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.