Custom Jewelry, By Request

One of my bffs, Ellen, was looking thru my Tahoma Beadworks photo album on Facebook and saw the sports logo hairpieces I did for the teams that I follow. This is the San Francisco 49ers.

Tacoma Rainiers baseball.

She commented that she'd love it if I made her a Boston Red Sox logo hairpiece. As a longtime Sox fan, I seized on the idea. I decided that, since the Sox in the baseball would be a little too technically difficult, and since I wanted to get it to her at the beginning of the baseball season rather than spending weeks trying to get it right...

..... I opted to use the Red and White "B" against a midnight blue field, like on their ball caps.

I first shrunk the logo down to a manageable size, on the copier at work. Then I half traced, half sketched it onto a red felt background. This is actually the hardest part of the process, b/c felt is very hard to write on. Normally I bead on white felt, but this being the Red Sox, I wanted there to be flashes of red behind the blue. The beads get sewn onto the felt, but the felt must also be backed with a bit of paper, and I get the best results with brown grocery bags.

I printed off the Sox logo in colour and took it with me to Bead Boppers in Puyallup to match the blue. I was walking really slowly in front of the Japanese delica beads holding out the paper. The shopkeep asked if she could help me find something and I told her I was just trying to match a shade of blue. She came over to help me and I showed her the "B" and said, "I'm making a Red Sox hairpiece for a friend." She looks at me, grins and goes, "Oh. I am a Yankees fan." Now, I cannot emphasize enough the animosity between these two ball clubs. And their fans. So I fired back, "OH NO! I can never shop here again!"

Once I started beading, it went very quickly. I did the "B" last weekend, and it only took a couple of lunch breaks during the week, and about 2 hours this afternoon to finish the blue background. I cut a circle of leather and both sewed and glued a French clip to the right side of the leather. After the glue set for a bit, I glued the leather to the paper backed beaded piece.

It's going out in the mail on Monday. I hope she likes it!

Antiquing

I am one of those people for whom "antique" is a verb. I love, love, love going to antique stores, if for no other reason than to just look at old stuff. It's like being in a museum of Americana. Twice a year, there is a huge antique show sponsored by Palmer Wirfs of Portland, Oregon. It used to be in the Tacoma Dome but switched to the Puyallup Fairgrounds a few years ago.

I got up early in order to get the grocery shopping done so that I could be in Puyallup before the doors opened at 9:00 a.m. There was plenty of free parking and I entered at Blue Gate.

I find it curious that the Volcano Evacuation Route was pointing into the Fairgrounds. Sure, gather everyone in the same place and watch the lahar sweep them into oblivion.
I got my ticket and headed for the Showplex, one of the largest buildings at the fair.
I'd been looking forward to a Fisher Scone all week, so I was a bit crestfallen to see the Scone Wagon was closed.
However, once I got inside the Showplex, I saw that there was an open scone window inside!

YUMMY!!!!!
I spent the next 2 hours weaving my way up and down all of the aisles, taking in all of the cool, old stuff.
This booth was really beautiful with all Asian artwork, statues and the most amazing wood chests and trunks. Val, I looked for the horse & carriage from "Chinoiserie" but there wasn't one. (Click on the photos for a closer view.)

Some of my pics came out a bit blurry because I wasn't using a flash and trying to shoot without people noticing me.
These were the absolute CREEPIEST looking dolls and figurines. I would not want one in my house.
There were some people dressed in Civil War era clothes.

I could kill my mom for getting rid of all my lunchboxes, especially the metal ones.
Lots of duckies.

Of course I wanted to buy all of the pretty glass and sparkly jewelry.

I guess this explains the origin of the term "bombshell" when it comes to a pretty girl.



Huge, innit? Crowded too.
If there is one thing I wish, it's that MEN WOULD JUST STAY HOME! I don't understand why they feel the need to accompany their wives to these things, when all they do is stand there, in the middle of the aisles, with ZERO spatial awareness. Go home! Take your manhood back and stay home watching sports! Then there are the old men who like to 'set a-spell and spin a yarn' with various booth owners about the tools and wares, making it virtually impossible to inquire as to the price of items. Ladies, I'm begging you, leave the 'unnecessary accessories' at home to drink beer, watch TV and scratch!!

After I finally shopped my way through the Showplex, my feet and low back were killing me. I thought about getting a foot massage when I left.
The Civil War reenactors were outside, shooting their black powder rifles.

I don't go to the antique show with a list or anything. I just like to drift and see if anything catches my eye. This year, I scored a cute little Ontario license plate, which was probably a cereal premium. It's quite small, probably 2" x 5".

A nice linen postcard of Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill in SF.

I love to collect postcard folders/books. They have many photos of different sights, all folded together in a little booklet.

Postmark from 1948.

This was one of my biggest scores, a booklet of photos showing the damage from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. It's postmarked 1908 and extremely fragile.

One of the pages isn't attached so I scanned it.

This was also a huge find, and is also very fragile, which is why I didn't try to scan the postcards inside. There's no date on this, unfortunately, but it's clearly from the early 20th century.

I don't collect fans, but this one caught my eye and was a steal at only $6. You HAVE to click on this one to see the amazing colours.

I also found this adorable little metal box with jewels on the lid and sides. "Packed like lemmings into shiny metal boxes..."

I hadn't exactly planned on buying another antique beaded purse, but I could not take my eyes off this one. I knew if I walked away, someone else would buy it, so I scarfed it up. It dates from the 1920's.
That's the bottom. Isn't it cool? All my fave colours too!

So, all in all, a successful day at the antique show! I can't wait for the next time it blows through town in November!