week 68 - we're inspired...

we are all inspired by something...perhaps you are inspired by a sunny day, or maybe a favorite fashion catalogue you get in the mail? well, we have realized that mesh is not only inspired by travel and window shopping...we are also inspired by countless other things! mesh is going to start sharing everything we are inspired by. please don't hesitate to chime in on our blogs, posts, etc... as we want to know what inspires you too!

this week our inspiration is a medium for creative displays that most people have in some shape or form within their home....bookshelves! the possibilities of a basic bookshelf are endless. there are color combinations and textural variations that you can't help but get inspired by. whether it carries a collection of books or timeless treasures you have collected over the years, it is difficult to ignore a filled bookshelf. i always gravitate towards visuals of bookshelves. i have a bookshelf image hanging just over my laptop at work that i must have ripped out of a magazine during my first week in my workstation 6 years ago...and somehow the image is still relevant. i love the photo of some stranger's living room bookshelves, and the worldly decor that they exhibit.

i have one small bookshelf in my living room that is forever evolving. sherry has a favorite bookshelf that can be found at design within reach. where would we find your favorite

bookshelf?!

keep the inspiration coming!

on the table | new one of a kind creations for our mia sorella delivery next week!

weeks 53 through 55 - r & d

i started this blog 3 weeks ago...before leaving for my spring break getaway...and i was apparently lacking inspiration...

'on this rainy evening in chicago, i am sitting in my sister's living room brainstorming blog topics with my dad - after the quick intro i gave him on what a 'blog' is...and then a brief seinfeld rant that he went into about one of peterman's urban sombrero blogs - we have now established that this week's blog will be on mesh's r&d...research and development that is

after further brainstorming while visiting the island of vieques off of puerto rico - where wild horses roam and white sand beaches flow seamlessly into crystal clear water - i realized that mesh is in constant r&d mode. we are always thinking of a bigger and better ideas, and while we have many dreams for mesh and our growing inventory of 'must haves', we have to pace ourselves.

so...now that i have lived through an inspired vacation filled with vibrant color schemes, bold textural combinations, and SUNSHINE; this week's mesh production night is sure to be flooded with new ideas, concepts, and strategies on how to retain our momentum and energy through 2011!

it is amazing what a simple plane ride, and a few days of reading design magazines while basking in the sun, really does to rejuvinate the creative soul. stay tuned for new and exciting mesh endeavours. it is only a matter of time until we really start concuring all of our wildest dreams!

-melissa

on the table | notes of inspiration for tuesday's production night

week 51 - late night

after a late sunday night mandarin/english conference call with my shanghai project team; i just got off a monday night call with our latest design partner in hong kong. first, i am very disappointed in myself that i have never learned a second language, beyond my 7 years of spanish that i barely made it through in high school and college... second, it amazes me that someone on the other side of the world can accommodate my lack of motivation/brain capacity to learn a second language, by speaking to me in english. while there is always a slight barrier between our phrases and speech patterns...sometimes more than slight...i can only be thankful that my teammates speaking to me in their second or third laguage have taken the steps to accommodate their counterparts around the world. this makes me want to take up a language...what shall it be?!

aside from this worldly epiphany...mesh had a very productive evening tonight. six new necklaces ready to find a home, and a vacation afternoon scheduled next week for a buying trip! we can't wait to update you on our 2011 finds!

-melissa


on the table montage delights!

week 49 - schedule

melissa and i have struggled the last few weeks with our schedules! you know how one day, you look at your calendar and realize you have scheduled something every night for the next 5 weeks? well, seems like that is what both of us did!

intervention is upon us! so, after a week off of mesh this week we are working on a little breathing room in our schedules! we've got to get our acts together before summer right?

enter stage left, my husband. the other night he was reading me the list of this summer's concerts in the park! i thought, wow...that is so far away! but it's not at all. (hallelujah!) june 15th is the first concert. ok...well, it's 100 days away...so, give me a pass here.

anyhow, it was a good reminder that I certainly do plan well in advance to relax and take in the sites of our great city. but, we need to act on this too! i'm definitely going to the july 13th concert...broadway tunes.

check out the schedule and plan to relax a little people! wear your favorite mesh necklace, grab a bottle of wine, and that salad from whole foods you only buy on special occasions...and hit the park!

-sherry

on the table | packaging for oprah and michelle's necklaces

week 48 - window inspiration

as i was scrolling through my facebook posts today, one of my all time most inspiring topics came up - anthropologie's windows. yes, their windows are nothing short of amazing; I could stand in front of them for days trying to figure our who's mind came up with the creations of reusing trinkets, treasures, paper, cardboard, and making them into something beautiful. similar to what mesh is all about with our reuse of ordinary things and making them extraordinary.

one recent example of a window i loved was in their nyc meat packing district shop last month. the window had fans blowing at a plethora of vintage price tags that had been made into a skirt. okay...this sounds like it could be a colossal mess, although it was so well done, that you actually envisioned the tags as a skirt, before looking at them as a slew of old price tags. this particular store also had a flowing glam skirt made out of tissue paper a few years ago...one that has been stuck in my head since i spotted it.

we have to use these sources of inspiration to move us forward with our creations...it is always the concepts that you think - 'i wish i could create something to that extreme' - that actually push you to eventually doing so.

we are pushing the envelope with mesh this year. watch for our 'window' creations in the months to come!

-melissa

on the table | custom creations to send out to oprah and michelle this week.

week 38 - holiday traditions

with the holidays upon us, family traditions are in full effect...there is nothing better than listening to kenny rogers christmas carols with my parents or making the ever so famous mahoney irish creme with my husband's family.

as we all know, it is hard to find dull moment during the holiday season, which is what makes it the perfect time of year to be thankful for what we have surrounding us. it is so easy to get caught up in the logistics of gift buying for a handful of relatives that have everything they would ever need; cooking for a house full of people with different taste buds; or getting your christmas mailers out before you miss the USPS deadlines for delivery.

while this season maximizes potential for the inevitable family drama, it also creates extreme opportunities for memorable moments with the people you so rarely spend an entire day vegging out with. be thankful for all of the sensational gifts, food, and christmas cards you receive; and realize that everyone you have gifted, fed, and mailed to is thankful to have you as a part of their lives.

at the risk of getting too emotional for the monday night mesh blog, just remember to enjoy everything the holiday season brings!

-melissa

on the table | mesh packages to be shipped all over the country tomorrow!

week 37 - holiday party

so, all of us have holiday work parties to go to in the next few weeks. and so it begins…the hunt for the perfect outfit. it must impress. it must not break the bank. it must be memorable. it must not be questionable. personally, i’m going neutral with a classic sweater, but jazzing it up with a sensational necklace found from a vendor at this year’s bizarre bazaar. it is an asymmetrical floral number with a silk ribbon at the neck. it’s a one-of-a-kind show stopper.

i challenge us with just that. your holiday outfit is already in your closet. we all know the economy talk (blah blah blah) is all around us; challenging us to tighten our belts. doomsday!

well, here is what you should do about it! turn that frown upside down and accessorize! take something already in your closet and add some flair….(flair examples below!)

1. put feathers in your hair. classic outfit with an unpredictable feather plume. done.

2. the clutch. there are tons of metallic clutches out this season that will add a little sparkle to any outfit.

3. dangling earrings. they are mesmerizing. the longer the better.

4. glitz at the neck. wear your one-of-a-kind mesh piece that you bought at our show this year!

5. shoes. that’s all I’m saying there.

a BIG thank you again to everyone who came to our open houses this weekend! We had a great time and I’m glad you didn’t let the snow deter you!

-sherry

on the table | jewelry to be picked up from weekend orders

week 35 - vocab 101

well, last week’s blog got me really thinking about the personality that mesh has become. even so much that my blackberry is a fan…it too recognizes the word mesh automatically when I email/text. sometimes i wonder what people think of us when we use the first two letters of each of our names (meshed together! ha!) as if it was a 3^rd business partner…well, I guess that is just what happens after 5 years!

so, tonight’s blog is mesh vocab 101…consisting of commonly used mesh-isms and what they really mean to the public.

let us know if you also have one!...we’d love to hear!

are we meshing tonight? this is a weekly question to confirm that monday night is still ‘on’ for production.

what a mesh! this is the statement melissa’s husband makes when he arrives home and we are in the midst of beading and have destroyed the dining room on a monday night.

do I have the mesh goods? this is the question when i can’t decide whose trunk has what product in it?

we need our mesh. this is what our friends at mia-sorella in barrington say when they are nearly out of mesh goods in their boutique. they have established quite the following for us in the burbs!

this is the ‘me’ in my ‘mesh’. this is how i introduce melissa to friends and family in my life who are well acquainted with mesh…but have never met the other half of the creative process!

today we are meshma. this is what we call ourselves when melissa’s husband is helping us with a task such as photography or carrying large bags down 3 flights of stairs. we add the first 2 letters of his last name onto ours…

mesh delight…well, you know what this is from last week’s blog.

is mesh buying this? before an early morning bead buy, this is what we ask ourselves at the cash register at starbucks when we go to pay for our chai latte and grande bold coffee.

-sherry

on the table |cookie cards inc. order for the mesh open houses december 4th/5th

week 34 - 'delights'

i love that we have unconsciously come up with mesh-isms over the years of beading together. you may or may not have heard sherry and i discuss our mesh 'delights'... some of you may even have a mesh 'delight' in your collection of our one-of-a-kind pieces. a 'delight' surfaces through the process of presentation that we follow on a typical production night.

as we sit across the table from each other making our one-of-a-kind necklaces, we typically catch up on lost time while we dive knee deep into our collection of beads. as the beads mound higher and higher on the center of the table, we lose track of what each other is making. when we near the end of a necklace, we do a quick try-on/hold-up of our unclasped necklace for each other; to confirm that we have not lost our minds, and that there is at least one other person in the world that would wear this piece. generally the reaction to these hold-ups is an immediate 'switch this bead with that bead' or 'this should lay a bit differently on your neck'. but then there are the less frequent reactions that do not require a bead movement or a color swap...they are simply the pieces that speak for themselves as soon as they have been strung onto wire. there is no other reaction than: 'now THAT is a delight!'. there are 'sherry delights' and 'melissa delights'...there are even delights named after the source of our inspiration for the necklace, such as a more recent 'johnathan adler delight'.

to further explain...our 'delights' are the necklaces that are authorized to leave the kitchen without the security of at least two people in the world that would dare to wear them :) they are simply authorized for a departure into the world of mesh, out of pure curiosity as to who will fall in love with them, other than the designer herself. our delights have inevitably become our favorite collection of necklaces we have ever made....thee most one-of-a-kind, unique, and imaginative mesh pieces. out of our 650 necklaces to date, there is likely a collection of 20 delights out there gaining compliments on a daily basis. pictured above: the original '2005 melissa delight'...send us a photo of you and your mesh necklace...and we will let you know if it is an official 'delight'!

-melissa

on the table | mounds of beads dying to become a part of a mesh delight!

week 33 - special delivery!

i was thrilled to receive a special delivery at work today, via royal mail. i don't know why, but that kind of mail makes my day...not only because it is 'royal', but also because the only thing that comes to me via royal mail is beads from our friends richard and rachelle in london! you see, richard and rachelle are globe trotters that always keep mesh in mind when they happen upon a bead shop during their travels...this time the beads were from athens, greece!

the variety of colors and textural artifacts were a true sensation at our mesh production table tonight...r & r never cease to amaze us with their picks. as unique and eclectic as some of these pieces may be, they somehow seamlessly work their way into a mesh necklace with great ease.

these mediterranean finds gave us great inspiration tonight, which we hope many of you will be able to check out at our event this thursday night.

we are always open to special deliveries...a few weeks ago my parents came back from a road trip to south dakota with a bag full of red river jasper...perfect for our fall/winter collection of one-of-a-kind necklaces!

thanks to all of our mesh fans who think of us when you happen upon stones, beads, trinkets, treasures that you know we can re-invent within one of our pieces.

on the table | greek treasures!

week 32 - happy birthday mesh !

yes, you read it correctly last week when melissa just happened to mention that mesh is turning 5 years old this month!

well, tonight we made our 650th necklace! hard to believe this feat sometimes after an innocent brunch meeting together in 2005. little did we know a spontaneous scheming session about our un-named business venture which would later be known as mesh!

a lot has happened in 5 years! we moved from only designing one-of-a-kind necklaces to purses, then bangles…to selling pretty much everything a girl could ever need! personally we’ve both gotten married, traveled the globe, and become great friends. spending every monday night together for years does that! i also have learned that melissa’s husband makes a mean peanut butter & jelly sandwich every monday night for work the next day…and i might add is a real enthusiast about his nightly ironing! (shout out - i’m thankful he puts up with us at their home weekly!)

mesh marks its birthday by the annual show we participate in at the merchandise mart called IIDA bizarre bazaar. it’s where mesh began! In honor of our birthday month, we will be celebrating by marking ALL mesh products $5 off for the entire month of November!

don’t assume we will be taking this birthday lying down! we have big plans for 2011. the monday night scheming has continued. look for some big news from us in the spring. but in the meantime, we are thankful to our loyal supporters and blog readers!

on the table | dreams for 2011

-sherry

p.s. i googled 'five' tonight. despite the findings including the jackson five, five guys burgers, and hawaii 5-0...i thought i would stick to these more literal images.

week 31 - readers

this post is dedicated to kathy and kelly...and all of our weekly readers. we deeply apologize for the short post last week, and hope to make up for it today. really, i can't believe how many of you are out there and depending on our monday night post to make your tuesday morning a sensation...okay, that may be a bit of an exaggeration, although i am truly impressed that we have readers at all...so thanks!

sherry and i have been off of our weekly beading nights, due to busy travel schedules over the past month or so. we see each other at our shows as we haul our goods out of our cars and into our venue for the evening. we have been meshing for so long now that we don't really have to see each other to run this side business of ours as a team. we are already coming up on our 5 year anniversary show, IIDA bizarre bazaar at the mart (november 11th, 5:30-8:30pm). i can't believe it has been that long already...this was our first show in november of 2005! yowsa, how time flies.

we are doing everything we can to inspire ourselves and keep everyone surrounding us intrigued. we have a spectacular new year of products around the corner and can't wait for you all to share in the excitement.

as i was beading our six-hundredth (or so) one-of-a-kind necklace tonight, i can't help but think of where they all are. i hope they are not in your dresser drawers waiting for a special occasion, because tuesday is an occasion enough to make a mesh statement...even if it is faceted glitz, offset by multi colored felted wool balls...work it mid-week!

on the table | over-stated combos

-melissa

week 30 - countdown to christmas

so, it’s 67 days until christmas. and guess what…? mesh is making this really easy for you.

you can complete all your shopping for the women on your list the first weekend of december. that is, if you attend our two day / two city open house!

saturday, December 4th 2010 | sherry’s house
(chicago’s west loop)
10:00 am – 2:00 pm
RSVP @ meshdesigns@yahoo.com or on facebook


sunday, december 5th 2010 | melissa’s house
(oak park)
10:00 am – 2:00 pm
RSVP @ meshdesigns@yahoo.com or on facebook

in addition to our one-of-a-kind necklaces, come browse our scarves, earrings, bracelets, cuffs, clutches, ear mufflers,headbands….well, every type of woman’s accessories! scarves make a great stocking stuffer...and all are $20.

FREE mesh T-SHIRT to all attendees!

-prices range from $20 - $150 -cash, check & credit card accepted

on the table | everything listed above!!

week 29 - shanghai

as you have read in the past few posts, i survived my first trip to shanghai. although it was a 14 hour flight there (12.5 hours back), it did not feel at all like I was half-way around the globe. in fact, the city itself was a bustling mecca of everyday people working their tails off to make a living...much like those in the u.s. of a. it actually reminded me a lot of nyc, as it was filled with lights everywhere i turned (other than in the slightly creepy dark alleys). there is led lighting on the river boats, the buildings, the cabs in some cases, etc... in fact, there is a code there that every new building must light up to some extensive degree from dusk until 1am...the place is truly ablaze. other than the fact that i could not read the signage...i would have thought i was in the middle of times square at midnight.

as i mentioned, the alleys were a bit less lit than the bulk of the city, although far too thrilling to avoid. we were guided through the 'secret' shops by our very own 'personal shopper'. he was dedicated to us, to say the least, and actually may have been the only reason we made it back to the hotel that night...slightly sketchy. it was quite fun to see all that these little hidden shops had to offer; whether it was silk scarves we were looking for, or discs of tea leaves, or jade and pearl necklaces...our guy knew exactly where to find it all. the people in these shops were more than friendly when they saw our faces walk in the door...little did they know that we knew how to barter with the best of them...even with a slight language barrier :)

i can't wait to visit the city again to discover all that the true markets have to offer...stay tuned, as i believe my next trip will already be in a few weeks.

-melissa

on the table | quilt square clutches prepped and ready to go to their new home at Salon Rhapsody in Frankfort, IL.

week 26 - braids

i was sitting on my sofa last night, annoyed that i had nothing hanging on my recently painted living room walls. as i stared at my incomplete living room project, i decided to take matters into my own hands. i have been meaning to make cords to hang our artwork from, as my parents once gave me a few antique molding hooks to utilize for this sole purpose. i love these old brass hooks. they simply hang directly off of my crown molding, to avoid nailing holes into the walls that we just had painted.

i needed material to braid! so i started wandering around my 800 square foot (on a good day) condo. you would think there would not be too many places to hide a collection of textiles, although you would be sorely mistaken. i have project materials in every nook and cranny of this place (amazingly unbeknownst to my minimalist husband). i was able to come across a pile of cotton tank tops of every color that i had been meaning to take to good will. at first this seemed like a bad idea, as there are plenty of people that could utilize barely worn tank tops, although I figured i would still be putting them to good use... so i started to cut them into strips.

soon enough I had three 8'-0" knotted strands of jersey knit material...ready to braid! the braiding itself was slightly easier said then done, due to the length of material... before I knew it i was braiding both ends of the fabric strips simotaniously. i had to take it a bit slower and keep my braid as organized as possible to avoid further knotting.

once i finished the extensive braid, i was ready to hang my first piece of artwork...so rewarding...and also addicting! i started my second braid this monring, and i don't intend to stop. i have decided that this is also a perfect solution for necklace 'clasps'! i will not utilize my tank tops for future mesh wears, although i am so thrilled with the outcome of these braided cords made out of miscillaneous materials...why not secure strands of beads with braids!

on the table | jersey knits ready for a new form and function!

-melissa

week 24 - weekend excursion to geneva, il

do you believe it is labor day weekend? how did that happen? what did you do? mesh is also enjoying a monday night off due to labor day. my husband and I took an excursion to the suburbs all day saturday and visited geneva, illinois.

if you haven’t been to geneva you should definitely put it on your list to go! it’s easy to drive and is also on the metra line. one of my best friends used to live in geneva, so it brings back good memories every time i’m there. (but i always wish she was with me when i’m there.)

third street is my favorite. there are tons of shops that have found their place in old homes along this wide boulevard. you just go house to house, store to store…

i went to all my typical stops on third street; cocoon, paper merchant, little traveler to name a few. the houses are filled with home accessories, holiday decorations, gourmet foods and any other trinket you could think of. i did happen to find a new ‘must –go’ called grahams. it is the local handmade chocolate shop…and a door or two down is grahams coffee and ice cream restaurant. i would recommend the espresso con panna.

another change on third street (well, it was new to me) was the restaurant called fiona’s. it’s in a beautiful old home that used to be a shabby chic type of furniture shop….but now is a restaurant. the home sits at an angle on a corner lot. it just beckons you in. we went in there for a relaxing lunch and each had really great sandwiches. i recommend the mediterranean chicken with olive tapenade. it also happened to be voted best new restaurant in 2010 (west suburban living magazine). it was a good find.

hope everyone had a great holiday weekend! mesh is looking forward to our thursday show at kimball.

-sherry

on the table | beads of all fall colors

week 22 - end of summer flea market finds

it happens every summer. august comes…and then goes way too fast. wait, summer is over? why did it go so fast? well, it happened this year again to me. even though we did tons of fun outings and events, there were still many things that we didn’t cross off our list.

flea markets. that is always on my list. although they are 'hit and miss,’ i love them. It’s the adventure of the hunt for the perfect piece of furniture or mesh trinket. this past saturday my husband and I went to the highwood street market on the north shore.

it was great. we even had a coupon to ensure a reasonable $2 entry fee. this offset my $4 hot dog. the festival was in a beautiful park area…so plenty of trees for shade on a hot day. it was just the right size also, only taking a few hours to see all the vendors.

one booth particularly held my attention. (no, not the one where the vendor’s dog was apparently biting other dogs). this woman had buckets and buckets of trinkets…watch parts, game pieces, old door hardware, vintage earrings….all things mesh! I was able to find some really neat hardware pieces and metal trinkets that you will soon see on our fall collection.

i’m convinced that these types of festivals and finds we discover at them make mesh the unique product that it is.

-sherry

on the table | acceptance letter to the oak park art fair on november 7th!!!

week 21 - monday night home | show

tonight was an extraordinary mesh monday night, as we were surrounded by an home full of mesh-worthy models.

we were invited to transform kathy's sky-high place downtown into a full-on boutique for the evening...and the event was a pure success! as always, kathy and kelly put together a wonderful evening of food, friends, skyline views, and mesh :) thanks so much to both of you for your wonderful hospitality and your sensational taste in necklaces and people!

it was so much fun to watch as the accessories added up on everyones' ensembles throughout the evening. we love when someone spots a piece they have to have as soon as they walk in the door. it is amazing to watch the process we all go through when debating on what we can rationalize adding to our wardrobe. there is no doubt that everyone needs a new bauble for an average tuesday at work...so why not start the week out right with a monday night homeshow?!?!

THANK YOU LADIES!!!
-mesh

week 19 - gram's gems

the other day i was spending some quality time with gram (my 89 year young grandmother, who happens to be as much of an accessory extraordinaire as i am). as i was playing the role of 'tech services', due to a pesky computer glitch (again, another uncommon commonality between us), gram happened to be rifling through a few small boxes of trinkets she had been collecting for mesh. you see, gram has a lot of collections around the house that she has lived in for 65 years. she happens upon trinkets on a daily basis that she put in a 'safe place' years ago. now, every time she finds these - miscellaneous broaches, clustered clip-on earrings, rhinestone shoe clips, and the like - she collects them all in one place and shares them with me when i visit. we walk through the story behind each piece/pair and she sometimes parts with them, and sometimes decides to hold onto them for safe keeping.

much like gram, we love to tell the story behind each one-of-a-kind necklace we create. whether the beads came from our friend richard in london, or the stones were discovered during sherry's honeymoon in rome, or we tracked down the trinkets in a dark alley 'boutique' of new york city....there is always a story behind every mesh piece.

i have to say that i strive to be like gram...a collector, a woman with a keen eye for quality, a creative soul that just simply 'gets it'. it would also be ideal if i were up for a trip to vegas on my 89th birthday...

-melissa

week 18 – it’s never too hot for style

the oddest thing happened this past week. melissa and i took part an awesome home | show in la grange. not to mention it was held on one of the hottest days of the summer…tipping a sweltering 94 degrees. (i think it was actually still that hot outside when we left at 10:00 pm….that’s how hot it was!)

as mesh was setting up for the show we laughed at ourselves as we set up a display of scarves…thinking “who is going to buy a scarf on the hottest day of the summer?” well, we convinced ourselves...they are ‘summer scarves’…lightweight and airy. and we had just gotten a new batch of large checkered patterns…very transitional for the summer/fall season. let’s try it. so we left them out on the table.

[insert drum-roll here]

we sold so many scarves on thursday night! I think it was our highest scarf sale night to date.

then i got to thinking….what is it about the summer scarf that is so attractive these days. we used to only wear them in the winter to keep warm or as an attempt to add a bright accent color our black wool coats. i personally own about 20…and think i continually need more.

these are the reasons we've decided we love summer scarves...get yours at the next mesh show!

1. you feel a little fancy wearing them.

2. can’t decide which necklace to wear…no worries, use a scarf.

3. cost is no issue! you can get great scarves for under $20.

4. get too warm? take it off and tie it to your purse bohemian style.

5. best defense against the pesky air conditioning vent at your favorite restaurant.

6. easiest way to show your creative personality through texture, color and pattern.

7. there are a gazillion ways to wear a scarf. a woman thursday showed me a pretzel tie. be creative.

8. one-size fits all. (how much do we love this ladies?)

9. all the hollywood stars are wearing them. does jessica look great or what?

10. it's another excuse to buy new winter scarves. you can’t wear summer scarves in the winter!

-sherry

on the table | the brightest chunky necklace i've ever made