Cords, Cords and More

I am in customer service in my non beading job (yes, I still have to work to support my beading habit). As a customer service representative, there is nothing I appreciate more than good customer service. Today's times do not find many merchants that provide good service. However, I have found that in the "bead world" there are many stores who do provide good customer service. One such merchant is the Satin Cord Store in Jacksonville, Florida. This is a small home based business. They sell mostly by phone or online ordering. The Satin Cord Store is one of the best source for cords for macrame, knotting, kumihimo, etc. They carry most of the colors of Superlon. They also carry a great selection of Rattail and Chinese knotting cord. In addition to cords, they also offer a great selection of Kumihimo supplies, findings, art beads, ready to wear cords, all sorts of books and odds and ends.





According to Cathy, when Robin is not traveling around doing art shows, she does give some pretty special classes in Art Clay and soldering. Cathy helps to man the fort when Robin is gone and she is Customer Service Excellence! I have ordered from them twice and have been in a rush and my package has gotten out immediately and she has given me the exact information on when it will reach me. This latest was for my Bead Soup buddy. The store that was supposed to order the cord for those mission necklaces failed to do so and the project is due next week and she was in a real bind. I called Cathy and Voila, she has my cord arriving in Michigan tomorrow so that my buddy can get her necklaces done in time for the mission trip. I am consistently wowed by their wonderful customer service.





If you have needs for cords, kumihimo supplies or just want to browse in general, visit satincord.com or give them a call at 888-RAT-TAIL (888-728-8245). I don't think you will be disappointed.







I have not received any payment or goods or services for this endorsement. This is strictly an endorsement from my own experience with this merchant.

THE BEAD SOUP REVEAL

Wow, Wow, Wow. What fun it has been this week to view all the wonderful designs from the cooking of the soups. It truly has been inspirational and has sparked my creativity to no end. At last, it is time for my reveal from my stash from my wonderful bead soup buddy Alice.

I have been furiously working on a freeform bracelet, my first, but alas, I am stumped and do not know where to go with it. I am making it from the lovely bead soup mix Alice sent me. I am going to add pictures to my blog once it is finished. I also made a necklace from the wonderful lampwork beads and turquoise beads that were included in my stash. I had it done but didn't really like it that much. I took a class this past weekend in wire works and learned a way to perfect my wrapped loops. On Sunday I attended the Intergalactic Bead Show in Charlotte, NC. Of course, it was a bead show and I am a beadaholic so I had to get lots of new goodies while I was there. The weekend got the pot on the burner and the soup started to simmer. I just had to tear apart my one necklace and make two instead.

The first one is my Natural Earth necklace. It is made with some multi colored jasper beads whose colors I chose to match the lampwork pendant. I wrapped them in copper and added copper chain and dangled my pendant and my two lovely lampwork beads from it. I was going for one of those long necklaces and I wanted the little beads to dangle up on my neck. These two little beads resembled little flowers so I inverted the bead caps to make them rise up out of the caps. I antiqued the copper to make it go better with the chain and components. This necklace is for me to enjoy as a reminder of my bead soup buddy. Then for the second necklace I used the turquoise rondelles with olive pearls, lemon fire polished rondelles, dyed fossil coral, brass chain and these funky beads that I dangled in between the loops of the chain. I call this my Sand and Sea Bounty necklace. The funky beads reminded me of shells and the turquoise reminded me of the sea and the pearls and coral represent part of the sea's bounty. I dangled one of my weekend purchases, a brass sea shell, off the end of the necklace. I liked the natural feel this necklace gave me. All in all, I was much happier with the end results of the two over the first one and I hope you will like them too. My thanks to my wonderful bead soup buddy and to Lori for holding such a wonderful event.

The Best Bead Giveaway Ever

Denise Yezbak-Moore is having a stunning giveaway of 7.5 lbs of beads. She is still taking votes on whether to gift the whole stash to one person or whether or not to split it into 6 separate giveaways. Go to her blog and put in your two cents worth and you will be entered in the giveaway and if you put it on your blog, you will get extra entries. Meanwhile, I am frantically trying to get ready for my post on Friday. Both my bead soup partner and I have been having all sorts of other things going on in our lives but we stay in contact each and every day. She is finished with her freeform bracelet that she made with my stash and I have one necklace made from her stash (although I think I may rework it tonight) and I am trying to finish my freeform peice. This has been such a fun thing and I am so happy I have a friend for life out of this venture.

Bead Soup/Buddies Forever

I have to admit, I have been lax about posting about my participation in the Bead Soup Party but on my behalf, I have to say it has been a very hectic and sad month with four losses of people and animals close to me. But on to Bead Soup. I found this little post on Art Bead Scene about the second Bead Soup Party and I thought it might be fun to participate. I signed up and the pairings came out and we were to email our bead soup partner and find out a little more about what they did and then pick out a selection of beads and a clasp to send them and they in return were to do the same for us. I never imagined that when I signed up, I would gain a friend for life. I emailed my partner and she emailed me and thus a friendship was born. Somehow, in the mix of things, I was paired with someone my own age who was a seed bead weaver like myself. I know Lori tried to pair us up according to types of work, but how she managed to find the perfect pairing for me, had to have had a hand from above in on it. My partner sent me a lovely selection of lampworked beads done by a friend of hers along with a lovely bead soup sead bead selection. My clasp was a lovely button that we discussed via email and she also included a beautiful bracelet that she made for me and it was done in just my colors. How she knew that is unreal. I sent her a wonderful selection of brightly colored gemstone nuggets, some colorful sead beeds, some large hole lampworked beads with frogs on them (i found out after the fact she loves frogs) and some buttons she wanted and all sorts of miscellaneous beads. She made a freeform bracelet from part of what I sent her and I am anxiously awaiting the reveal. In the meantime, we email every day and bounce ideas off each other on all sorts of things. She was asked to do a project of 200 bracelets/necklaces for a mission trip. My best friend lost her granddaughter (who was also in a sense my granddaughter) to a still birth. I was led to contribute to my partner's endeavor by helping provide the crosses to go on the necklaces as a memorial to the baby. It was meant to be!!!. My partner and I share our daily lives and beading journey every day and it is all because of Bead Soup. Lori, I am sure you never thought about the ramifications of the bead soup beyond beading, but my partner and I thank you so much for bringing us together and we will be "bead soup buddies" for a long long time. We are already planning our next exchange of bead's between one another. We are also dreaming of meeting in person at a future Bead and Button Show and we are figuring out how we can win the lottery so we can go on the next Bead Cruise. If Lori decides to do another bead soup in the near future, jump on the bandwagon, you never know what kind of journey it will take you on.

Use The Muse IV

Well, it was a major push but my Use the Muse IV piece is submitted after much blood, sweat and tears. This contest was a real challenge and the Muse and other components were unusual and it was a challenge to find a place for all the elements. The laundry didn't get done, the house didn't get clean but my piece got submitted. I am including a sneak peek of my color scheme to tease the senses. I can't wait for the Big Reveal to see what everyone did with this challenge. As always, it is a great experience that stretches your creativity and a great big thank you goes to Scarlett and Artbeads for sponsoring such a magnificent venue for the beading world.

Use the Muse IV

I just wanted everyone to know how excited I am about the Beaders Muse Use the Muse IV contest. I entered the Use the Muse III contest for the first time and was a second place winner. You can imagine how excited I am now about the next competition. This one is going to be even better as Scarlett has broken down the entries into several categories. You can be a wireworker, beadmaker, bead stringer or bead weaver. There is something for everyone in this next competition. The deadline for pre-ordering your kit is February 25th at the reduced price. Kits will then be available until sold out. The deadline for entering your piece is April 12th. If you haven't ordered your kit, you need to get busy and get it done before the 25th to be sure you get one. This contest will really stretch your creativity to new levels. Go to thebeadersmuse.com to order your kit.