Visiting the Portland Bead Society

I love the views from the train between Seattle & Portland

Last month, a friend emailed to ask if I'd be interested in doing a talk for the Portland Bead Society.  Her email was a total surprise, as I've been pretty quiet in the beading world of late.   It seems she still remembered a talk I'd given for our local group, the ages ago.   Feeling like a bit of a fraud, I found myself saying I would, then went searching for my old slide deck.  There's nothing like a quick kick from the universe to get one going again!

view from the train platform, arriving in Portland

Which is how I found myself on the Cascades train Tuesday morning bright and early, headed for Portland.  Before the meeting, I had the chance to spend the day with Janis VanWyhe, the current president of PBS.  Janis met me at the station and whisked me away to grab some lunch.

Going for a quintessentially Portland experience, we stopped at a food-truck court.  It was a full city block, ringed on all four sides by food-trucks, literally.  Food truck after food truck, lined up along the sidewalk in the place of buildings.  I discovered that there are so many food-trucks in Portland, there's a website devoted to tracking them, and they even gives tours.  We skipped the tour, grabbed our food and headed for a nearby park for lunch.

Better yet, the park was only a block away from Powells Books, where I can easily get lost for hours (maybe days) in bibliophile heaven, wandering from room to room.   It's been year's since I had a chance to visit this amazing bookstore, which also fills an entire city block.  Our browsing was limited by our 90 minute metered parking, which was likely a good thing as anything I purchased had to fit into my already full suitcase for the return trip.

Crystal Springs Rhodendron Garden (photo from their website)

Since the weather was about as perfect as could possibly be, we decided to head for the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden next.  In all of my previous visits to Portland, I'd never ventured much beyond the core, so this was a real treat.  I found it interesting how wooded the city seems, even driving along some of its main corridors outside of the city.

The garden itself is so beautiful.  Though it's already a little past prime blooming season, a number of the rhodies were still in bloom.  Interestingly, it it was primarily the taller, tree-sized rhodies that were still blooming.  Even if none of the rhododendrons had been in bloom, the garden would still have been lovely.

The garden is perched on the side of a valley,  with winding paths through open, wood-like gardens that periodically open onto water views of ponds with a lively population of mallards, wood ducks and Canada geese, all with offspring.  We even spotted a bald eagle circling above one of the larger ponds.  The picture is from their website, because all of mine turned out too dark, though I did get a couple fun pictures of a dogwood in bloom.

Finally, it was about time to head to the meeting.  I can see why so many of the members of our local bead society also belong to the Portland group.  During the business portion of the meeting, they discussed an upcoming exhibit that will travel to all eight of the local libraries, several different community outreach possibilities, their upcoming annual potluck, and more.  I am definitely going to see if I can make it back down for their annual Bead Retreat, if not before. 

In case you happen to see this, many, many thanks to Jennifer Engstfeld who suggested my name, to Carol Perrenoud (Beadcats) who took care of all of the arrangements, to Janis for an absolutely wonderful day, and to all of the members of the Portland Bead Society.  You were all so wonderfully welcoming.  I was truly honored by your invitation to speak, and hope that you enjoyed my presentation.

Sping Ring Fling May Day Celebration and Blog Hop

A little May Day posy of Spring blooms

Happy May Day! 

I've always loved the idea of hanging little posies on friends and neighbors' doors to celebrate the optimism of the season on the first day of May.  I've never actually run around the neighborhood hanging mini-bouquets off of neighbors doors, but it always seemed like fun.  Instead, this year, I'm hosting a virtual May Day celebration with my first-ever freeform peyote Spring Ring Fling Blog Hop and Challenge.

Many, many thanks to everyone who accepted the challenge to make a ring or rings inspired by the season: 

* Svetlana, Svetlana’s Gallery
* Lori Finney, Using My Beads
* Monika Burzyńska, Sztuka Magiczina
* Teresa Shelton, KeyGirl Designs
* Vanessa Walilko, Kali Butterfly

Trees Budding celebrates the first signs of spring, as buds emerge on the trees

April found me traveling from Boston, to mid-Missouri, and back to Seattle.  I was struck by how much Spring's timing differs from place to place.  The wisteria and cherries had just begun blooming in our yard in early April.  Later that day, I discovered spring was just starting to unfurl in Boston.  It had snowed in Boston earlier that week and the snow had just melted!  So my first ring is for my friends over there on the 'other' coast. 

A view from the back/underside of the ring

Trees Budding (I'm still working on the name) celebrates one of the earliest signs of spring, as the buds swell on the trees.  So many of these early buds have a lovely red-orange cast.

Dyed jasper rounds nestle into a background of soft greens and the coral of dogwood stems. "Magic Apple" Riso seed beads remind me of the texture of the spiky maple 'flowers'.  (I checked on wikipedia, and they do call them flowers!)

This photo of apple blossoms from my yard started the ideas peculating for my second ring.  I snapped the photo as I was heading to the airport on my way to visit family in mid-Missouri, where I discovered my parents' cherry tree covered with snow white blooms.

Combine that with a foray to Itchy's, my father's favorite thrift shop where I picked up a 100yard spool of 3/8" white satin ribbon for a grand total of $5.00, and my second ring was born.

a side view of Karen's Apple Blossom ring

This ring was a little blast from the past - old favorites meets new(er).  I've always loved ribbon worked flowers, and used to teach how to make them back in the early nineties when my focus was more on crazy quilting and embellished embroidery.

I made three little blossoms and an apple bud, then set them aside and worked on my freeform peyote ring base.





 Once I had the base, I stitched each of the flowers in place, using apple green, transparent magatamas and 6mm bugles to add additional textures to the bouquet.

Worn, the blossoms almost complete hide the structure of the ring

The beading is almost a little secret for the wearer

So there are my little spring posies.  Now it's time for me to go see everyone elses' lovely creations in this May Day Celebration! Here's the list again:

Karen Williams, Baublicious (you're here)
Svetlana, Svetlana’s Gallery
Lori Finney, Using My Beads
Monika Burzyńska, Sztuka Magiczina
Teresa Shelton, KeyGirl Designs
Vanessa Walilko, Kali Butterfly

Teresa Shelton's Spring Ring Fling

Spring inspiration, Teresa Shelton

Teresa Shelton jumped into the Spring Ring Fling with both feet, creating not one, not two, not even three, but four separate rings.  Here's Teresa talking about her designs:

It’s been so long since I did freeform peyote work that I had forgotten how much I enjoyed the freedom of it. For the past several years I’ve primarily been doing a lot of geometric beadwork which is rigid in form and structure but still creative in application. Once I got started on the first ring, the joy of freeform expression was familiar and inviting, much like reconnecting with an old friend, and I savored the chance to fall back into those comfortable rhythms.

Spring is my favorite time of year and I can’t wait to see everything wake up again and return to life. The first ring is inspired by the first apple buds and leaves that sprout from dormant branches and yearn for the Spring sun. At our house, the apple tree vibrates and hums as the bees find the bounty in their early blossoms. The ring, Apple Blossoms, was started shank first with a single row of beads followed by several rounds of freeform peyote. The branch, leaves, and blossoms were beaded separately and then attached to the shank through a flat washer looking trade bead which has an added bonus of allowing the branch to rotate on top of the shank.

Teresa Shelton's Apple Blossom Ring

After the first ring was well under way, so many more Spring Fling ring inspirations hit me all at once and I wondered if I’d find the time to create everything I was exploring in my head. Daffodils are my favorite flower and one of the first Spring flowers to bloom in our yard. Several years ago, I purchased a lampworked daffodil bead from Serena Smith at a local bead show and tucked it into my purse. When I got home, I found one daffodil petal had broken from banging around against who-knows-what in my purse.


I kept the broken bead and figured I would find a way to use it in time (The beads tell me what they want when the time is right, I have only to listen and wait for their suggestions). First Bloom gave me the opportunity to use this beautiful but neglected bead. The single missing petal was created with seed beads, then a blend of freeform peyote and 5 sets of geometric herringbone increases was sculpted around the base of the bead. The shank was created and added after the flower, petal, and foliage were assembled.

Teresa Shelton's First Bloom

Teresa's First Bloom, worn

A side view of Teresa's ring (it's easier to see the beading)

Why stop at two rings when there was a whole month to create and rings only use a few hours of stolen time?

Spirals are everywhere in nature and the universe, and I seem to gravitate to this shape so why not explore it in beads. In New Zealand, the spiral-shaped Maori koru is reminiscent of an unfurling fern frond, symbolizing new beginnings – yet another Spring theme. I usually steer clear of pink in my beadwork and never pair pink with orange but a beader friend of mine recently made me some earrings in hot pink, orange, bright green and bronze. Everyone I’ve shown them to loves the color combination so I guess it was time to emerge from my habitually comfortable color cave and see what new paths I could discover. New Beginnings started with the spiral and worked from the center out. The shank was beaded later and has a diagonal transition in two locations between the hot pink and orange colors so they also spiral around the shank.

Teresa Shelton's New Beginnings spiral

a side view of Teresa's ring

starting point for Pacified

The final ring in this series, Pacified, blends my love of the geometric beadwork with the freedom of freeform peyote. I had an older exploded warped square (technique from Contemporary Geometric Beadwork) in pastel colors which reminds me of the soft, muted sunlight emerging in Spring. The shank is a simple square-stitch connection of two of the warped square tips which creates an open ring base to build from. To the base, I added several lacy trusses of netting and introduced peyote in subsequent passes to add structure and support for the heavier beads near the top of the ring. After it was completed, my husband commented that it looked like a pacifier with the center tear-dropped focal extending up so high.

Teresa Shelton's final ring, Pacified

Thanks Karen for organizing and facilitating this challenge as well as hosting me as a guest blogger on your site.

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Teresa Shelton, who beads under the pseudonym Keygirl, has been creating art with seed beads for over 25 years. You can see more of her work on her Facebook Artist’s page or e-mail her at keygirl designs gmail com.