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Our first Trollbeads Day is now a day behind us but the spirit of the day and the spirit of Trollbeads activities continues.  We had such a positive day celebrating the premier of all bead brands and cheered in the knowledge the future of Trollbeads looks exciting! Kicking off Trollbeads Day was the unveiling of a long awaited bead, The Trollbeads Day Bead!

I have been surfing through the internet looking at photos of the day and wish I has been able to photograph some of the activities but I am afraid we were short handed and I was one of the front sales people during the event and never got my camera out! As I mention on our Forum, Trollbeads Gallery Forum, I really regret not getting a photo of Penni as she was leaving for the Post Office with two bags full of orders!  We sold through well over 100 of the Trollbeads Day Bead and just hope we are getting more than the 25 I have one order!  TrollbeadsUS is apparently out of them.  I am so happy for all the collectors that was able to claim one.  It will be a historic bead and one that should be in everyone's collection.

The Initial Controversy:

When the beads first arrived I was tentative at best not knowing what the bead's meaning was.  If you don't know the story behind it and its wealth of tradition in the Trollbeads way it may seem a bit off-putting.  The description I received is below. When I was sent the description and the story I grew to love it as I love so many other of the "Troll"beads...(beads with Trolls).  Soren Nielsen who made the actual first Trollbead over 3 decades ago designed this bead to best reflect the spririt of Trollbeads and that he did!  The collectors that are particularly fond of this bead are what I call core-trollies.  The collectors that love the funky, the fantasy and the spirit of Trollbeads. At first I was thinking that this bead will separate the men from the boys in the Trollbeads world and by this I mean the true Trollies versus the people who love only pretty beads but I am thinking this doesn't give enough credit to the collectors that chose not to buy the bead.  We all have different styles, different perceptions and different ways to express ourselves and as with any Trollbeads either you love it or you don't!  It is that simple.  We only had a couple of cancellations after the pre-orders and for the quantity of orders we has that was very low.

I am interested in hearing about how it's been accepted in other countries and I hope that it has done as well around the globe!  Any feedback please let me know.

When I set out to photograph the bead for this blog my initial thought was to feature them on a Bangle but had to find a bead that would be as unique as the the Trollbeads Day bead and I chose a very special bead Lise Aaggarrd sent to me as a gift.  She knows I love sea glass and created a bead with a frosted surface, similar to sea glass.  Just a brief explanation of what  the top photo is. 

Now the photo below has a connection for me but it does look a little silly but every Trollbeads has meanings to each of us individually! Two years ago Soren came to our Trollbeads Fest and at the time came to my house.  We showed him my jewelry studio where I make sea glass jewelry and in my studio he saw my Antique Doll House and he got a kick out of it.  The tiny details must have spoken to his sense of miniature as he carves in miniature wax when he created a bead.  So I have the Trollbeads Day Bead sitting in a miniature antique Limoges bowl!  What a perfect blend of perfection...Limoges and Trollbeads.  I hope Soren will see this funny photo and enjoy the juxtaposition. It almost borders on bizarre as it looks like I am about to serve Troll stew but I kind of like it. Trolls love to have mischievous fun as I do!

"This is SO Trollbeads! It has trolls. It is from the very first designer of a Trollbead, Søren Nielsen. It has the emotions of Trollbeads. Intensity. Friendship. Joy. You choose which troll is which word. For this is what Trollbeads is all about: individuality, creativity and wonderful imagination."

Trollbeads Fest! 2012

The actual excitement begins when we start our plans for Trollbeads Fest  a month after the previous Fest ends. This way our memories are fresh and we can proceed with planning so everyone has an even better experience at the next Fest!  It is important to change it up each year and we work hard on creating an event you'll want to come back to again and again.  After looking through the ticket purchases I can see we have a good number of people returning for a 3rd time!  Another fun note: we have attendees coming from as far as Wales and the Netherlands! 

Last year the bead table with the unique Trollbeads was quite overwhelming. Everyone wanted to see all the unique beads all at the same time! It was a frenzy of people and some had stronger elbows that others and some never left the table and there were some who never got to the table!  We love the enthusiasm but we would love all of you to have a fair time with the beads this year. Our plans are to have 3-4 tables each with one attendant with 3-4 trays each. When you have selected your beads, we will keep them aside for you in bags with your names.  When you are finished looking through the trays on one table you can move on down the line to the next table and start a new bag to be put aside and so forth.  After you have picked out all that you want, we will get your bags and take to cash out.  We will be replenishing the beads through out the day so everyone should have a fair chance at the unique beads. I am hoping this will be fair for all. There are some stunning beads and I think you'll all be happy with enough to go around. 

This year Trollbeads Fest will be host to leading bead designer Soren Nielsen who will be visiting from Denmark. Soren will be giving wax carving demonstrations showing how his ideas once formed in his head are then carved in wax.  From the wax a mold is made to use for creating the actual beads in silver and in gold.

We also have this year's People's Bead Award winning artist Maria Af Rolen who will be signing bead information cards for "Stay Positive".  The 2012 winners were just announced this summer and Maria is a member of our Trollbeads Gallery Forum.  Another member and winner of the 2012 People's Bead Award is Linda Karuso from Australia.  Linda cannot attend this year but has been good enough to pre-sign cards for attendees to receive with their "World Within" purchases.  To celebrate the event and the winners success we have commissioned Trollbeads to make their winning beads in 18K Gold in a limited quantity. We will be offering them for sale at Trollbeads Fest.  We are also looking forward to seeing "Ice Bear" bead designer Kristy Denning who has never missed a Trollbeads Fest event! She was the second People's Bead Award winner in 2010 for her "Ice Bear".

Michael Bellevue, the CEO of TrollbeadsUS will be speaking about the company and about the exciting direction it is taking. Only on board now for over a year Michael's team and the Denmark team work hand and hand in focusing their attention on the bright future of Trollbeads.  He will be sharing what he can and I for one am very excited to hear it!

Along with Bead Photography Lessons Ginger will be addressing our user needs for photography on Ipads and Iphones.  Ginger was with us for the first Fest and I am so happy she is returning for the third and with all the tech updates I know we all happy she is coming back! 

Sarah Johnston from Trollbeads will be back once more to give glass bead demonstrations on both Friday in Mattapoisett at Rogers Gallery and on Saturday at the event in New Bedford.  We love Sarah and how in the midst of pandemonium she calmly goes about creating glass beads and works her magic.  By the way for those of you who haven't tried it glass bead making is a lot more difficult than it looks!

 The post-fest dinner Saturday night has many treats along with a guest comedian from L.A.! So if you are coming to the Fest make sure you have dinner all blocked in as it will be the most special one to date.  The Trollbeads team will be staying for the dinner so please join us all for a final farewell feast. The food is great but the company will be the best!

Please view our quick videos on the first two Trollbeads Fest and smile along with us!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByHPnE7X2PE&feature=plcp   Trollbeads Fest! 2010

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tK8RFLQi_as&feature=plcp      Trollbeads Fest! 2011

Just try to count the smiles on the happy group of collectors that come from all over the world and many different states to share a most memorable time celebrating their love of Trollbeads and the friendships formed around this outstanding bead brand. 

One more great link for you!  Today the jewelry trade's top magazine published a blog all about Trollbeads Fest as a way to honor our retail creativity! They wrote an article last year after the event and we were so honored.

September 17th In Store Magazine Blog on Event  Thank you In Store Magazine and Eileen!

To finish here is one more very quick video to entice you to come visit us on October 5th & 6th for Trollbeads Fest!  2012. There's only a few tickets left so grab a friend or two and come join us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glX2NcE128A&feature=channel&list=UL