A colorful weekend

I spent the weekend teaching in New Jersey at Beads by Blanche. I taught three different projects and there was much excitement in the air as the different colorways developed.

Wendy of Beads by Blanche has an excellent and sophisticated eye for color. She will look at a project and pull several really appealing possibilities for people to choose from. Several folks took advantage of this and several brought or selected their own palettes.



Helene cleverly used google images to find different examples from blog photos. Joan, Helene and Monica all did Queen Anne's Lace in different versions of white black and red, based on a photo of Lexi's Queen Anne's lace.

The Rising sun has a crystallized bezel, and a band of bumps on either side. A center button (or in Marjorie's case a center large crystal, which you know I'm all for!)is the focal center.



Each one was truly gorgeous. Blanche had some exquisite hand painted buttons one of which she gifted to me. I believe I was polite, I didn't actually bead (or button) beg, I just mentioned how absolutely beautiful it was....and well, now I own one.

There was a lot of innovation. Blanche's button was larger then what the bezel had been designed for so we improvised, making a larger bezel.


A shibori girl ribbon was to be the necklace so we designed a bail and then Blanche decided that it should be reversible, perhaps another bezel, with another button on the reverse side? It is going to be stunning and it was really quite a manageable piece of beadwork, the bezel complete day one and a good start on the bail.

I'll be teaching all three of these (and more) at the Bead and Button show next June.

Aurelia day two, was another opportunity for innovation and there was plenty. Marjorie started with additional crystal embellishments at every opportunity. Marjorie decided to go for a necklace and was stringing a complimentary glass bead accented with seeds.



Then Monica kept it up by adding drops where I had a 3 bead picot, the drops definitely made a statement.



The front face, in my version has a crystal sequin, but needing even more crystallizing, several people added crystal to the tips as well. Here is Ellen's version.



Pat, my friend and hostess was working on an orange and yellow aurelia for her Floridian wardrobe. Somehow I missed taking a picture, but it was a definite fun summer palette.

Several gals showed up with pieces from prior classes or pieces beaded from the book, Beaded Opulence.

Here is Nancy's Shimmer Queen. Blanche has a nice selection of these beads. The holes in these beads are no longer made as large as the one I used, but Nancy improvised nicely, stringing through the bead several times and weaving through the strap on either side. She then added a clasp to the back. Nice job!



Hillary came with this beautiful palette from last years Aberge class. I apparently am fickle, I sometimes call this Portico bracelet, and sometimes Aberge....Aberge has a nice ring to it though. She chose colors that perfectly compliment the tabac crystal and the design, adding her own little touch of 2 mm crystals along the inside of the ellipse. This one will be a two day workshop at Bead and Button this year, and with Hillary's permission this will be one of the colors!