Of Peak Fest and Tiny Bees

Peak Fest was fantastic! This was my first time doing a spring show and I really enjoyed it. My location was perfect. The weather was gorgeous. Turnout was excellent. Lots of people were shopping for Mother's Day - I had moms oohing and aahing over things and in a short while the dad and kids would return to buy it in secret.

Setup was (mostly) a breeze and my helpers were super fast. We had it all arranged in record speed! This time I had put all my jewelry in little zip-lock bags instead of layering in boxes. Opening tons of little bags was a bit tedious, but the good part about it was that there were no tangled chains and cords. I had separated the bagged jewelry into two boxes - one with jewelry I wanted set out at the start and another with duplicates and replacements for later. For my earrings, I had tacked screen onto a couple of the hanging boards, hung the earrings, and wrapped the whole thing in plastic wrap to keep it all in place. All that had to be done at the show was hang and unwrap!

All in all it was a great day and as always I was a little sad when it ended and it was time to take everything down. But the next show will be here before we know it!


I took a few days off after Peak Fest to recharge my creative batteries. I did a little of this and that, and started cleaning up the huge mess that had erupted during the final days of mad panic before Peak Fest. Today I finally broke out the clay to try something new: little tiny bees.

They're fun and colorful - an adaptation of my favorite stacked beads using alternating colors. And they are tiny! Only about 7mm long. I do love making small things! I started with 18 little bees, but when I finished photographing (my backdrop was the deck rail) there were only 17. One had escaped into the grass and leaves below! Note to self: be more careful with the little beads!!

I have new critters (new species this time) in the works and also some texture beads I'm going to be starting tomorrow. See you all then!