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!

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).