Be on the Look Out for missing polymer clay beads!

A horrible thing has happened in our clay community...

Jenny Patterson http://www.quiltedinclay.com/ was packing up from a show she did in Iowa when a box of her beads went missing!

If you see any of these beads on the many online selling venues, or a local bead shop, PLEASE contact her!

Here is a selection of quotes from Jenny describing what happened.

"2 weeks ago while packing up after a show, my case with ALL my finished "Quilted in Clay" beads was stolen out of my trailer. Along with all my findings, crystals and beads I use as accents to make necklaces.

I am estimating that I had upwards of 4500 clay beads in various sizes inside that case! I make beads in in 4 different sizes and shapes, in EACH of the 33 designs I currently have listed on my web site. Plus a number that I don't have on the website.

These shapes are 3/4" mobius beads, 5/8" square, 1/2" square and 3/8" square. All finished and drilled.

It was suggested to me to keep an eye on eBay and Etsy for these. Which I plan on doing, but these are huge shops and I can't monitor them alone, so I am asking for help.

If you all would not mind taking a look at the current designs on my website:

http://www.quiltedinclay.com/products/jewelry/quilted_jewelry1.htm

And if you happen to see something that might be my beads, please let me know.

I am devastated! We are talking hours and hours of work just GONE! Some of these designs, I don't have any cane left, so I can't even make any more beads, unless I remake the cane. I am having to call customers and tell them I can't sell them the items they ordered, and ask them to choose something I have on hand, or give them a refund...

Yes I am working with the police in Des Moines, where this happened. I have filed a report.

I fear what happened is that someone spied this case, and decided to take it. Not only did I have my beads in it, I also had my sterling and gold findings in it. I am thinking that the thief could care less about my beads, but will take the gold and sterling and turn them in for cash.

I do have insurance, which I am working filing.

As for the designs involved, it's hard to say, I KNOW I had between 12 and 72 beads in each style (mobius, 5/8"square etc) in EACH of my 33 designs currently on my web site.

I have not put it on my website yet, only because I have been so busy with orders, and figuring out what was in the case that I have not had time....

The show was the AQS Quilt show in Des Moines Iowa, the theft happened sometime between 8PM and 9:30PM, as we were loading after the show. The case is silver, wheeled, with locks on it, about the size of a suitcase.

  I do have to say the security at the event center was very good! I really have no clue as to how this happened, they even have video camera's in the loading dock area, but unfortunately there was nothing to help me. The angles were wrong or something. I have been working closely with the police department there.

There IS good to come of this! I have put off putting together a better way of tracking my inventory for a couple years. This is forcing me to take care of that, and re-organize!

Since I had to provide documentation of how I price my product to my insurance, It has also forced me to take a good hard look at how I price my work. I am glad to say that I feel that part is in good order....

Basically  we had finished tearing down our display, I finished packing stuff up while the DH went and got the van and trailer. When he got to the loading area, he came to the booth with our 2 wheeled cart, and took a load out. He had brought in some boxes I needed, so I stayed and filled them. Then pushed out one of our other wheeled carts, and this case that is missing. I met him on the dock, and we switched, he took the cart and the case, and I took the empty 2 wheeled cart. He went out and loaded the 2 items into the trailer, I loaded the 2 wheeler, we met on the dock and switched again. We continued this until all was loaded. Then we locked the trailer and went home.

2 days later it was time to unload the trailer, all the locks were in good shape, they had not been tampered with. When we unloaded we realized my case was no where to be found. I can only conclude that someone took it when we had our backs turned.

I have discovered after sitting down and doing a mental inventory, that I have greatly underestimated the number and $$ amount of things I kept in that case. Of course the DH has been telling me this for ages, but I was to stubborn to believe HIM! LOL

And although I have to call my customers, explain the situation, and re-vamp some orders, this is actually making for better customer relations. 

Moral of the story, it's a good thing I took out insurance for just this sort of thing!"