Happy Halloween

For you amusement, I am sharing my latest pair of earrings, which I just finished in time to wear trick-or-treating. 

Hamburg, Day 5: Luminous Tweed class, sightseeing, and Chinese food

I meant to write this post sooner but fell into the black hole known as Ancestry.com when they offered a free 2-week trial.  I have torn myself away long enough to write the next post in our travel adventure.

Sunday, I spent the day at Beaders Best teaching my Luminous Tweed class to a fun group of enthusiastic beaders.

Sunday's Luminous Tweed class at Beaders Best

 

My intrepid beaders included Yvonne from England,  a cheerful lady who made great progress on her bracelet; Cornelia and Andreina from Switzerland, who led us in an interesting discussion of the differences between German and Swiss German;  Anita, the speedy beader who finished everything but  gluing her clasp to the finished bracelet, Susanne, who was brave enough to try Right Angle Weave as her second bead class ever; and my talented translator Marianne.

 

What a nice surprise to find Zoya Gutina was sharing the room with me on Sunday!  Here she is teaching her Saturday class (for those of you who haven't had the pleasure of meeting her).

 

After class was over, I went back to the shopping floor for a last look around.  I forgot to post this sooner, but here is an example of how busy the Preciosa Ornela booth was all weekend.

 

Preciosa booth.  Photo by Freddie Ott.

 

Kerrie Slade and part of the Preciosa team.  Photo by Freddie Ott.

 

The best part was that I got back to the show floor in time for the fashion show of the finalist jewelry.  It was a lot of fun to see the volunteer models walk the runway and a loop through the show floor.

 

Some of the models wearing winning entries.  Photo by Freddie Ott. 

 

The best necklace of the weekend had to be Dreams of Japan by Nadya Gerber.

 

Front view of Dreams of Japan

 

Back view of Dreams of Japan.

 

While I was having fun teaching, Don explored more of Hamburg.  First stop was the Elbephilharmonie, the new symphony hall built on an existing warehouse that is reported to be 10 times over the budget and years behind in opening time.  The latest estimate is a final cost of 789 million euros and an opening date of January 11, 2017-10 years after construction began.  For the ins and outs of this project, take a look at Elbephilharmonie.

 

The big, swoopy building is the Elbephilharmonie building.

 

Then it was a stop at the Speicherstadmuseum, a space devoted to the story of the workings of the warehouses.

 

The coffee section of the Speicherstadmuseum.

 

Then some wandering around the water front.

 

 

 

After that, Don visited the Altonaer Museum to see barges, old fish cutters, models, period rooms, and lots of carved figureheads.  This museum has a number of dedicated supporters because  when this museum was about to close in 2010 due to lack of funds, a local action group occupied the rooms and organized sit-ins

 

 

 

 

A neat dress made out of work gloves; I have no idea why.

 

The impressive fountain outside the Altonaer Museum.

 

Don met me back at Beaders Best just as the show was closing and took me over to see the protected nature area that he had discovered on Saturday.  After that, not wanting to face the hotel restaurant again, we walked around to find the rumored Chinese restaurant.  Even though most of the shops in the little commercial area were closed, we did find the Chinese restaurant and had a nice dinner (complete with a fortune cookie made in the U.S.)

 

Then it was back to the hotel to pack because we were off to London early the next morning, but that's a story for the next post.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hamburg, Day 4: Florencia Snake Class and the Botanic Garden

August 22 was my Florencia snake bracelet class, so I worked (if you can call teaching great students work) while Don continued exploring Hamburg.  Here I am helping Rita Lettau, my intrepid student who tackled a snake bracelet with no English.  Luckily, I had Marianne, a fabulous translator, to help with communication (plus notice Rita's phone with a German to English translation program on the table-we were covered!)

Photo by Freddie Ott.

The other advanced crocheters in the class were Joanne Ivey, who owns a bead shop called Cranberry in Australia, and Akiko Nomura from Japan.

My roommate for the  class space was Fran Griffith so it was a fun day all around.

Fran Griffith (photo by Freddie Ott)

 

 

Rita finished a snake soon after Beaders Best. 

 

Rita's photo of her finished snake

 

 

Akiko also finished hers and Joanne assures me she is not far behind.

 

Akiko's photo of her snake

 

I also took a few photos of some of the contest beadwork Friday night so here is a peak at some of the amazing beadwork.

 

 

 

I know the name of this artist who made the amazing necklace below, Kris Empting Obenland, because I was lucky enough to finally meet her in the real world. 

 

 

"Self Portrait" by Kris Empting-Obenland

 

 

 

This stunning necklace by Joanne Zammitis called "Atlantis" and yes, those are real sea urchins. 

 

Meanwhile, Don started his day by exploring a protected nature area that was about a 15-minute walk from the hotel.

 

 

 

He even found some mushrooms.

 

After that, he explored Planten un Blomen, the large green space in the city of Hamburg.  It has a lot to offer: plants (of course), lakes and ponds, fountains, a Japanese garden, miniature golf and more.

 

 

 

 

 

A vanilla ice cream cone that was so good it needed to be memoralized in a photo.

 

 

 

After the garden, Don joined me at the hotel and we had dinner there with many of our new and old beading friends.