The most wonderful time of the year isn't Christmas. It's when the Gem & Mineral Show comes to town, and it starts this weekend. The main event is still two weeks away, but there are about 40 smaller shows to provide entertainment until then. Time to start bead shopping!

Sounds interesting...

Please post pictures!
There was an antique show here last week. But I'd love to see photos of your beads!!!

The bead and jewelry aspect of the gem show is mostly geared toward women, but boys enjoy the rocks and fossils aspect of it. When my son was in grade school he liked to go there, and there are some schools that make field trips to it.

My collection of beads etc that I haven't done anything with yet is vast because I'm not very talented at making jewelry so I'm very slow. Plus I like complicated pieces better than simple pieces. But I'm also very persistent and will do something over and over until I'm happy with it. Here are the snazziest pieces that I've made over the last 2 or 3 years, which is how long I've actually been making jewelry and not just going to the gem show to shop for finished pieces.

Wow Tielfan, these are beautiful! I especially love the last one, its bird shape and turquoise is one of my favourite gems and colours. Really wonderful.

That one was copied from one I saw on Etsy. I'm not artistic and my best designs were stolen from other people! Here's the original from http://www.etsy.com/listing/72113744/sa ... ed-pendant It's still for sale if anyone wants it lol.



It's never possible to duplicate anything exactly because it's not possible to find the exact same materials. The hummingbird piece was stolen from http://www.etsy.com/listing/75116659/hummer-de-elegance

Here's another hummingbird piece by the same artist. I'm not going to copy this one because it's too insanely large to actually wear it anywhere. More like a breastplate than a necklace, but absolutely spectacular. http://www.etsy.com/listing/24491954/hummer

Nothing wrong in taking inspiration from art pieces others created, "real" artists do it all the time.
I won't argue but you added your own take on them, and that makes them artistic in their own right.

I do like to add my own touches even when I'm copying something. And I'm not selling this stuff so there are no copyright issues or whatever you might want to call it.

Here's something that I didn't copy. My son gave me a bookmark:


It didn't seem like a very convenient bookmark but I thought it had a lot of potential as a necklace pendant. So I've been embellishing it. Only one side is done now, I'm still figuring out what to do with the other side, and then I'll add a chain. It'll be big and gaudy but so is pretty much everything else that I've made lol. And it has birds on it!