Bead & Button Show class registrations begin January 10th

Hand Felted Complex Cane Felt Beads Necklace (sold out first day last year!)

This June I'll be teaching 12 classes at the Bead & Button Show. The catalog has been sent to last year's registrants and anyone can view it on-line. On January 10th they will begin to accept registrations for classes. I have to say, in my 10 years of teaching there, I have observed that most of the registrations occur on opening day. Many beaders must sit at their computers, fingers poised to hit the right button, at noon CST, on January 10!  Of course they continue to accept registrations from January 10th until the hour of the class, for any seats still available.
In past years, when my classes filled on opening day, they would schedule an additional session. This year my "dance card" is so full, it doesn't have a spot to sneak an additional session into. Nice problem. Hope you get into all the classes you want.


The fun starts Friday June 1st with "Preview' classes and continues through Sunday June 10.

Click on the links above or read the class descriptions below. In writing this post, I have yet to be successful placing photos next to the appropriate description. So, click on "12 classes" above and then on each individual class to see the details WITH the photo.

 B121495 Crystal Galaxy Necklace Thu 6/7, 830a-330p From thread & 1600 xilion Swarovski crystals, create solid circular, diamond, triangular and pentagonal forms. Discover the repeated simple steps that propel you through the work and provide that meditative sweet spot that we love. Painlessly learn cubic right angle weave and all the sculptural possibility it holds.  

B121440 Fireflies at Midnight Wed 6/6 4-7pm This original stitch can be thought of as tubular peyote stitch with the strategic addition of extra beads. These extra beads articulate this otherwise stiff beadwork, making it as supple as bead crochet. You will appreciate this versatile addition to your bead weaving repertoire.

Ode to Stripey Beads, offered both Saturdays 6/2 and 6/9

B121452 Sparkling Hand Felted Bangle Sun 6/3, 7-10p Transform fine merino wool into luxurious felt cane. Accelerate the process by using a Turbo Felting Board. Double-needle right-angle weave Swarovski crystals using the mantra that propels you through row after short row. Seamlessly join the first and last rows to cover the joined ends of your freshly felted bangle. You’ll finish.
Insert Text Here
   
B121450 Hand Felted Complex Cane Beads Necklace, Fri 6/8 830-4, Create a set of complex cane beads from an array of fine merino wool, the magic of felt making and a technique inspired by glass/clay artists. Build and then combine, solid, spiraling and concentric canes. A Turbo Felting Board accelerates the felting into dense firm beads so you will string them in class.
    
B121461 Trilogy of Chains, Mon 6/4, 7-10p, Learn not 1, not 2, but 3 dainty chains in this short & sweet class. Wear them together or individually. These chains rival those from the jewelry store but, are composed almost entirely of size 15 seed beads. Well, a few 4mm crystals too! Though delicate in appearance, they are quite sturdy.
    
B121437 Hand Felted Bangle w Beaded Bead, Sun 6/10, 9-noon. Experience the magic of felt making, transforming fine merino wool into a luxurious felt bracelet. Accelerate the process using a Turbo Felting Board. Learn my quick & easy method for undulating tubular peyote. Whip up a couple inches to use as a beaded bead, covering the joined tapered ends for perfect fit.
    
B122505 & B121581 Ode To Stripey Beads Sat 6/9 or 6/2, 9-5 or 10-530  Choose beads from my collection of solid & stripy, plus the round, oval & oblong base beads to decorate with intricate beadwork. Discover the impact of the base bead’s finish & color. Design a template for custom-fit for each bead. Take away a finished bead and recipes/template for more. Wear one or string them w spacer beads.
    
B121587 Kalahari Mirage Fri 6/8, 5-8p. Approach a familiar stitch w/ a sense of adventure, creating a swirling rope that has an inside & outside. In a few inches, incorporate Swarovski crystals to enhance the matte beads, sparkle like a pool in the desert, and exaggerates the undulation of the necklace.
   
B121562 A Ring for Every Finger Tues 6/5, 7-10p Make a handful of elegant rings that look like precious metal, pearls and gemstones, and belie their seed bead composition. Begin with the easiest and work your way through all five recipes, weaving together seed beads, drops, magatamas and marcasite charlottes. Expect to complete most, if not all 5.
    
B121574 Kalahari Oasis Lariat Wed 6/6, 8-3. Weave the sparkle of an oasis into matte beads redolent of the desert. The rope spirals and has an “inside & outside”. Incorporate gorgeous daggers into one end and encrust the other end with faceted beads and drops in a way that causes it to undulate wildly. Wear the lariat with the encrusted end winding up the lariat, allowing the daggers to hang in a loose curl or entwine the ends together, bolo style.
        
B121540 Are 8 Really Enough? Friday 6/1, 5-8p Make 1 now and enjoy the bonus of learning how to make all 8. These bangles & bracelets are composed of seed beads (some durable finish gold/silver) with or without spotty daggers, drops and Bicone crystals, looking like a tennis bracelet. {I just designed yet another bangle that starts in this way but is more complex. I'm thinking of adding it to the rest, affirming that 8 are really NOT enough! Kits for this new beauty will be available on my website after the show.}

Suitto Needle Threader

Suitto pushed the thread through the eye!

Suitto needle-threader, loaded with needle and thread

Last January when I was exhibiting with Tulip Co at the International Great Quilt Show in Tokyo, this red tulip-shaped little machine caught my eye. I've wondered about it over this year and whether it would be useful for beadworkers who have issues getting their needles threaded.
When Bead my Love and SuperiorBeads asked me about them I had to look into this promising tool. Tulip sent me one, affirming that this delicate machine is intended for sewing needles and threads.
How it works: Drop the needle, eye first, into the hole in the center of the cupped area at left. Hold the thread so it lays across the ditch between this part and the tulip. Press the button. If the thread was held straight across but, not so taut as to not yield to the tool, it will be pushed through the eye of the needle. Lift the needle gently to avoid pulling the small loop of thread back OUT of the eye. Gently pull the loop through the eye until one end of the thread passes entirely through.
What I have found is: Fireline 4#, Nymo D, Sonoko and One G beading threads can be threaded onto a size 11 Tulip beading needle. 6# Fireline, 10# WildFire and all of the above will thread into a size 10 Tulip beading needle. Jill, aka Jilly Beads, used it several times in the last two Studio classes and, when the thread was properly placed it worked for her each time.
Sooooooo, I placed an order for them!
My best-post-office-in-the-world called yesterday morning to say they had my EMS package (it stands for Express Mail Service and it IS. It gets my packages to me from Japan in 3-4 days!!!). I tossed the box into my car (too big for my bicycle!) and dashed home, promising to return immediately. The priority flat-rate boxes were addressed and ready to be filled with the orders placed by Bead my Love and Superior Beads. Tomorrow they should have their Suitto Needle Threaders!Now you know where you can find them.
In the style of those sometimes touching Master Card commercials:
Tulip beading needles $4.95 per package. Beading thread $2-7. Suitto Needle threader, about $20. Getting back the thrill of having threaded needles every time you want them...priceless!!

HOW WE FELT

Having decided not to do yet another printing of HOW WE FELT, my publisher Interweave Press sent me the files. They said that because they opted not to print more, and the photos were taken by staff photographer and genius Joe Coca, that all rights are mine. I'm just heginning to investigate what would be involved to make it available as an e book from my website. Which makes me also wonder about having it available digitally for Kindle, Nook and iBook. And then of course, there is the "print on demand" market. It is all fascinating and another learning curve and I want to explore these. If you have advice or suggestions please drop me a line.

Testing the iPod app now that I've re-installed

My techy friend Susan suggested this might do the trick. Well, I can tell you that the entire format looks different. So, I just took a photo of the delicious chocolate truffle filled figs we bought at Trader Joes. Let's see if this will work, including the photo.

My weekend workshops at Crystal Creations...Beads Gone Wild

You've heard me enthuse about my iPod touch and iPad as I've incorporated them seamlessly into everything I do. They have advanced my techiness exponentially and I genuinely enjoy learning new ways to utilize their many features. Recently I've even read a few issues of MacWorld. Why hardly a beading workshop concludes without someone asking me to share some new digital thing I've discovered or some new app I've acquired. BUT, ever since the OS5 update, my blogger apps have become loathsome time vampires. Joyfully I'll share the days events, taking the considerable time to include links and photos throughout the posting, only to find that the entire thing won't upload or worse, disappears entirely. This has eaten up so much time that what used to feel warm and wonderful sharing of my magical days, ends up leaving me feeling frustrated and honestly, angry.
So, days after the fact, here I am, sitting at my computer trying to play catch up. I am tempted to look into wordpress or an alternate to blogger, if they do not remedy this glitch. I love returning to the hotel at day's end and making time to blog when things are fresh and immediate. If, from now on, because my mobile devices cannot be used for this purpose, I have to wait until I am returned home and in front of the computer to blog, I admit it just isn't going to happen. In that setting I have other demands on my time. If you have any clout with the app developer, please use it!

Eleanor felted and beaded with me the last time I taught at Crystal Creations. She recalled being in some discomfort afterwards from all the physical exertion. She was thrilled with the contrast this weekend, provided by using the Turbo Felting Board. So, she was able to be quite prolific without physical repercussions. Here she is seen building "leopardskin" felt.

She embedded shiny novelty yarn and will ultimately use this piece as a wall hanging. Eleanor is a very accomplished fiber artist and works in several fiber media.

We didn't confine ourselves to felt jewelry this weekend, though most everyone finished at least a couple pieces in addition to other felt projects. They wanted to sample nuno felting so I showed the technique of creating surface design around a skewer and then felting the slices into an open weave fabric. Dawn made her cane, removed the skewer and then, instead of slicing it she began to wet it as we had done for other applications. Discovering the faux pas immediately, she cut slices and placed them on the fabric. The gorgeous thing that happened is this:

I hope you can see the detail in this photo. While the center of each medallion is firmly felted into the background fabric, the outer edges are not. I loved seeing this happenstance. This is a technique I will use purposefully to that end. Fascinating. Thank you Dawn for your spirit of adventure.

Robin and Barbara are friends who have taken my workshops at the BEad & Button Show for several years running. They both made quite the effort to join me this weekend

at Crystal Creations and they were jazzed and productive. This is some of Barbara's booty.

Eileen felted a fascinator for her granddaughter, though she looks fabulous in it herself!

Liisa Turunen, the store designer and co-teacher with her mom, store owner Glenda Paunonen, felted several cuffs. You may recall me mentioning that she and Glenda said they wanted to make jewelry like in Cirque du Soleil. I still don't know what those pieces are but, Bloomfelt is a feltmaker associated with Cirque du Soleil.

Robin (left) ad Barbara (right) hard at work.

Glenda built up layers of color using the skewer technique and then felted a bangle. When it was 23 finished, she cut little wedges from the cane to reveal the interior. By continuing to full the bangle post-cutting, the wedges even out with the overall silhouette. Lovely.

Angela felted this cuff with fringe and then turned her attention to the felt purse shown here. Her construction is impeccable even though I dashed through the demonstration "felting around a resist", having added this to an already overly ambitious collection of techniques and projects for one weekend.
It was an amazing weekend of hugely creative, highly motivated people intent on using effectively, every moment we shared. I taught and demonstrated (and they created) necklaces, cuffs, bangles, felt beads, felt fabric, nuno, felting around an armature, inclusions embedded in felt, felting around an armature (purse) and fascinators. wish you could have been there.
Glenda spoke of felted earrings and similar projects she will offer in the repertoire of classes at Crystal Creations.

Lost in the shuffle

Amy wanted to bead a band of peyote for her new pen by wood-turner Bob Rosenberg, so I reminded her of the easy double-needle method for odd-count peyote. Which in turn reminded me that the previous posts about the workshop at Beads Mosaic did not include everything I thought I'd shared. How I wish the developer would fix the bugs that have made my blog apps crash on my iPod and iPad. I've spent wayyyy tooooo much time happily sharing tales, photos and links only to find they disappear into thin ether. So, I'm "chewing my cabbage for the third time" as they say in the hills, on my computer this time, hoping this time is the charm.

Sarah, the beader we picked up at Innovative Beads Expo, finished her bangle in the morning session.

The tapered ends of the felt are joined inside the large-holed Unicorn bead. She embellished the felt with a simple few silver drop beads. Gorgeous.
One of the full-day felters, Sandy,

did it all. Here she is beading the undulating beaded bead for one bangle. Then she learned the double-needle odd count beaded bead for another.

She also selected one of the array of large-holed Unicorn beads on hand in the store, to finish a third bangle...seen in progress here.

In the back of my mind I keep imagining what Glenda and Liisa have in mind, when they say they want to create Cirque de Soleil inspired felt bracelets in our workshop at Crystal Creations a couple weeks from now (December 10 & 11). Speaking of...Marjolein Dallinga has a dream career as feltmaker for Cirque de Soleil. Cool.

Wondering if something like these will tickle their fancy.
Happy Thanksgiving. When giving thanks for the many blessings that make up my wonderful, creative, friendship and love-filled life, I am thankful to have you.

Beads Mosaic yesterday, Innovative Beads Expo Dec 3rd, Crystal Creations Dec 10&11

It was a gorgeous drive down the thruway to Nanuet yesterday. Not much traffic this weekend...probably everyone is saving their road trip for next weekend. Beads Mosaic offered a choice of Felted Bangles to Bead workshops...come for just 3 hours in the morning and expect to make one or, come for the full day and experience several techniques in felt making as well as beaded finishes, including the fastest method of beading undulating tubular peyote. This is even easier than the method I share in MASTERING BEADWORK. I came up with it when I was writing the directions for potential projects I'd offered to demonstrate at the Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival last January. In preparing the recipe to give to Shoko to translate, I was so intent on using an economy of words that this economy of beading came to me. How cool. I could have dope-slapped my own forehead though. Why did it take so long to come up with this?

A couple inches look great on a chain or beaded chain, I use it to finish some felted bangles and, here is a picture, and I may have recently shared this but, you can't see it too much, of Amy wearing her freshly finished undulating peyote necklace. Sorry to say I hadn't shared this easier way before she'd started this.

But, I've shared it with her since and I shared it last weekend in the felt jewelry workshops at Urban Stitch Studio and again this weekend at Beads Mosaic AND
... in 2 weeks from Thanksgiving when I teach Hand Felted Components Jewelry at Crystal Creations in West Palm Beach Fl, this will be just one of several cool things I'll share. Crystal Creations owner Glenda Paunonen, and her daughter and head designer for the store, Liisa Turunen, want to make Cirque de Soleil inspired cuff bracelets. You betcha. When we're together I invite you to use me up!! Their request got me so excited! Let's just do it all, I say. So, just to sweeten the pot I shipped 4 fabulous felted fascinators down for display in the store with the expectation that whatever folks want to make, even headgear, I'll be ready. Next week I'll ship ahead a box of gorgeous colors of fine merino wool, tulle, feathers, sequins, ribbons, wire, blades, cutting boards, Turbo felting boards. This will be like a shorter version of the weeklong workshops I taught in Australia in April and a couple years ago. I am sooooo looking forward to this. Call Glenda to reserve your spot in this creative adventure. Bring your heart's desires and a spirit of adventure.

Hey, mention you read about it here and I'll have a gift bag of supplies for you so you'll have more moolah for beads!

Full fab weekend: Demo at Innovative Bead Show & workshop at Beads Mosaic

Amy accompanied me to Edison NJ for the annual Embellishments edition of Innovative Beads Expo. Wish I could tell you more yummy details of this show but, I didn't get around much. Leslie Pope replenished her supply of Tulip beading needles for Twisted Sistah Beads first thing. I had a chance to say hello to exhibitor and fused glass jeweler Marcia Moore. (I have a collection of her cabochons that I intend to use in a new design soon.) It was lovely to be situated near Moggie Moyer's Bead My Love booth. There was great shopping at this show in addition to classes taught by my friend Pat Riesner, Marti Brown, Adele Recklies, Meg Fillmore (the daughter of well known mother-daughter bead embroiderers of Bead My Love.)
We had a booth in the corner of the main ballroom, allowing plenty of space for observers to gather around for my demonstrations.

Sarah, to the extreme right in the shot, not only gave me her rapt attention during the Felted Bangle to Bead demo, she also came to the workshop yesterday at Beads Mosaic in Nanuet NY to create her own felted beaded bangle. (in next post)
Innovative Beads Expo has 30 shows scheduled for 2012 in the northeast, including one in NYC in May. I will be at the last show of 2011, in Fishkill, NY at the Ramada Inn on December 3rd. Here, rather than doing demos, I'll be teaching 2 classes. One is a necklace I designed especially for this event that is new-beader friendly and also offers new technique to seasoned beaders!

I call it Painted Desert. I'll also be teaching Treasure Bracelet.

This was a very popular bracelet I taught at all 8 Sewing & Quilt Expos around the country, the year I taught for them. I love that over the past couple years, a few beaders have come up to me at the Bead & Button Show in Milwaukee, to exclaim that they took Treasure Bracelet class at the quilt show and it was their gateway into beading.
Hope you can come bead with me in Fishkill in a couple weeks. Pat, Meg and Marti will be teaching there too! Innovative Beads Expos classes are always 8 or fewer students per class. What an amazing opportunity to enjoy individual attention from the instructors. At other shows classes max out at 16 to 24. Take advantage of this intimate learning venue.
After the show Saturday, a few of us met for a "nosh" at Harold's New York Deli at 3050 Woodbridge Ave, Edison NJ. What an experience! I'm recommending it. Pat had warned us that the sandwiches are intended to be shared by 3 or more people. Pat, Amy and I ordered a combo pastrami/turkey. They almost finished the pastrami half and I had my fill of delicious turkey on chewy perfect rye bread, plus 2 more meals from it Sunday!! Their concept of portion size is an interesting gimmick, and the place was packed with families. and parties. We passed the dessert showcase. The cakes were easily 14 inches tall and at least that wide. A slice occupies a platter rather than a plate, and again is meant to be shared. I was thrilled that the food was so very divine because I feared they were counting on quantity rather than quality to draw the crowds. Au contraire. Try not to be grossed out by the grotesque portions and go there with 3 or more folks that have similar palates. Enjoy the pickle bar. Yum. You WILL want a "doggy bag".
Sunday I taught Hand Felted Bangles to Bead at Beads Mosaic in Nanuet. Sarah found her way there after just a brief gps glitch that put her in Spring Valley first.
I'll start a fresh post about this after I dash to the post office...

Urban Stitch Studio post...revisited with pics this time

Several 3-4 hour workshops were offered in both beadwork and feltmaking. And because a couple of us were staying right there at the Urban Stitch Studio "B&B;)", boundaries were blurred about when class was actually over. Here is a picture of, I think Beth's, Fireflies necklace and Twilight in Savannah.

Can this really be Marlene's very first beadweaving? Herself a feltmaking teacher, beadwork was new to her and we teased her that after Friday evening's class, she'd qualify as an intermediate beader for Sunday's classes.
(This coming Sunday, the 20th, I'll be in Nanuet, NY teaching the felted bangles-to-bead at Beads Mosaic. Hope you can join me there.)

One of the felting projects was a felt rope and felt flower than can be worn in one piece as a lariat. Let's see, is this Christine's yellow beauty? Pat made an additional short rope that terminated in leaves and attached it to her flower. This gives her the option to tie the flower to the lariat, or not.

Kelley, the owner of Sparkle Spot Bead Shop is also the force behind dyed Fireline. She gifted me a sample pack. Several beaders this weekend were using the dyed fireline and it IS gorgeous.

Recall that in the earlier post about this weekend, I had to remove the images in order to post it. Here is a pic of Marlene in one of her amazing garments she made using the Shambolic(TM) method of felting pieced silk.

Check out the felted dazzling jewelry Pat is wearing in this pic. These are pieces she teaches at Tucson in February, as a Swarovski ambassador.

This Saturday coming, I will be at Innovative Beads Expo in Edison NJ all day long conducting free demonstrations of embellishment techniques. This is the annual embellishments edition of the Innovative BEads Expo. Amy will accompany me so she can help beaders acquire the appropriate kit to actualize the demonstrated methods used to decorate, even transform, clothing, accessories, other decorative items through needle felting, beaded edgings, hand felting and, oh yes, a little magic with a crochet hook. She'll have Tulip beading crochet hooks, beading needles and felting needles on hand for sale also.
I'll have copies of MASTERING BEADWORK: A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO OFF-LOOM TECHNIQUES on hand for sale and signing. HAND FELTED JEWELRY AND BEADS: 25 ARTFUL DESIGNS had been declared out of print earlier this summer and tonight I found out the hard way that HOW WE FELT: DESIGNS AND TECHNIQUES FROM CONTEMPORARY FELT ARTISTS is also now out of print. A dear man purchased one from my brandy new website and asked me to inscribe it to his wife as a gift. I found I had run out and called Interweave Press, my publisher, to order more. They were out of stock as well. So is Amazon.com (except for used). For 3 days I tried to reach the publisher to inquire about when and where the reprint was expected and this evening her finally returned my call. He said there had "been a break down in communication. That they like to notify the author and ask if they are interested in purchasing the remaining copies." The cupboard was already bare when they notified me about HANDFELTED JEWELRY AND BEADS and, this time, as regards, HOW WE FELT, they didn't bother to notify me at all. I am so sorry to notify that dear husband of a felter that I have no book to inscribe and ship.

About those demos and matching kits available for purchase:
Saturday, November 19 – 11:00 am
Needle Felting Technique:
Create surface design using felt needles, fiber, and yarn. Designs are not confined to 2-dimensional; they can be built up to 3-dimensional as well. Techniques will be shown on a ready-made, lined, zippered, white felt case useful as wallet, cosmetics bag, small purse or case for handcraft tools. Items on display showing the versatility of the technique.

Kit=$25 - includes a White Felt Purse, colorful dyed wool, yarn, feathers, felt needle, sponge.
Saturday, November 19 – 1:00 pm
Beaded Edges Technique:

Decorative beaded edgings demonstrated on fabric. Suitable
for scarves, cuffs, lapels, hems on garments, the techniques
are also appropriate for lampshades, pillows and even jewelry. Kit=$25 - includes a white silk scarf, beads, written instructions for beadwork plus a recipe for dyeing the scarf with icing dye in a microwave with just vinegar and water.
Saturday, November 19 – 3:00 pm
Wet Felting Technique:
How to hand felt a cane or rope using fine merino wool and
a Turbo Felting Board with a bit of hot soapy water. Learn
how to use beads to transform the felt into a soft and luxurious bangle bracelet.
Complete Kit=$90 - for a Hand Felted Bangle with
Beaded Bead, includes a Turbo Felting Board, wool, beads, needle, thread, recipe for Beaded Bead, instructional DVD.
Or just $15 for Wool sufficient to hand felt a Bangle, using the technique demonstrated.

Sunday come join me at Beads Mosaic in Nanuet for adventures in handfelted bangles to bead. We are offering this to you as an abbreviated workshop for 3 hours or, opt to spend the day in creative bliss as we felt a trio of different bangles and then apply different methods of completing them with beadwork...beaded bead, embellished or cabochon. Last weekend the beaders in my workshop at Urban Stitch Studio made some amazing ones. As soon as I can move the pics I took with my iPod onto my computer, I can include them in the post just before this one. Ever since the OS5 update I cannot use my blog app on the iPod or iPad. BooHoo.(If you mention that you read about the Beads Mosaics workshop here, I'll give you a free
Turbo Felting Board, a $30 value).



From Urban Stitch Studio

I just had to remove the photos to get this to post. Check back to see them when I can get them posted !!!!!!!!
This past weekend I taught workshops in Lutz Fl at Urban Stitch Studio. (Whiling away my time in the airport yesterday, I posted about next weekend's Innovative Beads Expo in Edison NJ but, there are issues with my blog app since the OS5 update. Grrrrrrr. (Did I just growl out loud? Yeah, well, I can't tell you how frustrating it is to see all the sharing and links and photos disappear into the ether!)
Friday evening was a workshop in beaded bezels and the iPod photos of us look like we are beading in a cave instead in this glorious and organized and spacious studio space. The ipod doesn't cope well with lighting and we had the task lamps going. (I understand the camera on the new 4s iPhone is amazing. Hmm. Maybe in April.)
Linda wins the prize for traveled the furthest... Minneapolis MN. She is a seasoned feltmaker and beader and a joyful person. Saturday morning we felted bangles and began beaded beads to connect the tapered ends of the felt.
Pam, on left, drove 2 hours to join us. What a treat it is to see her. She was in my workshops when I taught at the Art Glass Show in Orlando a few years ago and also at the Sewing & Quilt Expo in Tampa. Yesterday Patsy came to class and she has beaded with me at Convergence the year it was in Tampa and also at The Bead & Button Show. It's like old home week. Marlene (you recognize her from an October post about NY State Sheep and Wool Show, demonstrating feltmaking at her booth. A year or so ago, I posted here about the weekend I taught for her Marlene's Felting Madness) in Galipolis OH. Marlene is in process of trademarking her felting technique she calls Shambolic. It is piecework utilizing wool to "glue" the pieces. We were able to get her to model her coat.

This jacket was juried into an exhibit at the Workhouse Arts Center called Art of Fiber in Lorton Virginia.

My hostess this weekend is Pat Riesenburger also, like Marlene, a feltmaking teacher. Pat teaches crystal embedded felted jewelry at Tucson every year, as an ambassador for Swarovski.
Here she is wearing her cuff and jeweled necklace. Gorgeous. Next month she has a capacity workshop in the nuno shawl she teaches using her hand dyed fine merino wool and silk fabric.
This is Pat's wearing her felted long stemmed flower lariat from the afternoon workshop.
Wish i had a decent picture of Beth's.

Posted using BlogPress from my iPod, I hope, though photo less for the time being.

Winter arrived early this year!

Once again our home came out unscathed... this time, from an early snow storm that piled tons of heavy wet snow on trees that still had their leaves. Trees fell onto roadways and power lines. We lost power for a couple hours but a million residents here and in neighboring states will still be without power for another day or more. I am grateful every minute for my charmed existence. When Irene struck, several local roads were washed away or eroded and I've learned new routes to neighboring towns. Downed trees don't have such an extended impact on travel since they are generally cleaned up pretty quickly.
I've brought out the sweaters and socks and assorted other woolies but, must avoid storing the lighter clothing for a couple months, looking ahead to 2 stints in Florida. Next weekend I will be in Lutz Fl, near Tampa, to teach both beadwork (Twilight in Savannah, Beaded Bezels and Fireflies at Midnight) and felting (Felted Flower Lariat and Beaded Felt Bangles) workshops at Urban Stitch Studio.





The second weekend in December I'll be teaching an entire weekend of Hand Felted Component Jewelry at Crystal Creations in West PalmBeach.
Today I am working on my new website. I learned how to add the poster about the demos I will do at Innovative Beads Expo in Edison NJ on the 19th. My new website is through Artisans Accomplice. They provide a friendly, affordable and figure-out-able way for artists (though they will not turn you away if you are not an artist) to set up and maintain their own websites. Gosh, when I think of it, 10 years ago I was a Luddite through and through. Why, I couldn't even navigate my way around the tv remote, doomed to watch only CNN if left to my own devices (so to speak). Now I'm completely INTO my "devices"... loving my iPod and iPad beyond reason. Plus I'm figuring out my new iMac, website, and considering, possibly, an iPhone!!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Glitches since Os 5 update?

Oh where, oh where did my last blog post go? Oh where oh where can it be?
Hmm. I finally got around to writing about the extended weekend of workshops at Bead Gallery Inc , using my iPad...because this was what I had at hand between appointments and stuff, and without wifi. Figured I'd pop the photos in from my iPod later and then publish but, ALAS!!!!!! The darned thing has disappeared.
Several accounts of crashes and disturbances since the OS 5 update are reported. Although I've notified the developer of the app, it doesn't resolve that the time and text are lost.
So, here I am on the iPod, hoping it is up to the task, because this is where the pics are.



We began last weekend with 3 beadwork workshops on Friday.


I taught the Handful of Rings and Is Eight Enough? bangles and bracelets workshops that I will
also be teaching in June at the Bead and Button Show. And in the evening I taught a swirling tubular necklace embellished with either firepolish
or swarovski crystals. I've redesigned and simplified that necklace, calling it "Painted Desert Necklace" that I'll be teaching December 3rd at Innovative Beads Expo in Fishkill.


Sunday we devoted the day to Hand Felted Fascinators. Rita and Robin have felted with me in previous workshops here and arrived with a clear agenda.


Thisiq Catherine, Stacey and Sharon from-the-back in this shot.


Genevieve's amazing daughter Eva joined us and turned this out!


Jamie is the seasoned felter who usually joins us for the felting workshops here. She is known for radically short hair. No worries. Wear that fascinator on a hairband instead of a comb, clip or hair stick.
This isn't the post I already did twice but...it IS the way to share that weekend until the glitches are worked out.
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