Saturday, April 19, 2014

Fun with Beads in Chicago

I was invited to teach at Studio Beads in Chicago, and I'm not yet home, but it's been so much fun.

Donna and Jessica have one of the best beads stores (especially for a seed beader) that I've ever visited. The space is absolutely gorgeous, they have a wonderful selection of seed beads (in terms of sizes, colours and shapes), as well as a dazzling array of rivolis (yup, they make me weak at the knees too) and anything else a beader might need.

Jessica graciously put me up in her guest room, and while I couldn't bring my cats with me (and quite frankly wouldn't want to! They'd complain bitterly and hate me a bit) I wasn't cat-deprived as her cat adopted me.

The weather in Chicago has been lovely: bright sunny days with a slight nip in the air, perfect for walks and luckily the snow from earlier in the week (I'm told it snowed on Monday) has completely dissipated.

The students have been great, very easy - no prima donnas, no one hopelessly inexperienced for the level of skill required, and even those who hadn't for example done cubic right angle weave were well-rounded enough that they picked it up really well.

In truth I shouldn't act as though I were surprised as my less than ideal teaching experiences have been few and far between; I always meet interesting and talented multi-faceted people who ensure that I continue to do this.

Yesterday's class was bigger and more intense: there were more gotchas and more questions and less repetition; today's class was smaller and more straightforward and more repetition. Quite relaxing.

We all had a good time. People made really good progress on their projects.

I had a good time. I shopped...

While class enrollments weren't quite as high as we'd hoped (next time we'll get classes agreed upon earlier), Studio Beads at least didn't lose money on me, and I had a great time, met a bunch of entertaining, talented and all round fun people.

And a new cat friend.

 

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