Beading in Red, White and Black...Batala Hey !

I love living in the Washington, DC area for all the cultural opportunities it offers and in the last 5 years, I have gained close friends in the Bulgarian, Finnish, Ghanaian and Brazilian communities through music (visit my fiber art blog to read more). Since last year, I have been a member of the USA's only Batala band, which is an all-women Brazilian percussion band. Our band is in high demand in DC for parades, fundraisers, soccer halftime shows, honorary dinners and many other events. We have a visual identity that employs the colors red, white and black and right now, I am in full production mode for a supply of jewelry for our upcoming art gallery fundraiser. One of our members is a graphic artist and has invited other artists to paint portraits of band members as we play which will be auctioned off at the end of the party. I'm looking forward to selling lots of jewelry to band members and friends.

Giving Thanks for the "LBS" (local bead store)

After I wrap up the last hour of beading, I want to give thanks for the local bead store. If it weren't for those who take the time to count, weigh, bag and tag all those millions of tiny and not so tiny beads, findings and supplies, I wouldn't be able to run across town for an absolutely necessary article to finish a design at the last minute. So I raise my glass to the owners, managers and faithful employees of my local bead stores, Off the Beading Path, Star's Beads, Beads Ltd., Beads on Parade and several others along the I-95 corridor from Baltimore, MD to Richmond, VA. Thank you all, keep up your stock and I'll see you very soon !

New Work

Peachy Tubular Bracelet, originally uploaded by ambrosianbeads.

Lately I've been trying to produce up to 10 bracelets and 10 pairs of earrings to submit to my co-op gallery. At this time of year, the membership (we have 70 members) submits most of their items for the holiday show. The gallery gets filled with more items than usual, so a couple years ago the board voted to create limits on the number of items we can submit. We have a 10 like-item limit, too, and what sells mostly for me is earrings so I have up to 10 I can sell during any month. We just had our last jury on Monday and we can replenish any items sold at our "mini jury" in mid December. I hope to have to replace all 26 items I submitted !