Sally Rossler Trunk Show, this weekend!

First Friday events - June 2015

Tonight we are celebrating First Friday with a special Tina Given's sample sale, a kit premier AND a free Gunshot Tassel-making project. We are the perfect place to start your weekend! Friday's schedule Breakfast and Beads  8:30-10:30 Clothing Sample Sale  12-9 Cocktail Sampling 5-8 Free Gunshot Tassel making 6-8

Make it at the red table...

tonight! Tonight join us for a special FREE First Friday project, the Gunshot Tassel Keychain, from 6-8 pm. We'll be offering this special First Friday project in conjunction with our Tina Given's Sample Sale, taking place Friday ONLY from 12-9 pm. You'll be able to create a fun tassel keychain using a recycled bullet casing and scraps of fabric designed by Tina Givens. This project is suitable for ages 10+ and does use a smelly glue to affix the tassel.  The Tassel project is free (one per person) Friday night and will be $4 per tassel for the month of June.

my weekend picks- Sarah Tector will be at Quercus Studios tonight and tomorrow with her newest jewelry learn more here Samantha will be at the Patchwork Market in Durham (at Full Steam brewery!) learn more here SO MANY of my favorite artists will be at the Larkspur Party this weekend. A beautiful setting for amazing art.learn more here

Okay, I'm headed off to the VAE Ignite Creativity Conference...I'm participating in the 'How to find a store' panel this morning! learn more here But first, a cup of coffee!

Bollywood Beads Trunk Show

This week we are welcoming Arun Shah of Bollywood Beads for a trunk show at our shop. He'll have an amazing selection of precious and semi-precious stone beads for sale. If you are looking for special beads for a wedding or other event, this is the show!

Keith O'Connor Trunk Show

To see the Keith O'Connor beads we currently sell on our site, visit this page.

Join us Friday and Saturday for a trunk show of his complete line.

Humblebeads Trunk Show - two days remain!

We've an incredible collection of one-of-a-kind Humblebeads in our case right now. Created by Heather Powers, these beads and pendants are lovely and-surprise-lightweight! Heather creates her art beads out of polymer clay, meaning you can create earrings and more with them, easily!

This collection, or what remains of it, goes back to Heather on Thursday. If you'd like to add a few to your bead box, stop in.

What's not to love?

I love my job-

Yesterday morning I unpacked a really lovely trunk show of enameled metal components from Anne Gardanne. I got to carefully place each one and admire the shades and tones.  

Anne's work is really quite lovely; the enamel on her components is fired front and back with the same brilliant color and care. There really are not any 'bad sides' to these charms, focals and links. We've put her components in our front case and they'll be here through the 25th, but I think many styles won't last long, stop by soon to see the best selection. There are photos in the previous post of some of her fab goodies.

I've also released a new style of tutorial on our revamped Tutorials Page. Over the years, I've gotten so many requests for more complicated tutorials; and even on-line classes. The time involved kept me from being able to make this possible, but I think we've found a way. This year, we are going to add to our page of basic, fashion-driven tutorials with several more complicated ones featuring multiple techniques and in-depth instructions. These more involved tutorials will require a download fee, but I do hope you find them worth it. You can visit our new Tutorials Page right here. The newest tutorial is the Morocco Statement Necklace (shown below.)  I'd love to know what you think about it!

Trunk show

Elaine Ray bead sorting - Elaine is having a SALE!

Are you ready for Elaine's next trunk show? It's Friday, October 4th from 6-9 pm.

Skip the mall this holiday season and make your own holiday fun. We'll have a party to kick off the craftiest time of the year and you are invited. Elaine Ray will be here with a collection of her beads, including some special, one-time-only grab bags with fab prices. There will be wine tastings, delish food from D'Burritos and a free First Friday project you'll love. 

join us for:

-Elaine Ray trunks show with special sale prices on selected beads

-New product debuts, including a findings line you'll love!

-Wine tastings from Sip ... a wine store

-Food from D'Burritos

-Three fabulous drawings:

for a professional craft studio organization (courtesy of Raleigh's Green Gables Organization, a $225 value) 

for a $25 Ornamentea class gift certificate

for a Handmade Holiday starter pack, with kits and more!

-all finished jewelry samples will be 1/2 off their marked prices (so you can give handmade, without making it with your own hands!)

-we'll have a free project in our classroom (the super-sweet Acorn Earrings!)

-we'll have make-n-takes you'll love!

Oh, those beads in the pic? They are some of Elaine's sorting work for the Grab-Bags. She's planning a way for you to purchase these EVEN if you aren't local. Keep up to date with the specifics by subscribing to our Newsletter or following the store facebook page...the links are right there in the side bar >>>>>

Whew! a hard weekend...

Okay, I'm about to do that whiney thing that I HATE when people do. Consider that your warning.

I had a hard weekend here in bead land.

It was my own fault. I took my girls to The Ancestral Homeland (Ohio!) to visit grandparents, Great-Grammie, Aunties and Unkies, cousins and more. I planned on driving them up there on Sunday and then returning back to NC on Thursday afternoon, in plenty of time to greet our visiting artist (Diana of Suburban Girl Studio) and get all set up for her trunk show AND Carol Owen's class this weekend. Of course, the trip would be a bit squeezed in but if I don't go when I can squeeze it in, I'll never go.

So I went. We went.

The trip up was kinda, sorta uneventful. We stopped at our favorite mid-way place, Tamarack, and bought some hand-made goodies. We ate too much Easter basket candy. We listened to podcasts and talked and watched the weather. We cheered as we crossed bridges and went through tunnels, looked for deer by the road side and laughed at the dogs in the cars driving next to us. Even my speeding ticket in Meigs County, Ohio, didn't dampen the fun.

The visit was fabulous. We had a week of really, really awesome visit fun that included tons of cousin-play time, fancy hair-do's with Auntie, our first-ever Varsity Men's Volleyball game (go Rocks!) and a tour of an inspiring Mark Rothko show at the Columbus Museum of Art. We hugged and chatted and laughed and talked. Then we got up really early to come home so I could begin the weekend.

Uh-oh. Snow, traffic, snow, more traffic, accidents on the side of the road, keep the gas tank full, more snow, is it April?, completely stopped traffic, glad we stocked up on snacks, let's turn the van off for a while to conserve gas, MORE SNOW?!?, traffic moves, exits are closed, more snow, traffic moving again but heck, it's so late, time to get a hotel room.

We finally pulled off in Bluefield, West Virginia only to find out that everyone else on Interstate 77 had thought to pull off for the night, as well. There were no hotel rooms, even at the hotel next to the biker bar and 'adult entertainment' venue. We finally pulled in to a booked hotel just to eat our take-out dinner in the lobby and use the bathroom. When I asked them where I could buy 3 sleeping bags at 11:00 pm on a Thursday in Bluefield, Nick the Night Manager took one look at my worn-out face and my two tired girls and convinced two unrelated guests to share a room so we didn't have to sleep in our van. Thank you, Nick of the Quality Inn in Bluefield. You are awesome. King-sized bed + snuggly Mom in the middle of two tired girls = perfect night.

The next morning we awoke a bit late and strapped ourselves back in to our seats to come home. I hit the ground running and tried my best not to look too road-worn as I helped Diana set up and found her hubby, Colin, the perfect BBQ in our very own parking lot. On Saturday, Diana had a fabulous day of bead-selling at Ornamentea  (including a door-busting, early morning visit from her posse who traveled many miles to see her!) I probably wasn't at my best all day; I was still worn out and even disoriented, but the day was really fun.

And that Crunchie bar? A gift from Diana. I ate it Sunday morning, with a cup of coffee. Yes, it was really delish. Somehow, the Brits really do get candy just right...

Handmade Holiday Party Wrap-Up

 

The Handmade Holiday party last Friday was a lot of fun. We had a free project in the classroom. That's Jarin, one of our newest staff members teaching 12 people at one time. We believe in throwing you in the pond so you can learn how to swim! I'm just kidding, Jarin is an experienced crafty-gal and she had those ladies crimping link pros in just minutes.

 

This is the poster from the folks at Fiction Kitchen. They did our fab catering and can I tell you how wonderful the savory scones were? Wonderful. The pepper jelly? Just right. The pumpkin butter? Well, I could have drunk the entire glass full! Seriously, Caroline and Siobhan can COOK and we were so happy to have them there for our party. We collected donations for their kickstarter. They are opening a vegetarian restaurant in Raleigh very soon. You can visit their page here and learn more.

 

We always have prizes for customers who come in holiday-themed dress. This is one person who was not afraid to let her Christmas-spirit glow! 

 

Here are some folks quizzing Caroline about the Fiction Kitchen plans. Those ladies would have made dinner reservations if they could.

 

What does our staff do when the customers go home after a successful night? We drink at the counter, of course! Here are Brenda, Janet and Sara modeling our new store tee-shirts. The shirts were designed and printed by Kelly Smith-Tilley of Tiny Peepers just for us. So far, Kelly has only printed up a staff version, but she's working on one for us to sell. Watch this space for an announcement about how you can get your own Ornamentea shirt. 

What didn't you see in these photos? The incredible sale items (50% off lots of great stuff!), the beautiful trunk show by Elaine Ray with lovely, one-of-a-kind beads, ME (I was eating delish scones and talking Elaine into making me more red beads!)  

If you missed the party, make sure to sign up here for our newsletter so you don't miss another event this season.

Cascade Glazes are back!

Elaine Ray will have some of her favorite Cascade Glazes at the October trunk show. If you remember these drippy, mixed-color glazes from a few years back you'll know why we are so excited. The glazes present a mix of tones and look like wet paint. These pictures don't begin to do them justice!

Join us at the trunk show-if you aren't local we suggest you stay at one of these hotels, located near the store:
Days Inn ( a short walk away!)
Clarion Capital (a short walk away!)
Sheraton Downtown (a 15-minute walk or a free, R-line bus ride)

New Bead Shapes from Elaine Ray

These are some snapshots from Elaine Ray, featuring two new bead shapes she's trying out at her fall trunk show. You can come see them in person at our store on Friday and Saturday, October 5th and 6th. Elaine always creates new shapes and plays with new glazes in the months before a trunk show-this year she's been very busy.

What do you think?

Get the trunk show details here.

Book Signing and Make-n-Take

WHAT? Even more authors? What do we mean?

Well, Lorelei Eurto, Erin's co-author on the book, will be joining us for the evening.

Yes, I am super-excited. This book has gotten rave customer reviews here at the store AND Erin and Lorelei are two of my favorite beading peeps. I'm so excited to have them joining us for a fun evening of book-signing, the fun make-n-take AND our great $100 Fibers Kit Giveaway.  You should join us. Click here to get a free event ticket, that way I'll know how much wine to buy. Your event ticket can serve as your entry in the giveaway, too!

Oh, another AND...we are having a trunk show Friday and Saturday. Beads of stone and glass...we open early on Friday at 8:30 so you can come by before work. Tell them there was traffic. 

Elaine's new bead shape...and how she works

This is a new bead shape from Elaine Ray...a square version of her washer. She wrote about this bead:

'A new bead shape: Many of you know how I work - think of a new bead shape, make just a couple and see how it is to glaze and fire them, then make a handful more to get a success / failure rate, and then decide if I want to make them in production. But not for this bead - I was so excited with the first flash vision in my head I didn't bother to think it through and just jumped in and made 100 in each color of clay I use (buff, brown and white). My plan was to glaze the flat side and leave the skinny edges of clay showing, sort of opposite of my washer beads. As soon as I attempt to glaze the first one of those 300 beads it hits me - this won't work! The glaze will run and stick to the wire in the kiln unless I'm super, super, super careful when applying the glaze and use only glazes that don't run. Well, I'm not capable of being that careful and most of my glazes run. Hmmmmm - I can't just toss out 300 beads so I figure I'll just glaze them same at the washer beads and say good bye to the shape forever.

BUT - now I'm loving the shape and edges so will most likely make more and more of them.'

Oh, Elaine, we agree! I can't wait to see these at the Trunk Show at Ornamentea on Friday and Saturday. I can think of about ten projects that I need these for...and there will be a fab class with Lorelei Eurto on Friday night where I could use the beads if I want...this is going to be a great weekend!

Trunk Show Friday and Saturday...see you there!

Elaine Ray Beads Retiring...

We are retiring select Elaine Ray beads to make room for new ideas she has cooked up. You can order these soon-to-be-gone styles right here at Ornamentea.com. If you want to know what she's up to, come see her on Friday or Saturday this week at the Double Trunk Show. She'll have some of her newest glazes and shapes for you to see and purchase. You can even talk with her about what you'd like to see or show her your designs. Elaine loves to make beads but she really loves to see what other folks do with her beads. 

The necklace above is by someone...I have the picture but no name attached to it. Obviously, the disc bead is Elaine's. If this is your necklace, please let me know in the comments! I love it!

Loriola Trunk Show this Friday/Saturday

Trunk Show Preview

16th Street Designs Trunk Show

Lisa Daly will be at Ornamentea with her lovely glass beads on July 16th and 17th. I love her exuberant use of color and her patterns. I'll see you there!

Humblebeads Trunk Show held over!

We've had a great response to the Humblebeads Trunk Show at Ornamentea and we've talked Heather into letting us keep the beads for a bit more. I made this sweet birdie necklace and have some earrings sitting next to me here at the desk that combine some of the brown swirly disc beads and Elaine Ray's ceramic bead caps. Mmm... I didn't actually finish the necklace yet. I think I will crimp the silk cording strands and then use a toggle, but I can't decide. For now I just knot it and that is one of the nice things about those silk strands; you can take your time to decide what to do with them!

Heather sells her beads on her websites, but rarely can you see them in person in North Carolina. She's the featured designer in the October issue of Bead Trends and her work is often used in projects in all the other beading magazines. We have the Humblebeads Trunk Show through October 6th...