BEAD AND BUTTON SHOW 2011: PART 3

Friday brought Carol Cypher's

Complex Cane Hand-Felted Beads class, the most fun class of my journey. For those who don't know Carol, that is her (complete with felted hair) in the photo at the right.

Here is one of Carol's necklaces that she brought as an example of what we would be making. Her goal was that we could walk out of the six-hour class with a completed (but wet) necklace.

Here are some members of the class working on their projects. We made a series of long fleece pieces, bundled them together, wrapped more fleece around that, and started felting our "cigars." Carol brought squares of the the ribbed felting surface that she has developed for us to use and they made the job much easier than bubble wrap.

Here are the beads of one of the students after the "cigar" has been felted and sliced into beads.

Here is another set of beads resting on the rubber square used to felt it. These were very interesting because she sliced her cigar on the diagonal and then turned each slice inside out to make a round surface instead of a flat one.

These are my beads. I was surprised at how much darker the fleece was after it was felted. That pretty pale green was a neon, lime green when I started.

Carol brought beads and stringing material for us to make neckalces but I decided to wait to buy beads for my necklace. She also brought the new Tulip doll needles for us to use in stringing and those were a godsend in getting through the felt beads.

I found some perfect vintage, plastic beads at Sandy Shore's booth. When I got home, I tried rinsing an extra felt piece with lemon juice but didn't see any difference in the feel of the felt. I also tried putting acrylic floor polish on the underside of each bead but didn't like the fact that it made the surface darker.

I finally strung the necklace but the round shape didn't look right on me. Thanks to an inspiring late-night bead spill, I sewed the 3 center felt beads together, added more green beads, and put burgundy Swarovski pearls as spacer beads at the back.

Here is a closeup. Unfortunately, I forgot to buy a clasp and will have to search for something.

Now, what colors do I want to felt next?