VICTORIAN BEAD RETREAT

DAY 3:Friday 11.07.2014

Another early start today & Ohhhhh I have quite the sore throat this morning from all that Karaoke LOL :-). Lucky for me I was feed lots of lozenges by my fellow campers throughout the day. A sharing caring bunch of women. I was back to normal by end of day. No more raspy sexy voice ....

I followed the same routine as the day before, up at 6.45am shower, off to the conference room to set up the work stations & off to breakfast.....The breakfasts at Camp Manyung where just yummy.

Today's class had 8 students so a full session. Again I was blessed with wonderfully talented ladies from all walks who really took to the class with great gusto, as had the ladies done prior to them.
Below is some shots from my students of there completed works & their during class shots.

WORKSHOP PIECES
FROM SEONA

COMPLETED PIECES
BY BRENDA

DURING CLASS SHOT

Again during the same time frame other classes where also being conducted, we had another day full of variety & something suitable for all skill sets.

Liz Reed was instructing her second Fold Forming Class,this was by popular request. We also had Natalie teaching a beginners class 'Working with Earthenware Clay Basic'

Sharon Hutton (teacher extraodinaire ) was today teaching a '4 Strand Chunky Crochet Necklace" which one of her students sent me a shot of completed, below left. Also being taught was Cellini Spiral taught by Coral of 

https://www.facebook.com/BeadWeaving see photo pictured right.

CELLINI SPIRAL IN PROGRESS
PHOTO FROM CHRISTINA ARMSTRONG

CROCHETED ROPE NECKLACE
PHOTO FROM KAT GRAY

A relatively quiet morning all in all, I think we were all a bit tuckered our from all the fun of the party the night before. Nothing a great lunch wont fix :-) The lunches were just yummy as the breakfast, lovely & healthy too!

After lunch it was time for the afternoon sessions. Now of course not everyone books into a class in every session. Some folks liked to relax back in their cabins, whilst others took walks on the beach, drives into the closest town or simply sat and created in the general beading area.
But for those who wished to partake a smorgasbord of classes were on offer starting with an,
"Introduction to Filigree' with Cheri Bate,pictured below left. Cheri has an online Etsy store https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/GemsOfOz?ref=si_shop
'Cubic Right Angle Weave with Coral from https://www.facebook.com/BeadWeaving pictured below right.

CRAW IN ACTION WITH SUE & CORAL
WITH DEBI GOODWIN MODELLING
PHOTO JANELLE GRIMSHAW

INTRODUCTION TO FILIGREE
COMPLETED EARRINGS
PHOTO SEONA MCDONALD

 








We also had Chez Mathieson teaching 'Fluer DeLis Bracelet' https://www.facebook.com/pages/Southernbeadz/113826615305495?ref_type=bookmark will pop up a picture when once becomes available. Cheryl McLeod from Bead weaving was back again this time teaching 'Beaded Kumihimo Necklace" pictured below left, Val Spencer-Sun was also back on board this time teaching 'Oriental Lace Earrings' using chainmaille techniques,  pictured below right.

ANGIE FROM CHICKY BABE BEADS
MID WAY THROUGH KUMI CLASS

IN CLASS SHOT WITH NIKKI & SEONA
WITH NIKKI'S FINISHED PAIR & A CLOSE
UP OF ONE OF SEONA'S EARRINGS

Liz Reed was conducting her second class on 'Bezel Set Rings" with some outstanding pieces being produced. Pictured below

RINGS STARTING TOP LEFT & WORKING CLOCKWISE
JENNY HANSON, DI SHELDRICK, KAREN COOKE & DEBBI VAN LEEUWEN

Pauline Delaney's class had now moved to 'Intermediate Glass Making" https://www.facebook.com/PaulineDelaneyLampworkGlassBeads a wonderful transition & flow of classes from Pauline catering for all levels. Ladies busy creating pictured below.

INTERMEDIATE LAMP WORKING
PICTURE PAULINE DELANEY

Sharon Hutton was back again in the afternoon with another spectacular class "Free form Twisted Wire Necklace' I unfortunately do not have a photo of Janeen's piece but trust me I was blown away.

As you can see it was another jammed packed afternoon with loads of choice. With classes finishing again at 4.30pm we got out 1 1/2 hour downtime. I liked to use this time to go freshen up in preparation for dinner at 6pm as well as catch up with my roomies.

Now as if that wasn't enough to tickle your fancy you could have after dinner, registered for Debi Goodwin's class "Soy candles & Natural Body lotions"as pictured below.

LOADS OF LUSCIOUS GOODIES
PHOTOS ALIDA MACGREGOR

Now for me it was off to finishing class for my Resin pieces to learn how we de-mould successfully and do our fine finishing. Pictured below, still quite a bit of work to do on them.

Once I was all informed & up to scratch with my resin bits, I toddled off with new my buddy EK to sit in & watch some late night finishing up on projects with Liz Reed. 

A few relaxing beverages & off to bed I went......WOW by this time I was truly knackered.

The next retreat takes place in January in Canberra http://aussiebeadingretreats.com/
If you would like to be a part of the Aussie Bead Retreats please follow the links to the web pagehttp://aussiebeadingretreats.com/ & FB Page, https://www.facebook.com/AussieBeadingRetreats

All images & projects featured here in this Blog & on the Aussie Bead Retreats site are protected by IP laws of Australia. Photo's used have been done so with the permission of those who have taken the photo's.

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

http://www.facebook.com/purpletigercreations

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.

Sue Connors runs http://www.facebook.com/pages/SueNique-Designs/357352558207?fref=ts

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.

Tania black of
http://www.taniablack.com/

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.

Lampwork Beads

Lampwork Beads...... What can I say I absolutely LOVE THEM. It's only been a recent love affair starting with a friend who took me a bead show here in Melbourne and I meet some Lampworkers who had the most amazing beads and they were cheap, but definatley not nasty ;')

Then I noticed a fellow designer across the water in Alaska, her name is JO CONWAY designing almost everything with Lampwork. I was hooked.....Here designs have and always will blow me away, her FB link is below.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Borealis-Glitter/106182446078229
Jo has recently embarked on the journey of making her own Lampwork beads and let me say she is a quick learner and making some great beads already. If and when they are for sale... who knows? We can only hope she sells them ;').

I have lampworking on my list of things to learn. I have done Polymer clay and Silversmithing this year, both of which I use in my work and am honing my skills on the them regularly.

I tend to use a Lampwork beads in earrings the most, reason being its adds interest and I find earrings so difficult to design.
I was thinking about that other day and I would honestly have to say earrings are the most challenging as the size that sells tends to be small and that leaves a minimal range of designs. In saying that, though I must be on the right track most of the time as Earrings would be my number one sellers, followed by Necklaces, Rings and then Bracelets.

When it comes to buying Lampwork, I do like a bargain and can spend hours scouring Etsy( my second home) for bargains. Here are some of my favourite Lampworks online through Etsy.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/mandrel2?ref=pr_shop_more
http://www.etsy.com/shop/MadeByFire
http://www.etsy.com/shop/firebabies

These people I have bought from and regularly they are all o/s but there are some awesome Aussie ones too.

http://www.bellissimojewels.com.au/
http://www.jawjee.com/
http://www.beadywendy.com.au/

So if you have an oppurtunity to have a look at these talented people, I am sure you won't be dissappointed, let them know Teena sent you ;')

Happy creating