Rings & Things Trunk Show Party

So the Rings & Things trunk show arrived in San Antonio yesterday.  We had a day filled with beads and friends.

We started off the day at Anne Pearce's Jewelry & Beads.  Anne is a very talented jewelry designer who has a cute little shop stocked with high quality stones and pearls that she hand picks from Tucson each year.  Her beads are sold by the strand and by the inch!  Ann is the queen of customer service and I highly recommend a visit to her shop if you are in the area. 

We gathered a small group for a Bead Soup party at Anne's.  We each brought a strand of beads in teal, green, blue or brown.  Tossed them into the tray and gave it a stir.  We took turns scooping out spoonfuls of the random mix.  Everyone needed to bring a focal, clasp, accent beads and stringing material.  It helped that we held this party at a bead store and shopped if we were missing anything.  We could use as few or as many of the beads as we wanted from the soup.  Here are the results.

6 completely different designs from the same basic stash of beads.  Amazing, huh?

Here is my design. I cheated and came up with the idea the night before.  But what the hey, not a single Humblebead.  Oh, I might have to go back and put in a few.  I used Vintaj flower bead caps and long curved brass beads.  I added in a little raw brass chain from Ornamentea.

After two hours of beading, we headed over to the trunk show where an entire room of amazing beads awaited us.

Here is part of my Rings & Things stash.  As you can see I'm in a Spring inspired color mood.  From top to bottom: amazonite, green fluorite, green rutilated quartz, pyrite, smoky quartz, botswana agate, rutilated quartz faceted rounds, tourmalated quartz, rock crystal, blue lace agate, lepidolite and mica sunstone.  Along with my beads I picked up chain, wire and a few memory pendants.

More pictures from our party.