March 30, 2013

The Joy of Learning

It's been a long time since I took a class, but the opportunity arose, and I jumped at it! For several years I've wanted to take a Bead Embroidery class with one of the Big Four names in the field, but that's a tall order. Then one day it showed up on Facebook: Sherry Serafini (!!) was coming to teach here in Portland!!  I went through the necessary hoops, and got myself into one of the classes.

And ohhhh, it was worth it!  Taking a class just stimulates that part of the brain that loves new things. And it gets the creative juices flowing.  Plus, I'm a person who needs to learn from a teacher; books and manuals don't do it for me.  So, although I have Sherry's book, and I completely understood the process in theory, my few previous attempts have been laughable at best.  But now, with the expert guiding me, and giving us lots of tips and hints along the way, I got into the rhythm of it, and now I feel much more capable of actually DOING this stuff!  As I race to finish the project from the class, my mind is already racing with possibilities for future projects.

I really need to take classes more often. I love this feeling. I love feeling so driven to finish the project, that I can barely tear myself away from it.  It's kind of like when I was a new beader, and everything was new and exciting, and full of potential.  Learning is joyful!

Here's the project as designed for the class (but in a different color palette than my kit).













I didn't want the face, so I substituted my own red cabochon, and created a different pendant shape.
Here's the start in class.




















After manic work on it, and with a few serious missteps along the way, the main beadwork is finished, the fabric trimmed, and the backing applied.



















Edging is done, now working on the fringe.  I realize I haven't done anything with fringe in a very long time!  This also brings me back to my early days of beading. Fond memories....


Final steps: create the bail, construct "crowns," and add crystal accents.
It feels SO good to finish a project!






1 comment:

Sparks of Spirit Glass said...

Awesome! I have some glass cabachons for you!
remind me!!!!!