Walking to end Alzheimers - The raffle

On August 1st we launched our three pronged effort to raise money for Alzheimers research. We made and sold Peace signs, we sold the tutorial so others could make peace signs (and man have they, so many beautiful ones!) and Mark beaded two Peace signs to raffle off in return for a donation to team DeeDee.  DeeDee is Mark's Mom who passed away last April from the effects of Alzheimers.

Between these three efforts, together with all of you, we raised $12,040!  Today we walked, and as promised we picked the two winners of the raffle!

Mark, being Mark and if you know him you know what I mean, developed a spreadsheet wth a built in random number generator.

This morning he hit the button and the winning ticket numbers were 119 and 227.  Given the brilliance of his spread sheet we have the following result.

Sandy and Glynna your Peace signs are on their way to you!

Artistic Collaboration and a process class, exactly what I want to do!

Yes, It is true that I am nearing retirement.  I've been hinting at it for years and it is starting to be a reality for me.

I am cutting back my schedule significantly and spending more time with family, friends and travel.

But occasionally an opportunity comes along that combines those things.

So what kind of opportunities still entice me?  Those that combine a process class with a collaboration with one of my dear friends and an opportunity to teach again at Beads by Blanche.  We've shared a long history as I love the store, the classroom and all the amazing students I've come to know over the years and oh, Blanche and Wendy of course!

So a couple of years back we started discussing how much fun it would be if we could do a class with both me and Tracy.  Being a bead artist one of my very favorite things has been to spend time with other artists and the opportunity to combine our two very different styles into one collection of work, well that was incredible.

Earlier this year we had the opportunity to spend time together while I was developing the Bohemian Collection, a body of work with inter-changeable elements that relied on magnet casings to change out the parts.  Tracy was exploring salt water etching with her metal pieces.  We both arrived at that aha moment of combining the two different mediums into two bodies of learning which could come together brilliantly into really diverse pieces.

Tracy both taught me salt water etching and provided me with a collection of her finished pieces.  I incorporated the magnet casing from the Bohemian collection and incorporated the etched pieces.  I was instantly in love!

We sorted out a format for a joint class and while four days is a big commitment it will also provide the optimal creative environment allowing  everyone to explore the techniques in enough depth.  Each person will end up with a wonderful one of a kind piece of bead art and new skills to create a collection of their own.

I think the photos below will give you an idea of what you can create using the techniques we will be providing.  For each piece presented below there are another multitude of ways you could inter-change the pieces.

New England in the crisp fall, me and Tracy, an outstanding bead store and we promise you a great experience.  If you'd like to join us, you can find details here.