Lesson Learned - A Mean Music Man

July 4, 2011 found us at the Ashland, Oregon Art Festival in Lithia Park. Yes, we did this festival last year. Not a big money maker, but we like the setting and the people - at least we did until this year. Or I should say, we like the people, except for one busybody vendor and a mean Music Man.

We got to the park a little late, but still early enough to unload and get the car out before the 8:00 deadline of moving the car. Drove right up to our assigned space, the same one we'd had last year, jumped out and stopped dead in our tracks. There was a scruffy young man with an odd looking modified guitar, amplifiers, tables and chairs in our space. Shirley walked up to the Music man and introduced herself, then pointed out that he was in our space - a space we'd paid for and reserved. He went into a story about how he'd traded spaces with another vendor up the line and her space was next to ours, but since we weren't there, he'd taken it upon himself to take our space. About this time, this older woman vendor-busybody comes along all smiles and cheerily tells us that she "thought" it would be fine to let the Music Man have our space.

Well, it wasn't fine with us. We wanted our space and we wanted him to move down the row to the space he'd exchanged with the busybody vendor. Well, he wasn't about to move - telling us that up the line, further into the park, there were a lot of spaces and we could go there. Everyone was getting angry. Finally, an official from the festival came and she tried to calm everyone down and offered us a two space spot further up. Shirley and I didn't want to go up the line of vendors as we wanted our spot. Steve stepped in and said, "Let's move up there." I could tell Steve was upset and he would get more upset if he had to spend the day next to the Music Man. So reluctantly, we moved our stuff up the line. In the meantime, while we were talking to the official, the Music Man slipped off and hid making it impossible to get him to move.

A couple of days later, we learned from a friend that they hadn't walked all the way up the line of vendors, but had turned around where we had our booth the year before. We could understand as it was a hot day and after the parade and walking up past food booths, some people in the park didn't check out all the booths. Lesson learned - don't get to the festival late - get there early to make sure no one takes your spot. (I am glad we didn't have to spend the day next to the Music Man as later when I walked by he was playing some sort of musak on his modified guitar and I'm not sure I'd classify it as music.) Our booth ended up being across from the hat vendor - nice people who did a brisk business. We set up our tables and took up two spaces as we were assigned.

Here we are looking a bit frazzled after setting up the booth. It was early and the sun hadn't hit our side of the park at this point. Later we would wish we were still in the shade. Shirley sold some of her sea glass pendants.

And I sold some of my sea glass earrings -

So all in all, it was a good show - despite learning a hard lesson from a mean Music Man. Next, we are off to an art Festival in Bend, Oregon where we meet up with another fellowing playing and selling his music.


Please check out our store on Etsy at http://sistersjewelrydesign.etsy.com/ for more sea glass jewelry.

Second Fort Bragg Sea Glass Festival

On May 27, 2011, we drove up to Fort Bragg, California for our second sea glass festival at Captain Cass's Sea Glass Museum - http://glassbeachjewelry.com/ It is a long drive from Palm Springs as Fort Bragg is several hours past San Francisco. We finally got to our motel and unloaded, then hit the beach. The coastline in Fort Bragg is strewn with cliffs and rocks. There is one sandy beach near where we go, but the best glass beaches are the ones you climb down the rocks to the beach below. One of the very best glass beaches is accessible by climbing, but it is off limits and posted with no trespassing signs. I really wanted to go there, but with my luck I would have been ticketed so we kept to the other sites. We picked up glass for about an hour then headed back to the motel. It'd been a long day and we were starved. The first night we ate at a wonderful restaurant called Chapter & Moon. It is a small place with a tiny staff and you have a view of the harbor. The food is to die for - homemade breads, grilled salmon, fresh seafood and huge garden fresh salads - located at 32150 N. Harbor Dr. (S. Main St.)Fort Bragg, CA 95437.

At the restaurant, we started talking to a couple next to our table, telling them about the next day's sea glass festival. And we asked the restaurant owner if they'd heard of the festival. No one had heard or seen anything about the festival which wasn't a good sign. We'd asked earlier at the motel if they knew about the festival and they hadn't heard of it either. Yikes, no advertising. We knew the town was full of weekenders - all the hotels and motels were full, but would anyone come? We went off to bed hoping the weather would be nice in the morning and the festival would draw a crowd.

The next day, we arrived at the museum grounds and Captain Cass told us we'd be one of six vendors. He also told us he was putting up a sign which could be seen from the highway. Hmmm. Was that it for the advertising? Well, we didn't have time to worry as we had to set up our tent and put out our displays. As you can see from the picture, the day started out nice - blue skies and sun. More about weather in a bit. Here are some pictures of the tents of the other vendors -




This is a shot of Tammy Sue Davis. You can find her on the web at tammy@mendocoasttreasures.com Tammy lives in Fort Bragg and she finds the most wonderful glass. She is an artisan who creates sea glass jewelry and accessories. I love her dog collars with sea glass.


Next to Tammy's tent was a vendor named Victoria Roberts, who does custom designs, repairs and instruction. She makes the most beautiful crocheted bracelets with wire and delicate sea glass earrings. You can find her on the web at http://vroberts1017.etsy.com/ You can just see Victoria on the stool in the blue sweatshirt. The husbands were standing around chatting about the weather or whatever.

The end booth belonged to Don the Beachcomber and Surfer Joan. Both fun people and great artisans. They live in Santa Cruz and you can find their jewelry in shops there and at the famous Santa Cruz sea glass festival. Don does a lot of bevel work with sea glass and silver. Joan makes the loveliest sea glass rings in silver. On our last morning in Fort Bragg, Joan and I sat on the beach talking and picking up sea glass - it was fun.

I don't know what happened, but I didn't get a picture of Wendy Craig, another vendor who came all the way from New Jersey for the show. She had made incredible necklaces with marbles she'd found at the beach back east. Really delightful work. You can see her work at http://www.2ndtimeglass.com/ - really worth a look.

I also didn't get a picture of the couple next to us - Pete and Kim of Sea Glass Essentials. We'd met them at another sea glass festival and they are the nicest people as well as being great artisans. Take a look at their work at info@seaglassessentials.com

We all got set up and a few customers started arriving as did the rain. Luckily, we all had tents and could keep semi dry. And we certainly appreciated the customers who came and braved the rain. We made a few sales, but by noon, everyone was packing up and leaving. Wendy from New Jersey decided to stick it out and so did Capt. Cass, but he was inside a nice warm building. My feet were wet and I was getting cold, so we packed up our jewelry and headed to the motel. We had just finished lunch when I saw that the sun had come back out. So Steve and I decided we should go back to our tent and set up again - which we did and stayed open until 5 pm. I don't think we made another sale, but we felt good about trying - which meant being there.

A shot of Steve looking at our inventory. (I think this was taken in the morning, before the rain.)

That night we went to Silvers at the Wharf. A large commercial restaurant down by the harbor. Good food with a full bar which is what you need after a day of rain - stops and starts.

Sunday started off with overcast skies. Gray clouds and a slight wind. I prayed it wouldn't rain. I should have prayed the wind didn't pick up which it did in the afternoon. It got so windy by late afternoon that Tammy's tent was blowing over as was Wendy's. Our earrings on cards were flying off the displays. Again, the others left, but we stuck it out with Wendy from New Jersey. Finally, the wind got so bad and it was late, we packed up. Captain Cass said we could come and sell again on Monday which was the holiday, but we were done. We went down to the beach again and braved the wind, but I was all bundled up and ready for a typhoon. Dinner was at Chapter & Moon again as we both love the food there. Monday morning, hit the beach again where I ran into Joan and we chatted as we picked up sea glass. She was looking for a marble for me as I've never found one. She didn't find one and to this day, I still haven't found a marble at the beach. Here are a few shots of some of the sea glass and pottery pieces I did find -

As you can see brown sea glass is very common and plentiful as is white.

Driving back to Palm Springs seemed like a long haul to do in one day, like our trip up to Fort Bragg, so we stopped way down the coast at Shell Beach which is next to Pismo beach and only 2 hours from Los Angeles. And of course, once we found a motel, we had to run right down to the beach. Here are a couple of shots of Shell Beach, another beach you have to hike down too the sand.There were no shells or sea glass on Shell Beach. Maybe it was the wrong time of year? We had a lot of fun on our sea glass festival weekend - ate some good food, made new friends and sold some of our sea glass jewelry. Here is a shot of one of our new designs to look at until I get back to blogging about our next adventure. (Sea glass from Fort Bragg - sterling wire and sterling mermaid charm)

Find us at http://sistersjewelrydesign.etsy.com/

On The Road Again

It is that time again - summer art festivals. So we are hitting the road on Thursday to drive up to Fort Bragg. Captain Cass of the Sea Glass Museum in Fort Bragg is holding his annual sea glass festival on Saturday, May 28 through May 29, 2011, from 10 to 6. Fort Bragg is on the Mendocino coast above San Francisco. A beautiful drive, if a bit winding. Here's a great site that tells you little bit about Mendocino and northern coastal towns - href=http://www.mendocinocoast.com/about


So yesterday and today, I'm packing sea glass jewelry in boxes and making sure I have all the seller tools in another box like pens, order forms, cards etc.
The above picture is a new design of Jasper coin beads, sterling silver balls and white sea glass wrapped in sterling wire.

Hmm, yes, this is an odd picture of a sea glass necklace on a large shell. I was trying to get artsy. But really, a straight on shot would have been better, don't you think? Anyway, this is another new design using pink pearls, abalone coins, and sterling silver wire wrapped pale blue sea glass.

My sister and the other half of Sisters Jewelry Design, Shirley, is sending down more sea glass jewelry from Medford, Oregon where she lives and works. Last year, we met at Fort Bragg to do the festival together, but she can't make it this year. She did do a festival for us at Art in Bloom on Mother's Day weekend which was a big success. Still it would be fun if she was coming, but c'est la vie.

Tomorrow, we will pack our truck with tables, tablecloths, chairs, a tent, jewelry boxes, displays and other items we will need for the two day festival. And, even though I made a list, I will hope that I haven't forgotten anything.


I'll leave you with a new design of sea glass earrings. Back next week with adventures from the road and the festival.

You can find our store at http://sistersjewelrydesign.etsy.com/

Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/sbrin1#!/pages/Sisters-Jewelry-Design/328818121698

Handmade Spark - SistersJewelryDesign - sea glass jewelry and necklaces

Handmade Spark - SistersJewelryDesign - sea glass jewelry and necklaces

Collecting Sea Glass for Sea Glass Jewely

In order to make sea glass Jewelry, my sister Shirley, and I have to collect the sea glass. Makes sense, right? We do not order sea glass from sellers on ebay or other sites because we use only surf tumbles glass not glass created in a tumbler. We hand pick the glass from beaches that range from Oregon coast all the way down to the beaches of Mexico. Mazatlan is one of our favorite beaches in Mexico like in the shot below.

You're probably thinking that beach looks pretty bare. You're right. At the time this photo was taken the tide was coming in and all the rock spots where we might find sea glass were covered with water. Low tide is the best time to look for sea glass as you walk along the beach. Sometimes, you will find sea glass higher on the beach, but not as often. The winds and tides play an important role in whether you will be successful in your search for sea glass. We love to beachcomb after a storm at low tide. We check tide tables and usually go on the hunt during the low tides on a normal day. Not every beach will have sea glass or at least not all the time. Again, tides and times of year and also the underwater terrain of a beach will determine what is thrown up on any given beach. For example, a beach that is like a cove and sheltered by a reef might not have any sea glass as nothing gets past the reef. Also there are beaches in California where the city cleans the beaches everyday with machines. The machines are like giant vaccum cleaners and they scoop up everything including sea glass.
This shot of Steve and our dog Dylan was taken at the Salton Sea. Great expanse of sandy beach, but no sea glass as this beach was created by the sea becoming trapped inland. You can read more about the Salton Sea at http://www.sci.sdsu.edu/salton/PeriscopeSaltonSea.html
Really an interesting place to visit - just no sea glass.


One of the best beaches, I've ever been to for finding sea glass is in Fort Bragg - the glass beach. Years ago, people dumped their trash into the ocean and over the years the glass tumbled in the surf eventually depositing on stretches of Fort Bragg beaches. To learn more about Fort Bragg and glass beach you can go to http://www.mendocino.com/?id=257 or you might want to go to Captain Cass's website as he is the local authority on glass beach http://glassbeachjewelry.com/
There will be a sea glass festival this year at Capt. Cass's sea glass museum May 27-28. And we'll be there too as well as other sea glass jewelers and vendors.



If you want a listing of good sea glass hunting beaches you can visit
http://seaglasslovers.ning.com/ This is a fun site where collectors show off their sea glass treasures and discuss the "ins and outs" of collecting. You don't have to be a member to peruse their web pages. And there is also the North American Sea Glass Association where you will find excellent material on sea glass. (When we first started doing our sea glass jewelry, I was so surprised to find the NASeaglassAssociation - who knew collecting was so big!) http://seaglassassociation.org/

Collecting sea glass is fun. You don't have to make sea glass jewelry to collect sea glass, you can display it in a bowl or create a display with the glass like I did with this candle holder.

So the next time you go to the beach look for sea glass and collect some Mermaid Tears. To see some of our sea glass jewelry pieces please visit our Etsy shop at http://sistersjewelrydesign.etsy.com/ or you can visit us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/sbrin1#!/pages/Sisters-Jewelry-Design/328818121698

Cayucos Sea Glass Festival

One week ago today, on Friday, we left Palm Springs and headed up north to Cayucos to a sea glass festival. We stopped in Solvang to leave Dylan at my sister Julia's house. Needless to say, Dylan wasn't happy. It was another two hour drive to Cayucos which is just north of Morro Bay. It was a gorgeous day and I loved looking out the window at the ocean.. I wanted to stop at all the beaches and look for sea glass, but we were on a deadline as the Festival organizers were having a 5 o'clock appetizer mixer for all the sea glass vendors.



Finally, we reached Cayucos, a sleepy beach town. Checked into an old beach motel and I mean old. The motel is called Estero Bay Motel.











Luckily for us, the motel was really clean and the shower was hot - two important ingredients in a cheap hotel. There are other nicer and more expensive hotels in Cayucos like this one we saw later from the beach. But hey, we were in Cayucos to sell our jewelry, make some money not spend it all on sleeping. I do recommend the Estero Bay Motel because it was inexpensive at $152 for two nights including tax.
After registering at the motel, we headed for the beach to stretch our legs and yes, look for some beach glass. Cayucos beach is a long wide spread of beach with rocks jutting up out of the water and houses overlooking the sand. Here are some pictures.

Looking toward the old pier, we could see the Veteran's Hall - the site of the sea glass Festival. We had an hour before the mixer, so we headed over to the hall to set up some of our displays.

















A lovely sculpture of two dolphins stands outside the hall. The tables and table cloths were provided and vendors supplied their own displays for the tables.

I think there were twenty- three vendors selling sea glass jewelry, sea glass books, mosaics, wind chimes etc. - all things sea glass. We got our stands up quickly and it still wasn't time for the mixer, so we walked down the block and where I thought we could buy coffees. We passed a historic house which was quite pretty. I think it is now a bed and breakfast, but not sure. I did see a restaurant dinner menu on a sign. Anyway, past the old house was a cookie factory called Brown Butter Cookie Company, started by two sisters, just like our company of Sisters Jewelry Design, where they sell the most delicious cookies. Their signature cookie is a brown butter cookie sprinkled with sea salt and it is to die for (later we found some in our vendor gift bags from the festival organizers.) You can order these cookies on their website at http://www.brownbuttercookies.com/

We went back to the Veteran's Hall for the mixer and had some great appetizers and talked with fellow sea glass vendors. It was fun. Then it was off to crash at the motel. I get nervous about sale day so I went to bed early and woke up every two hours all night long afraid the alarm won't work. I usually set the alarm and Steve's phone so it's not like one won't work, but nerves set in anyway. Up and dressed by seven, we drove the one street town and found a little coffee shop. Got two lattes and some scones and headed off to finish setting up the jewelry.

In this first shot, you can see our friends Gary and Kira setting up their tables next to us. Gary is a silversmith and his work is just amazing. You can see his sea glass jewelry at their website http://www.theglasscrafter.com/ Take a look, his work is beautiful and unique. Kira, is a graphic artist and she has recently designed sea glass puzzles as well as a sea glass calendar. So check out their website.

Gary and Kira - hamming it up for the camera.

Another shot of the set up. We had an L shaped table near the front of the hall. The doors opened at 10 and the crowd rushed in. The sea glass festival was so successful that people waited in line outside for 45 minutes just to get in. The last customer came through the doors at 4:00. We were so busy, we didn't even have time for lunch which was great. We sold sea glass jewelry like crazy and met a lot of nice people.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to get shots of the other vendors or their cards - we were so busy. But I do want to mention Krista Hammond - her work is absolutely great and can be seen on her website at http://santacruzseaglass.com/ Krista is also the creator and driving force behind the sea glass festival in Santa Cruz. Go to her website, you'll love it. We did the Santa Cruz festival last November and had a great time. In fact, it was at the Santa Cruz festival that we met Kiki, Catherine Kornreich, who was involved in setting up the Cayucos Sea Glass festival. This was the first Cayucos Sea Glass Festival and Kiki was one of the main people behind the festival.

On the left is Sandy, then Laila Kollmann, another main creator of the festival and Kiki, Catherine Kornreich. These women and others did an amazing job of creating a great event for sea glass sellers and sea glass lovers alike. And yes, according to Kiki, there will be another Cayucos Sea Glass Festival, so if you missed this one, you can come next year.

When the festival was over, we packed up, said our good byes and went out to dinner with our friends. It was a successful weekend and a fun one too. And as always, our favorite part of any sea glass festival, is when we have time to walk the beach. See our sea glass jewelry on Etsy at http://sistersjewelrydesign.etsy.com/

Fort Bragg Festival - Part Three

The sea glass festival started on Saturday with the hours of 10-5. We already knew where the sea glass museum was so we headed over there about nine to set up our tables and little canopy. (Note - the museum is only 1 mile from center of Fort Bragg. In an earlier post I'd said 11 miles which was my mistake.) My sister, Shirley was still sick as a dog and couldn't get out of the bed so we left her at the motel. Her husband, Pat, came with us to help set up. When there are three people helping set up it goes pretty quickly. First, the canopy has to be unfurled and erected. You have to watch out for fingers when pushing the poles up into position. When I've seen others erect their tents it always looks so easy, but for some reason I always find it clumsy and difficult - ditto with the tables that have those fold out legs that can be treacherous - at least to me, anyway. Okay, so I'm not mechanically inclined, all right. I couldn't go do a show by myself unless I just threw out a cloth and laid the treasures on the ground. Moving on, after the tables, we put on the cloths then set out the jewelry. Every time, the display changes as we haven't finalized a "look," not that I'm sure you can have an elegant "look" when you need to put lots of pieces on display. This is an area that Shirley and I go round on because she wants elegant and I want everything to be out so people have a bigger selection. So far, no one has prevailed in this argument. I understand what Shirley wants, but we're in a canopy with folding tables and I just want to sell our jewelry. Anyone with ideas is welcome to comment with suggestions.
So here is the table display at Fort Bragg. Note the front table higher than the sides, this was one of Shirley's additions as she'd bought table leg extenders to raise the front table. Hmmm? What do you think? Personally, I think the table cloth on the front table looks a bit big and messy. Here are some other shots of the display area.

We already knew that there would only be three of us vendors. We were the first to arrive and Captain Cass, who owns the museum, showed us where to park and place our display. As we were laying out the jewelry the other two vendors arrived. First to show up was Kira and Gary Ruvo. They were friends of Capt. Cass and have some of their jewelry in the museum. Gary is a silversmith and his work is really awesome. His wife, Kira, sells the jewelry and finds the sea glass on the beaches in Northern California. You can find Gary's website at http://www.theglasscrafter.com/ Here are a few shots of their display area -

Gary and Kira's display involved using glass boxes that hold their jewelry. The boxes look elegant and show off the pieces of sea glass jewelry, but Kira would have to open each glass box everytime someone wanted to see a piece of sea glass jewelry. On one hand, this sort of display really draws in the customer and enables the seller to deal really closely with the buyer. The downside is that customers can't handle the sea glass at will. The cases at a busy festival are great because they discourage stealing when you can't watch all your customers at the same time. Pros and cons to our set up and theirs. I really like the look of their displays and of course, my sister Shirley likes that the displays were elegant looking.

The third vendor was Tammy Davis. She lives in Fort Bragg and sells sea glass jewelry, jewelry grade sea glass in bulk, and sun catchers and more. You can find her website at http://www.mendocoasttreasures.com/ Here are a few shots of her display area:

Tammy didn't use a canopy and her approach to display is more casual and it works. Note, the wooden box holding earrings and pendants and also the rack. Tammy had an array of items displaying sea glass and I loved her little basket necklaces with sea glass inside and her fun leather and sea glass animal collars.

As you can see there were three very different approaches to displaying our sea glass jewelry and they all worked. We all sold pieces to the customers who arrived throughout the day. Captain Cass was also selling sea glass jewelry and art inside the museum. To see his work, please go to his website at http://www.glassbeachjewelry.com/

We had a lot of fun at the festival, met some nice people, collected sea glass on the beach and ate some great meals in local restaurants. Did we get rich? No, we didn't break even, but hey, it was a mini vacation where we made a bit of money, spent time with family and had a whole lot of fun. And looking at the photos now of the displays while writing this blog, I see that we still are on the learning curve of what kind of display is best.