Tucson 2011 - Day 3

I was back at the Best Bead Show today for my second day of book signing. Being the weekend it was much more crowded. I enjoyed talking to a lot of bead crocheters and helping a few others decide to take up the craft. All they had to do was play with my pile of rope lariats and big bunch of bracelet samples. They are going to get hooked!


It was warmer and the beads were sparkling in the sun - lots of beads.


I did run into an oddity of measure though . . . I've always known that a hank of Czech beads was 12 strands of beads. Longer strands for 11/s, 8's, etc. and short strands for Charlotte's or gold beads. In 2 days I've run into 6 and 8 strand hanks as well as 12 strands labeled as a hank & a half. I looked at very similar 8/0 beads and was amazed to find that the prices on these 3 different quantity hanks were within 20 cents of each other. These were all found at retail bead shows. If you're buying beads these days I think it's prudent to count the strands if you're price comparing.



I didn't get to wander around much today as I was busy talking to people and showing them how bead crochet is done.

I did get to visit with Nikia (Buy the Kit), Betcy (Beyond Beadery) and Jill (Tapestry Beads). Dang, I knew it was a mistake to spend any time at all in Beyond Beadery . . . . I couldn't resist getting a good selection of the long Magatamas from her. She had some very nice colors and mixes. I guess I'm going to have to try the Dragon Bangle from the latest issue of Bead work. Then I will have to try and translate the idea into bead crochet. The problem is that the beads are directional and will have to be strung in a strict sequence to get them to angle in the same direction.

I guess 18 tubes of long Magatama drops is a small bead purchase at a bead show.