Today I finish packing for the next week's Puget Sound Bead Festival . It is held in the incredibly beautiful Hotel Murano , whose guest rooms and public spaces are appointed with the work of 40 glass artsits. It is like living in a gallery. A visit to every floor is a must, because each floor features the works and stories of a particular artist.
I am teaching the felted and beaded wire bracelet like the one shown here (by permission HAND FELTED JEWELRY AND BEADS), a felted flower to wear as a brooch or to add to the felted lariat/belt : each of these offered as half day workshops.
This photo is a heap of complex cane felt bead necklaces. Create your own in a full day workshop on Thursday July 9. Choose several colors of fine merino wool to construct the canes. Then combine the canes into a single complex cane. Felt it until firm using my favorite new Turbo Felting Board ($30 gets you one of your own to keep!). Cut the felt cane into individual beads and string them into a necklace. This is the only Complex Cane Felt Beads Workshop I currently have on my calendar. Hope we get to felt this together in Tacoma WA next week.

Just received the good news that in a few weeks this Perlen Poesie magazine will become available through Amazon! Now we can all enjoy it easily.

I received my copy of the premier issue of a German beading magazine called Perlen Poesie . The photographs make you reach out and touch them, certain they are dimensional. The projects are beautiful and desirable. And the illustrations are so precise and readily understood that language isn't even an issue. Unless you read German though, you won't be able to read my interview or the article they called "Cypher Space". It is an honor to be featured in such a gorgeous spread in this most exquisite publication. If you want to make the pillow beads that appear on the cover, I shared the recipe in the Master Class I wrote for Beadwork Magazine.

The inside cover has information about the magazine.

This blue and green reversible bracelet is the one Beatrice made using the new flat polygon recipe. This will be one of the classes I'll propose to the Bead & Button Show for next year. There are several brand new projects I'll propose, including one featuring a Nancy Tobey lampworked bead. Tomorrow I have dedicated the entire day to beading my heart out. It has been a few days since I have done some serious beading.

Since the Bead & Button Show proposals have to be in by July 30th, I better get crackin'.

On the 4th of July I will be at Kinokuniya Bookstore , 1073 Ave of the Americas, New York City for a booksigning/beadwork workshop event. Some copies of the Japanese felting book will be on hand as well as my English language books: MASTERING BEADWORK, HOW WE FELT and HAND FELTED JEWELRY AND BEADS.

The workshop is an introduction to the beading stitches so beginners are welcome.
This peyote project is a cuff composed of cube beads, and features a square stitched toggle bar and "hole" closure.
There will be many colors to choose from. Preregistration is necessary. $25 per person covers all materials and supplies.

This past Saturday I taught Ostara's Emerging Blossoms Necklace at Beads by Blanche . This workshop focuses mostly on sculptural Polygon stitch and includes a couple of those pod sculptural components and a fast and beautiful bezel. The pod left is one of the pair Pat Riesner made using Swarovski crystals.



Below is the pair Kaja Dedijer made in a class a few weeks ago. Being a jeweler and working mostly in sterling, gold and gemstones has impacted her aesthetics. Though woven of seed beads, her pods acheive the look of sterling with gemstones!





This coming weekend I'll return to New Jersey, this time to Angelfire Studio in Basking Ridge. Sunday 12-5! Call Justine to see if she can squeeze you in. We will be felting around a resist using her yummy merino wool to make either a vessel or purse/case/clutch. We will be using those new Turbo Felting Boards I love so much. No more whining in workshops because the hand-felting just isn't instanteous enough! (Optional purchase $30) As a special treat, I will bring each felter a very special button to adorn the piece.

That's all for now, as the garden is calling me. Too much time has lapsed during too much rain! Yikes.

After playing catch-up with my blog to reflect some of the recent happenings, it is time to pack for this weekend's workshop at Beads by Blanche . This necklace I call Ostara's Emerging Blossoms is a vehicle for exploring a little used South African beading stitch called Polygon. Imagine the pair of pods in the focal pendant as chili peppers when rendered in greens and reds; or bananas, when rendered longer and thinner in yellow.
As beaders, we are all attracted to certain shapes such as circles, triangles, squares, and yes, pods.

This workshop also introduces the highly textured bezels for rivolis that are as lovely from behind as from the front. That they work up in under an hour is just an added delight! Blanche e mailed that there are still seats available, so give her a call and perhaps I'll see you Saturday morning in Bergenfield, NJ.

In addition to the Bead Dreams exhibit at the Bead and Button Show earlier this month, there was this exhibit (top) of beadwork by Japanese beadworkers.
These pieces had been displayed in a juried exhibit at Hakone Art Museum . The beautiful catalog of this Hakone exhibit plus textiles, pressed flowers, and dolls is available through Kinokuniya bookstore in NYC.

(Click on Kinokuniya for a schedule of events, including the beadweaving workshop I will offer July 4th.
It is an honor to tell you that this 2008 catalog from Hakone contains some of my hand felted jewelry and beadwork. It is especially meaningful to me because I was there in January 2008. It was a magical day of brilliant sunshine, blue skies and everything sparkling from a fresh dusting of snow. The grounds and sculptures were breathtaking. There were buildings dedicated to exhibits of works by Moore and Picasso.


Also at the Bead and Button Show was an exhibit called Convergence. These pieces of finished jewelry featured art glass beads. This juried exhibit was sponsored by ISGB and Bead & Button Magazine. A publication is forthcoming from Kalmbach Publishing, that offers the recipes for some of those pieces.

Here at TNNA, Pat Riesenburger is a first time exhibitor. We first met a couple years ago at Tucson when she represented her company Access Crystals . Here at TNNA she is a wholesaler to the trade, Aussie Threads and Fibers , supplying fine, elegant Merino wool and felting supplies.

She is also a blogger and from what I saw on a quick read, she is chock full of marketing advice for the retailer.

The "Great Wall of Yarn" was a tactile feast for us on our way into the TNNA exhibit hall.

Each evening after dinner, Naomi, Kazue, Mayumi, Kang and I beaded in the lobby. For their first beading project ever, they made everyones' favorite: Pat Riesner's sparkling bangle, whose recipe she so generously shares.

After packing up the exhibit, printing out my boarding pass and a celebratory dinner, we are together for the last time...until we meet again.

Time to catch up on B&B Show and TNNA photos, now that I have returned home and located the camera-to-computer cable.
Tulip Co. president, Mr. Kotaro Harada, is flanked by staff members Mayumi and Naomi, on his left, and Kang and Kazue on his right, in their booth at TNNA. This was their first exhibit in the U.S. and I was delighted to accompany them. I taught bead crochet to dozens of shop owners that dropped by the booth, using the new cushioned crochet hooks that Tulip makes.
While writing the Japanese felting book last year (sponored by Tulip and published by Patchwork Tsushin) I used only Tulip felting products. Until then, all the felting needles I had been accustomed to, were brittle little numbers from an industrial source. They would even rust if left in a sponge during humid weather. Tulip, being a manufaturer of fine sewing and quilting needles, began making felting needles. These are more resilient plus they have a slick nickel coating. These shiny and lovely little tools glide smoothly in and out of the wool. My favorites were those in a blue or green ergonomic handle. The handle is a cushioned grip that is warm and satiny to the touch and quite pleasant to use.
When I visited with Kang in March, she told me she employed this same material to design a comfort grip on the crochet hooks. I just couldn't wait to get my hands onto their hooks! (HEY, do I hear a marketing slogan here? Tulip can't wait to get their hooks into your hands!)

Lacis in Berkeley CA has been carrying some Tulip products, already. I promise to keep you posted on where you can find these as they become available here. Pictured are the two sets I received as gifts. Lucky me! The sets include precision Italian scissors, a ruler and 2 yarn needles.

The TNNA Show is wonderful. Would that I could post the photos I have taken but, I cannot locate the wire that connects the camera to the computer tonight.
When I locate it, expect to see photo of The Great Wall of Yarn, showcasing all the yummiest new yarns and pictures of Tulip staff and me.
Working with Tulip Co. is the delight I expected. I admire and respect Harada-san for hiring bright young women and instilling within them, power and authority within his company. Their products are superior and their attention to customer service is beyond compare.
Tomorrow afternoon in the Interweave Press booth, Shay Pendray will interview me plus host me teaching a technique segment about nuno feltmaking for Knitting Daily on PBS TV, to air in January.
So, forgive me that I am off to bed and will catch you up on these TNNA and Columbus OH adventures soon.
Until then....

Unable to blog while at Bead & Button Show, here is the week in review. While enjoying the Bead Dreams exhibit along come Suzanne Golden and Merle Berelowitz. Behind and to the left of Suzanne you can see half of her black and white bangle in the showcase behind her.

Lisa Garoon is one of the nearly 3 dozen beaders who have taken workshops with me in the past and honored me by taking eyt another again this year. She is shown wearing the elegant necklace she will enter in next year's Bead Dreams competition. We ran into each other at Gary Wilson's booth. She was shopping for more more of his gorgeous cabochons and I was picking out another ring or two to add to my collection of Gary's incredible lapidary work.

We find inspiration and imagery wherever we look. Here is gift wrap with interesting symbols. One right are similar graphics etched into windows of the sky bridge between the hotel and convention center.

Jay tells me that it is a rate treat to see baby seagulls and pigeons. How lucky am I to have had a few of this adorable feather balls born on the roof outside my window of the hotel. Very cute. Very loud.




These felt bracelets were made in one of the three offerings of this class I taught at B&B. The finished piece is one connected through a beaded bead and slipped on as a bangle.

Ahhh, back to the exhibits. Check out the ottoman! It is loomworked and has a wide and long rope attached to it to boot!

More of the Bead Dreams exhibit.

Tomorrow's blog entry will share the Japanese exhibit and Convergence.

Day 2 at the Bead & Button Show, and enjoying running into beaders I only get to see once a year: Sherry Serafini (sweet, sweet famed bead embroiderer and beader to Aerosmith), Suzanne Golden (NYC beader that Mary Hettsmanberger calls "visual caffeine"), Merle Berelowitz , June Huber ( no relation), Carol Perennoud , Alice Korach (founding editor of Bead & Button magazine). The photo shows the registration and gathering area for the pre-confernence part of the week, as seen from my floor.

Yesterday I taught the hand felted and beaded bracelet that I am teaching again Tuesday and Sunday. Amanda and Beth finished and said it would be ok to share their pieces in the blog.

This evening's class was an added session of Fireflies at Sunset, which is sold out for Sunday! We recalled together about last year's show and the scary foul weather warnings in Milwaukee. We were forced to the exhibit hall, for our own safety, until the storm passed. Imagine our distress at having to shop for beads from 500 vendors while the storm passed!

Motoko Natsubori, my friend and Japanese interpreter from Hokkaido arrived today and we had a chance to visit. And I had a quick greeting with Saori, owner of Twinkle beads in Germany and editor of a brand new German beading magazine that will be published soon.