Texas Beader's Retreat

hi all, well it is hard to believe it has been 4 dys since the retreat concluded! I guess it took me longer to recover than I thought, LOL! My GF Nancy Trickett-Ransom & her friend JoAn came early on wednesday. We went out to eat Cracker barrell and it was awesome. Then we went to a special late evening jewelers party at Brazos Collection in Salado, tx-When we got there we realized it was a trick!! Not much party but alot of beads begging to come home with us, LOL. Then thursday the rest of the gang came in Katy Welch, Beth Dobbins both came in from Arkansas in the train and we waited for the last of our group Sharon Campbell from Wemberly, Tx but then found out her mother was ill and she might not be able to come at all. we were not happy since this was our 6th year at the retreat as group. so now we all went to the Hilton Garden Inn in Temple,tx where the retreat was being in held. The ballrooms were opened early for us to set up and start beading, woohoo, we set up our places but the "table" we always used had been usurped!! OMG how could we sit in a different table after 6 years?? The newbies had taken over our spot and of course we had to be nice about it... we took the table next to it instead, with a little grumbling. We still ended up being the same number though #10 so it was ok. The newbies turned out to be pretty nice so we were glad they took our table in the end, LOL Here they are with our Nancy (far left)

We were surprised (but should not have been) at the amount of people that were there for "early beading" the actual retreat did not start till friday afternoon! so almost everyone was there already, sharing ideas, showing beautiful things that they had made and SHOPPING! Oh yeah one of the most fun things about the retreat!! We have a regular vendor Jane's beads and fibers, but some of the ladies make lampwork beads and sell them at the retreat and a couple of the gals have there own stores and brought beads (as long as they were different than what jane carries) so we were shoppng, oh, yeah!!!FUN!!! This is Crystal Gilbert of Crystals Lampwork and next to her was Donna montez of D&M beads.

There are alot more things to say and add on here so, hang on, i am going to post this one and then start a new one. I am no good at the saving and editing stuff, LOL See you in a minute......

13th annual Texas beader's retreat Jan 19-22

Well, I am getting all excited about the upcoming retreat right here in my hometown of Temple,Tx- I have been contacting vendors for donations to my yearly goodie bags and the response has been fantastic! I have met some awesom folks doing this every year, and enjoy it tremendously. I will be doing a little blurb on each donor this year , just so everyone out there can see for themselves what awesome folks we have out there to work with! The economy has been beating up a lot of the small businesses this year and I am sorry to say that all the consignment shops and places that I was showing my jewelry at, have gone out of business. I hated losing my favorite nail salon too. I haven't had nails put on since she closed! :( I guess this is the year where all of the little businesses need to stick together and help each other even if it is just a "hey, check this store out on the "net" to friends or actually buying from the stores when you can. I hope it is not as bad everywhere else as it is here but everytime I look around another biz has closed. Even the big biz places are changing hands alot.
God, how did I get on that sad road? Back to the retreat! I will be posting pics all week and afterward of everyone having fun at the retreat and all the beautiful jewelry that will be made, and maybe a few candid quotes from some of the beaders! My gals that have been my table mates since we all started going to the retreat as newbies 5 years ago are all coming again and will be adding to the hilarity to come!! Nancy T from kansas, Beth and Katy from Arkansas, Sharon from Wimberly,Tx, can't wait to see you guys!! OK, well, that is all for right now, got to go watch a movie with my Baby boy(25yo-6'5"- 325 lbs,LOL) I will be back here soon to chew your ears off!! Dori

Christmas Eve

Hello Everyone,

I have been neglecting this blog for many reasons but need to get it together and start posting at least weekly with updates on the biz and growth and just general stuff, LOL Well, it has been a harried and busy holiday season for me(even though i have been off from my day job thanksgiving, today and tomorrow-1st time in like 40 years) I was trying to get work done, fill requests, make eye catching stuff to sell, attempt to shop for my grands to mail a package to them and also keep up with facebook. Whew, it is pretty hard to do. I pretty good sales this year , with more higher end sales and large sales than usual. On the other hand all of the littel businesses that i was showing at have goen out of business so, I do not currently have any place to show stuff except on Ebay(which i am hearing more & more is not friendly to tiny biz like mine)and on facebook. Allthough i have not actually sold anything from MY postings on facebook, I had been helping my DIL learn to make jewelry and she had posted just to family and done pretty well. I did end up selling several pieces to her family also, which was nice. I also got a couple of orders for particular items from those postings also. I have to figure out how to use facebook better, i have gobs of friends on there and mopst are other artists. I locve to follow them and see how they are doing but I have so many posts on there that i can never find mine or see if i have any answers to them. There has to be a way to thin the posts without having to completely leave someone off. I just have to find time to figure it out. Well, I am really looking forward to the Texas beaders retreat in january here in temple, I have not even started on the goodie bags i have been doing the past 2 yeafs so ,don't know how well that will go but going to work on it while i am off next couple days. I need to get more memory for my computer too. it takes forever to upload pics or list stuff now vecause it is so slow and low on memory and I have a tendency to avoid time consuming things, so not much is listed right now, Got to fix that too. Also have to get to work on some silversmith stuff now that the holiday rush is over, so busy making lots of quick stuff to sell that i haven't concentrated on making higher end pieces that would sell for higher prices which is where i will have to go to make this biz profitable enough to actaully do it full time. I also would like to vet into making kits, patterns, tutorials and possibly teaching. One of my dear Freinds Nancy ransom started teaching at retreats last year and is enjoying it and says it is not hard to do. I always worry about Murphy's law though cuz i think i am kin to ol' murphy or at least his decendant, LOL. well, this is getting pretty long and i am guessing if you made it this far, you truly are bored to tears, LOL. I will write again soon. Wonder if it would do any good to post pics here of stuff? hmmmmm you never know!

TTYL-Dori

well, here i am again

hi anyone, lol I have been terribly negligent in my blogging but since i just signed up for a blog bead party at "pretty things" I suppose i ought to write some things here. I have not only been bad in the blog but in my jewelry creating as well, don't get me wrong, the brain is always scouting, arranging and trying to produce things, it's just the ol' body that does not follow through!LOL I have been working quite a bit on my "real" job of home health nurse here lately and it is so doggoned hot here in Texas(109 today)
that I truly have come home and crashed in front of the A/C every evening.I have filled several orders lately also for regular customers as well as new ones. I have my son going out talking me up here lately and he has gotten me several new customers!! I have a show on friday at a local assisted living home and am pretty excited about that. One of my customers(and Dear Friend) Ardenna is the wellness nurse there and has asked me to come show my jewelry. I was thrilled to be asked! When i am done with that i will be putting everything else that is already made up out in my little booth at Snickelbritches in Temple(in case you want to check it out). I then plan to get to work on Christmas gift type stuff. I want to play with the silver a little more and I have been contemplating incorporating some leather stuff and steampunk into my jewelry. I have lots of ideas , now to just get them to fruition! well, I need to finish up a couple of nurse notes and then complete a wire wrap necklace i made for a friend that I will be seeing tomorrow. i will let everyone(or anyone, LOL) know how the show turns out! thanks for coming by!

I have been overwhelmed-need to post!

hi anybody out there in blog following land. I have been working my mundane job as a home health nurse and neglecting my glamorus other identity as "super jewelry maker" LOL, so , what is going on ?? I have been filling orders alot lately, I have 2 necklace sets to make by july 4, I have a full complement of bridesmaids necklace sets to make for a wedding by middle of june. Just barely finished a crystal & pearl set for a wedding that was held today! I have some wirewrapping earrings ordered also. busy, busy, busy!! My son's grandmother in law passed away this past weekend and put the house in a sort of uproar. My youngest son will possibly be coming home next month, so I am excited and a little stressed by that. My daughter turns 31 in july, I have no idea how she got there, I swear I have been trying to keep her 20 for at least 11 years, LOL-I went to the local wholesale bead store to pick up just 3 things, 3!!! ended up with $70 worth of beads and stuff i could not live without and they were out of ALL 3 things I went for!!! I just wanted to check in here for a minute and put a little update in. Also a friend of mine from the cyber world has been chosen as one of the 16 beautiful minds of 2011.vote here- http://www.beautiful-minds.com/ -she is the 6th one down on the voting page. She(melody macduffie) needs our votes to earn money for her charity "Soul of Somanya" the link to her page is on my favorite links list and it tells exactly what the money goes for. I fully support this endeavor. It is literally a life saver!! Thank you in advance!! well, I will close for now, lots of jewelry to make, look for some posts tomorrow?? If nothing earth shattering happens, LOL

results of silversmithing a ring without help

hi all, well, I finally got all the tools and equipment for silversmithing except for the polishing stuff and set up my little work area and decided to make a new ring with no teacher this time. I set out doing pretty well but when I got to the part where you solder the band to the top of the ring my torch started acting weird, first when I lit it only a portion of the flame came on at first. and after I got it going good, no matter what I did it would make a whoosh of flame then go out. I tried changing position, different levels of flame and holding it at varying degrees from the piece but it kept doing it. I sent an Email to Don asking if it was just a bad cannister or if I needed to do something different. I did get a little ring completed and pickled and all but I am not going to post pics till I get the polishihng stuff to make it pretty. I should be able to post it by next weekend if not sooner. On other things, I have several orders to fill for jewelry and have GOT to put more items in the stores(Snicklebritches and Fingers & toes, not to mention Ebay) I have a check at the salon and $20 at a customer's house just waiting to be picked up and just haven't been able to make it out in the boondocks where she lives. I have been working alot the past few weeks and when not working I hate to admit I have been napping. I really need to get back into a productive mood, this sleeping all the time is just feeding the dang depression and I have always sworn not to let it get me. I will have to set a goal for myself to make "X" amount of pieces and post "X" amount of pieces per week or I will never get anywhere. So anyone out there want to tell me how many pieces per week I should start with?? Keep in mind I work a full time job too. LOL I am having a lady to come in one day a week for a couple hours to help me get some kind of organization in my bead room, I had originally planned to hire Gail Goddard(she is a professional organizer and a beader) to do this with income tax refund but did not get near as much as I thought I would back so had to try a different route. Well, I guess that is all the biz stuff for this week, kinda slow because of the stupid sleeping. I will post the little ring later in the week and maybe I will make something else too. I do have to get some beading done though, for real!! LOL TTYL

last weekend silversmithing class with Don Norris

well, I got to take the class and had a blast! One of my good friends Dionne went with me and we both learned alot! Don has a vast knowledge of metals science and techniquesand he tries to teach as much of it as he can in the 2 days allowed for the class. Of course there is not enough ime to put it all in there. I really enjoyed the class and made a cool ring that has already had 2 offers to buy it(though as my first, I will not sell it)

Don showing us a Tip"no fiddling"

Don admiring a classmates wirework

Don showing us how to use torch

Back side of my ring

• My creation-Lapis stone and a good luck gecko