Puget Sound Bead Festival

It’s Bead Table Wednesday and my bead table is filled with new bounty from the Puget Sound Bead Festival. On Sunday, Kristi Bowman and I met in Tacoma and spent a pleasant afternoon together feeding our bead addiction.

Kristi Bowman and I at the Puget Sound Bead Festival

I didn’t take many photos of the Bead Festival, but here’s what I have. The tables were all just laden with temptations! A whole lotta bling going on in this booth.

Puget Sound Bead Festival booth

And here we have lampwork on the table with finished pieces above.

Puget Sound Bead Festival lampwork beads booth

My favorite bead shop in the world, is Wynwoods Bead Studio in Port Townsend, WA. It’s a couple of hours from my house, but we visit Port Townsend fairly regularly to walk the beach and visit the many art galleries. Lois Venarchick, the owner, seems to have a particular gift for finding unusual beads and I always visit her shop when I’m in town. She had a booth at the bead festival, too. So I had to drop by to say hello.

Wynwoods Bead Studio

So, do you want to see what treasures I brought home with me? Of course you do! I was trying to be a bit budget minded, with medium success. Here’s my haul.

These lampwork beads came from Unicorne Beads. The lady at the booth was super friendly and helpful. There was a price break on purchases over $100, so Kristi and I combined our orders. The savings get passed on in reduced jewelry prices, so everyone wins!

Unicorne Glass

Most of these stone beads were among my first purchases. Kristi and I looked at these pumpkin shaped coral beads and loved them, but the price was quite steep. So we decided to move on and maybe come back later. At the end of the day, this coral was still calling our names, so we went back and bought one strand to share.

Stone Beads

Who could resist this adorable polymer clay chickadee??? I couldn’t!

Polymer clay beads and patin’ed brass charms.

Of course I also had to pick out a couple of the copper components that Kristi makes! I chose a pair of her Copper Paisley Leaf Headpins and a pair of Copper Earring Bails.

Handmade copper headpins and earring bails by Kristi Bowman Designs.

So I’ll leave you now with a couple of pictures of Kristi and I goofing off at the show. If you’d like to see pictures of Kristi’s bead purchases from the Puget Sound Bead Festival, as well as her pictures from the show itself, hop on over to the Kristi Bowman Designs blog. Enjoy!