Home Again & Exhausted

I've just finished doing ArtFest 2008, which was at Fair Park in Dallas. The architecture at Fair Park is wonderful and someday soon I have to go up there with my camera. There are seven museums on the complex and it's worth going just to look at the buildings. I couldn't find any pictures that were good on the web, but you can go here and look at a small picture of the tower building. My booth was in front of the tower building. To quote from the City of Dallas website: "Designated a National Historic Landmark, Fair Park has the largest collection of 1930s Art Deco architecture in the United States and is the only unaltered pre-1950s World's Fair site in the nation." They just don't build like this anymore.

It was pretty hot at ArtFest, and this early in the year I'm not used to the heat. The crowd there was more "arty" than many of the shows I do, and they were really looking for different, artistic things. There was also some very fine art. I was able to briefly look at some of sculptor G. M. Webb's work. He has dimensional wire work faces that are outstanding and very unique. None of his recent work is on his website. The work shown on the website was flatter than what I saw at the show. He told me he shaped the wire with his fingers, no tools.

The show started Friday evening with a wine tasting and stroll, and continued through Saturday and Sunday.

Main Street Days are Over

I'm back from Main Street Days in Grapevine, Texas. The hours were long (10 am to 11:30 pm) so it was an exhausting show. It was a good show though so I'm pleased. I sold lots of Swarovski earrings, as well as pearl and gemstone necklaces, and one of my twisted wire bracelets.

I tried out a new booth display, below. I like the way it looked so I'm going to keep doing it. Everything is heavy enough that I don't have to worry about things blowing over, although I sometimes have to weight the acrylic earring stands. The shelving unit in the back and the two wire female mannequin forms came from Hobby Lobby. They gave my display some much needed height.

From the left side of the booth to the right are:



The Pearl table.



new shelf display

gemstone table with new wire mannequins

Every time I thought to take a picture of the complete booth there were too many people walking by or in the booth.

News and Events

Last week brought news that I have been accepted to the ArtFest 2008 in Dallas, and Red River Revel in Shreveport. This is good news, but it means I really have to get busy and produce some jewelry because I now have three big shows in four weeks in May and June. Red River Revel will be in October, so I have a little more time for that one. I missed my first scheduled show, Azalea Trails, due to illness.

This week I'm setting up my canopy once again and trying out some new display features. Plus I'm going to spray the canopy top with Scotch Guard for about the 10th time. It doesn't seem to help much anymore. I think it's about time for a new canopy.

Back to work!

Happy Mother's Day

I've been lucky to have a great Mom! Here she is with Dad at a family wedding a few years ago.


I've always been grateful that Mom (and Dad) brought me up to love other people, not hate. One of my earliest memories is of a time when they protested Jim Crow laws, detailed here. Mom was also supportive when I wanted to join the police department in the late 70's. She was worried about my safety, and I know she was relieved when I retired, but she still supported me.


Mom was the second female real estate broker in the state of Texas, back when men were real estate agents. (Today most agents are women.) She taught me that women could be anything they wanted and that they could be successful in business.


Love you Mom!

Rings & Sparkly Things

I've been working on some rings from Sharilyn Miller's DVD Rings of Beauty. Here are my first results, done in copper before I move on to the much more expensive sterling silver wire. I'm pretty pleased with them.




Here's a detail shot. I can see it's going to take some practice to make a ring a particular size. I start out wrapping the wire around the mandrel, but when I secure the wire later it changes the size a little, especially on the rings with a bead. The beaded rings always seem to come out bigger than I intended. That's what practice is for though, and over all I'm excited about making them and pleased with my initial results.

Life Happens

"Life is what happens when we're busy making other plans." John Lennon

This quote is a perfect description of the last month.

It's been hard to settle down and do things because of everything that has been going on. I haven't posted anything because something so "big" happened that I couldn't not say something about it, but at the same time I couldn't bring myself to post about it either. April 3rd my mother-in-law, Billie, passed away. She had been in and out of the hospital for many weeks. At odd moments I will remember that she is gone and have a moment of panic where I can't believe it.

Here's a picture of my husband and his mother, Billie, that I took last Christmas. I really like this picture.