I was too busy to take many photos at Bead and Button but here are a few shots of my adventure.
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| Here's my favorite security guard at the Frontier Airlines Conference Center. He is actually a polyester resin sculpture by Marc Swan. |
Now on to real people. My first class was Metal Made Easy, taught by Gwen Youngblood, on Tuesday night. This was my first sheet metal class in a very long time and Gwen and her husband Hull made this a fabulous learning experience. We did everything: cut out metal shapes, textured the shape, added decoration with rivets, added jump rings, added dangles, and put a patina on the surface with liver of sulpher.
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| Gwen (middle) chatting with two fellow students. |
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| Two sample pendants |
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| One of Gwen's necklaces with copper and silver pendant. |
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| My pendant |
My Wednesday class was the Kalahari Oasis lariat with
Carol Cypher. I had so much fun with Carol's felt class last year that I decided to learn the African Helix from her this year. Carol is a patient and generous teacher and we all had a goodtime.
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| My finished Kalahari Oasis necklace. |
My next class was Wire Nautilus Pendant with
Barb Switzer on Thursday morning. Here I learned to spiral the heavier wire into a nautilus shape, wrap a thinner wire around the spiral, and weave in beads and crystals. Unfortunately, I had to leave class early for a meeting so I had no time to stick around after class and take photos.
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| My Nautilus Pendant |
Friday's class was a Zipper Teeth and Beads Freeform Cuff class with Jeanne Barta Craine. Here we learned how to prepare zippers to sew onto a base and sew beads on to fill in the spaces. I already knew bead embroidery but was excited to learn her zipper technique.
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| My zipper and bead cuff in progress. |
On Saturday, I did something entirely new: Lanterns: Twined Wire Earrings class with
Marilyn Moore. This class taught us to twine ( a basket-making techinque) with fine wire. Marily also showed us her technique for blending colors of wire. I was worried that this class was going to be really difficult but the twining is actually pretty simple; on top of that Marilyn is a cheerful and patient teacher who encouraged us as we all mastered the technique.
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| Twined Wire Earrings: Front of earring on left, back on right. |
Of course I had to go shopping--or at least visiting all of my friends who were vendors at the show. Here is what I bought:
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| My first stop was Beyond Beadery, where I loaded up on seed beads and Swarovski crystal. |
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| Barb Switzer lent me her Lindstrom tools in class and I was hooked so I bought the flush cutters and the round-nose pliers from Beaducation. I also bought on of the new Wubber square pliers. As a bonus, we got the baby Wubber pliers in our Bead and Button goodie bag. |
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| I stopped at Parawire to buy some wire for a new class that I will be teaching in a studio in Manhattan. |
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| Everyone flocked to the York Beads booth for their first appearance at Bead and Button. I bought some spikes, duo beads, and two interesting-shaped, Czech beads. |
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| I found these lovely tulip-shaped end caps at Elka Designs. |
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| That temptress Sabine Lippert alerted me to the wonderful lampwork beads of Steven Wheeler of Zion Waters Glass. Steven incorporates high-end crystals and minerals into his art glass and then uses copper electro-forming to cover parts of the bead. My bead incorporates fossilized ammonite and the copper layer has a patina on it. |
I did a lot more looking but you can't buy everything that you like. Now I am off to play with my new beads.
