Shuswap Women in Business Conference and Trade Show

We don't sell in too many shows but decided that taking part in the Shuswap Women in Business Trade Show could be fun and a great way to make new contacts.  I shared a space with my friend Joanne so we could spend some time together and cover for each other while attending a few of the workshops.

It was a good day and the interchangeable snap jewelry was a big hit as usual.  The space we had was very limited as compared to other shows so set-up was a little more challenging.  I find the packing, set-up and take down is always the most exhausting part of doing shows.  Each time I try to learn how I can make things a little easier for set-up the next time.

Joanne purchased my Scarf Accents tutorial some time ago and has been making her own scarf jewelry.  She had a selection of colors and styles for sale there.

Scarf Jewelry by Joanne and Scarf Slides by 2 Good Claymates

She also had some of her barbecue serving forks that she covers the handles in clay.

Now we have less that 2 weeks to prepare for our last show of the year.  It is the large Craft-A-Fair at the Sandman Centre in Kamloops.

We will be in the same location as the other years -- on the concourse (turn left at the main entrance and we are the 3rd space on the left in the corner).  If you are in the area, drop by and say hi.

Multi-Functional Snap Jewelry Available at Knit 2 Yarns

We have been building up our "Snap Decisions" jewelry collection and our latest pieces we have been working on is our multi-functional magnetic brooch.  We are happy to announce they are now available at Knit 2 Yarns in Kamloops.

It is basically a metal snap base with a clip for attaching a decorative charm to wear as a brooch.  It can also be used as an eyeglass holder just by switching out the charm with a large ring.

You can clip it to the stainless ball chain (included), to wear as a necklace.

You can even combine two brooches and add a chain connector to wear as a sweater guard!

Knit 2 Yarns is a quaint yarn shop that just opened earlier this year.  You can follow Carla on facebook or her blog to see what she is up to with her quilting as well as her knitting.

Buttons for Sewing in Art Deco and Nouveau Designs

It is that time of year again when Heather's Fabric Shelf holds their (7th) annual quilt show at their new store location in the Brock Shopping Centre on the north shore in Kamloops.  The quilt show itself will be set up in the Brock Activity Centre right across from Heather's.  Donna's Yarn & Craft Center relocated their store to the same shopping center as well and so this year we will be set up in their store this coming Sunday to demo our clay and show off our new spring button and snap jewelry collection.

Here is a peek at some of our new Art Deco and Art Nouveau button designs.  These buttons have a metal shank for sewing and a silky smooth finish which are perfect for those hand knit sweaters.

Metal shank for sewing

New Yarn Shop in Kamloops - Knit 2 Yarns

It is always exciting when we get to announce a new shop that is selling our work.  Knit 2 Yarns is a brand new shop that just opened up last week in the Valley View district on the Trans Canada Hwy in Kamloops, BC.

While the store may be new, we are familiar with the owner, Carla, as she use to work at Katja's Quilt Shoppe, in the same shopping center, for quite a few years.  As an avid knitter, as well as quilter, she decided to follow her passion and fill a void for a much needed yarn shop on that side of town.

Carla, owner of Knit 2 Yarns

Carla's shop has a lovely set-up with plenty of country charm.  Her baskets and vintage suitcase displays add a nice touch and I love the barn doors in the back separating her classroom area for future knitting classes.  We are already discussing the possibility of doing a Button Make & Take class in the fall.

If you live in the area and love to knit or crochet, you will want to stop in and check this lovely store out.  Knit 2 Yarns also has a facebook page you can follow and Carla has a blog if you want to see some of the projects she is always working on and loves to share.

Christmas Show Now Over

Our Christmas show of the year is now over and is nice to have it finished early.  Dave and I were both physically exhausted after but we were still able to enjoy dinner out later with our new friends from our polymer clay guild who were also there selling there handcrafted jewelry.  It was a nice way to unwind and relax afterwards.

Our interchangeable "Snap" Jewelry was a huge hit at the show.  I managed to take a few pictures this time before the doors opened and the floods of people came in.  We added a new item to our "Snap Decisions" collection which was our chain style belts.  These were not only a popular item they really added that extra touch to our display.  These belts are so gorgeous and of course I had to keep one for myself to wear.  We do have a few left over that are available in our online store.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow . . .

As long as the snow is in polymer clay patterns and we do not have to shovel it, I am okay with that.   We have had a nice fall season so far but we are already preparing for the Craft-a-Fair Christmas show on Sunday November 1st.  We will be in the same space as the past 5 years -- up on the concourse (turn left at the main entrance and we are the third booth on the left hand side before the concession).

We always like to have some type of Christmas themed pieces at our shows and this year we came up with a snowflake design in a "snap".  I love jewelry with snowflakes for the holidays as you can wear them all winter and not just at Christmas time.  These snowflake snaps were created from a mould that we made from a metal finding and have them available in Silver with either a black or metallic blue background.  Swarovski crystals are embedded into each snowflake center to give them some sparkle.  These are now also available in our online store.

The detachable pendant shown here is new and we recently added it to our online store.  We added the clip bail which fits the thinner buna or softglass cords (2.5mm).  These clasp type bails are great as they are not only interchangeable so you can switch out your cord type or color, the pendants stay in place so the cord does not creep it's way to the front.

We have a special promotion coming up with some cool offers and even a free tutorial, so be sure to sign up for our newsletter on our website here so you don't miss out!

Donna's Yarn & Craft and Heather's Fabric Shelf New Locations

We managed to drop in and see Donna and Elsie at Donna's Yarn & Craft Centre one more time before they reopened yesterday (Monday).  Was nice to see the shelves filling up and all their unique items finding spots in their new location.  I had to admire all those glass shelves and I admire them even more now after helping Elsie put this and another double tower together.  They took a lot of hours to put together (I only helped a bit) and one can only imagine how much work there is in a move such as this.

Shelves filling up with yarn at Donna's Yarn & Craft Centre

Part of the bead section at Donna's Yarn & Craft

Was nice to see the one rack with our handcrafted buttons was already filled and organized.  Yes there is even more of our items at the store.  In fact, Donna has the largest selection of our handcrafted items available.  We also do special or custom orders for large projects through her store as well.

2GoodClaymates' Buttons

The cool thing about Donna's new location is that she is now in the same Brock Shopping Centre and almost right next to Heather's Fabric Shelf who also relocated there.  We popped in to see their new store and was nice to see how spacious and well organized it was.   They also now have more space in the back for their classes and operating their "Long Arm" machine.

Heather's Fabric Shelf

Heather's Fabric Shelf

New Store Location for Donna's Yarn & Craft Centre

Anyone following our blog and lives in our area pretty much knows who Donna is from Donna's Yarn & Craft Centre.  Donna, along with her mom Elsie, run a really awesome store on North Shore Kamloops that is packed full of yarn, sewing notions and jewelry making supplies.

Donna's Yarn and Craft recently moved their store from the Fortune Shopping Centre to the Brock Shopping Centre (Tranquille Road -- on the way out to the airport).  This move is a huge undertaking and if you know their store you would understand.  We paid them a visit and gave them a hand the other day.  We were really impressed with the new store and how spacious it is compared to their previous location so it will be even better.

Donna being her "shy" self!  lol!

Donna (above) and Elsie (below) are working hard and putting in long hours so they can be up and running again as soon as possible.  They should be open again by this coming Monday (17th).  They are having difficulty getting their phone connected so if there is no answer that is probably why. (Thanks to the wonderful Shaw company!).

I helped Elsie (above) build those glass shelves!  Was a lot of fun but hard work!

I will share some photos of their new shop with you once they are open again.

Gorgeous Sweater Coats by KLA Originals

We really enjoy collaborating with other local artists.  Our recent one was with costume designer and artist, Kirsten Atkins of KLA Originals who creates fabulous upcycled sweater coats and jackets.

Kirsten was in need of just the right buttons for her latest project -- a sweater coat that would be entered into the Kamloops "Art Exposed" show.  The show is over so I am now allowed to share the photos with you.  Kirsten entered two sweater coats.  One was titled "Fire" and the other "Ice" and when you see them together you can see how the titles are so fitting.  As soon as I saw the beautiful textures and colors in the "Ice" sweater coat, I immediately thought of our Color Wheel buttons which seemed to go so well with the piece.  Rather than going with just one color, we did them up in several shades of blue, turquoise and teal.

So here are a few photos of the sweater coats that Kirsten created.  While they do look great, they look even more awesome in person as you can see up close all the detail and work that went into them!  Every square inch has been carefully arranged and pieced together which took many hours to create.

"Ice" by Kirsten of KLA Originals

"Ice" by Kirsten of KLA Originals

"Fire" and "Ice" by Kirsten of KLA Originals

"Fire" by Kirsten of KLA Originals

"Fire" by Kirsten of KLA Originals

Kirsten sells her original sweaters at local art shows and festivals but also has them available on her website if you would like to check out more of her awesome work.

Polymer Workshop - Playing with Textures

The pieces shown below are not ours but made by Joanne, a student at the polymer workshop Dave and I taught last Sunday.  The class was a follow-up with some of the students from our beginner workshop and was all about "Playing with Textures".  It was a full day with lots of experimentation and making their own textures plates from scratch.  It also involved getting down and dirty with mica powders and inks but everyone left smiling and excited about what they had made.

Joanne is a talented jewelry artist and she 

finished off her pieces so beautifully.

It is exciting as we are already planning our next clay gathering that will be entirely for fun and play and we now have a small group of polymer clayers in our area to eventually form our own guild.

If you are in our area and already play with clay and would like to join up with us for a good time, contact us for more information.

If you would like to learn more about working with polymer clay, we are planning another beginner workshop in June.  You can contact us or Thread & Paper in Salmon Arm for more information.

2 Good "Soul" Mates and More Buttons

I haven't blogged in a few days as we have been too busy with things to stop and write about it.  By the end of this blog post I think you will know why.  We have had a lot of exciting things happen lately and something even more exciting starting tomorrow so stay tuned for our next post.  For a hint you can check out this blog post by Knot-sew-cute.

We have been working on some new button styles and sometimes a new idea or inspiration can come from the most unlikely places.  Dave was shopping around for a new car and found this Kia Soul that is just right for our lifestyle.  It is not only fun to drive but also works well for the gear that we are always hauling around.  They first showed us a grey one and of course our last car was grey and so I had to ask if they had anything in a fun color.  They happened to have this bright red one which we both really love.  So now we can say we are also "2 Good Soul Mates" -- lol.

So what does this have to do with making buttons?  Well the Kia Dealer in Kamloops happens to be only one block from Donna's Yarn & Craft.  We happened to mention to several guys at the dealership about the buttons we make that Donna sells and they were very interested.  We showed them some samples and that led to an idea.  They explained to us how they wear these really nice dress shirts but they all have these boring and usually white buttons on them.  Since they do not wear ties anymore, it would be really cool if we could come up with some really funky buttons for their shirts in colors to coordinate.  We thought it was a neat idea as well so as soon as possible we started experimenting.

We decided to use some of Dave's shirts to start as we needed to make them in the right size.  We discovered that making this type of button is a little more challenging since they are so small.  When creating a cane and reducing it down to only 12mm, the pattern becomes very small and difficult to see.

This is the first set we did for a light blue shirt that Dave had.

We then decided to make some in silver and black shown here:  The little solid black buttons are for the collar tips and sleeve plackets to replace those extra tiny ones.  We made these in a solid color and with a shank to add a little contrast and style.

And these are a few more button style samples we have been experimenting with in brighter colors:

So soon we should be turning some men's shirts from blah to bazinga!