Changes are Happening!!!!!

The first week of December I'll be heading to Chicago for The One of A Kind Show and Sale. It is being held at the Merchandise Mart. The show hours are:

Thursday, December 3, Noon-9pm
Friday, December 4, 11am-9pm
Saturday, December 5, 10am-7pm
Sunday, December 6, 10-5pm

If you would like a free 4 day pass for you and a guest, contact me at Larissa@risabeads.com for details!

This is a long show, but this time I am going to have help from my husband, Robbie so it will be much easier. Thanks to my parents for coming down to take care of our sons so we can go together!

So the big news is.... Risa Beads is changing to Larissa Spafford Designs! It's something I've been working on for almost a year now and am so relieved and happy that I'm almost on the other side of this change.

In honor of the change I'm going to be having a sale at the Chicago and Port Townsend shows and in my new etsy shop, LarissaSpafford.etsy.com. Everything will be 25% off! The sale starts as I transfer my items over to the new store in the next few weeks. Everything will be in there by December 1st and the sale will be officially on. I'll post more details about the change as they become more solid, in the next few weeks. Until then, if you would like to purchase anything in my Risabeads.etsy store, I will honor the sale. Just make a note to seller at checkout and I will refund the difference immediately.

There are a couple other things I'm really excited about also. The first is that snowboarding season is almost here! Mt. Bachelor, our local mountain is planning to open this Friday. Robbie and I are planning on going. It's Friday so the kids will be in school. Hope they don't hate us too much for having fun while they are at school! That leads to the second thing I'm really excited about. The kids have all next week off of school! So you can guess what we'll be up to.

We are going to be having a traditional Thanksgiving. Traditional for us anyway. If the weather co operates we we'll go up to the mountain in the morning and come home and make dinner to share with Robbie's dad.

Have a great Thanksgiving!!!!

Portland Here I Come!

Next week I'll be heading to Portland for Bead Fest Portland at the Oregon Convention Center. Here are the show hours:

Thursday Sept. 24, 5-9
Friday Sept. 25, 10-7
Saturday Sept. 26, 10-6
Friday Sept. 27, 11-5

I'll be at an Artisan Table in space #16. Hope to see you there!



I've come up with a new color combination for a Lovely Bloom Bead. I'm calling it Marina. I just love the vibrant blue, and how the lighter blue radiates out from the center.

PMC

Here are some photos of what Precious Metal Clay Silver looks like in various stages. If you don't already know what PMC is, I will tell you! PMC is made from silver particles and a binder. You work it like clay and then fire it in a kiln at 1650 degrees F for two hours. All the binder burns out and you are left with pure silver! During the process the peices shrink a little. It is pretty amazing and a super fun material to work with. These ones were carefully rolled out thin, then rolled on a rubber spiral texture template. Then they were cut into circles using various shapes of circle cutters, similar to very small cookie cutters. The holes were made with straws. Finally the edges were cleaned up a little and they are ready to be fired. After they were fired they are slightly domed and polished. Then they are blackened in a stinky liver of sulfer bath, rinsed and polished again to highlight the spiral texture. From there they are connected to the end of a bead with a silver tube rivet.



Silver Precious Metal Clay before firing:
After firing in a kiln at 1650 degrees F for 2 hours:
After doming:
After tumbling to remove the white residue:
After being blackened in liver of sulfer:
After polishing:
After being connected to handmade glass beads with a tube rivet: