Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Hand Felted Bangles & Beaded Beads plus Bezel for rivoli with DVBS

The plan for my workshop with Delaware Valley Bead Society was to hand felt 3 bangles AND learn two types of beaded bead to finish 2 of them and a quick bezel for embellishing the third bangle with a rivoli.
It came to light in conversations during our reception at the "D.Vine home", that while they are a talented and jewelry-oriented lot, there are not so many bead stitchers among them. It is always exciting to introduce beaders to the wonder of bead-weaving with tiny seed beads.
Often in a beaded-felt project, we start by producing the felt. Then we clean up the supplies and work area and break out the beads. This time I figured it would be wise to teach them the beadwork while they were fresh and eager...first thing.
We started with undulating peyote. Even those beaders working with seed beads for the first time "got it" and 1.5 hours into it we were ready to switch it up and bead a bezel. Some beaders came with 18 mm rivolis and I also brought along some vintage Swaroski stones.
By the time we came to think about breaking for lunch, I had already demonstrated the third beadwork: odd-ct peyote. This group is a powerhouse! Whew!
Jay told me once, "if anyone in New Jersey offers you pizza...eat it." They ordered pizza delivery and, no surprise, Jay is right. New Jersey pizza is worth eating!
After a quick lunch they selected their wool and commenced hand felting their 3 bangles each.
No whiners in the bunch. Everyone made their 3 AND had time to start the odd-count peyote beaded bead.
We even had time to discuss deconstruction techniques. A couple beaders created windows or channels in their felt, to hold the bead bezeled Rivoli.
This was a fun and exhilarating group. Yes, when they invite me hack next year, I'm there!
Would that I could include more photos. This blogger app on my devices keeps changing and I have trouble making the changes work for me. The pics are in my device and not on my Mac, so there you have it.
Hope I sort this out by the time the new iPad arrives!

2 comments:

  1. Wonderful workshop! I would have liked to felt first when I was fresh and I could have made the bead work to match my felting. I'm beading like crazy since Saturday.

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  2. Loved the workshop and a great visit with you! Ive completed two of the 3 bracelets so far! Fun Filled Packed day!! Learned alot! Thanks for sharing your knowledge and great energy with us!! Glad you loved the Jersey Pizza!!

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