'm taking some classes at the Bead & Button show before the market opens.

First one will be on 3-D shapes with peyote with Diane Fitzgerald, based on her book Shaped Beadwork:






The second one will be a loomwork course, and finally I'm hoping to take a course on doing Pave type jewelry using Crystallized Swarovski chatons and a new resin material.

After that, the Market begins and I'll be checking out what's new and hot in the bead business. Because Bead & Button is the largest show of it's type in North America, a lot of the big manufacturers will be there as well, showing off their newest stuff.

Oh, almost forgot. If you are going to be at Bead & Button, the folks at John Bead have asked me to tell you that they will be hosting a "Canadians and friends" reception at the Hilton Hotel after the show floor closes on Saturday night. You can find out more by visiting their booths (935/937).

Bead & Button

So who's going? I noticed with my facebook friends, is post after post of folks getting ready to go! Alas, this year yet again I'll be missing out...maybe next year (although I keep saying that) :-)

Marg is going, and I believe she has signed up for a few classes. 

For those of you who have to live vicariously through others - like myself, I found some video's on youtube to share the experience.

Keven O'grady - charming the ladies and selling his awesome bracelets :-)



This one - featuring a walk through of parts of the show for Tatiana Van Iten



This one from Softflex - Shows partially the scope of this show (huge!)

Recession? What Recession?

There may be a recession going on, but you'd never know it from looking at the crowds of (mostly) women wearily but happily dragging bundle buggies and rolling suitcases full of beads out of the annual Bead & Button market hall after a day of power shopping. The number of attendees this year may be down slightly overall, but those of us who attended made up for it.

There's still 2 days of shopping left at B&B, but already a few vendors are looking at empty hooks, wishing they had brought more stock.

I spent over 10 hours on my feet today, trolling the aisles haggling with vendors, looking for new stuff, and looking at what other retailers are selling, trying to find the next "hot" thing in the marketplace. I've restocked the store on sterling, especially clasps, new stones and found some new goodies as well. Look for at least one major new product launch at BeadFX in the coming months, as well as lots of new items to expand and upgrade our existing lines.

I also had meetings with several manufacturers in the past couple of days to order new products. There's over 50 new colours of delicas en route to the store.

Tomorrow, I'm taking a class with Judy Walker. More on that and the other courses I took here in another post.