Vacation Education

I am back from my vacation…already in my back to normal mode and probably 5lbs heavier! The funny thing when combining beads and and vacation… I seemed to eat a lot of good food. Although walking the show floor was some pretty good exercise.
Mom and I have gone to the B+B show before, but this year is the first year we’ve taken classes. The classes aren’t cheap but they have everything under the sun about beads and metal that you could possibly want to learn. We were both drawn toward Mary Hettsmanspurger’s work almost immediately. Mary has a background in metal work, bead work, and basketry. Her metal work uses the concepts that I’ve been wanting to learn w/out going into the precise details that many many metal artists go into. So far my theory is to really get into metal work you have to be a perfectionist…I’m not a perfectionist in that way…so Mary’s thought process really worked for me. She was an excellent teacher, knew how to describe techniques in several ways and provided great demos. In a class of 25 she managed to find time to meet w/ each of us at least once to make sure we were completing what we wanted to complete and learn.
Wednesday’s class was Stacked and Stitched and was a 6 hour class. I liked the simpleness of the pendants but wasn’t a huge fan of the stitching, until I tried it out. I ended up making my self a really neat pin from stitching three pieces together. I call it my bug. The other two pieces I made were the stacked pendants that I liked from the pictures. They’re fun to make and when you wear them give a little jingle. What I really got out of this class was learning the techniques used to manipulate the metal. All this talk I’ve typed out about my torch, and metals tools and the millions of ideas I have…. I do have them all…but haven’t been brave enough to actually try it out. This class not only put me in the perfect setting to try it also gave me the opportunity to ask questions and actually see it all be done. The drill and the torch were the big ones. I’ve never worked with either, I know they were simple tools, but I also know they have the potential to be dangerous. And for me being shown how to work a tool is a big big deal. Now I feel comfortable melting balls on wire, and making heat patinas on copper. I’ve now successfully drilled through both metal and glass. Even watching someone add texture to metal and seeing how hard to hit w/ a hammer was a big help. I’m all for experimenting but sometimes its just nice to watch everything be done.

Saturday’s class was Textured Twining. Twining is a basket weaving technique and so Mom caught on really quick and I wasn’t far behind. We both really really enjoyed this. I’m not sure how to incorporate it into flowers but we were both coming up with great jewelry ideas that had the twining involved. The look itself is a bit rustic which is nice, but Mom was able to pull the weavers so tight it looked like a loom had woven the wire together. Marilyn Moore is another twining artist…her work is amazing! I love how she shades her leaves…just baffles me. She also uses wire in 30 and 32 gauge…thats like metal thread! I tend to break my 28g while lacing! I can’t imagine pulling hard with 30g or 32g.

I will post again and put up pictures of everything I made. I haven’t done it yet b/c Chris took my camera to Yellowstone. What a trip he had! They got to see all kinds of crazy wild life both black and grizzly bears, moose, elk, eagles, otters, and pronghorn. They hiked through snow storms and camped in some pretty chilly weather but man are the pictures amazing. It sounded like an excellent trip. We’re now discussing if Yellowstone should be a larger part of our late summer vacation together. We’re both leaning toward yes!

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