Today at the Perlen Akademie booth, Creativa Expo, in Dortmund Germany, I snapped this photo of someone snapping a photo of the exhibit of my beadwork and felt jewelry.

Today my teaching schedule was clear so I had a chance to take in the Expo. While Marina (our interpreter, kindred beading spirit and German ambassador) took us around, we passed this beader wearing her "Bead Happy" necklace. As I noticed and remarked about her, we hugged and snapped photos: I took away this photo of her and she has a photo of the two of us. It is such a warm and wonderful life, this felty beadedness.

When I spotted this lovely felt necklace and earring, I just had to meet her. This is Crystal. She mosly felts hats and is working on garments recently, mostly incorporating silk.

This is the second photo I took of Christa Saalfrank. In the first one she was not wearing her gorgeous felt bead jewelry. Wish she had a website. Her work was lovely. Many felted beads embellished with decorative stitches strung on cable or (yikes) elastic. Many pieces with silver components.

Couldn't even get near this booth. Guessing by the appearance of mass production, I figure there must be a felting collective behind this. These pieces are very different than those I have seen for sale in the U.S. from the Nepalese felting collectives.

It was exciting to see the variety and abundance of felt items at the show. There were a couple demonstration/workshops going on also. Saturday, all day, I will demonstrate both wet-felting and needle felting in the Perlen Akademie Hall 5. There will be kits on hand so that anyone choosing can have a workshop right here, right then. In the evening I will teach the felted and beaded bangle bracelet that is so popular at Bead and Button Show.

What a delightful time I had yesterday teaching the Glass Bead Inspired Lariat for the Bead Society of Greater New York. Nancy Tobey, whose bead IS the inspiration, made an assortment of beads just for the occasion. I'll be teaching this at the Bead and Button's 10th year anniversary Show in June. This class sold out on the second day of registration!

Just this week I replaced my little digital camera with what I thought was just a newer model of the same. Au contraire. This one requires batteries. AND, it took me 3 days to figure out where the photos go when I download them into my computer.

In the final moments of the BSGNY workshop, I snapped some photos to share here. Sorry to say, I forgot to set the camera to the appropriate size for the blog. The images are just too "big" to share electronically here. Suffice it to say they were each lovely. One beader brought her Karen Ovington bead to use as the focal bead.

In an email correspondence, with a beader named Mary, I mentioned the workshop for BSGNY. Much to my surprise, she showed up! Miraculously, she was able to register on the spot. Came to find out that this beader has been, until this weekend, a "stringer". Well, she did us all proud. She conquered this polygon stitch, a touch of netting, herringbone stitch and beadweaving jargon in a workshop geared to intermediate level beadweavers.

The Bead and Button Show just added another session of the Felted Bangle with Beaded Bead for Sunday June 6, 7-10pm. This class was popular last year and sold out again this year. Providing the Turbo Felting Board for use in class, really accelerates the felting portion of our 3 hours, leaving ample time to create the undulating beaded bead. Most students complete the project in class. As B&B classes go, it is a bargain at $95.

Once they've tasted the sweetness of hand felting a bracelet, I'll show examples of additional styles they could make using what they have just learned and embellishing them in a myriad of ways, depending on their beading skills and tastes. Sparkling beads and matte felt are perfect foils, underscoring and enhancing each other.

Sure would love to turn more beaders onto felting. The process is so satisfying. It has the same color seduction that beadwork offers with the sensuousness of fine fiber. Each year I submit several proposals hoping that they'll select a few.

Perhaps 2011 will be the year that I teach 4 felt and 4 bead classes. It will be fun placing my energy to that end.

Tuesday I fly to Ludlow UK to teach a 4 day intensive in hand felted jewelry and beads at Moral Fibre Felting Studio. Not only does an extended workshop provide the luxury of time to teach/learn and develop new skills or techniques but, it attracts only the most devoted and passionate. When in Australia last year, I taught felt jewelry intensives at 2 separate week-long fiber forums. It was bliss. The first day is thrilling as the entire week lays ahead and everyone is full of anticipation. The next couple days are full of adventure as new approaches and methods are tried. Then the panic sets in, that oh my goodness, tomorrow is our LAST day. And, the day after everyone's gone home, I find that I miss, truly miss, some of the people I've had the priviledge to work with.

Hey, a head's up if you have travel plans. When I checked the airline regs for carry-on luggage I found that the two pieces I'd previously always traveled with (one to check and one to carry) are now considered over-sized. Yikes. If you've a flight in your future, take nothing for granted. The rules change all the time. Fortunately my little purple one qualifies if I don't stuff it. That and a tote containing my handbag, cosmetics, Kindle and toys, and I'm all set.