"Treasures of the Earth" Gem, Mineral, & Jewelry Show, Raleigh, NC

Yesterday i took the opportunity to attend the Treasures of the Earth Gem, Mineral & Jewelry Show, a large trade fair for professional and hobby jewelry artists, held in the Kerr Scott Building on the NC State Fairgrounds. Admission was $4 (free for those under 16), which got me a ticket that, had i known, would have allowed admission for multiple days of the show, which began Friday and ends today at 5pm. Given how much amazing stuff was in there (and how costly some of it was), perhaps it's a good thing that i was only there for a day.

I got the idea from talking to some of the vendors that these kinds of trade shows are fairly common all around the US, that many of them do the circuit and vend at many per year--if you're interested in attending one, keep an eye out for announcements of such things at venues in your area. I found out about this one through a monthly local events list distributed by my electricity co-op, of all things.

I took a whole bunch of photographs, which are ( behind this cut. )

Project: 1920s Sun Hat, Part One

It's Labor Day today in the US, and unlike most folks who get the day off for cookouts and fun, i went into work and labored! (I had dye work i had to get done for Pericles, fabric that needed to be dyed before the drapers could cut their pieces out for the costumes we're making in-house. I worked on some hats off and on while waiting for water to heat.)

Remember that 1920s hat with the fishbone inset that won my poll a while back? This one?




I've been working on it as an example for my students in millinery class--i start out doing the projects a stage ahead of them, so they have a practical example of the various steps i'm teaching. This one's fairly far along and i have a good batch of photographs, so i thought i'd make a first post on the progress.

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That's as far as i've documented as yet; i'll hopefully finish it this week or so and get the remainder of the process up here for y'all to see.

And, if you love this hat all to bits to the point that you want to own it, it's probably going to be one of the items available in PlayMakers' Spring Auction--I'm doing a small collection of one-of-a-kind, hand-made millinery under the La Bricoleuse label just for the auction! The current idea is that they will all be hats that could be worn in a modern context, even if they are made to conform to historic shapes (like this one), and they'll all feature some element of fabric or trim or similar which has appeared on the PRC stage.