Sunday, after the last class, we headed back over to the Expo to collect our beadwork from the exhibit. When I turned to enter the Perlen Akademie space in hall 5 I saw this gorgeous dress that Amy would just love! It had concentric circles and stripes and all in great colors. Inside the dress is Petra, owner of Das PerLament, a bead store in Bonn. AND, with her is my FaceBook friend, Sabine Lippert. We enjoyed a fabulous visit over coffee at my hotel, before they headed back for Bonn. Sabine, a certain kindred spirit, also calls her beadwork patterns "recipes" and she talked about European FB friends that she actually knows, and I'd thought I'd meet while at Creativa. Laura Andrews is teaching at Petra's store for a couple days before heading back home. Petra said she will collect me when I finish teaching in Belgium and then I'll teach at Das PerLament. Now I'll have to get this on the calendar and stop just thinking about it.

Five beaders in my classes are bead store owners. Laurie Glynn (right) owns a store in Switzerland. After we met in class Wednesday, I saw her among the 80,000 people at the Creativa Expo and was excited to see someone I know! She said she'd booked a Hawaiian massage called Lomilomi. I'd never heard of this before and was fascinated. To her left is Anita, who teaches beadwork.

Nele owns Ne-co bead store in Belgium. She was in a couple of my classes and we had greater opportunity to visit at breakfast. It was interesting to hear about mangosteen juice and its health benefits to her.

From our email correspondences, I expected that I might see Kang at Creativa. It was perfectly lucky that she came on Saturday while I was demonstrating in the Bead Expo area of Hall 5. She had only the one day since she is on her way to Paris and then, was it Italy? You may recall her from June's entries. It was when Tulip Co had their first exhibition in the U.S. They invited me to join them at TNNA in Columbus OH. This is where I met Pearl from Knitty City (the first retailer to carry Tulip's crochet hooks!), enjoyed quick visits with the "crafty retailer" Pat Reisenburger (wholesaler of extraordinarily beautiful merino wool and Swarovski elements), filmed another feltmaking demonstration for Knitting Daily on public television and taught the Tulip staff to bead!

Jill volunteered to be the first to bead the new bangle design I haven't named yet. Yet, another result of exploring polygon stitch with a sense of adventure and sometimes even daring! This bracelet fits like a bangle but has a magnetic closure hidden deep within the beadwork. I may decide to offer this as a 3hr class in next year's Bead & Button Show. Teachers must submit their proposals in July for June classes the following year. Good to plan ahead.
Irma made trip to Beads By Blanche Saturday and bought metallic beads and 3mm Swarovski crystals to bead a netted panel for her husband's woodturning. This one is just the mock up of the one he is rendering in ebony. Such grace! You can see others of their collaborations on Steve's website.

Eva and Cheryl have just tackled bead crochet using the "Bead Crochet Out Loud" method. Join me March 9th at Knitty City in Manhattan NYC. From 2-5pm I will teach you to bead crochet (and some folks will actually finish a bracelet in class). From 6-9pm I will teach "Beaded Edgings". Expect to learn 3 or more techniques to embellish your garments and accessories with beads. Not only are they lovely but, the weight of the beads can affect the drape and hand of fabric or clothing...just ask Chanel!

Tomorrow at Beadzo in Tivoli (1-845-757-5306) I'll offer to teach that brandy new bangle, as well as Aurora Borealis and whatever else they ask for. This is a local beadstore where I teach about twice-a-month. I am there 6-9pm on those Thursdays and we run it as anarchy, in a GOOD way. That is, each person gets to use me up in whatever project or technqiue they want. Usually I bring whatever new things I am working on, and sometimes everyone wants to make that project or learn that thing. But there are times that I teach 8 different things at once. I just float (not literally, would that I could) around the room tending to each individual beader and her project/technique. I guess it is the residual of my 22 year career as a chef. You never know who is coming in the door, when, and what they'll order. The mental gymnastics necessary to juggle several projects/meals at once are thrilling and enjoyable. Everyone knows they will get the attention they need and it works great. And it happens that sometimes you learn another thing or two out of the corner of your mind, while you are learning the thing you came for.