Hanging Out With Other Beaders

I was told about the Craftster Community by my daughter and joined up. Seems like a fun, supportive place. She's posted about a scarf she knitted as her very first knitting project and the replies were adorable. She's also doing a "swap" event where she and another Craftster have exchanged little stuffed animals. The posts are clever and cute.

So where else should I hang out? What blogs should I go to, link to and comment on to get involved with other beaders? Things I want to read about and learn include information about showing at fairs, selling through co-ops or how to get local stores to carry one's work.

Networking is a great thing. I was meeting with someone through the day job who was very interested in taking some of my lanyards with him to his Rotary convention. He took a bunch of business cards, 5 of my lanyards and a brochure - I had to get it all ready for him at a moment's notice because he told me about it at lunch and was going to be flying out first thing the next morning.

Will it get me more business? I can't help but hope so. But even if it doesn't, I'm thrilled that someone was nice enough to offer. I won't be shy about talking about my work or handing out cards from now on. It's not natural for me, but I'll keep trying.

I'll be out of town starting tomorrow, so I probably won't post again for a few days.

I'll leave you with a couple pics of my other stuff. You can find all of these at my Etsy store.

I love the beads in this - found them at a shop in Westminster near Huntington Beach, CA. I've got a bunch of them, still and will be making more necklace lanyards with them.












Close up:












One of the members of the online writing forum I belong to saw this at my store and sent me a message saying she was getting married and would love to have a necklace like this and matching earrings, but with a blue stone instead of the malachite. I have some nice lapis and offered to make one with them. She liked the idea and I'll start working on it soon. I'll post some work in progress pics once I get started.













See you next time!