Winding Down B&B

It’s Saturday night and my week at Bead & Button is coming to a close.  This is the point where I really wish I could blink myself home magically.  It has been fun on so many levels, but I am ready to go home.  I miss my family and I am anxious to decompress and sift through all the different techniques I have learned.

Today’s class was Freeform Peyote with Jeanette Cook.  Another fantastic teacher and I really love this technique.  I can’t wait to do more with it.  It’s a perfect technique for me because I can switch colors and sections at will, and because it’s an excuse to use a great variety of seed beads.  I love that!

Miscellaneous thoughts/impressions from the week:

Classes - all my classes were wonderful and I felt privileged to be in the presence of so many talented and generous artists.  I did a lot of beading during our year of moving, but I hadn’t picked up beads since we’ve been back in Connecticut.  It feels great to be back beading again.  And I can’t wait to get home and start playing with resin.

Friends - it was wonderful to spend time with some of my far flung friends.  Diane, Evalie and Patti, thanks for making the week go by so quickly.  It was an unexpected delight to share beading time with some of my table mates in classes this week.  I laughed my way through nearly every class.

My art - I am so grateful that the two year hiatus from creativity is over, but more than I ever I realize that I need to take a hard look at what my goals are and what direction I want to head in.  I need to stop mourning the loss of two years and get on with my new creative growth.

Beads - The shopping was fun although I was much more restrained than usual.  I am itching to get back to seed beading.  The variety of artist’s beads this year was breathtaking and although I did manage to resist the lure of lampwork beads I did support a couple of the polymer clay artists.  I bought an amazing new Grant Diffendaffer bead and one of Barbara McGuire’s lovely beads as well.  I’ll try to post pictures next week.

All in all, it has been a wonderful week!