Festival #1

It was Sunday morning and we should have left an hour earlier for day 2 of the Deland Art Festival. There was a squall line headed straight for us, so we pushed our luck and headed out late. Saturday was okay but who am I to judge?

It was so unbelievably windy, there was pollen everywhere! I promised if I had the energy when we got home I was going to make a sign that said "Pardon my Pollen" for day two!

This is my first art festival and a juried one at that! I sold 3 large pieces and had two selected for judging! When we were called to retrieve our pieces from the judging area later in the day, to my surprise and delight I had a ribbon on one! I let out a little squeal and one of the staff in the room saw me beaming, she knew it was my first festival.

I was so freaking happy! All day I would let out a quiet little "yippee" when no one was around. (I should mention the check was nice too but it was the fact that I had that ribbon that made my day.)

Just when I thought things could not get any better...I was visited by two of four the Taylor Girls!Tammy, Melissa and myself.
Now, their last names are no longer Taylor but they will always be to me, as I will probably always be Barbara Lange to them.

There are far too many stories to tell about these girls, their sister and I were best friends growing up on Long Island and we have so many memories, we won't go down that path. All I can say is they warmed my heart by coming to see me! It's funny how you don't realize how much you miss a time, place or family until you are reunited many years later.

Thanks ladies, between the ribbon and your smiles things don't get any better!

Geography 101

Here's a trick question...What do New Zealand and Wyoming have in common?

Not much, that I know of, until a customer asked me to create a pendant for him.

A friend at work came to me out of desperation one day, her husband who comes from this little collection of islands know to all of us as New Zealand needed help with a stone pendant. It seems his Maori stone began to unwind itself and she needed help getting it restrung. Being my usual self and not knowing anything about this stone (or culture) I dove into a week of research. (Let this be a warning to all of you about my ways of completing projects.) Well I took to this little task and begun reading...way more than I needed too!

After 3 long weeks of trying to find just the right cord and testing the patterns, leave it to Jeff to figure it out in about 1 hour! Upon returning the stone to it's rightful owner...all were happy...and me, a tad more geographied!

Since I usually don't take payments for "simple" repairs the happy couple came to my booth at the Farmers Market and my friend purchased a necklace from me that she had been eyeing. I let her husband peruse though my box of stones and he selected a large Turritella Agate that I had just received that week from Mike at Gemcutter to be set for himself!

Upon setting the stone I really wanted to do something special on the back and after about an hour of looking at other Maori patterns I decided to simply cut the 3 (main) islands into the back of the base...here is the result:

So if you are ever presented with the question; "What do New Zealand and Wyoming have in common?" you can simply answer "Two Bee's Designs" and know that you are correct!

Rock Hounding

Jeff and I went on our first "Rock Hounding" trip last Saturday, considering we had no idea what the heck we were doing I think we did pretty well. Here is an example of some of the stuff we came back with:

There is quite a selection here and in all honesty we know only about 1/2 of these stones. On the back of the tray on the left you can see what looks like lines in the upper right hand corner, that is Jeff's "Block" of Tiger Eye. Yes I said Block! It's about 1.5" tall by 1" deep and 4" long. When we took it into the Gem Society Wednesday night to ask about cutting it we were told we must use lots of water (or oil) because this stone is created under pressure. If not cut right it might explode! (I was not ready for that news...so much to learn!)

In the middle of the tray on the top are two small red / pinkish stones, they are called Mozarkite. They are from Mike at Gemcutter, he was so gracious to share some stones he mined himself with me. What a great guy, thanks so much Mike!

Also in that tray on the top in the lower left you will see what looks like a black / blue stone...ready for this???

Labradorite OFF:

Labradorite ON: The colors changed just by turning the stone over!

(I promise no Photoshop effects here!)

I consider myself very lucky to have found this piece and it will be a while until I am brave enough to cut into this baby! Everyone we spoke to at the show was so helpful and friendly, we had a great time learning.

(One thing though, I get so excited and into what we are doing I keep forgetting to take photos. I'm working on it!)

More setting to get done this weekend, enjoy everyone!