Completed Sample

Each ellipse takes me almost an hour to complete and stitch to the previous one and as I was hurrying to complete my class proposals for the next trimester of classes at Lady Bug Beads because I was in a panic wondering if I'd be ready for Craft Camp, I didn't quite get to finishing this until last night - and then I ran out of grey seed beads so I added a couple of short lengths of chain to complete it.

Craft Camp

No really, that's what it's called, and that's pretty much what it is.

A bunch of people in rural Missouri learning (or teaching in my case) any one of a number of eclectic skills over a three-day period.

They stay at this somewhat rustic lodge with dormitories and enough spaces for half a dozen classes at any one time, and there's staff who cook three very substantial meals a day, with huge servings of dessert. I'm so over-sugared right now.

The weather was gorgeous, my students generally enthusiastic and pleasant and I think I made a few converts. To seed beading.

Last night was show and tell, and even though I didn't take any classes I'm all inspired to try a couple of things I saw.

Most especially I'm obsessing a little over these potato chip wrapper purses, I'm not quite sure why. I've seen them at museum stores and I love the idea of non-biodegradable things not ending up in a landfill, but I'm going to have to up my junk food quotient to amass enough of them to make anything bigger than a coin purse. Or else crowd-source them.

I don't quite get the thing with the tea-related china attached to the glass bricks, but there were people rather excited about it.

Someone taught two different kinds of chair caning, there were kaleidoscopes, soaps, stained glass clocks, rag rugs (a couple of different kinds), felting, appliqué, paper baskets, split ply braiding (I think I can spell it but I don't know exactly what it is), wine bottle wind chimes.

I think I'll go back next year (I think they'll let me go too). You should go too.

And once I've caught up on sleep I'll start working on my Bead & Button prep.

Adorbs

Let's just ignore the fact that I've not been keeping up, shall we? Working on the kitchen cut into everything and I've just been getting behinder and behinder.

I'm tickled with my latest little accident (sort of):

I had a small amount of triangle beads hanging around, and I needed a break from the sometimes less fun aspects of beading (packing kits for Craft Camp) and I thought it might be fun to use the same technique as in Pentamate but make a cube instead of a dodecahedron.

It looked scruffy so I added picots and all of a sudden it wasn't quite a cube anymore, but has all these points like a star.

It's small (perhaps three quarters of an inch soaking wet) and it has holes on each of the six faces and of course it's hollow and light and perfect for earrings and it's as cute as a new kitten.

Almost.