Best Little Bead Shop in Nebraska

5Z's Star City

Bead Shop

is

The Best Little Bead Shop in Nebraska!

Located in Lincoln, at 9th & O streets, tucked into the Mission Arts Building, this is a full service bead shop. Charlene Zweerink, the owner offers a huge supply of seed beads and accents as well as oodles of findings and supplies.

When you come here, you can just about get anything your beady heart desires.

More beads than you could imagine in one cute little shop!

Plenty of Beady Inspiration

Pick A Class - Schedule a class when it fits your schedule. Be taught one on one to make a number of lovely creations.

Don't be surprised if you get visited by the

building resident Corgie - Murray

5Z'S Star City Bead Shop

Mission Arts Building

124 S. 9th Street, Studio #3

Lincoln, NE 68508

402-477-4054

HOURS:Thursday: Noon-ish to 7 pm

Friday, Saturday, Sunday: Noon-ish to 5 pm

It just might be the best bead shop in all of the midwest!

The Beader's Floral - book review

Well today I got a cool new book... It's a little pricey at $39.95 retail but it is a very cool book:

The Beader's Floral by Liz Thornton & Jill Devon


This book has the coolest collection of flowers!!! Among the many flowers in this book are: Water Lily, Clematis, Tulip, Fuchsia, Daffodil, Cornflower, Iris, Snowdrop, Pink, Peony, Orchid and Columbine.

The directions appear to be more detailed than the usual condensed version in the magazines. This book is 144 pages. The diagrams are in color and there are oodles of pictures of projects and a gallery in the back for inspiration.

It's definitely worth the price and is fully available here in the US now, so make sure you check your local bead shop and see if they either have or can get it in!!!

Just a bunch of quotes today

I don't know where these came from originally, but it was in a friendship forward I got today. I think they speak volumes.

Be kinder than necessary because

everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.

A sharp tongue can cut my own throat.

If I want my dreams to come true,

I mustn't oversleep.

Of all the things I wear,

my expression is the most important.

The happiness of my life

depends on the quality of my thoughts.

The heaviest thing I can carry is a grudge.

One thing I can give and still keep...is my word.

I lie the loudest when I lie to myself.

If I lack the courage to start, I have already finished.

One thing I can't recycle is wasted time.

Ideas won't work unless I do.

My mind is like a parachute...

it functions only when open.

The 10 commandments are not a multiple choice.

The pursuit of happiness is the chase of a lifetime!

It is never too late to become what I might have been.

Needling the Thread

There are a few things that I have noticed universal across the board with most beaders and one of them is how we thread that blasted needle. You have thread that is fine and soft. If it's Nymo, it's like blasted dental floss only thinner... So threading a beading needle - which is also fine and has the thinnest of eyes - is a task for the new beader. Many a time have I told my students that I will thread anything they need in class to save on time because when you are new at it, you can literally spend 5-10 min trying to get that baby threaded. But what I do isn't special; it's pretty much what all beaders do. We needle the thread instead of threading the needle. This means that you hold a tiny bit of thread sticking out between your thumb and forefinger then lay the eye of the needle onto that tip of thread - hoping and praying to get it on at least the 2nd try!

So the question right now is - can anyone own that method? Just because you make a tutorial - you can copyright the text but can you take credit for the process? I certainly didn't invent it and I have seen many, many beaders do it and instructors teach it. Can one person really think so much of themselves that they own how to thread a needle?

A quote to think about:

Finish each day and be done with it.

You have done what you could.

Some blunders and absurdities have crept in;

Forget them as soon as you can.

Tomorrow is a new day.
You shall begin it serenely and

with too high a spirit to be encumbered

with old nonsense.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Stolen or borrowed or simply not that original of an idea in the first place?

Sometimes I write here to unclog the garbage from my brain. Other times I have in the past written here to correct bad info posted on the net. Still others, I write here to tell of my own experiences. Basically I write here so you get to know me a little better and maybe understand me a little bit.

How does someone decide that something you designed must be stolen from something they designed??? Is it well meaning people telling them that the ring they saw looks just like one they designed? Did they see it themselves and have the same thoughts?

Item in question is a flower ring that I designed. This item is a derivative of a flower I learned in 1999 or there about from a friend who was also a beading instructor. This friend/instructor and I often took little pieces from each other to create a new piece. We were both pretty comfortable with our own beading talent such as is was, so neither of us was threatened by the other's creativity. It's the reason I love to teach. I love to see what else someone does with what I teach him or her. I wouldn't want to see a bunch of identical versions of a piece designed by me. I would want to see several similar, yet different pieces that were started with something I designed and taught. It's the best compliment to a teacher to see the students learning and broadening the idea just a little bit. To see someone taking something they learned from you and created something that is their own is a great thing.

After all, no one invented beadwork in the first place. It's been done by many cultures for hundreds of years. Needlework of all kinds has been taught generation to generation. I remember being given a ball of yarn and taught single crochet by my mom at about 7 or 8 years old. I made a little cap for my doll to wear. For embroidery, I was given a flour sack dishtowel in a hoop. My mom had drawn the lines for the petals and dots for the center. There, she taught me the lazy daisy and the French knot. She didn't invent either the knot or the loop but she taught it to me just the same, as her mother had done to her. No one owns it or even thinks to try.

What is it in a person to decide that you could not have possibly both come up with a ring with a flower on it at different times that may look similar but are still also different? This all seems to be the buzz in sleepy town I live in right now. I teach at the local bead shop and through the buzz at a few recent events at the bead shop, it has come to my attention that another bead designer here seems to think that in a brief acquaintance we had, I stole her idea for a beaded flower ring. It’s a little much ado about nothing if you ask me. There is plenty of room in the bead world for more than one ring with a flower on it. You would think that the chattering people would have better things to do but it’s such the nature of the human apparently to speak in hushed circles about thing that may or may not be true to the detriment of another. They have a word for it – GOSSIP! Instead of being an adult and contacting me personally, she choose to tell other people that I stole her idea from her. Had she contacted me personally, she might have been proved wrong and then she wouldn’t have had anything to gossip about!

So I searched out the other ring in question and it’s a nice ring but I would never have looked at hers and thought that she saw mine and designed it to copy me. It’s nice and it’s different from mine. Who really cares anyway? Well she does apparently... Heck, I may have been wearing it the very day I met this person. For me, it’s about getting the crap out of my head so I can design and bead new things. So for the last hour or so, I have been looking through photos on back up CD’s to see just when I made my first ring. The photo was taken in 2002, though I think I beaded the first version about a year before that. I didn't move here until June of 2003, so my mind is now clear but I have to wonder, what if it had been the other way around. What if I did see something someone else did and was inspired to use a flower I learned the basics of from someone else 5 years before and made it into a ring?

I did a google image search for Flower Ring and literally thousands of images on the internet fit that description. It says “Results 1 - 18 of about 1,080,000 for flower ring”. I didn’t invent the concept and neither did she. Yet I’m a thief because I have one I designed which I teach and sell a tutorial for.

I simply don't get the issue here. I have never seen her instructions and she has never seen mine that I know of. She could have seen my ring and was later so inspired to design a flower ring of her own. So what? I just don't get the very thought process that makes someone look at something and decide it has been stolen from them. What makes a person have such an ego or even having the lack of ego to be so threatened by a similar design by another beader?

There is another flower ring here: http://www.buythekit.com/13/dh130801.html

The kit is for sale as we speak, as mine was when I sold kits on that same site. Does it mean that any of us stole the idea from another one? NO!

And still an even cooler flower ring is here: http://webpages.charter.net/florencebeads/Kits/#Flower_Ring

So before you assume that someone has stolen anything, think that maybe, just maybe they could have come up with it on their very own – with their own two hands. This same person learned how to make a cool earring from me and took it another step. I thought it was great! The idea didn't end up working but I often pull the pair of earrings she tried it on out and look at them trying to figure out how to make it work. The idea was adding flowers to the Dutch Spiral earrings I make. They look great when they stay on the outside, but they try to flip into the core here you can't see them. The acquaintance was brief and it never really did develop into a real friendship. My mom says that it ended because she had learned all she needed to from me. Maybe. The last time she came over to bead, it was so I could teach her how I make twisted fringe. I taught her that and never really saw much of her after that. What is really sad is that I have an even cooler way to make the twisted fringe now. She would love it even more this way! But she lets the crap clog her life. To fixate enough to tell several people that I have stolen from her, instead of moving forward and designing something even cooler herself, she is poisoned with the negative crap. I sincerely feel sorry for her. It is sad for someone to feel so low and unappreciated.

Everything is really not about you. It’s about a much bigger picture. In the end, isn't it about promoting beadwork, which is something we all love, right? That any of us can make anything using the ideas we come up with is great and we should all celebrate each other and not fight. It’s more important to keep the crap out of your brain so you can have a chance at creating. You get back what you put out. And if you put out crap, that is all you are going to get back!

More life lessons...

The more I travel, the more I learn about myself as I interact with others. This time it's the suggestions that other people freely give me without my asking for them...

Suggest - definition
a: to seek to influence
b: to call forth
c: to mention or imply as a possibility

I have come to realize that I am not a very suggestible person. I have also realized that I am a little ADHD. It's all part of what I call tunnel vision. Once I have my mind made up, I am not open to input most of the time. By the time I vocalize my intentions, I am usually not interested in input. I guess I feel that I get enough input from my family that anyone else is just over kill. I'm 41 for goodness sake, don't I have the right to make choices of my very own?

I'm tired of getting in trouble for not taking suggestions. They can start with "why don't you..." when what they really mean is "you must do as I say". Sort of the difference between A and C in the definition. It should be C but it ends up being A. They seek to influence me when I already have my mind pretty much made up. Now I'm not saying not to make suggestions, I'm saying to have low expectations of the person you are making them to actually following them. That way, you have a higher chance of not being disappointed.

So when you make suggestions, to anyone, please try to be prepared for them not to want the input they did not ask for first. This way, you don't get pissed off when they blow you off. It just might be that they already know exactly what they want to do. While well intended, your suggestion might just be the most unwanted thing they hear all day.

Headed Home From Tucson

Well I'm headed home from Tucson.

I'm sooooo tired but I had such a nice time. It's hard when you are so tired too. I'm glad to have such good friends who understand the achey body you end up with standing and walking for hours a day. I worked the Bead Ren show for 8 days and then Aleta walked my butt all over the Tucson Electric Park, Gem Mall, Hollidome and the shows on Freeway near Congress. I got to see friends I had not seen in a year and I had such a good time shopping with a bead shop. Just watching the quantities of beads bought at one vendor only further convinces me that they need 2 levels of wholesale: Designer and real wholesale to brick and morter businesses only. The latter having large minimums and refusing to sell a single strand to anyone. If you are a real business a single strand would more likely be a sample given to an already established customer. It was fun to see the vendor's faces light up when they saw the number of strands being sold in one sale. They did not seem to have had a good show. The economy sucks and there were just too many crowds of people that I would be willing to bet all were just friends who got a resale permit just to be able to buy at the same price as the local bead shop. It's not fair to the shops or the vendors. As a designer, I would not mind a show where they were willing to sell me at a better price than retail and not as good as the local bead shop. Because, after all, where would we be without the local bead shop. Whether it's a great one like we have in Redding, CA, or a mediocre one like I hear are out there. It was just so much fun, I am looking forward to a nice rest to catch up and let my body get back to normal.

trying to help?

Why is it that when you tell someone something, they try to help you into another direction?

Or an affirmative statement becomes a debate? It seems to happen to me occasionally, usually with people who don't realize I am a tunnel vision person. By the time I actually express and idea I generally have my mind made up and it's very frustrating when they won't let their cool idea go. Like if I picked beads out for a project or had the stitch in my head that I plan to use to get to the picture I have already created in my head, they try to steer me in another direction. They are only trying to help but still.

I can't give a for instance because the person(s) involved would get their feelings hurt when that certainly would not be my intention. There would be oodles less debate in my life if people would just let me stick with what I already stated in generally a very affirmative manner was my goal. If I want to use a product that you don't like, that is fine. I most likely don't like something you use and that is ok too. I guess we are all guilty of it at one time of another, but hey if we tried to just let people stick with their visions, and it turned out to be wrong, it was their wrong turn to make. It's usually not life or death - all will be right with the world again whether they crash and burn or flourish in most cases. How do you tell a friend though that the suggestions he or she makes could be more frustrating than helpful. Like if you tell someone you are in the middle of a thought and they still keep talking/suggesting? Ya don't want it to ruin a fantastic relationship otherwise but still, it sort of hinders the flow of things huh?

Another issue is when you make a statement of fact and they discount it... right on the spot. For instance, I know that the light will turn red after it turns yellow, and you say - maybe... or just a general fact - something from the news - something from anywhere - a general statement of fact - bold as can be - and generally things I can back up, will often be met with for lack of a better word skepticism. If I make a statement of fact, I don't generally want input one way or the other from the person I am talking to.

We all have our own preferences. Some beaders are catalog beaders. I am so not a catalog beader. I buy beads in person unless there is virtually no way to screw up getting more of something I already have... I am a see bead buyer. Mishaps in buying things on line have made me not really interested in buying on like much at all. I have friends who buy all their beads online. I have another friend who gets fantastic buys on ebay. Clothes and all sorts of goodies. It all looks great to me when she shows me but it's just not a bridge I choose to jump off of. Still another friend loves craigs list. I am not a craigs lister as far as purchasing things from strangers. There are too many weirdo's out there, and I'm a little paranoid. It's still my choice and no amount of huffing and puffing from anyone is really going to change my mind at that moment and that is ok too. Make a suggestion sometime but if it's met with a brick wall, let them have that brick wall if they want to. It's their wall anyway isn't it? They can always change their mind and follow your advise later. I know I did when I got the new laptop. Several very nice well meaning people told me to try the newspaper or craigs list or get a dell. I wanted a Toshiba. I did get a dell, so I did change my mind. It's not all bad but I get to change my mind in my own schedule, and you do too.

I adore the people in my life but at 41, I would hope that I had gotten to an age where I get to make my own mistakes if I choose to. Other people's personal experiences can be educational, but not always mesh with the pre plotted plan I have already in my minds eye. Give people a break. Let them do things their way. If it's not something life threatening, they might have a good idea afterall.

And just because I seem annoyed with the debate over something I just stated was affirmatively in my brain, it does not mean I'm angry. Just because I stick to the rules and have to correct others on my list for not doing so, also does not make me angry. I likes it the way I likes it. Live with it! LOL

Suddenly I'm FREE!

Well Tucson has not been nearly as fun as I had hoped...

The show was painfully slow making the boss painfully irritable.

Wednesday, I got violently ill from dust on beads I had been stringing for sale... had an asthma attack, got sick as a result of coughing too much and too hard.

Thursday morning, I felt like I had been run over by a truck, and the boss was as uncaring about the whole thing as he possibly could be. A little unfair, since I got sick because of something at his booth. I told him I almost called him to see if I could not come in today. He informed me that he didn't hire people who called in sick. I told him I didn't think people planned to be sick....

The result was him being picky over a phone number not being written on a check, but was on a biz card collected from the customer. He harped on it until I was sick, sick, sick of hearing it. The initial response from me was I'm sorry. I made the mistake and I had owned up to it, so why would anyone want to rub your nose in it so much it made you quit?

I have no clue but after asking him to please drop it, I was informed that it was his booth and I either could like it or lump it... basically a threat to fire me.

Result was a panic attack that I didn't need feeling as bad as I did and I did some math... The pay was in my favor by $15 dollars, so I gave him one more chance by telling him I didn't appreciate being threatened and he had the same basic response - that it was his business and I could basically like it or lump it. I told him I was in the green with him and that I didn't even want it and I quit. I told him I wished him the best and walked away with my head held high.

This was not the first time he had threatened me and this week he had been unfair a couple times and on the first time, I made a mental note that it was going to be a case of three strikes and you are out. I deserve better than that. EVERYONE does. I worked in a job years ago where I got the panic attacks from a boss that was just awful. So after one strike on Tuesday, one Wednesday, today was the straw that broke the camel's back after being so sick yesterday and the boss was as uncaring about it as possible. His product nearly put me in the emergency room and he really didn't care. But then he doesn't seem to care about anyone but himself anyway, so I'm not surprised. The two that run the biz deserve each other. Both so miserable in their own lives that they share the misery with all who are near them.

I found another place to work for a day or two, so it's not an entire loss. I feel free.

I worked for this company and I learned lots and got lots of cool beads over the years. I even got sent to Hawaii to work a show. It is not all bad but I'm guessing stress from the economy sucking and the market flooded with way too many shows, is taxing all the dealers. More is not always better. Maybe that is the cause of all of this.

I know the song is "suddenly I see" but in my head tonight, it's "suddenly I'm free". I feel like a huge weight was lifted off my back. I am working for a completely stress free company for whatever days she will have me. It's a fun crew and I am looking forward to working tomorrow way more than I was this morning.

Day 2 Tucson

Sorry I didn't post yesterday - I was pooped.

I got beadz!!!! And I had such a nice couple days!!!! We skipped the Beadwork party tonight as we were both wanting to get home and relax.

I am going to take pics and will try to post them soon.

I have been having fun with customers - helping them pick beads out, beating the customer service happening at our other booth *VBG*

Off to bed and on to more beads!!

Tucson or Bust!!!

Well, Greyhound to Oakland... Bart to Fremont.... Brother's house for the nite and out from San Jose this morning stopped in LA for 20 min to off load and reload passengers and I'm FINALLY in Tucson!!! Well I did leave out the part about almost not making it out of Redding due to snow in the mountains to the north.

Southwest Airlines still sucks. I thought that years back when I volunteered to stay longer eons ago. They charged my credit card for it and my luggage went to LA without me and didn't get back to me for 48 hours. Today I experienced the worst landing I have ever rode out... even the flight attendant commented a dig at the pilot about it. I was not advised about the LA stop over - I paid for a non-stop flight.... It was not non-stop.

But I'm here!!!! BRING ON DA BEADS!!!!

Work a bead show.... come home with money AND beads! :-D

Life Resolution

Unlike a New Years Resolution, this one is for the rest of my life! I'm going to try my hardest to stop playing the social game.

You know the people - friends who keep track of who initiated the last contact. Friends who sit near the phone or the instant messaging buddy list and never initiate contact because they initiated contact the last 365 out of 700 times and that means that if you like them - you will know this and initiate contact with them. It's a game and I hate petty games - this one worst of all. If you call and I'm home, usually I'm thrilled to talk. If I'm online and you message me, I'm happy to chat. But to keep track of who did what last or more often and use that as a gauge to who is the better friend? Not for me. Just because I didn't initiate it, doesn't mean I don't want the communication. I might not be in the mood to initiate it but the contact itself might improve my mood.

And no - if you are reading this, I'm most likely not talking about you. It would be people who don't read my blog, and I'm just venting :-)

Have a great day!!!

Tucson Bound!

In less than 5 days, I will be on my way to Tucson for the anual Gem shows!

I will be working at the Bead Ren show with San Francisco Arts & Crafts, so if you are there - please come by and say hi!

I have been working furiously on beadwork to wear at the show... better late than never! I do well with deadlines, so it makes sense that the airline ticket in my name sparked my creative side.

So Tucson in 5 days and counting!

Talents that are not shared are not talents

"Talents that are not shared are not talents."

Got that in a fortune cookie at lunch today, and boy is there much said in that small statement. What immediately comes to mind for me are the designers out there that think they have complete control over their designs once they make directions or patterns and put them out there for sale or in classes. They let you take their over priced class and then tell you that you can only make one or that you can make 3 but you can't sell them. They think of ways to stop you from sharing directions in many ways from plastering each page with copyright info to having you jump through hoops just to get the dumb thing making them inaccessible to many people.

Also, I asked the copyright office and they sid that you can rightfully sell anything you own as long as it is not trademarked. But in truth, even things that are trademarked - made legally, can be sold second hand, so in reality, you can sell anything you own out right.

I'm tickled pink to think that anything I have designed could be sellable.

I love to think that they will sell them and spend more money on beads and patterns, preferably mine! LOL

So I'm sticking with the fortune of the day. The only real talents are those that are shared with others!

This Week Was...

I'm going to try to write here at least once a week. This week was quiet but nice. I ordered beads. I finished my earrings and have been wearing them all over town. This weekend is the gem show. It's interesting how my opinion of this particular show has changed since I first attended 4 years ago. I thought it small and very pompously dismissed it. As the time passed, it is the only bead type show we get here. And though I get to at least 3 real bead shows a year, it's different when it's close and you get to go from home and not working at a booth does change the dynamic.

Now I go to see the people and pets that are there. I take Smokey and it's a very positive social outing for him. He gets to see other dogs which is good for him. I get to see other bead and jewelry addicts. Sometimes I see friends that I have not seen sometimes since the last show.

I have a huge re-organize planned for my beads and I just hope the schedule goes as planned. I'm not gonna tempt fate by crossing my fingers or toes.

I have been doing things that help me heal as a human being. I went into a bead shop who's owner owes me for a class of mine that she took. I had not walked into that shop for 3 years and it was good to go in and look around. I felt a huge weight lifted off of me after that. It was a very good thing. I have not been overly productive in my beading this week but I have been doing things that are bead related.

I hope the next week is very beady productive. I have 3 pair of earrings on the to do list. 2 necklaces and then the spiral swap pieces.

What a Beadiful day I had yesterday!!!

And it was very beady!

A friend told me that there was a trunk show in Sacramento - 2 1/2 hours drive from where we live. She said she would drive if I would go with her!

So of course I said I would love to go with her! LOL

What a day we had! I already knew a cool bead shop in Sacramento - U BEAD IT - Yvonne Rivero's shop - she is the author with the bracelet books and one ornament book. I took the 2 bracelet books I already have and bought the 3rd one. Next time I will get the ornament one! LOL

She has the most awesome bead store!!! The nicest employees and a selection of beads that knocks you over when you go in and see them all!

I have been wanting to make this cool knock off pair of earrings. I saw a pair another person designed and I liked them but she used delicas and her fringes were even and I wanted mine tapered - so I got the needed materials and I made one myself!

here is the pic.

http://members.aol.com/pjwelborn/CordDangleEarsAlaPamy.jpg

I finished it in the car on the way to the bead show!
All I have to do is make the match and I can start wearing them! LOL

We hit Sacramento in the morning and I knew a cool bread place - so we had muffins and coffee.

We headed to the bead shop because it opened at 10 and the show didn't open till 12. We filled our trays there and decided to have them hold it all so we could get whatever the show didn't have for us after the show and add it to our orders - I buy wholesale and they have a minimum amount to get the discount - so I didn't want to have to make it 2 times in one day!

So we left there and headed to the truck show. Tables and tables of stone beads!!!! Pearls!!!! baggies of Swarovski!!! Chinese Crystal! baggies of Findings!!!! It was a huge display.

Then back to the bead shop where we filled in where the bead show left off!

Dinner at Cheesecake Factory and back home!

I was so tired I nearly don't remember anything I did after I got home. Head on pillow and had lots of beady dreams!

May all your beady dreams come true!

Pamy

Rumpelstiltskin ants

I have a fantasy I would like to share...



not that kind of fantasy!



a Beady one...



It started when the annual finder ants started coming in to look for goodness knows what!

They come in - one ant at a time or 3 ants at a time but seldom do they even get near food, they are in the bedroom and the bathroom and the closet... So in my little fantasy, these ants come in and do nothing, so I want to give them something to do. So in the spirit of the fairy tale Rumpelstiltskin, I would leave out all the beads and supplies for a project, the directions and all and in the morning the piece would be beaded up magically by these Rumpelstiltskin ants!

I know... It's a pipe dream but it's my pipe dream!

lol

and I thought you might get a giggle out of it too.

Keep your Friends Close...

And your Enemies Closer.

And that has been my policy for some time but this new outlook I have makes it even easier to do.

Makes them wonder what you have been up to when you walk through a parking lot whistling...

Makes them wonder what you know when they see you with the slight grin on your face...

So that is my theory for today

Keep them guessing!

And I keep my bucket empty.

I'm just here for the beads

I'm just here for the beads

I don't want the complications of all the politics

I am not here to win a popularity contest

If you don't like me - fine

If you do like me - GREAT

But I'm still just here for the beads