Bead and Button Show Recap...Finally

I had a wonderful time at the Bead and Button Show! This was my first time at the show, so for me it was all about meeting people. I was a very bad photographer during the show and hardly took any pictures. Most of these photos I stole from others, please forgive me! Anyway, I'll start right from the top. On Friday, I met up with Lorelei at the Milwaukee airport and we took a shuttle over to our hotel. The two of us stayed at the Hyatt with the lovely mother and daughter duo, Pam Wynn and Heather Wynn Millican. These two artists are sweeter in person than I imagined and I didn't think that was even possible. Once we checked into the hotel, we dropped off our things and made a bee line for the show. As we were wondering around the front registration area, we ran into Rosanne Garvison, Diana Ptaszynski of Suburban Girl Studio and Jan Onipenco of Molten Mayhem.

 Here we are with Diana Ptaszynski. She looked very pretty in this Peach top and her handmade ceramic jewelry. Lorelei is wearing one of her own necklace designs from our book, called 'Autumnal Arrangement'. Doesn't it look great on her? I'm toting a box of stuff for our space at Melanie's booth!

Melanie Brooks at her Earthenwood Studios booth. This was our home base at the show!

When we made it onto the show floor, we headed straight over to our host, Melanie Brooks of Earthenwood Studio. Melanie had set aside a whole table for us at her booth, which I thought was very generous! On the table, we set out a few copies of our book, Bohemian-Inspired Jewelry, some of Lorelei's jewelry pieces from the pages inside and my earring kits. We also said our hellos to Diane Hawkey, who was straight across from Melanie's booth. For the rest of the day, we took a spin around the showroom floor to check everything out and to meet some folks. I met many artisan beadmakers and jewelry designers I've admired online for years including, Vlad and Kremena of Golem Studios, Jennifer Heynen, Stephanie Sersich, Marla James, Sara of C-Koop Beads, Cynthia Thornton of Green Girl Studios and of course, her brother, Andrew Thornton. It's always a pleasure to see Andrew and it was refreshing to see a friendly familiar face among so many new ones!

Vlad and Kremena of Golem Studio.

While Lorelei and I were making our way around the show, getting thoroughly distracted, I suddenly remembered that Friday was Tracy's last day at the show. "Oh, we need to meet Tracy Statler. I gotta call her right now!", I said. Luckily, Tracy answered her cell phone right away and came around to meet us.

 Me, Tracy Statler and Lorelei. Tracy is one of our contributing designers from our book, Bohemian-Inspired Jewelry.

Later, we swung back down to the 'Artists Row' aisle and I met Heather Powers at her Humble Beads booth. What a pleasure it was to finally meet Heather. She is really a kind and gentle soul with so many creative and inspiring ideas. I'm looking forward to seeing her at a few other future bead events, like Bead Fest and her Bead Cruise 2013. While at the Humble Beads booth, there was another Heather there. Heather Trudeau a.k.a. The Peacock Fairy! That evening, we had dinner with her at this amazing Spanish tapas place in downtown Milwaukee. The food and drinks were so good and Lorelei and I had a fun time chatting with Heather.

On Saturday, Lorelei and I had a yummy breakfast at our hotel with Pam and Heather Wynn and Henry, too! Then, it was back to the show floor for day 2, where I met even more friends...

 I popped back over to the Humble Beads booth where I met Erin Prais-Hintz of Tresori Trovati.

Erin and I have conversed quite a bit through our blogs, so it was such a treat to meet her in person. I had a fabulous time chatting with her and Heather Powers for a few minutes behind the Humble Beads booth. Before I left, Erin gifted me with one of her 'Simple Truths' pendants. She let me pick one out from her stash.

I choose this copper heart pendant. It reads 'Listen to your heart' on the back.

Later on, I heard an announcement that Sara Oehler and Jamie Hogsett were signing copies of their new book, Show Your Colors, so I went over to meet them. I bought the book and they each signed it for me. While I was chatting with the two authors, Denise Peck showed up! I have 3 out of her 4 books. Denise is also the editor of Step by Step Wire Jewelry magazine. I know Denise is a big Lorelei fan and she seemed very interested to meet her co-author, counterpart whom she knew nothing about previously!

By now, it was almost time for our book signing at the Earthenwood Studio booth. I headed back over there to meet up with Lorelei. We had lunch and then it was show time for us. I'm thrilled to say many lovely people came by to meet us and have a book signed! We met jewelry designers, Lori Anderson of Pretty Things, Suzann Sladcik Wilson of Beadphoria, Ellen Wagner, Beverly Herman, our editor, Michelle Mach and Katie Wall from Fusion Beads, just to name a few!

On Sunday morning, Lorelei and I went to the Bead Bloggers Breakfast hosted by Heather Powers and Erin Prais-Hintz. We sat at a table with our book editor, Michelle Mach and author/designer, Jamie Hogsett. We worked closely with Michelle on our book over the phone and over email. She was a tremendous asset to have throughout the book process. It was so great to finally chat with Michelle face to face and spend some time together. Also, it was a treat to talk to Jamie and get to know her a bit better, too. After we were done eating, Heather got us all together to chat and do a little networking. There, I met Kerri Fuhr, Kristen Fagan and Carmi Cimicata. There were a few others there that I had not met previously, but I didn't get a chance to talk with them.

After that, we all headed back to the show for the last few hours. While walking through, I ran into Jill Wiseman. She is so friendly and nice. I talked to her for a little while about my new found love, Kumihimo. She just so happens to know a bit about the subject. Among other beading techniques, she teaches many Kumihimo classes at national bead show, like Bead and Button.

I didn't do much shopping during the show, but I did walk away with this stash of art beads!

Earthenwood Studio, C-Koop Beads, Suburban Girl Studio and Golem Studio.

I'm already looking forward to next year!