Bead Table Wednesday~ Sea Glass Fever and making molds

I cannot believe its bead table wednesday again already!  Whew!  So here it is....my table is FULL of sea glass. 

I used to do a lot of sea glass jewelry, but this year, I have been focusing more on metals.  Well, I got into the 2011 Lewes Deleware Sea Glass Festival at the end of June, so I better get crackin.  I really missed workingwith my sea glass, and had a lot of fun with it spread all over my desk yesterday. I am getting the not so fun task of matching earring pairs out of the way.  It took me 2.5 hours to match these. 

I have to sort through TONS of sea glass to try to find similar shapes and colors.  Since I use only genuine sea glass, it is not an easy task to find matches.

Here is some of the stash that I use, but right now, all that glass is pretty picked through for pairs, so believe it or not, I will have to get my hands on some more to keep up with earrings.

The bowl in the picture below, is all glass that needs to be drilled for other creations.  That is gonna take some time, so I need to drill a little each day for the next month!!!!  thankfully, I have a cordless drill and can do it outside while the kids play. 

In the other bowl are these AWESOME beads I found, from a glass artist at my last show.  The are from a company called Mykonos Beads.  They are ceramic, plated in metal, and they have copper, bronze and silver at a fraction of the price. I love the organic shape of them, and think they are a perfect match for the sea glass.  So, I just had to have the bronze ones.  The silver ones are stunning too, if you are looking for a silver alternative, these are great (and it is fine silver they are made with).

Lastly- I made some cool things out of polymer, burnt them to a crisp (thankfully they are only to make molds with), and then use a two part flexible epoxy mold to preserve them. Then I have my own custom molds for my bronze clay!  How fun is that?

In between all this I had to book a hotel for the sea glass festival.  I have never been to Lewes DE, so I did a lot of review reading online, to find a little hotel called the Vesuvio.  I like that its small, and family owned, and if the worst review is that the furniture didn't match, so be it.  Some of the "fancier" hotels got awful reviews, and personally, I'd rather support a small family owned business anyday!  I spoke to the owner today, and he was SOOOOO nice.  And I almost fell out of my seat when he gave me the rates.  Three nights for the price of one at other hotels!!!!!  I don't mind old decor and unmatching sheets, it will just remind me of home!  LOL!  I will let you know how it goes!  Oh- and it is walking distance from shopping and the sea glass festival.  NICE!  Hubby can walk back for a nap if he is bored.

So that is it.  Today I must get some food for us, crickets for the frogs, and some paperwork for my hubby.  So not much beady goodness going on today.  But my bead table is waiting for me, with sea glass in pairs.

Whats on your bead table????