winter wonderland

I’ve been busy this week, making up new pieces for my last show of the year, the Rock Bass Rainbow Fest, which is next Saturday – December 12th, in Philadelphia. There will be new fidget necklaces, a couple of new bracelets and of course, lots of earrings.

Something pretty to look at – the first snow of the season occurred today in suburban Philadelphia, and I was lucky enough to get a couple of shots of it from my front door, before the snow stopped. I love watching the snow fall at twilight – it is so quiet and atmospheric. I will be adding this picture to my idea notebook.

first snow from the front door

woo hoo!

About half an hour ago, I received the email I’d been waiting all day for – an acceptance into the Rock Bass Rainbow Fest! It is a weekend long festivity in December: fashion show and music on Friday, craft show and music on Saturday. 

The Festival is will be hosted by Skybox Productions and The Cohoquinoque Crew. Their goal is to help promote the Philadelphia Area’s emerging artists.

The festival will be held at The Skybox, at 2424 Studios.

2424 York St. Philadelphia, PA 19125

The Festival’s Schedule is as follows:
Dec. 11 – Fashion Show, Live Music  and Dance Party
Dec. 12 – Arts & Crafts Fair with Live Music

Rock Bass Rainbow Fest

new show

Participated in a new show yesterday – Homegrown: Manayunk’s Fall Festival. It was quite a day, I arrived in Manayunk at 7:14 am, thinking we had to been in by 7:30, and discovered I was the first vendor there – they were still towing cars off of Grape Street so that vendors could set up. Got everything set up and met my neighbors and then the rain started.    

Grape St. after the rain

Enjoyed the afternoon, the weather cooperated for the most part, except for occasional gust of wind.  My neighbor Trish had these great silk-screened t-shirts, so we negotiated a trade at the end of the day. Trish had been eyeing these fun green glass and citrine earrings, and I wanted all of her shirts, so we both got what we wanted!

t-shirt and scarf by Trish Siembora

 

 

 

 

My next show is the Fall Festival & Craft Show in Haddonfield, NJ, on Saturday, October 17th – see you there!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

updating

Nothing really exciting today. Spent some time on Facebook and email, making the announcement about the website launch. I also updated my shop announcement on etsy, so now I have to start posting new items to the shop. I also have to repack my vendor supplies for Saturday’s show in Manayunk.

If you’re in the Philly area on Saturday, this is a new show  – Homegrown: Manayunk’s Fall Festival –  ”The festival is a family-oriented, day-long party along Main Street, including sidewalk sales at which “homegrown” merchants will display their locally-produced items, organic foods, prepared dishes (featuring locally-grown ingredients), and environment-friendly “green” and recycled products.”  There will be music performances all day, as well as vendors, the great shops along Main Street, and of course the Farmer’s Market.

Manayunk's Fall Festival

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!