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!
Kristi Bowman showing off some beady eye candy!
Me, acting silly and holding several strands of beads by my ear, as though they were super-beady earrings.
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Visit the BTW Flickr group and see what others have on their bead tables.
Linda's Bead Blog & Meanderings 
LOL Linda, we had fun girl!!! You did better getting pictures than I did, I only got 2 and one of them wasn’t worth sharing lol!! Until next year, hopefully we’ll meet again before that.
I’m so glad we could go together! I had a couple of pictures also that didn’t deserve to see the light of day! Hope to see you again soon.
Theresa and I went as well and i fell in love with several booths like Anne E. Mitchell, Primitive Earth Beads, Handfast Design by Kim Fox, etc. The man from Primitive Earth Beads, was rather snarky and short with customers. I gave him my mom’s best “stand down” look and he wandered away. If owners don’t want to be there, why come? Anyway, we had a good time and went out for lunch afterwards. A good day. Oh, and I bought some beautiful lampwork glass yo yo beads. Cool!
Hi Linda,
This event looks WONDERFUL!! Beautful temptations re everywhere. I live in France and I have not(yet) seen an expo just for beads(usually they have just big crafts or DIY fairs instead).
I realize that I still have so much to learn before even having a personal style. Though my most recent experience with memory wire bracelets tells me that I can do more. It just takes practice and time.
Cheers!
Hey girl, all you need to do is step out and create. If memory wire is the first step, you can create lovely things with beads, semi-precious stones, etc. You have a person style; just tap into it. Best wishes!
You’ve hit the nail on the head: practice and time! YouTube is a great resource for tutorials to expand your skills. And reading lots of bead blogs will expose you to many different styles. Enjoy the adventure!
I love your blog post on the PSBF, Linda. The pictures are great too and thanks for saying such nice things about my shop! xo
My pleasure, Lois! I love your shop!!!
Looks awesome. I would love to know who made the polymer clay chickadee and accompanying leaves.
She was a local person who, unfortunatly, does not have a website. We told her she needed to be online, especially since people will want more of her work after seeing it at the show.
Fun fun Fun and great pictures!! 🙂
It really looks as though you two had a great time together and found some beautiful beads. Thanks so much for sharing the fun!!
I love these kind of posts to show us what you bought! Looks like a great time. I was shocked at how much inventory some of the vendors have. What a lot of work to set up they must have!!
Thanks for sharing! Maybe I ‘ll be able to go sometime too.
I’d love it if you could come someday, Cilla!
Hi Linda,
I have nominated your blog for an award. You can check it out on my blog.
Congrats and happy beading!
Linda, it sure looks like you had a wonderful time! And what great beads you found! I absolutely LOVE those pumpkin coral!