As we had posted we were attending the Bead & Art Glass Show as well as the Memories Expo on Saturday and we did and had a great time. Kira and I met up in Orlando and drove to the convention center together. It wasn’t what we expected but there was a lot of cool things to see and lots of great people to meet. We had assumed it was going to be two separate shows but it wasn’t, it was all is one room of the Orange County Convention Center. The aisles were packed and there was lots of demos going on that were fun to watch but in my opinion there was a lot of wasted space in the room where they could have spread out the aisles but I do know those convention centers are sticklers for not letting you have any extra space you didn’t pay for so there probably wasn’t much the show could do about that. If there was more room to spread out more people could have watched the demos and spent more time in the booths without being jostled about. On another note the room was packed with tons of goodies to sort through. The memories section was more than half of the show with the bead section only being an aisle or two, so if you went for beads there wasn’t a whole lot of vendors selling them. There was also a couple aisles of fiber related goods, like yarns, silks, fabrics and such. It was a very interesting show and I really liked the mix of products and vendors but I don’t know that I would have advertised it as two shows as it was really only one show with all the above mixed in. I am not putting the show down because I really enjoyed the mix and would love for more shows to start including the great mix that this show did but I want to give you all a sense of what the show was like. I would definitely recommend attending this show as there was so much going on that there was something for everyone. We met up with Sue & Gale Lee the makers of Poly Tools bead rollers and they were so nice and friendly. Sue did a demo for us and they were so open and willing to share. You will get to see Sue & her husband Gale in action this Friday on a new episode of Polymer Clay TV, so make sure to come back Friday to watch that. We had so much fun talking with them and we had to ask our usual questions how they got started doing what they do and they were happy to share with us so you will get to hear all about it on Friday. Gale & Sue have also generously donated one of their bead rollers for us to give away to one of our lucky listeners and viewers, make sure to watch the show to see which one you can win. I will give you a hint, it is the one Sue demos on Polymer Clay TV. Make sure to sign up for our newsletter to automatically be entered to win or leave a comment on the site and we will enter you as well.

There was also a very touching memorial quilt on display that was made with little squares sent in from bead artists. It is very large and very touching as it memorializes 9/11 There was a variety of styles incorporated and everyone could interpret the way they wanted to honor the memories and I wanted to share some photos with you. Kira filmed the entire quilt so you will also get to see that on Polymer Clay TV.

Of course we spent plenty of money while we were there, there was just too many goodies and of course we rationalized it that we would use them for the show. LOL We probably will since we love to share the things we find. Stay tuned for that.

Here is a some photos from the show. Enjoy!