May 16

Wow!

Today was a definite Wow day. We started off driving into the countryside near the German and Polish border to a small town in the forest with a factory on the edge of the forest. There we met Roman who had arranged lots of vintage beads (an I mean lots) and buttons to look at and purchase, as well as tons and tons of fabulous beads.

 Guy on the hunt.....

  Everyone oohing and awing at vintage goodies. 

We all loaded up. I mean - really loaded up. They had even hired a translator to help sell and communicate.

 This just happens to be J-ME's stash. Will she part with any of these precious Vintage beads or buttons? Come to Bead & Buttons show in Milwaukee this June to find out?!

We had lunch; which had been reserved  by Roman at a nearby restaurant at a very lovely and exotic restaurant which had very large wood sculptures all over the grounds.

  Very outrageous decorations on the walls.

 J-ME riding a very large dinosaur horsey type wood sculpture. 

 So, can anyone tell us what this is? Fruit? from where? Is was a piece on one of our plate's as decoration. The fruit or vegie orange round thing tasted a bit tart at first, then sweet, with very small seeds. Very strange.

Well, we later found out what it is. It is fruit called Physalis, sometimes also called Chinese Lantern.

We then drove into Novy Bor to see a bead show by 5 lampwork artists of which one was Anna, our translator. We all loaded up. Again. In fact we bought so much that all of the artists will have to make more stock for their showing which is to end in 28 days! We left them with hardly any jewelry to display. It was madness and so much fun!

 Take a look at this earring and necklace set - very modern look.  

And this one was very unusual. J-ME got two different ones by this artist - Anna.

 This one was NOT FOR SALE. and one of us so wanted to bring it home with her.

This is some of Roxanne's pieces she had to take home with her. The large yellowish green ones are uranium glass that glow with a black light. And they are also hollow blown beads. 

 Okay, so Debra is wearing a happy smile, you should have seen her a few minutes later when she wore one of her purchases out with her, and all of them on her arm went home with her.

 And let us not forget Petr, our driver had to decide if he looked good in this one.... What do you think?

 This lovely young lady is Anna- one of the wonderful artist's in this art gallery showing. We all need to give her our support and a large applause. She is fantastic.

Then we drove back to Jablonec with the bus driver speeding like a maniac; because we were 30 minutes late to our next appointment at a really nice small factory. We all bought a little bit of pressed beads, but many loaded up on the lovely lampwork. A friend of the factory owner was displaying her artwork hand painted on glass, some of us bought a few.

 one tray of lampwork for us to choose from. A lot of it was wiped out once we attacked the trays. You  are seeing the aftermath in this photo.

So now we are almost finished picking our lovelies to take home. 

We had reservations at a nice, family owned restaurant who was making rabbit as a special item, which was not on the menu, but almost everyone canceled except four of us. When we arrived the table of 15 was laid out in anticipation. Veronika and her two beautiful daughters came and introduced themselves to us. Disappointment all around that only four showed up. But the ones who did get to attend had a fabulous meal.

 So here we are.... at dinner in a 5 star restaurant.

 this is a chicken stuffed with pear  

                                                                                     








The main reason Guy & J-ME love this special restaurant - the rabbit dishes are wonderful.






                                            Back at the hotel.... button party in Marcia's room.

  

And off to sleep for the night (except of course, for yours truly, as I am busy working on this blog while the wind blows crazily outside our window)

J-Me and Guy are the owners of Wild Things Beads, a small family run import business specializing in Czech glass beads and buttons and finding the unusual to bring to their warehouse. They also run working bead tours to Jablonec and Hong Kong. Their warehouse is located deep in the Sierra Nevada foothills of Northern California, and can be reached by phone at (530)743 1339 or on the web at www.wildthingsbeads.com. They are also open by appointment at their warehouse.