Worcestershire Beaders class with Jean Power

Today has been a bit of a treat as I attended a Jean Power workshop at Worcestershire Beaders. The class was called "All Angles" and focussed on increases and decreases in Jean's favourite stitch - Peyote. This was great fun, and worth the effort going to. (Normally I have been a solo beader so it was great to chat with other like-minded bead obsessed ladies! It was also great to meet Aster Sadler in person finally, after having chatted with her regularly on OTTBS (Operation tackle that bead stash - a facebook beaders group). It was very inspiring to see all of Jean's wonderful creations laid out in one place, and each of the ladies at the class were wearing one of their bead creations with pride. During the morning we all set about producing a 14mm rivoli flower and were then shown Jean's lovely Ric Rac bangles and Ric Rac flowers. Most people opted to make the flower as this was quicker to produce. I decided to leap in head first and go for it with a Ric Rac bangle. Needless to say it has not been completed in the time we had left, but I managed to get the first 2 rows of a 20+ row bracelet done! Patience is needed to complete this obviously! I put my own spin on things by going for a montana and burnt orange combination, and substituted drop beads for the new Rizo beads. Photos will follow when I have completed the bangle. Thanks have to go to my dear husband who gave me a lift to and from the venue in Droitwich a(3/4 of an hour drive away from where we live.) I am lucky to have a partner whom is so supportive of my crazy bead obsession, and even more so since my spinal surgeries in the last 2 years, as I simply cannot tolerate a drive longer than half an hour these days. I am now left exhausted, sore, but happy after my lovely day out with Worcestershire Beaders.

A whole lot of Rizo going on!

This week I have been playing with the new Rizo beads that were an idea of well respected Sabine Lippert. It is great seeing how they can be used in a few of my previous jewellery pieces and I look forward to designing lots of new ideas with them to. I think it is really encouraging that companies such as czech preciosa, miyuka and toho are willing to listen to their beaders needs by making beads to fit in with our requests.

After having a lovely chat over a coffee with Jean Power last year, and discussing how she likes to ensure that she fully explores all avenues and new possibilities with each piece and subsequent spin off designs (or happy accidents as I like to refer to them!) It has got me thinking that maybe I should not go from one extreme idea to another, but work with a particular style/stitch/bead to see how many possibilities it presents. Either way, it is great to chat with other like minded craft people and discover their outlook on life and beading. In other news....today I had a lovely message from another bead chum (I have not yet met in person) telling me how excited they are to have collected together the beads and kit to make my 'Helter Skelter Bangle' currently on sale in issue 44 of Bead Magazine. (Shown below in the left hand bottom cluster of boxes...the grean and pink cellini spiral bracelets.) That makes me so happy to know that people enjoy my ideas enough to want to have a go for themselves, how awesome is that?!

New technology eeek!

Ok so I admit it...2 years as a blogger member and only now I am getting to grips with how to use it. I agree it is bad. But with thanks to a bit of external help I am being brought up to speed with all things technological and computer-esque. To ensure the good bad balance will be restored I will be attending a beading workshop led by the very awesome and talented Jean Power next weekend. (This is a new thing for me as until now I have been mostly a self taught beader.) I can only hope that the snow that is currently causing chaos in the UK, will have melted by then.

RAW discoveries and learning to walk

The last month or so I have made the plunge and commited myself to getting to grips with the complex beading stitch RAW (Right Angle Weave). As with so many other of my pieces of beadweaving, I always have big ideas before I have fully mastered every angle of the stitch, increasing, decreasing etc. This doesn't deter me in the slightest as I like a challenge, but I have to say that as I have created a whopping 30+ prototypes for my current idea, I cant help but think that perhaps maybe I should have learnt to walk before I can run! Ah well, I am learning lots from my many sampler pieces of bead weaving, and in my journey to RAW enlightenment I have actually discovered a few 'happy accidents' yet again which I am sure will lead me onto other projects (and no doubt UFO's - unfinished objects!) In addition to this, my obsession with czech spikes continues and I am enjoying seeing lots of new colourways and spike sizes appearing in the shops. I have had an order of czech gumdrops and the new Rizo beads arrive this week and I can't wait to have a play with those. But for now I must get back to the RAW mission....one day I will get there. I just hope it doesn't take another 30+ samples before I get this stitch to do what I want it to do!