by Libby on June 25, 2008
I have no idea what started me thinking about this subject, but I thought I’d write about one of my favorite studio supplies today: trays. I’ve got 2 distinct favorites, cafeteria trays in full and half size and the half size square jeweler’s trays.
Put a piece of bead mat (or vellux blanket) on one of these trays and you’ve got the perfect portable beading station. When I am working on a project that requires a lot of different beads, such as a freeform peyote bracelet, I use a cafeteria tray as a work surface and one of the small jeweler’s trays to hold the extra tubes of beads. I love how portable the trays are, and how you can stack them out of the way even full of beads.
The small jeweler’s trays are perfect for coralling a collection of bits and bobs:
The cafeteria trays are handy for polymer clay too. I like to use them to hold sheets of clay when I go on a color mixing spree. I wrap a sheet of color in a plastic deli sheet and then toss that onto a tray.
I’ve got trays spread all around the studio. It’s a messy, but effective way to keep a color palette together. The smaller cafeteria trays are also a handy place to stage a selection of canes when I am working on a project.
by Libby on March 30, 2008
I had a delightful weekend. I was at a Sherry Serafini workshop at my local bead shop, Beads East. I took a workshop with Sherry last year at Bead & Button, and I jumped on the opportunity to take a class with her in my neighborhood. Apart from the class (which was wonderful) and the treat of hanging out in one of my favorite bead stores for a couple of days, it was wonderful to spend a couple of days with a group of interesting women who appreciate the lure of beads.
All the beading classes I have taken up to now were at the Bead & Button. It’s a great event, but the classes are generally really large and you sit in rows at long skinny tables, so it isn’t usually the most sociable of class settings. The class this weekend was a much friendlier format. It was serious fun for me to spend a couple of days playing with sparkly beads. The bracelet project we worked on uses a combination of 24 karat gold hex delicas, flashy cabochons and various crystals in blues and AB finishes, in other words, WAY outside my typical comfort zone. It was refreshing to work in a style totally different from my usual.
An added benefit of this weekend, was the opportunity to show a bead artist I truly admire, some of my current work and ask her opinion on approaches I could take with a really “out there” project I have in mind. It’s a complex piece with a lot of possibilities. I’m not even sure how I am going to construct it or what materials I will use, but it was fantastic to get Sherry and Ann Benson’s feedback on the overall design, and how I might use beading techniques to make it happen.
by Libby on March 15, 2008
Last weekend I taught a Cane Slice Caterpillar Bracelet class at the So. CT Polymer Clay Guild’s annual Weekend of Clay. It’s not a difficult project, just a bit time consuming. We were working primarily in black and white so it was a bit tricky seeing the black thread against the black beads. Everyone did a great job and there was a lot of variety, even though the seed beads we all used were the same.
Here are the 4 bracelets that were finished at the class:
Clockwise from the top left: Christy, Sue, Cynthia & Michelle Aren’t they great?!! I love the variety. Christy’s flowers are really fun (and a teensy bit dangerous).
Blog woes appear to be continuing. All the restored posts I entered yesterday ended up in my Google Reader, but the new post yesterday never showed up. The post number probably has it indexed some time in October or some such thing. And the thumbnail function on Wordpress appears to be gone too. grrr
I am off to a guild meeting later this morning which means I need to finish a couple of last minute things: earrings (I promised them to someone), photos etc. I wonder what will happen to this post?
