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).



You've asked and Justine listened: a Felted Footwear workshop for Angelfire Studio is on our calendars for Sunday April 18. Add it to yours, and soon, as we're limiting class size to 12. We're re-arranging and adding tables so everyone has elbow room and packing it all into one long day. Justine is providing lunch right there. Expect to share some of the felting labor by taking turns; accelerate the fulling labor with a Turbo Felting Board (borrow one or take advantage of the sale until Ground Hog's Day Feb 2, just $25 includes free shipping!) and leave at 6pm with custom fitting, fabulous felted (and still damp) footwear.

Beatrice came to the studio class with this work-in-progress. It is that netting variation that we've seen rendered in pearls, as part of a necklace on a Bead & Button magazine, in round crystals by Gwen Fisher in Beadwork magazine and as the blingy bangles and gracefully knotted necklace we love by Pat Riesner. Beatrice's is solely size 6 seed beads, yeilding a textured and, frankly fascinating tubular beadwork! That Beatrice, she always sets off on adventures with each acquired skill. Love it!

Last night at the Beadzo class, Charlotte came very close to finishing the Dew Drop Diagonal Peyote bracelet. She had her copy of Mastering Beadwork close at hand, but I was delighted to talk her through it.

Terry is the first to bead the new design Aurora Borealis (I'll be teaching this at Beads By Blanche on March 30th).

New beader Chris chose to do another project from Mastering Beadwork: Joy Squared Cuff Bracelet. She chose several metallic cube beads for hers. It looks more like a jewelry store purchase than a bracelet composed of glass beads. Metallic beads are especially popular at this time.

Are you also in constant pursuit of the perfect storage solutions? Allow me to share my newest find. They are clear (actually translucent is more realistic) little bins, model no. S-12414 (7.5 x 4 x 3") from U-line.

Although it is possible to hang them, I simply stack them along the back of one of the work benches. They are large enough to hold several tubes/hanks of seed beads, and individual projects in progress. It has eliminated so much clutter of things that collect on every horizontal surface.

My first use of U-line was to order all the boxes, tapes, and packing supplies when we moved to Port Ewen. You simply specify the kit that fits your needs: apartment, small home or deluxe, and everything arrives in one shipment. It was such a satisfying experience that I reordered a kit for my folks when they moved last year.

Their number is 800-295-5510 but, you can click on the highlighted name for their website. Their customer service is so exceptional that I order all my boxes from them (for workshop supplies shipped ahead, for individual kits and for my books.) I wish they sold everything!! Every single order I've placed has been on my porch the next day (well, except the moving kits).

Kaja Dedijer (you may know her as the Kaja behind Kaja's bracelet page 197 MASTERING BEADWORK) is still apprenticing with a jeweler as she refines her craft and in Autumn will head off to NYC to complete her gemologist studies. Shown is Jill wearing her version of the Kaja bracelet that she just finished in class Wednesday night.

This design gets alot of attention. It was featured Perlen Poesie magazine and I will likely teach it in Dortmund Germany at their first bead festival in March 2010.

These flowers outside a restaurant caught my attention, especially their orb form. Makes me want to bead them!