Back From Bead Fest - It was a success!

We just got back and iKandies wanted to share our experience at our first Interweave Bead Fest.  While much smaller than the Bead and Button Show in Milwaukee, it was still a large venue with much to enjoy.  Our first stop Friday afternoon was the Bead Expo in the Great Philadelphia Expo Center.  Over 300 vendors were represented selling  gemstones, chain, glass, crystal, pearls, metals, findings, and everything in between. A shopper would need several days to make the rounds to all the vendors....

Where do I start?

... So we tried to visit as many of them as we could.   We brought home a few new items ...

Gemstones

Crystals

SilverSilk

New Tools

We also took a few classes and here's one of the bracelets we made, "Wild Woman Bangle" taught by Debora Mauser.  It combines pure copper with brass, sterling silver, Swarovski cyrstals, and found objects such as nuts and bolts.

Our overall experience was great and we really had fun learning new skills.

Bead Fest Philadelphia

Bead Fest is a bead and jewelry show where jewelry designers at all levels of expertise enhance their skills or learn new skills from talented instructors.  Added to this is a Shopping Expo featuring hundreds of exhibitors displaying beads, gems, tools.. everything you need to design beautiful jewelry.  Bead Fest Philadelphia is the largest show of its kind on the East Coast with 170 workshops and 350 exhibitors.  No wonder iKandies is excited about attending this event!  

We recently began exploring the world of metal working at the Bead and Button Show in Milwaukee.  Here are a few pics of a Fold form bracelet that was constructed at that show:

Adding texture to copper piece

Getting ready to fire enamel to a copper piece

            For Bead Fest we decided to sign up for two of Debora Mauser's classes:

Squiggles Cold Connections

Wild Woman Bangles

We'll post the results of our classes when we return from the show!