Tuesday, June 11, 2019

My Trip to Bead & Button Show - Part 2

To continue from yesterday's post, after our introductory dinner on Tuesday and a day of bouncing ideas back and forth on Wednesday, we got to work with torches and metal and projects. Our assigned project for the morning was to make a pin with a simple closure. That got us used to the torches they used at MATC as well as introduced us to the pin catch Andy prefers. It was a good exercise, but it was time to move on. We shared our projects at the roundtable I discussed yesterday and started work on them. The evening was spent at the "Meet the Teachers" event, getting lots of hugs from friends, old and new. It's my "feel good" event of the show every year, a chance to catch up a bit with the many creative minds I have enjoyed for decades. 



The convention center at dawn from my hotel room. It was holding
its breath for the shoppers and incredible people who would be
wandering the hallways and event rooms. 



Day 2 was spent with my lens and I drilled into it trying to discover the best way to make it happen. I wanted to set an eye at the bottom of the lens, but of course since the lens was plastic, I couldn't solder. I needed wire, and some sheet metal (both of which were sitting at my workbench at home because I forgot to add them to my luggage *sigh*. In the afternoon I switched over to the owl in yesterday's picture and fussed with that a bit. The Marketplace was scheduled to open at 4:00 pm, and even though Andy was going to hold class until the shut-down time of 5:00 p,m, I was stuck without supplies. I quit early and went shopping, ending up with two different thicknesses of copper wire and two different thicknesses of copper sheet. I looked at other booths, of course, but I only bought what I really needed. I met Karen and Paulette for Thai food that night, and was happy that I could continue work on my lens the next day. 



My finished lens. The eye at the bottom is wired in, then
there is a spiral of square copper wire moving up the side and
across the top which is held in place by a second layer
of wire wrapping. I started making a sheath for the outside,
but I think I'll change the design I had started and make it
more interesting. 



Day 3 dawned and I realized I needed to have a bit more help with angles to make this work. The bus would be there in 30 minutes and I needed a protractor. A quick power walk up a few blocks brought me to the downtown Walgreens drug store where a protractor and a pair of small scissors were purchased. Power walking back, I was in plenty of time for the bus. By the end of Day 3 I had soldered a stand and bezel for my eye, wired the eye into place, added a spiral up the lens with a wired top to hold that into shape, and I was happy. We all shared our projects at the end of the day. What a great class and so many innovative projects from everyone. Paulette was leaving right after class to drive back to Minnesota, but I joined Karen and an old friend, Lisel, for a wonderful Italian dinner and had a wonderful time. Things were moving to an end, and I'd miss the undercurrent of creativity, but I still had one more day to soak it all in. 



My bracelet and two bracelet blanks from Eva Sherman's quick
evening class. I'm pretty happy with this. I want to play more
with this technique. 



My final day, Day 4, was spent on the sales floor during the morning. I purchased a few excellent stones (and an amazing stalactite slice) from Gary - my "stone whisperer", then took a quick nap before my evening class. Eva Sherman was teaching a quick 3-hour class in "Painting on Copper". I ended up with a really nice bracelet and two other bracelet blanks ready to be set if I want. I'll be playing with this technique again. It was such fun! 



My final walk on the skyway from the Convention Center to my hotel had
this blazing sky over the western Milwaukee skyline. It was simply
exquisite. The show has changed in the 20+ years I've been attending
it - changes that are both good and bad. But more than anything else,
it is the opportunity to see old friends and be with creative people
that pulls me here year after year. 



I packed and finally got to sleep around 11:00 or so at night, and was on the road early the next morning, pulling into my driveway at home about 1:30 pm or so. What a great trip! Tomorrow, I'll try to give all of you last week's Project Runway summary. I didn't catch it all, but caught the final 2/3, and the final episode of Season 17 is Thursday, so I want to bring all of you up to speed. 




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