Tuesday 9 October 2012

THE BEADING RETREAT; DAY 2

After a few hours sleep in our cabins we woke very early on the Saturday, 6.15am in fact. Showered and ready to go off to breakfast. Whilst waiting for the girls I sit on the steps writing this on my Iphone soaking up the morning fresh air and quiet surroundings. It really is a beautiful place.


Breakfast over, we all toddle off to our first real classes for the day.
Mine was earthenware Clay with Natalie from Peruzi. http://www.peruzi.net/
 A class in which where learn the basic's of making cabochons, pendants and beads.

The beginnings of the creations
End result after 3 hours of creation











The class goes for 3 hours which simply flew by and we created so much and of course meet a couple of more wonderful people, with whom I had not yet had the pleasure. The lovely Yvonne Ireland & Tracy Stillman. Both ladies are very talented designers. You can see Tracy's work at http://www.facebook.com/TracyStillmanDesigns as well as purchase her work through http://www.etsy.com/shop/TracyStillmanDesigns?ref=seller_info

Some photo's of the ladies all hard at work creating master pieces

Tracy & Mandy
Sharon, myself & Tania
Yvonne & Carina
Natalie is a fabulous teacher and made the class such a delight, we all could have stayed and continued creating till the cows came home but alas it was over all too soon and time for a break and clean up before we head off to lunch and into our Afternoon class.

AFTERNOON CLASS

My afternoon class was one I had been very excited about doing as my instructor was non other than the now world published and seed bead extraordinaire Melissa Ingram. I have always admire Melissa's work and talent ever since being published alongside her in one of Australia's leading beading magazines "Australian Beading". This is where I first became aware of her amazing talent.
http://www.aussiebeader.com/
shop online with Melissa for tutorials & supplies
http://www.etsy.com/shop/MIDesign

Today we were being taught Soutache an old technique that has made a resurgence thanks to people such as Melissa.
Melissa modelling our desired outcome for the class
After another 3 hour session most of my Soutache pendant had been completed. Lucky for me that I had not booked a class in the late afternoon two hour slot before dinner and was able to sit in on the next Soutache class and finish up.

My finished Soutache pendant.
Well at this point I was quite exhausted but on cloud nine, so much to take in. I was really looking forward to dinner and a drink or two......Along with my newest friends and to hear about their creations and adventures for the day.

EVENING CLASS

Dinner over and it was time to get into the last class for the evening a nice relaxing class called Kumihimo braiding, run by the very vivacious and fun loving Maria Sfirse.
Maria was very generous with her supplies and time.
The class was a nice quick one and so relaxing, loved the result and such quick gratification. I made one long braided piece and divided it into three bracelets for my girls.



The evening had come to an end. Time to head back to our rooms and have a little fun and get to know more about some of my fellow creative spirits. Kat Gray, Tania Black, Lyndsay Abreu and Mandy Williamson

The Beading Retreat: Day 1

The day starts with double checking everything is packed!
Waiting for my traveling companion Sharon Harper of Purple Tiger creations
Sharon arrives and we are off to the airport. 
Arrive safely & dropped of by my hubby we go through check in and soon to be boarding the plane.
I must admit I am a not a great flyer, so I was a little nervous. Sharon was fabulous as was Karen Cooke our other travelling companion. During the flight Sharon kindly came to check up on me. I flew very well and enjoyed myself to the point where I was taking photos out the window of the plane.


We are meet by a glorious group of woman at the Airport with their cars ready to take all of us that have flown in from Vic & NSW to the Retreat. Now this for many of us is the first time we are meeting each other either IRL or ever.


The chauffeurs where the lovely Natalie, Sue & Debi.
Time for a group shot before we pile into cars and make our way to the retreat.

Arriving at the retreat... Hmmm looks a lot like camp LOL. Unload the cars & time to get settled in our cabins. After many changes of who is sleeping where I have the pleasure of rooming with Lyndsey, Sharon & Tania B.

Lyndsay is a proffcient seed beader who runs http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lyndsays/51813973700?fref=ts and sells her beautiful crafted items through her Etsy store http://www.etsy.com/shop/LynnAbreu.

Tania Black is a well established lampwork artist with her gorgeous items available to purchase through her store http://www.taniablack.com/
After we are all settled the evening holds dinner and a wonderful market night where we can all happily part with our cash. As well as showing off our challenge pieces, based around an image.

Teena's challenge piece using the colours from the  image

A group shot of challenge pieces
Second half of group shot











The market night consists of  tutors and students alike who either own a beading stores or make handcrafted components to sell to beaders.
Present on the evening with their wares were.

Mandy Williamson  of Mimi's Beading
http://www.facebook.com/MimisBeading?ref=ts&fref=ts


Natalie Fletcher Jones of Peruzi
http://www.facebook.com/Peruzi.net?fref=ts
http://www.peruzi.net/






This is myself with Mandy getting to know one another

Maria & Carina of The Bead Room
http://www.facebook.com/TheBeadRoom












I bought up big with Nat, ooohhh how could I resist.













A chance to meet the lovely ladies of The Bead Room.













Admiring the styling of Tania's lampwork skills



This is the work of Melissa an amazing artist to say the least, an opportunity to see close up her recently published and award winning designs

Melissa Ingrim of
http://www.facebook.com/SBJBeadwork?fref=ts
A thoroughly enjoyable first day meeting/greeting/buying and then a some drinks at the end to wind down.
Its off to bed as we are up early tomorrow to get a start on the day.

Monday 10 September 2012

A Beautiful day

Here I am sitting on my back deck soaking up the sun with the smell of Jasmine rich in the air.


































As my daughter 3 year old Erin insists I be outside with her today.
It's also really helping my headache which has crept up on me!













Rather than just sit here I thought I may as well bring some work out with me.
Grabbed some water, sanding pads and my latest polymer clay project.
A Dragon Egg pendant.


What a beautiful way to spend the day

Saturday 8 September 2012

A Dragon is Born

As part of my growing love for Polymer Clay I occasionally pluck up the courage to sculpt.
It is an extremely rewarding process that you find your self totally immersed within.
It is even more rewarding when the piece you have created finds a kindred spirit and is given a new home.
This is a brief over view of how Askook the Dragon was created.

First I chose a pendant to which the creature will live, I love a reasonably deep dish pendant not too large that the creature can rest in and fill a majority of the space.
I then go about conditioning my clay and creating a desirable creature colour, in this case it was a greyish green.
I then create a long snake with a fatter end and a thinner tail like end.




I create the head and then proceed to position him within the pendant.
I had decided prior to making Askook that he would need to be a protector of something and also it helps to fill the space and add and extra element of interest to the pendant.
I have used in this piece a Glass Cabochon called " Dragons Breath"






From here I begin to create features within the body & face to bring the piece to life and give Askook some personality. This takes on a life of its own and you never know what you will personality you will uncover until you begin.







Here you see I have chosen a crystal eye close to the colour of the stone he protecting















Here you can see I have added a horn like ear, a Glass Leaf to act as his wings and some hollow spots to hold the wing in position. I continue on in this manner adding more spots to give him much more of a reptilian style. 
I then created a mix of liquid clay and mica powder to which I poured in to all of the creavices to create a feeling of him being fossilised  This also helps the entire piece stay adhered to the pendant base.




Askook then under went the required baking procedure for Polymer clay. Once he was cooled i applied a new product called swellegant developed by Christie Friessen.
This gave Askook a much more life like feel.


Finished product above, living happily with his new owner.

Monday 14 May 2012

WHERE HAVE I BEEN?

It has been a long time since I have written anything on the BLOG!
Where have I been? What have I been up to?
Well I have been designing of course and getting caught up in the world of creating with polymer clay an addiction in itself.
I even attended a class with the world famous Christie Friessen.
An absolute hoot and a fun experience. 
I shall put up links to the place to where I took Christie class and of course to Christie's website.
Where you can find tutorials to down load and free tips and hints as well as SHOP!!!.

I attended he workshop with Christie through The Whimisical Bead up in Healesville, Victoria
Christie's site is 
THE VERY CHEEKY CHRISTIE


The other thing which I find so valuable and enjoyable is PINTEREST
I am totally hooked.
A fabulous place to present your work to the world as well as find inspiration

You can follow me on PINTEREST

I endeavour to no longer get distracted by things and be a slacker and to BLOG more often from this day forth

FOOTNOTE 23.06.2014
What a fib I was telling :-) I have been as slack as ever trying to be a better Blogger