Just bead it.

This past weekend, I worked and attended the 2011 Bead&Button Show. That's right, I work for BeadStyle magazine and every year in downtown Milwaukee, we host a show. There are classes to take, teachers to meet, auctions to bid in, and beads to be bought. What's most thrilling might vary from beader to beader. Some sit in workshops every day of the show (that's seven days!). Some live for those final moments before "time's up!" at the silent auction. Some spend a small fortune on findings, doo-dads, and, well, beads at the show's Marketplace. Though I work for BeadStyle, I'm still learning — still learning the craft and still learning my Bead Show favorites. But here are a few favorite-worthy things that will not be denied:

I learned a whole heap about working with resin and stretched my jewelry-making wings — even if just a baby bit. I took a class taught by Sherri Haab, an expert in the world of resin jewelry. My classmates and I learned all about mixing resin, the chemical properties of it, the necessary safety precautions, and tips for troubleshooting. We were given molds to shape our resin into bangles or buttons and pigments to color our creations however we wished. And everyone in the class brought different inclusions along from home — "inclusions" being anything from sprinkles to seashells (the sprinkles were my idea). We played and passed the hours away experimenting with resin — and in the end? I came home with two bangles and three doo-dads that will, probably, never serve any purpose aside from being a testament to a day of expanding my beading and my brain.

At the Bead Social (which really should be called the Bead Auction), I worked registration. It had been a long day of resin-learning, but finding a second wind was easy — the bead community's enthusiasm is quite infectious. So I put on a happy (yes, borderline slap-happy) face and greeted our Bead Social attendees with all the warmth and mirrored zeal I could muster, and it turned out for the best. We got goody bags, lemon cake, and a run-in with Doo-Wop Dee Dee, the stilt lady, who a.) thought I was seven years old, b.) never broke character, and c.) was a whiz at balloon animals. Or in my case, a balloon princess hat with a teddy bear climbing up it. My mixture of joy and apprehension was, no doubt, palpable.

The following day I shopped the show's Marketplace — the third and final favorite of mine, this time around. With over 300 vendors, the Bead&Button Show leaves no shortage of treasures for your SoftFlex and eyeballs. There were tables overflowing with Eastern metals, painted orchid pendants, piles of pearls, and heaps of gemstones. There were booths spilling with vintage baubles and spools of chain stacked six-feet tall. There was finished jewelry strung with filigrees and crystals, and batches of bangles ripe for the picking. The Marketplace is a veritable beader's buffet — a feast for your stringing senses. I ate it up! And while the show, overall, is quite the draining ordeal, when it comes down to it — it's just plain fun. Fun to learn something new, meet the beaders, and open my pocketbook in the name of The Arts (well, and BeadStyle). And coming away with a teddy bear balloon hat, fit for a beading princess? That wasn't bad either.