Yesterday I brought a few kits for 2-Sides to the Story Bracelet (Clicking on this link will transport you to the Bead and Button Show site, where I will be teaching this project. Information about classes will not be on their website until this Friday.) to a gathering of my spinning buddies. This is that stitch that I devised after an exhaustive exploration of the tubular beadweaving stitch unfortunately named "polygon". It produces flat beadwork that corrugates as you work, the beads over-lapping, resulting in its being reversible. It is quite magical. It has a most peculiar start but, 3 rows into it and you're on a roll. In 3 hours, even these non-beaders (though clever and crafty) were more than half through the project. (The hoop earrings seen sitting on the bead mat were beaded by Mary Jo using my recipe that Bead & Button published in their magazine, in their book Creative Beading and a had their editor Linda Augsberg demonstrate on PBS TV's Beads, Baubles and Jewels.
Though everyone else headed home, I remained rather that face an hour and half drive that would be much longer and scarier on ice. So, Judy and I fortified ourselves with a litle dinner and beaded until we dropped. Judy beaded a bezel for a rivoli using one of the new kits that Bead Gallery Inc and I are offering using their rare and vintage Swarovski items with my bezel recipes. A simple band of 3-bead wide peyote, makes it a beautiful and comfortable ring.
Today Puget Sound Bead Festival sent an invitation to propose workshops for their July 9, 10, 11 show in 2010. Though I met some very creative and fascinating beaders who took my felted jewelry workshops there in 2008 and 2009 and loved being in Tacoma at this event and in the verrry lovely Hotel Murano, I was unable to put it in my calendar in 2010. Giving a nod to the trend in wire and metal jewelry, they state that they will be choosing classes based on these criteria: 60% metal & wire, 10% metal clay, 10%, contemporary jewelry, 10% seed beading and 10% mixed media.
Last week Blanche and I put a couple dates on our calendars for 2010 workshops at Beads by Blanche, in Bergenfield, NJ: April 17 and October 23. In addition to those full day workshops, Blanche offers 3 hour evening workshops during the week. I just put a wrap on two bracelet classes that I will suggest to her would be perfect evening offerings. They each offer a beaded closure using beautiful Swarovski elements. One is a bezeled rivoli and the other features a pair of joined dentelles. Photos to follow as soon as I speak with Blanche.