Studio Musings

Monday, December 19, 2011

Spring Classes

Twined wire egg basket by Maryiln Moore
Signups for Fusion Beads' spring classes started Thursday. I stopped by Saturday to sign up for Marilyn Moore's Egg Basket: Oval Twined Wire Bowl, but got caught by their in-store sale. Most of their strands of shaped glass beads are 40-50% off through the end of the year, youza! I definitely failed my willpower roll and left the store with a lovely packet of beads, perfect for more lacework bracelets and accent beads in my freeform peyote. I did not sign up for the class - now I'll have to wait until after the holidays and hope there's still space. Keeping my fingers crossed.


Glacial Ice, lacework bracelet by Karen Williams
In the meantime, I do have three classes of my own on their spring schedule. I'll be teaching Freeform Peyote Ruffles again on Sunday, January 29th, where students can choose to make a pair of earrings or brooch, or start on a larger project such as a bracelet.  Then on Tuesday March 6th, it's my Lacework Bracelet working with random right angle weave. Both classes filled last fall, so we'll see how they do this time around.



Store bought cabochons from Fusion Beads
And I'm teaching a new Beaded Bezel workshop, where we'll capture a cabochon shaped object using a combination of regular and random right angle weave and peyote stitch. This is a variation on my Captured Cabochon, with the back worked in random right angle weave, which leaves lots of room for artistic interpretation. The back becomes a special surprise for the wearer, or you can make the cabochon completely reversible, so you end up with two entirely different looks from one pendant. Or you can incorporate the captured cabochon into a larger piece, as I did with my Red Crest and Hunting Fae necklaces.  Enough possibilities?

My original samples for this class all used my handmade cabochons, but they suggested that I also make some samples using cabochons that Fusion Beads carry, so there are now a wealth of samples for this class. The catalog only shows two, and then only the fronts, so here's a little more:

Two backs: Lillypilly pendant and stone cabochon
Original samples, both cabochons & stitching are mine
Cabochon backs, @ bottom right to be used in larger project

3 comments:

  1. Oh, heavens, such drool worthy pics! I so love the backs on the two in the third to last pic. And the last one as well. So wish I was there to take the class with you! The freeform RAW looks so pretty. And the switching off of beads in that blue one really accents the freeform look. Wow!!!

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  2. I love your cabs! I'm such a sucker for reversible pendants.

    Reading this post makes me want to take classes, but also to teach them! It's making me wish there was a bead store in my area.

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