"Beads and Fishes" Luncheon

About once a month, a group of us here in the Champaign-Urbana area gets together to have lunch and share our beady items. The only requirement (other than being friends) to coming to this lunch is that you must make or use beads or love sushi (fishes) or both.

We've chosen, recently, to have our luncheon at Crazy Buffet off of North Prospect (Town Center Drive)... that's where we met today:


They have the craziest selection of food - asian, mainly, but they also have things like macaroni and cheese, pizza, and enchiladas. You just never know! But they also have a sushi bar, which meets the criteria for the lunch... sushi must be available!
Kelly is showing off her chopsticks and dewdrops!

Kelly Keniston (KellyK) is the one who introduced me to this great group of gals. She's a fused glass, jewelry and polymer clay artist.
We met online several years ago through justbeads.com, when Kelly sent me a message about where I got my canes (I make my own), since we were so close... and the rest is history. We tend to bounce things off one another - both compliments and criticism.

I lust after her dewdrops, which she is happy to provide, and her fused glass cabs.
Today, Kelly brought 3 of her fused glass pieces and some dewdrops to pass around.
Kelly sells on Etsy and Ebay.

Hey, Melinda, how are the desserts?
Melinda Willis, ceramic artist and lampworker... brought her large box of lampwork beads this time, as well as two thimbles created on her new thimble mandrel!! She didn't bring her ceramic beads this time, but next time I'll get some photos to show off! Melinda is talking about opening an Etsy store sometime in the future. If she does, snatch up her work... it's fabulous!




Athan hugs her beads as she eats... there isn't much room at the table!


Athan is a lampwork artist. She also works with leather, and does intricate beadwork and jewelry.
Athan brought her bead frame, coming from her booth at the Urbana farmer's market held at Lincoln Square Mall parking lot. She was feeling upbeat, sales had been good!
We oohed and aaahhhed over the gorgeous necklace she was wearing, which was beautiful. She told us where she got it... but my memory is terrible... a gem show? Sigh... gotta write things down...
Athan is talking about opening an etsy store as well.

Sue rifles through my box of clay beads...


Sue creates jewelry and mixed media art. She brought three beautiful necklaces she recently created. The white nugget is real beach glass she found, and ingeniously incorporated in a cool macrame necklace.
Beautiful!
I wish I had gotten a picture of the cards she had brought. She draws large pen and ink pieces, then photocopies them (shrinking the image) and adds color with pencil, paint... they turn out to be quite striking.

Susan drools over Melinda's box of beads...
Susan works with all sorts of mediums. Most recently, she's played with photographs she's taken and digitally alters them to create art pieces. It's amazing what she can do.
Susan didn't bring any of her photos, but she did bring some lovely beads by Constance Poggi she bought on justbeads.com. Susan has a sizable collection of beads - one can never have too many beads... right???

MY preciousssssss!!! Beads I picked out from Melinda's stash...