Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

Okay, maybe not literally; it's still a bit too warm here in Seattle for actual snow. But I was treated to a flurry of snowflakes yesterday and how pretty they were! Yesterday nine students joined me for my second annual Snowflakes and Stars class at Fusion Beads. Such a fun, festive time we had!

Snowflakes clockwise from top left by L. Kay Rokusek, Cathy Warms, Nancy Lundeen, Debby Smick

Karen Lusby's snowflake with her bead selections

I truly enjoy teaching at Fusion Beads.  They have two great classroom spaces and they really go out of their way to take care of their instructors and their students.  And this is one of my favorite classes to teach because a) I get to share one of my favorite, quick and extremely versatile patterns and b) I receive all sorts of inspiration from my students' creations. 

Isn't Kay's garnet, white and silver snowflake at the top left above stunning?  It's so rich and regal.  Nancy named her snowflake at the bottom right 'Siena' because it reminded her of the floor tile mosaics there.  Every student tried something different, and every snowflake was truly unique.  Thank you to everyone who let me photograph their work to share here.  

Karen Lusby even suggested I include her bead selections in my photos of her lovely pastel rainbow creation.  I took one photo just of the snowflake, and then another with the bead packets - transparent light azure AB, transparent light lilac lined AB and sterling plated iris over clear. 

Now, it's time to draw for the winner of my Snowflakes and Stars Kit and tutorial.  Between the two blog posts where people entered, there were a total of sixteen entries.  I printed out the comments and started to assign numbers so I could use Random.org, my usual method for determining a winner.

Looking at the neatly arranged comments, I decided to do something different this time, so I chopped the pages up into strips, folded the strips and put them all into my hat.  Then I woke my sleeping husband and demanded he draw a name from the hat.  After a little wait during which time I thought he'd simply fallen back asleep, a hand snaked out and plucked a piece of paper, which he then tucked under his pillow.  Luckily, only a peck on the cheek was required to achieve it's release. 

When I finally opened the paper, I found Christine Altmiller's name winking up at me from the page.  So Christine - you are the winner of my bead kit!  Congratulations and I hope you enjoy!  Let me know whether you'd like Cobalt, Silver and Gold or Snow White and Silvery Blues for your kit.  I'd love to get this out to you tomorrow.

Thank you all for participating!  And check back - this isn't the last give away I'm planning for the holiday season.  At least one more is still to come. 

Working on Freeform Peyote Kits

My first freeform peyote kit!

That's mostly what I've been doing this past week - working on kits for freeform peyote. 

I've put together three kits, only one of which is currently available in my Etsy Shop.  That's to make a bracelet similar to my Ocean Currents cuff. 








My Ocean Currents kits include ten different colors of seed beads shading from bright white to deep cobalt blue, 2 shades of drop beads, an assortment of accent beads, metal button, three different colors of beading thread, even two of my favorite beading needles.  The whole nine yards!

The idea is that it should have pretty much everything you need to dig in and get started.  So why haven't I listed the other two kits yet?  So far I've:

Hunted, sorted and rummaged through my stash of beads until I found the appropriate colors for each kit.

My postal scale comes in handy once again

Measured and weighed seed beads into little plastic baggies, feeling like quite the drug pusher.

Stitched up (and photographed the living daylights out of) a new freeform peyote Beaded Bead for my third kit.  This one's inspired by a friend; I'll tell you more about it next week.
 

Two of my kits with their respective inspiration bracelets

Packaged them up with pretty kit covers.  And tried to photograph everything. 

Then I thought, even if I do sell the kits with my book (which is one of the purchase options),  wouldn't it be nice to have some design notes pages for the project, similar to what I did for my Spanish Dancer bracelet in my book? 

So that's where I am now.  Working on design notes and trying to decide just how comprehensive they should be.  It's sort of like a hydra in that it seems to keep growing.  I check one item off my list and three more appear.  Today, I'll be working on those design notes again. I don't have much in the way of process photos for the two braclets, so I'm planning to create illustrations of key points instead. 

Between working on illustrations, editing photos, writing text, doing page layout and editing the whole shebang, I've decided to shoot for listing kits for my Peacock Spring bracelet kit and my new Freeform Peyote Beaded Bead next Friday.  Wish me luck!  I'm going to need it!  :)

101 Facebook Fan Winners

Thank you everyone who entered my 101 Facebook Fans drawing either here or over on Facebook itself! 

There were a number of different places where you could have entered - including several different threads on Facebook, although you did actually have to comment to enter.  So I printed them all out. taking screenshots of the comment threads from Facebook, because I couldn't figure out an easier way to do it. 

Then I sat down and numbered the entries - adding extra entries for those of you who had taken to post on your own blogs and Facebook pages.  Thanks for that!  In the end, I had 48 entries.  I gave 49 & 50 to Lyn Owen over at Silvermoonlyn as a thank you for all of the traffic she sent my way and to bring my drawing to a nice round number.

First up were the earrings, freeform peyote and right angle weave from my Earth & Sky colorway.   

freeform beaded earrings, Earth & Sky color way

 I used Random.org for the number generator, and Narelle Donald; number 22 was you. 


Then it was time to draw for one of the two kit packages. The winner will get to choose from Package A: a combo pack with kits for my Lacework Bracelets and Corset & Stays beaded bead.  Or package B: containing my book Freeform Peyote Beading and a special kit in the color way from my Autumn Rain bracelet (which incidentally has been the profile pic for Skunk Hill Studio's FB page from day1)

Package A: cover pages for the two tutorials

Package B: Freeform Peyote Beading special kit

Turns out, Lyn didn't need the extra two entries for sending people my way.  Her number came up for her blog comment. 

So now it looks like I'll be shipping two packages round to the other side of the globe.  Narelle and Lyn/Lynette, please email me with your contact information so I can get these out to you.  Lynette, I'll need to verify which kit package you want. 

Thanks again to everyone who helped make this giveaway a huge success!  This was a full order of magnitude larger than the last drawing I did back in the fall.