Thoughts from the hot seat!

Diving In Head First - The ISGB Gathering

I love adventure, I really do. But there's this part of me that has to be pushed along forcefully in order to participate in adventures. So as I left the comfort and seclusion of my rural home in Indiana to head for the Indianapolis airport, it was not without a bagload of worries too. Would I get there in time? Would I get lost? Would I get the strip search and interrogation? LOL Yes, a creative imagination is not ALWAYS a good thing...trust me!

Amazingly, I arrived at the airport just fine. Had a few minor flusters over finding long term parking and leaving my carry on at the x-ray machine. *sigh* That's just my typical ditziness coming out there. I definitely felt like the unseasoned traveler I am. But finally I settled in and distracted myself with a good book while waiting to board the plane. Before I knew it, I was aboard the plane...managed to stash my overhead bag without knocking my fellow passengers unconscious or spilling the contents (beads, of course) all over the aisleway causing the stewardess to fall and break a hip as I had imagined might happen. (again, that blasted imagination of mine!) My heart slowed it's fearsome pace as I took my seat, and buried my nose in my book.

The flight was a short one, and in a little less than two hours, I had arrived at the Minneapolis Airport. After several more creative fantasies about being lost in a strange new place full of rabid, bloodthirsty vampires, not finding my baggage carousel or WORSE not finding my baggage...lol...I finally had everything and had called my dear friend Robyn who was circling the pickup area waiting for me. (yay! she hadn't forgotten me while chatting with some handsome multi-millionaire in Starbucks! hahaha) With all this creative worry, is it a wonder I don't have an ulcer? I'm thinking it is.

Happy to see each other again, we shared hugs, laughs and for me...RELIEF. We piled my luggage in the car and headed for the Mall of America. I was absolutely AMAZED by the mall. I'm not a total hick...I've seen large malls before. After all, I grew up in Cincinnati where we have a mall the size of a football stadium...but I have NEVER seen anything like this. A huge roller coaster, water flume, and Ferris wheel in a MALL? Wow! They had a Legoland that my kids would go nuts for and a Nascar simulator that my hubby would absolutely love to try. I decided I would definitely have to come back with my whole family and pay another visit to the Mall.

Robyn and her husband treated me to a wonderful birthday dinner and then headed back to Robyn's to "rest up" (hahaha...as IF that was going to happen) for our first big day at the ISGB (International Society of Glass Beadmakers) show. I think we went to bed at about 2am. ha!

DAY ONE: We arrived at the show. I felt like a kid again...all tingly with anticipation. What was it going to be like? Who would we meet? Would we see our friends? First we signed in. We each received a tote bag with a bead attached to it and loads of information stashed inside of it about the show, vendors, specials and of course, tourist info for the city. My bead was fantastic...and the only thing I wished was that I knew who made it! But perhaps that would take away some of the mystery! We took a cursory glance at the leaflets and information inside...but then wandered around to see what we could see. We soon found the Vendors area...and all I can say is...thanks for turning me loose in the candy store! ha! Glass, glass, glass. Tools tools tools. Fantasy world of the lampworker becomes reality. I think I had spent nearly half my money in less than 2 hours. hahaha ;)

We finally tore ourselves away from the small dent we'd made in visiting the vendors, and headed off for the afternoon orientation session for newbies like us. We both got strands of Mardi Gras beads...and NO...we didn't have to flash anything other than a smile to get them. LOL We learned a bit about past shows, and what to expect for this one. We went on a tour of the different areas where activities were to be held and I felt alot more comfortable after that...after all, I didn't have to fantasize that it was like the first day of high school when I'd be searching endlessly for mysterious disappearing classrooms and never find them.

We stuck around for open torch that evening...but neither one of us actually felt brave enough to sit down and try it...so we just wandered around watching everyone else. It was an amazing set up...and people were making some incredible works of art. We saw huge torches that resembled mini-bonfires and people creating sculptures, blowing glass, etc...besides just making amazing beads. It was a lot of fun to watch, but we finally decided to call it a night and headed home for the evening.

DAY TWO: Well, after staying up half the night again...we moved a bit slower on Friday. ;) We headed in for the show and found ourselves magnetically pulled back to the vendor area. Imagine that. We spent awhile shopping...then realized we were missing a demonstration we wanted to see, so off we went in search of enlightenment...or at least some cool new techniques? I met some nice folks in the demo room...and one of the lovely ladies gave me a free bead from her stash. I picked a beautiful leaf she had created...then we settled in to watch the demo.

After the demo ended, we ran into several of our online friends. Lots of chatting and laughing, and then we parted ways and headed off for dinner. We returned full of food and happy...and decided that tonight we were going to give open torch a try. We headed off to the roomful of pyros to add our fuel to the fire! hahaha

I sat down in front of a torch that looked like some foreign abomination. It had more knobs than a vending machine, I swear! Okay...maybe just five. LOL Still, I am used to 2 simple little knobs, one for Propane, one for Oxygen. So I was bewildered as to how to light the thing. Finally someone guided me a bit, but none of us realized that the last person had left the oxygen going...so when I lit the propane...it let out a loud *POP*. Scared me witless and made the people around me jump too. Great! Why doesn't someone just pin a neon tag on me that says, "WARNING: NEWBIE". hahaha But after the initial scare...all was fine. I made a nice little bead and then had to give up my seat to the next person in line. I found out afterward that the torch was a Phantom torch. It has two sets of ports so you can work with one on for less heat, or both on if you want to work with harder glass, like boro. That's what all the knobs were for. AHA! Now I get it. *wink*

After we both played around...we walked around and watched other folks torch...and then decided we should head home and TRY to make it an early night...as Saturday was going to be the bead show...and I had a booth to attend to. I think we did manage to get to bed by 1am. heehee

DAY THREE: Ever have that dream? You know, the classic one where you show up to school in nothing but your underwear and everyone is staring and laughing? YEAH. That's how the day of the bead show started out for me. We got there at 8am to set up. And at first I was very preoccupied with unloading my goodies and spreading my tablecloth, etc. I had gone with a simple black and white theme on my table, with just a few little splashes of red color here and there. I had packed my beads in plastic boxes, securely cushioned with white cotton batting. I pulled them out, took out the inserts and laid them on the table...still oblivious to my surroundings. Each bead had it's own cubby in the boxes, the boxes were all labeled with the pricing, and each bead or bead set rested on a soft cloud of white batting. Okay, done! WHEW!

I go sit down. Then and ONLY then do I glance around me. OH MY GOD. These people had multi tiered displays, beautiful artsy lighting fixtures arcing down on their gorgeous artwork. Signage across the front of their booths announcing their logo and name. Everywhere I looked, I saw a sea of classiness and beauty...UNTIL...I glanced at my plastic boxes. Suddenly I felt tears stinging the back of my eyes and I wanted to crawl under a rock. Robyn sensed my embarrassment and wrapped an arm around me. "It will be okay" she whispered. I felt really helpless...and I text messaged my hubby to tell him how gausche my display was, how cheap my plastic boxes looked, and how I felt like crying. He said, "take them out of the boxes".

I love my husband. He has a way of thinking of the obvious when I'm too distraught to do it myself. So, I took them out of the boxes, peeled off the price tags and stuck them on the table. It was definitely an improvement. My display still wasn't nearly as nice as the others, but definitely liveable. Early in the show, a friend came by and commented that I should lower my prices. I had some trouble deciding beforehand what to price my items at, so I just did an average of my online sales. Well, of course, I started wondering if I'd overpriced my beads. Luckily for me, I was surrounded by the nicest women with years of experience...and they were a wonderful source of help for me.

Just behind me was Pam Dugger and her friend, Barb Svetlick. Barb really took me under her wing and gave me loads of advice about my setup for next year's show. She also peeked at my prices and told me in no uncertain terms that I had better not even think of lowering them. LOL She was wonderful! To my left was another wonderful artist named Bernadette. She came over to peek at my stuff and was so encouraging to me. She asked if I use presses to get the shapes I had acheived with my beads, and I told her no. Only every now and then do I use a press, I said. She encouraged me to keep that up...telling me that true artistry is all about interpretation...letting the glass flow freely to capture the story or idea you are trying to convey. She also noticed that alot of my beads were "disappearing" on the black background. She helped me shape white tissue paper on the table, and then we laid my beads out on that. It really made a huge improvement...and I noticed that a lot more people stopped and looked at my work after that.

After the rather rough start, I found myself relaxing. I talked to just about every single person that came by...joked and laughed and had the most wonderful time! (Robyn and I had a chuckle about my talkativeness. I told her "see, this is what happens when you stay at home all day with a 6 and 8 year old. You're starved for adult interaction!") I checked out everyone's jewelry as they came by...saw some wonderful and inspiring things...and just had great fun meeting people. Lots of business cards went with people, and I sold five items which was actually quite good I thought, considering my less than inspiring display and the AMAZING and incredibly talented and experienced artists all around me.

Barb recommended that I go meet Larry Brickman at one point, and the lady behind me volunteered to take me over to meet him. So off we went. I'm going to be terribly honest here...I have NO idea who anyone is. A few people's names I know...like Pam Dugger, Kimberly Affleck, Kim Neely...you know...those people I've heard of. Ana of Anastasia Beads is a good friend of mine...so I know her. But, in general, I could be talking to a star player in the lampworking universe and I would NEVER know it. I'm in my own little world. So I honestly had no idea who Larry was, but Barb said I should meet him, so I tagged along to meet him and to see his amazing beads.

After introductions and jokes, I had a nice conversation with Larry...and I felt so much better after he asked if I had a booth at the show. I responded with a "yes". He said, "how long have you been lampworking?" I said, "two years." He said, "two years! and you have a booth? YOU GO GIRL!!!" LOL He was a hoot...and I was glad I went to meet him. What he said in that short conversation helped me change my feeling of being a gausche little newbie to feeling like a fearless explorer! I went back to my booth very glad that I had taken that risk.

Later in the afternoon, I had even more wonderful and validating experiences. A pretty young woman came to my booth and began looking at my beads. She commented on how pretty they were and then she introduced herself as a representative of Flow Magazine. She then asked me if I'd be willing to submit some pictures of my work for an upcoming article on Women in Lampworking. I had to pinch myself under the table...lol...but I told her I'd love to! So she gave me submission guidelines information and said she'd look forward to seeing my work. This had to be one of the highlights of my trip!

I was also asked by a tooling company if I'd be willing to try out some of their molds and promo them on Ebay. I was going to stop by their vendor booth, but ended up not getting a chance to go back to the show on Sunday...so I missed them. I didn't get their card either, although they did take mine. So who knows what will come of that? But it was definitely an idea I would have liked to have tried out.

Saturday evening was the banquet, which was delicious and wonderful! Robyn and I sat at a table with Scott Tanner and his sister, Trudi. They were soooo much fun and we laughed our tushies off...okay, not really, I checked mine just now and the darn thing's still there! *sigh* But yeah, they were great! Ana was on my left and she was giving me heck, as always...she's such a nut too. And another really cool thing was meeting my online friend Debbie Pierce. She and I discovered about a year ago that we were born on the exact same day in the exact same year. So it was great fun to meet her in person, and she ate dinner with us as well. All in all, Saturday turned into a really wonderful time...and we dragged home well after midnight...then stayed up til a record 3:30 am...or was it 4? hahaha

DAY FOUR: Well, like I said, both Robyn and I were pretty tired after all the late nights and running back and forth to the city. So, we decided to just sleep in on Sunday and head to the airport around 2:30ish for me to make my flight home. I had such a great time...and Robyn and I have definitely decided to get together again. We are like old friends...it was comfortable and familiar...and I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with her.

So, you know those crazy fantasies of mine? Well, my trip home was more than eventful! LOL I got to the airport only to discover that my license was not in my purse and nowhere to be found on my person. I (of course) panicked. Would I even be able to get on the plane without ID? What would they do to me? AAAHHHHH! I approached the security guy to explain. He wasn't friendly. He said, "they'll have to do a 'special check' on you." He pointed me over to a spot to wait for my "special check". GREAT. Here I am, visualizing angry looking security people with bulging muscles and rubber gloves coming at me. Instead, a grey haired woman and a young african american woman waved me over. I did get a pat down and they did go through my carry on and my purse with some tiny little electronic devices...but when it was all said and done, it wasn't anything like my rampant imagination had cooked up.

I go through the boarding gate, and head to the gate # I'd seen on my boarding pass when I did my preflight check in online. As I sat at my gate reading my book...I noticed they kept talking about a Canadian flight and a delay...blah, blah, blah. Finally, when it was nearly 4pm (flight was leaving at 4:10) I decided I'd better double check my boarding pass for the flight time, cuz no one was saying "let's board folks". OH MY GOD. The person that checks the boarding pass had crossed out the gate number with red pen and wrote a different gate number underneath. Did they tell me? NO.

So you can imagine the sprint I did in flip flops and a 200 lb carryon bag full of glass rods. I got to the gate only to see the entry tube slightly pulled away from my plane and not a soul in the waiting area. Luckily for me, the attendant came out of the tube into the waiting area and said, "who are you?" "Dana Graham" I replied. She said, "come on...we'll get you on board." Talk about a relief!!! Again, sitting down with my heart pounding...I let out a long sigh and buried myself in my book to forget my trauma.

I love adventure.

Dana :)