Last weekend I went to the Whole Bead show at the Metropolitan Pavilion in NYC. I've only ever been to the Chocolate show http://www.chocolateshow.com/ at this location so it was interesting to see how it was laid out for beads compared to chocolate. I have to say the chocolate show is bigger (and alot more fattening). The bead show is open to the pubic for only $5 admission. If you have a re-sale license you get a different badge and the vendors then give you a better price and no tax. So if you like beads, findings or making jewelry of any kind you need to check out wholebead.com and see if a show is coming near you. The prices even for retail were very cheap. Everything from Glass & Acrylic to Swarovski and Pearl. You can even sign up for classes and learn new beading skills. There were a few vendors that had beaded items already made which was great for ideas. The most amazing beads were these hand carved wooden beads. No 2 were alike and they were about $10 a bead but so worth it. I hope they are back for the next show. From the wholebead website you can see all the vendors that participate in the group and some of them have web sites. Sometimes if you notice they were just at a show you can ask them if any of their "show specials" are still going on and get a discount. 

The next show in NY is Oct 17-19th. In Oct I will plan ahead a little bit, I didn't buy anything at the show because I really wasn't sure what to get. There was just so much. Next year I'll budget out a certain amount and buy 1 new bead in every color they have. 

The Location:

Metropolitan Pavilion

South & North Pavilions, 1st Floor

125 West 18th Street between 6th& 7th Avenues

#1 SUBWAY @ 18TH & 7TH

While at the show I fell in love with a beaded ring. it was only $7 and I plan on

deconstructing it to make more. Which got me searching online for ring patterns.

The only thing I need that I don't have is a ring mandrel to size the rings correctly

to sell. But I just ordered one and should have it by next week. 

1. ✦ Beading Bees is a japanese site with some great free patterns for beaded rings
   

        http://homepage3.nifty.com/Hachimitsu8/howtohana.htm

        http://homepage3.nifty.com/Hachimitsu8/index_english.htm

1. ✦ All info about Jewelry Making has a nice ring pattern
   

        http://jewelrymaking.allinfoabout.com/features/beadring2.html

1. ✦  Beading for beginners is a great blog with help for the beginner
   

        http://beadingforbeginners.wordpress.com/

You may even want to just browse some bead magazines at the news stand. I always feel like monthly magazines have fresher projects than getting a book that may have been printed a few years ago. Books are great for beginners who need to learn the basic skills but when you want to advance I go for the magazines. You can sometimes even find old copies of these magazines at your local library so you can try before you buy.

1. ✦  Bead Style http://www.beadandbutton.com/
   

2. ✦  Bead Unique http://www.beaduniquemag.com/
   

3. ✦  Beadwork http://www.interweave.com/bead/beadwork_magazine/
   

4. ✦  Step by Step Beading http://www.stepbystepbeads.com They also have lists of bead societies that you can join
   

5. ✦  The Beading Times http://www.beadingtimes.com/ This is an online free magazine.
   

Now I'd like to take a moment to thank Girls Gone Geek contributor Liana for explaining Delicious http://del.icio.us/ to me.  I mistakenly said Delicious Library on the show but thats a different product. Del.icio.us ts a way to save and share bookmarks. You can tag a bookmark a certain keyword and everyone that subscribes to the key word will see you have added a link. In that way its social bookmarking. Liana did a great video on how is all works at http://vimeo.com/830968 

So what I've done is subscribe to the keyword “cookscrafts” all one word. If you are a member of delicious and see a link you would like to share with me for a future show just tag it cookscrafts and Ill see it. 

 

Now i have a Followup to Computer Craft tips, I’ve talked about sprite stitch before, they do the great needlework patterns for video games, well they now posted a tutorial on how they do it. 

http://www.spritestitch.com/?p=391