Asheville, part 1 : glass shopping spree.

Home from Asheville and I have so much to share! First off, we visited my glass supplier, Mountain Glass Arts in person. I've ordered all my supplies thus far through their online shop and while I was already impressed by their quality and kindness - seeing them in person lived up to my expectations and more.

Like a kid in a candy shop. So many amazing colors, so many difficult decisions! My favorite rods I brought home are a discontinued shade of "Mother of Green Pearl". Very excited about it's iridescent quality. And how about that glass geode in the last photo? Amazing, right?

Camp Barefoot (and some earth shake...)

This festival will always hold a really special place in my heart. It's small scale and gorgeous location in Bartow, West Virginia is really just the perfect way to end every summer. Only 3 or so hours from Richmond, we basically know everyone that attends.

The pink ring sitting backwards on my pinky (with the amazing tourmaline metal inlay pendant) is my new goodie. I've treated myself to something special at every festival this year and this is, handsdown, the most exciting thing I've bought. An antique glass dome with diamond cuts along the side, blue specks of shine inside and set in sterling silver - I am obsessed with it! And speaking of pink ...  we totally dyed four of my dreads with manic panic in the creek one afternoon. It was hilarious and it turned out really great. I'm thinking about dying a few more.

It's been really interesting to watch the vendors and traveling artists this summer... the nomad lifestyle they lead really intrigues me and I think I might consider actually purchasing booth spots next year. The amount of rings I sold to people in person this summer, exceeded every sale I've ever made on Etsy. Each time someone told me my cluster rings were something they had never seen before or how inspired they were - my heart lit up. I had been missing my family of creative people from art school this past winter but I think I've found an even better niche now.

With the season being over, I'm working towards giving Etsy my full attention again and setting up some new shop stock for the approaching holidays. We aren't going to stop moving around anytime soon though. On thursday we are heading down to Asheville, North Carolina to see Stephen's brother at Penland and stay with some wonderful friends in their country home!

Last but not least, I've added the rest of these pictures to my 2011 Festival photos on flickr...
what a colorful summer we've had!

ps - incase you're wondering, just a little while ago we all felt that 5.9 magnitude earthquake pretty strongly here in Richmond. Stephen and I were sitting at a stop light and thought my car was about to explode. Never thought I'd ever get to feel the earth shake so hard before moving out west. Crazy!

something i'm working on...

for the shop.

- beads & crystals -

 You may recognize Emily from my previous festival posts and images on flickr. I have a ridiculous amount of pictures with this lady, mainly because she's my best friend but also because she has one of the most bold looks and personality of everyone I know. Lately she's been making these crystal wrapped seed bead necklaces and selling them at festivals. I'm hoping to help her get an Etsy shop up and running in the fall, so I wanted to try and document what she's done so far. I feel like my camera focusing skills were lacking this day but I still enjoy the color. 

Let me know if you may be interested in buying a necklace! She's charging $20.00 - $30.00 a piece.

Capturing Rootwire...

 

 

I could go on and on about Rootwire for many, many blog posts. I'm going to let the pictures speak for themselves on this one though. A small gathering of around 2000 amazing people, in a utmost gorgeous location and driven equally by visual arts as much as it was music... Papadosio knows how to put on a amazing festival.

See many more photos in my festivals flickr set...

Ps - how about that LED jump rope in the first picture? the image portrays exactly what Stephen had in mind when he thought to create them.
Bringing the people together!

winner!

Used the little number generator widget over at random.org and the cluster ring giveaway goes to Melissa! 

I'm so excited to give it her, especially because we will be seeing each other this coming weekend for Papadosio's Rootwire festival. Eeek! I'm so excited.
I'll have a-plenty of rings for you to chose from lady!