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.

My flight to Germany Monday/Tueday went off without a hitch. Wish I could same the same about my delivery of goods shipped via UPS. Still not here. Long and unrewarding story. I met Anna Draeger, Diane Fitzgerald and Laura Andrews at the airport in Dusseldorf and we shared the (whoosh) cab ride to Dortmund together. They are, l.to r., standing at Diane's display at Perlen Akademie in Hall 5 of the Creativa Expo. We each have a case of our artwork on display. Laura is doing demos in this area for the duration. Anna is demonstrating tomorrow and I will follow suit all day Saturday and teach a class in the evening.

We walked around watching folks set up their displays, after we finished ours. took a quick pic of this new bead to share with you. Miyuki displayed these little tile beads with two holes. New to me and interesting.

On our walk "home" to our hotel from the restaurant, we passed trees (yes, sycamore of some type) that looked like they had beads growing on them. Tee hee.

Wednesday's all-day class today was this necklace of hollow beaded "pillow beads", the tubular chain and closure. This design had been on the cover of the Perlen Posie magazine's first issue. In my class were 3 beadshop-owners. One from Switzerland, two from Germany. Marina, our interpreter shared among the 4 of us, is quite adept at slippng from classroom to classroom and staying on top of each of the individual designs being taught. Plus she is charming and adorable and a brilliant beader.

Do you recall my talking about the phone interview for the first issue of Perlen Poesie magazine? I was interviewed by Saori (owner of Twinkle beads, a founding editor of the magazine and organizer of Perlen Akademie) and Angela. We were immediately comfortable and at ease with each other, kindred spirits. Just days after the interview, Saori wrote to tell me that she alone would be completing the article, since, Angela had been in a horrible automobile accident and was in a coma. I was able to meet Saori in person at the Bead and Button Show in June last year, and Angela was still doing very poorly. THE GOOD NEWS: Angela came by not just to finally meet in person, she also interpreted for my class. We were able to share lunchtime together and I will see her again in class Saturday. She is getting around with a wheel chair at this time but, with several more months of physical therapy, expects to walk again. What a fabulous recovery she is making.

In the evening I taught beaded bezels (Like the kits that I expect will be availiable on the website any minute.) for two rivolis, 18 and 27mm. Here are the finished 27mm ones. Lovely. Four students were with me even thought they were with me all day. Bless their hearts. And on the evaluations they said they would bead with me again. How lucky am I? If they ask me I will come!

Well, it is late here and tomorrow is another packed full day of joy and beading excitement. I will buy a little wifi time tomorrow or Frday and share some more of this great adventure n Dortmund, Germany.

PS I find this post did not go through before my paid time on wifi expired. So I re-read it and am posting it now.

Tomorrow I leave for Germany to teach at Creativa Expo in Dortmund. Not only will I be in the company of 75,000 fellow "hand-craft" enthusiasts, but I hope to get in some quality time with European facebook friends, and fellow teachers Laura Mc Cabe, Diane Fitzgerald, and Anna Draeger.
We're teaching for the Perlen Akademie (Perlen is pearl in German and is used generically for all beads.) If you check the site, the homepage features one of the projects I will be teaching. It was also featured on the cover of the premier issue of Germany's only beading magazine, Perlen Poesie. It will be a treat to reunite with PP publishers, editors and photographers that I met at Bead and Button Show last June.

I'm packing light and bringing along my computer, in hopes of sharing this experience with you here. I'll be in flight and over the date-line so... give me a couple days before I can check back in with you. Until then, felt and/or bead your heart's desires, and smile.

Saori called from Dortmund Germany to discuss the workshops I will be teaching there in March at Europe's largest craft event, Creativa. The registrations are coming in and at last I have the website to share with you that has beading workshop information. Click on Creativa now and it will open on the Bead Academy (perlen akademie) homepage. Click on workshops then click on each instructor's name: Carol Cypher, Diane Fitzgerald, Laura McCabe and Anna Draeger, to see what each of us is offering to teach there. We added the Diamonds Of Fire Necklace (a popular project that I taught at Bead & Button Show last year and will again in June) but, this is the convertible version. It has two magnetic closures hidden within bead work (all Swarovski crystals!!) and can be worn connected as a necklace or separated into two bracelets.

Having more studio time this month, I've been prolific. The felt rings have been a consuming passion. Plus I've new bracelets that will be ideal evening workshops at Beads By Blanche (I just have to call her and get them on the calendar.) One features seed pearls and a pair of bezeled dentelles and another has a bezeled rivoli closure.

Last month at our bead gathering, Myrna brought a selection of new beads by lampworker Harold Jargowsky, for our shopping pleasure. Jill incorporated one of the floral pendants into a bead crochet necklace. Lovely. Glad you're back at the torch Harold. I used many of Harold's beads in projects in HAND FELTED JEWELRY AND BEADS. His contact info listed in the book's resources section is beadsinbarn@aol.com.

Today I submitted two designs to use in a trial run of an electronic venue geared to teach beading to beaders in Asia, Europe and U.S.A. How exciting. Next I must submit two designs/projects that will be offered as animated lessons that can be purchased. I will keep you posted as things develop. They are projecting something substantive by March 2010.

Almost everyone in class at Beadzo last night, wanted to make a Bead Happy bracelet using their own palette of happy colors. Tara's (upper left in photo) is tranquil happiness in blues, purples and greens, as opposed to my exuberant happy of yellow, red, aqua and greens. Actually, the kit for Bead Happy has about 50 different beads! It takes nearly as long to make a kit as to bead the bracelet. I wish I was kidding! Though it is retired from the roster of classes I teach at the Bead and Button Show, it remains popular. It is one of the classes I will teach in Germany in March at Creativa. Ithas been kitted by Coronet in Japan, and used in the beadstitch curriculum for herringbone stitch.

Kitty chose to forgo the Bead Happy bracelet to work on more bezels for rivolis. She is doing several in sizes 18 and 12mm to connect into a reversible bracelet, taking advantage of this style bezel that is as lovely from backside as from the frontside.

A reminder: I have kits for 3 bezel styles for 18mm rivoli. The kit features a rivoli (some rare and vintage and unusual colors) with easy to follow illustrated instructions. At $15 each, perhaps you'd like one of each! Just give me a call to check on colors 845-384-6417, or e mail.

Today I received my "teacher's" e mail from Bead and Button Show
with hotel info, early registration, a poster and the show schedule. Featured on the show schedule is this photo, captioned "Glass Bead Inspired Lariat: Artist Carol Cypher." Great exposure. THE inspirational bead is this one by Nancy Tobey. She wrote to say she has made all the 20 beads for the 20 kits I will make for the registered students. My covenant with B&B and the students, is that the kits will make a piece JUST LIKE THE ONE IN THE PHOTO. Don't you just know that the little stripey bead that dominates this piece has been discontinued! How I just adore those little stripey beads. Well, I have accumulated sufficient to make all 2o kits, plus a little to spare. When WILL I learn not to use rare or unusual beads in the projects I must kit? Honestly, I just cannot help myself. It is those uncommon beads that draw me in.

When I taught at the Great Lakes Beadworkers Guild they were wary of an $85 kit that was really mostly seed beads. That project was composed of my accumuated collection of German and Italian seed beads from wayyyyyyyyyyyy back. Their exceptional colors have not yet been duplicated in the Czech and Japanese beads offered today. And when these discontinued beauties are gone, they're gone. This is why I say, when you see a bead you like, BUY IT. And if you risk not being able to get your beady little hands on more, BUY ALL OF THEM. Mind you, I'm not advocating greed. It is an artist thing. When the color speaks to you, you have to listen.
In the previous entry I mentioned Motoko Natsubori, translator, interpreter, beader, friend. Here we are at this June's Bead and Button Show.

Just this week a beader e-mailed me sweet praises of MASTERING BEADWORK and said she just finished beading several inches of undulating tubular peyote she learned from the book, to wear on a crochet rope. She sounded delighted with her piece. It is a very satisfying project. It is repetitious and meditative as we expect of peyote with the added bonus of a mindfulness necessary to always pick up a bead just like the one being exited rather than the one being entered. The necklace here is Mary's undulating peyote that she worked on during her early studio classes. She skillfully decreased the bead sizes as she approached the ends, which hide a magnetic closure.

In this week's studio class, Elaine finished her crystal bracelet and resumed working on this lovely bead crochet bracelet. The ceylon seed beads look just like pearls when worked up this way. Stunning. I have made similar bracelets as gifts for bridal parties.

If you've been following the blog you know how immersed I have been in these textured, gorgeous-both-front-and-back, quick and exciting bezels I have been designing for rivolis, felt beads, glass, stones and, well, they even look great empty! These are two that Amy made tonight. Beauties.

Earlier today, Caroline Turner, from Moral Fibre Studio and I negotiated the 2010 dates and details of workshops for my first teaching in the UK! February 25, 26, 27 and 28 will be a 4-day intensive in hand felted and beaded jewelry and adornments. March 2 and 3 a 2-day intensive in hand felted bead jewelry.
When we'd communicated about this last week we had figured I would tag this event onto my week of teaching in Germany in March 2010 at Creativa, Europe's largest handwork convention. Last year the attendance was 75,000. This year will feature a new and prominent beading vendors and education sponsored by Perlen Poesie magazine, Germany's first and only periodical devoted to beadwork. Unable to make the arrangements on-line, I called a travel agaent to find that it would be more than twice the price to fly 4 one-ways (US to Ger to UK to US) than to fly two round trips from US to Europe. So, A week in UK and then a couple weeks later...back to Germany. Fine with me.

Tulip Co (yes you know them from previous posts here about my attending the TNNA Show with them in June, during their first exhibit in the US) is sponsoring the feltmaking workshops I will teach at Creativa.