A year later and still using the same pair of Tulip beading needles.

When I handed students in last Night's class, a pair of Tulip beading needles Cydne remarked that she was still using the same package she bought at last year's Bead&Button Show . And she does some serious beading. She is wearing a design she learned from Met Inmon and her badge shows she will be taking the Master Class with Sherry Serafini later this week. Lisa had seen the Tulip needles for sale at the kiosks in the classroom lobby and questioned the $4.95 retail price. When she heard Cydne is using the same package For a year, Lisa confessed going through several other-brand needles per project. Yes, she agreed. They are worth it.
Seated with me is Carol Perrenoud, co-owner of Beadcats. She and Virginia Blakelock have owned Beadcats for 27 years. The business is in Wilsonville Oregon and has served our beadiful community through mailorder and bead shows. Carol and Virginia are the queen mothers to many of this generation of beadworkers. Virginia's book, THISE BAD BAD BEADS was the gateway to many of us. Their catalog and magazine articles were the go to reference about threads and bead types, origins and uses. And Carol is especially dear to me and I don't think I have ever mentioned this to her... Gosh, it was probably 15 or more years ago, my drum teacher, the esteemed ethnomusicologist from Bahia Brazil, Emilia Biancardi , was wearing a gorgeous beaded rope necklace. She said it was bead crochet! Despite my search, I found only 1 person who knew the technique, Benita, a fiberartist friend and busy gynecologist in the Bronx. What to do, what to do? Then I find at the Wool Room a video lesson on bead crochet by Carol. It was the first video I ever watched that wasn't a rented movie. And I owned it! I sat there watching and re-watching, hook and beaded-thread in hand until I "got" it. Thank you Carol.