Wednesday, February 27, 2013

MID-ATLANTIC WORKSHOP REPORT

Saturday was the final day of workshops for most of us instructors.  The evening concluded with 'Show and Tell".....where every teacher declared 'they had THE BEST students.  Oh no....they were so wrong.... I definitely had the best, most cooperative students.

Learning beading techniques in my workshops is fairly straight forward.  My hands are under a camera....projected to a large screen which allows students a close up view of the needle/thread/bead path.  The steps of each technique are broken down & thoroughly explained.....and they can be repeated as needed.

The only issue that sometimes slows down a student is vision!  Cheater glasses and a good bright light are a beader's best friend....  I'm guessing sales of eyeglasses will go up in the next few days.

My final day workshop's focus was the peyote stitch.


 "Agate" 7.5" x 5.5" by Mary Stori 2013
The focal point of this tiny resist dyed felted quilt is an agate...attached using Delica beads and the peyote stitch.
 Here's a round agate attached in a similar manner and further embellished with bead loops on the outside edge.  Click on photo for a larger image.
We began the day by learning the basics of the stitch by attaching flat mirrors and then embellishing them.
 After getting comfortable with the stitching pattern, students attached an agate and had fun embellishing it as well.
 These are all worked on Woolfelt (tm) which had been stabilized to reduce distortion.
 Aren't these great??
 Hummm.....some gals got a bit silly by late in the day....
 I'll bet you want to reach out and touch this....come on....I know you do.....
The simple addition of some 'branched fringe' (a technique found in several of my beading books) helps elevates the beauty of the agate.  I'm just sorry I didn't get a shot of every student's work.  

Girls you made me proud........and I know you all surprised yourselves too. Beading on fiber can be so impressive but not as difficult as it looks....... as you now know.  Thanks to all my students for playing with me for 3 days.

4 comments:

Robbie said...

How lucky your class was! And a compliment to you for the great work they did!!! A good class is the result of a good teacher!!

Nina Marie said...

wow - what a great class! looks like everyone had fun!

Judy Ferguson said...

I have been doing some of these same things. It really is time consuming, but so worth it. Beautiful work.

Anonymous said...

Someday I'm going to be in the right place so I can take one of your classes! It looks like you and all concerned had a fine time.

Come see me at "Off the Wall Friday!" too. I've just been painting mostly, but am almost ready to being thread painting and quilting my hibiscus quilt.