Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Getting ready for the Festival!

Hi everyone! I'm one of the newbies, Susan Kennedy, of SueBeads! I'm really excited to be here and be able to contribute along with an amazing mix of artistic ladies!  Thanks to Jennifer for choosing me and for providing the forum for this wonderful blog!

I thought today for my first post I would tell you what has been taking most of my time for the past month.  I am vending at the Delmont Apple 'N Arts Festival this coming weekend (Oct 6-7) and is supposed to be a really big one (35-40K people)!  I'm nervous - this will be my first year with good weather.  Last year we had a monsoon for the entire weekend, no one really came to the show, and we all closed up early on Sunday.  This weekend is supposed to be incredibly beautiful, so fingers crossed!  I hope I have enough inventory but at this point, it is what it is!  This will be a learning experience for me.

I have been concentrating my time on things other than jewelry - I have a lot of jewelry left from last year, and my jewelry doesn't really seem to sell.  It's priced maybe a bit higher because of the art beads and sterling I use. One thing I have been doing is melting glass bottles in my kiln!  I make recycled wine bottle cheese trays, and recycled beer bottle spoon rests!  They are fun, and I love that they are using up something that would otherwise go to a landfill!  We all have do do our part!  I can make two of these a day, one all day, and one all night.  The kiln has to get up to 1500 degrees to melt the bottle flat.  Then it slowly over hours and hours ramps down until you can take it out and have your finished product.
And of course, I have to make beaded wine bottle stoppers as well!  This is only a sampling, I have a large variety of colors that I make.  I really have fun with these and they are a nice, affordable hostess gift or holiday gift!
I have been making window ornaments as well.  I make the ornament hanger, out of silver plated 20 gauge wire, and I connect the hanger and the beads I made to vintage chandelier parts!  These are fun too!
I have also been spending a lot of time making bracelet beads.  I really enjoy making them and, even thought I don't even have or wear my own european style bracelet, I know lots who do!  I am making them mostly in sets of 5, because I think they would be great on a bracelet with a bunch of the silver spacers! 
Of course, I have some other items including jewelry that I'll be selling as well, but I just wanted to show you the things that I think are really fun!  So thanks for hearing about my show prep - I'll let you know how it goes!  Wish me luck!

16 comments :

  1. Best of luck for lovely weather & excellent sales!

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  2. Wow, I love the melted bottles and the wine stoppers and the ornaments and the beads. You are one talented lady. Good luck on your show.

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  3. Welcome Sue!!! I love those melted bottles, what a great idea. Too bad they take so long :( You've been working hard my friend, I wish you much success at the Festival!!

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  4. Good luck on your show this weekend! I am getting ready for the Arts Festival in Annapolis the following weekend and hope it goes well. They changed the date this year from September to October and it is the same weekend as the boat show, so I am not sure what to expect. Keeping my fingers crossed. If it doesn't go well at least I will be well stocked for the holiday season!

    I love that you are recycling wine bottles! Any beads made from that glass in your future?

    So great to see you on the Art Jewelry Elements site!

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  5. Welcome to Art Jewelry Elements. Wishing you a successful show! It's fun to see the non-jewelry related items.

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  6. Those bottles are the coolest thing I have ever seen! I love that you made art out of would be trash. Thanks for helping to save the environment and making beautiful art at the same time!

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  7. Love the window ornaments what better way to admire your gorgeous beads all the time...

    Have a GREAT show!

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  8. Love the bottles!!! You are so clever! So happy we are newbies together!!

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  9. Welcome from another newbie! I enjoyed reading your first post and finding out about the non-jewelry items you make. Wishing you loads of success this weekend! I have a show too, though not nearly as large.

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  10. One more newbie reporting in! I have a festival in Alexandria VA - it is def. show season. But its nice to be outside, there will be pumpkins, and friendly people. Sue - I hope the show is great!

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  11. Good Luck! I would love to shop in person!

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  12. Love the cheese trays and sppon rests...LOVE!!!!! I wish you the best of luck at your show and look forward to reading your future posts!!

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  13. Wow, you have really been productive! Those spoon rests are great! What a great way to recycle! Good luck at the festival!

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  14. Those window ornaments are so cool, love the way glass looks glistening in a window, would make great tree ornaments as well! Hope you have a great show!

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  15. Sue, I am so impressed with all of the many things you create other than lampwork and jewelry! Your ornaments and recycled glass spoon rests are so pretty and unique. I'd stop by your booth without a doubt if I were at the craft show....and I definitely want one of those cool spoon rests!

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