Philadelphia....Here I come!

Tomorrow at the crack of dawn I am off to Philly for the Spring Bead Fest where I will find over 150 jewelry making supply vendors selling their wares. Beads of course! But also tools, metals, findings, cords, leathers, silks..... treasures!  This spring they offered over 100 in-depth workshops presented by well know jewelry designers and teachers. I am signed up for the soldering boot camp Saturday with Kate Richbourg author of Simple Soldering. A Beginner's Guide to Jewelry Making.  Check out her blog spot We Can Make That at Home.  So....shop shop shop tomorrow and Saturday I'll  be firing up the torch playing with fire and manipulating metals for nearly 8 hours.   Yahoo! If anyone is interested the Philadelphia Bead Fest in August is even bigger!

This is kind of a boho/hippie set I made recently. I found the lovely, artist signed, handmade flower pendant focal at the D.C. Big Flea.  It was in a big box of estate jewelry and the woman selling told me to pick out anything I wanted that she would give me a great deal. She did!  I came out with a pile of beads and baubles for 15 dollars. This pendant alone was worth it to me. Anyway I attached some leather cord and with adjustable sliding knots so it can be worn as a long pendant or as short as a choker. 

Can you believe I had all of these beads that match the pendant so well in my stash!  I made the clasp out of the same leather cord.

Matching dangling earrings. This was my first attempt at enameling. I made the headpins myself using copper wire and blue opaque enamel.