Sue Beads

The ISGB (International Society of Glass Beadmakers) has a convention each year, called The Gathering.  I love the name - a gathering is the blob of glass you put on the mandrel before you spin your beads!  I have never had the chance to attend - I'm not sure if I could, given I feel intimidated as heck by all the glass talent out there!  But I've always wanted to.  This year, I stumbled upon the chance to do a bead swap with other members who aren't attending the gathering as well!  Sign me up! Here are the beads I received!  Patsy Monk  Janet Peterson  Cindi Brunell  Bertie Beattie  Tracey Alfaro  Rayren Hockett  Lynn Hahn  Natasha Lenaghan  Chris Haussler  Debi Dufrene And if you know me, you know I forgot to take a photo of the beads I sent, but they were a selection of beads like these! This was fun! I'm glad I got to do the exchange, hope I remember to sign up...

I had all kinds of high hopes to get some amulet bags done for this post, but I scheduled a trip away and there's just not enough time.  Cathy chose Amulet Bags as the theme and I know that all my teammates are going to have some amazing things to show. So here's mine.  It's a Native American pattern, not sewn up yet.  I had purchased a pattern and kit but as of the day I left for my trip, the beads and kit weren't even mailed so, so much for that.  Starting the loom with size 11 beads is extremely hard, at least for me.  I finally got it going.  The last row is also very hard...but I got it done (after about 10 times relooming the last row because of missing the warps). And here it is.  I will sew it up into a very small amulet bag, add fringe, and it will be an appropriate size to wear as a necklace.  I do like it, looming 11s is hard but satisfying.  Check out what everyone else made! Guests Samatha Wescott ...

Stars is the theme of the week - I just happen to have some stars!  I made these little mini cabochons a while ago for a component of the month - I really like them!!!!  The top star is from glass that looks like agate, and the bottom two are turquoise glass that fumes metallic!

Better late than never, right? I have such a hard time keeping up with EVERYTHING - however, I learned this cool collage technique on my Potomac retreat - more about that later when I steal everyone's photos - and made this.  The subject is JOY! Not a great photo, but you get the idea!

I had to miss last week, Spirals, because I just didn't have enough time.  But since I was chosen to pick the theme for this week, I made it!  The theme for this week was monochrome.  I had to check with art friends to make sure that just didn't mean black and white.  It doesn't! So my offering is this monochrome berry 2-drop peyote bracelet! Tune in next week, for a new theme!