I am going to The Bead and Button Show! I am gearing up for the Bead and Button Show next weekend. I will arrive early Thursday morning in Milwaukee and find some breakfast, and then I have a class that starts at noon in wire-wrapped beads. At 4:00 on Thursday, they open the doors to wholesalers (like me), and we can shop till our hearts or our wallets break, and get amazing deals of beautiful glass and beads. On Friday evening I take another class on Peyote Stitch Beads.
The exhibit hall is immense and it is impossible to see it all in one day. It is impossible to see it all in THREE days! I have made a list of the booths that I need to visit, and making out that list has taken me three days! I bought some amazing strands of beads last year and I came home with a few beautiful artist lampwork beads. I intend to do the same this year.
Some shoppers are there only as collectors of art glass. The best glass artists in the country are there, and the work is amazing. The prices are high for this kind of work, and even though I won't buy any, it will be fun to look and to meet the amazing people who make it. See this dragon? Someone will get to take this home, but it won't be me. Beads start around $20 each for lampwork, and go up from there, into the thousands. But there is something for everyone, and no one goes home empty handed or disappointed. No one goes home hungry, either, since there is a nice little food court with good stuff to eat. It is a lovely carpeted, air-conditioned, well-lit hall, and I'm really excited that I get to go again this year. I just couldn't miss it! So many booths, so little time!
Besides shopping, it is always a lot of fun to meet the people who I have been talking to, buying from, or selling to all year on the Ebay jewelry online groups. I will meet some old friends, visit with some people who I have talked to a lot but never met, and I will make some new friends. I am so excited!
It will be wonderful to fill up my tote bag with new beads and goodies...and to fill up my address book with a whole lot of new friends!
I'm going to need a bigger suitcase.
Have a great day.
