fun at Intergem

Yesterday, my friend Judy of Juma Jewelry and I were waiting at the door in time for the opening of Intergem’s spring show. We headed immediately for the wholesale room, to visit our favorite vendors: Sanjay of Shri Impex and Helena of Pearl Concepts. We both walked away with items we needed – small rondelles in various colors, briolettes in mystic quartz and pink amethyst and center-drilled freshwater coin pearls, as well as some things we just wanted – London blue topaz small rondelles, aquamarine briolettes, and for me, my first Tahitian pearl. We also discovered some new vendors, S. I. Gems and Beads, where I got micro-faceted, deep honey colored citrine rondelles and from Divinity Imports, smooth London blue topaz briolettes of incredible size and clarity. I think I can safely say that we had a good day.

Swiss blue topaz smooth briolettes and pink amethyst faceted teardrops

  

moss aquamarine and mystic quartz briolettes

new beads today!

Since I didn’t have to be at work until this afternoon, I took some time to visit a local bead store, beadologie, located in Berwyn, PA. I had fun wandering through the cozy space, filled with tables and chairs for workspace and beads everywhere. I found some fun beads to come up with some new designs for spring: pink crazy lace agate smooth rondelles; 20mm sardonyx discs; tiny center-drilled freshwater pearls in a rainbow of colors (I see a stack of them with a gemstone dangling below);gorgeous teal paisley jasper beads in 18mm squares and smooth rondelles; smooth pietersite rondelles (mixed with brown and bronze pearls) and some funvintage glass beads (not my usual purchase, but I came up with designs in my head right away). The owner of the store, Gina, is very friendly and knowledgeable and extremely easy to talk to. There are a variety of classes offered at the store and Gina also has special events scheduled for First Fridays in Berwyn. Make sure to stop by and get some beads!

I was sooo bad today…

at Intergem – I told myself I was doing a quick in and out out the convention center and I started off with good intentions, but then I found my friends at Vettri Gems and they always have an awesome budget bin, so I have to work my way through it thoroughly. I found some pretty multi-color sapphire tiny faceted coins, dark purple amethyst onion brios, small smooth whiskey quartz brios. Then I discovered the higher end gems, and they had some great smooth briolettes – I’ve been looking for some for months.

smooth brios and pink amethyst shields and sapphires

 

The highlight of my Vettri Gems spree were the humongous pink amethyst shield briolettes – I’ve never seen this shape before.

pink amethyst brios

After forcing myself away, I made my way to my favorite pearl vendors – Pearl Concepts. My friend Helena greeted me warmly and helped my pick out some amazing colors and some new shapes in pearls.

fall colors from Pearl Connection

unique & pretty pearls

 

Helena found a great strand of pearls that perfectly match a chalcedony drusy pendant I found today – and I found my favorite top drilled coins and keshi and found the colors I want to work with for fall designs.

Just as I was ready to leave I made a new friend: Ankit at Gem House USA, who had some unique beads, and was very knowledgeable to boot.

rondelles

 

shapes

 

Gem House had loads of awesome rondelle beads in all different sizes – bi-lemon quartz, pink and blue topaz, green amethyst and green kyanite. Besides the rondelles, there were some briolettes of moss aquamarine, moss amethyst and tiny multi-colored spinel. The most interesting beads today were:

mystic green quartz concave cut

none of the pictures I took show these beautiful beads to advantage.

After today, I am on a bead moratorium – no new beads until I make something from each bead I bought today! Stay tuned for pics of the work – no time today, tomorrow I’ll be at the Chester County Restaurant Festival, on North High Street in downtown West Chester, so come hang out if you’re in town.

Bead Fest!

I completely forgot to update you on my fun day at Bead Fest Philadelphia on August 22nd. I arrived at the Valley Forge Convention Center and met Lissa who was waiting outside. As we were waiting for Judy, I ran into a couple of friends who were on their way for a day of bead shopping (Hi Gretchen and Lindsay!) Judy made it just as Lissa and I were going to go in and leave her behind, and we made our way through the line to get tickets.

pink chalcedony, prehnite, amethyst spiral twist, multi-gems

We decided to go straight to our friend Sanjay of Shri Impex, whose showroom we got to rampage through in June. Judy met up with a couple of her friends and we spent a good hour chatting with Sanjay, in between squeals of “Look at these!” and “I want it!” While Judy was still deliberating on some final choices, Lissa went looking for lampworked glass and I discovered the pearl vendors across the aisle from Sanjay’s booth.

I found some great fall colors in pearls and some pretty light bronze large keshi pearls.

freshwater pearls for fall

I also got to see my friend Jerry of Singaraja Imports, who had my favorite filigree rectangles in vermeil as well as sterling, and T-Beads Glass – I showed her the earrings I made using her beads which are gracing my business card.

my design using T-Beads Glass floral beads

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All in all, I’d say all three of us had a successful day – Lissa’s top purchase had to be the lovely carved tourmaline leaves, the humongous crystal quartz faceted teardrops and (my favorite) amethyst slices of stalactite.

carved tourmaline leaves

faceted top-drilled prasiolite

Judy also had some amazing finds – my favorites were the white topaz and all of her pink amethysts.

white topaz faceted nuggets

pink amethyst in all shapes and sizes

There were so many great vendors at Bead Fest, I can’t name them all, you’ll have to see for yourself. I overdid myself, but I’ll recover in time for Intergem.

Stay tuned for the fantastic creations to come!

                                                                                  

the beads have arrived!

One batch arrived Monday, but I wanted to wait until I got them all to show them off. I was so excited that I finally got some smooth briolettes – I could never seem to find the size(s) I wanted, but would see them in other people’s designs. Of course, this doesn’t mean I won’t keep looking - Bead Fest in 1 week, Intergem in 1 month!

new beads!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

close-up of smooth briolettes