Sunday 20 July 2014

VICTORIAN BEAD RETREAT

THE LAST TWO DAYS
Saturday 14.7.2014 & Sunday 14.7.2014

A bit weary this morning, up a little later than the past two days, as I had no classes to teach & was up late again having fun with the girls in my cabin. We had certainly gotten along so well & firmed up our friendships.

After breakfast today I was in class again with Natalie from Peruzi https://www.facebook.com/Peruzi.net .
We were going to be taking our dried clay creations & decorate them with glazes.This was a 3 hour class & you would think painting on glaze would be fast..... hmmmmm ,not so my friends not so! LOL. First we had to sponge clean up our items, then lightly cover them with our coloured glazes,letting the glaze dry in between, before finally coating them in a gloss glaze. The gloss glaze step was optional. The steps involved certainly makes you appreciate the time & work that goes into a ceramicists work & gets you hooked :-). I am saving for a kiln. YAHHHHHH!!!!!
BLISSFULLY GLAZING








Other brilliant classes taking place in the same time frame where, "Magatama Ring' taught by Coral from Bead Weaving,https://www.facebook.com/BeadWeaving these ladies are teaching machines LOL. Pictured below left,  "Paisley Peacock Earrings" run by Terri McDonald, pictured below right.
PAISLEY PEACOCK EARRINGS
MADE BY JANELLE
MAGATAMA RING
PHOTO JACINTA DONOVAN












Another "Introduction to Filigree' from Cheri Bate took place up in the leaders cabin, https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/GemsOfOz?ref=si_shop
We had "Beaded Crystal Ball" taught by Christina Armstrong,pictured below left, along with "Tips n Tricks with Translucent Clay" from Karen Cooke,pictured below centre & right.
BEADED CRYSTAL BALL
PHOTO LINDA HARRIS
TRANSLUCENT CLAY CLASS
PHOTO ALIDA






TRANSLUCENT CLAY CLASS
PHOTO ALIDA
and last but not least for the morning sessions Pauline with her "Next Step, Sculptural Glass Bead Making".

Lunch time rolled around & I was feeling pretty relaxed after glazing away with Nat. Enjoyed a slow lunch & getting revved up for the class I was booked in a for the afternoon. A 3D bead weaving class I was very excited to be doing this class with the very lovely Yvonne Ireland. Now the class was going along splendidly & was I managing to keep up & on track, but I sadly developed a bad head & the seed beads became enemy number 1 :-(.  I have all my bits n bobs back here at home with me ready for me to complete. Its such a divine project & I will finish it soon. But in the meantime here is one my friend Seona completed. Seona has her own Business page on FB also https://www.facebook.com/SeonaMargaretDesigns
3 D SEED BEADED COMPONENTS
In the afternoon a few of the classes where full day sessions so they continued on right through to the 4.30 time slot. Such as " Tips N ricks with Translucent Clay" We also had another session of glazing for Nat's students who had created earthenware pieces. Liz Reed was running her final session of  "Bezel Set Rings" & Pauline had an "Open Torch Session " for those more proficient lamp workers.
Chez was also running her final session for "Fluer De Lis Bracelet" pictured below. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Southernbeadz/113826615305495?ref_type=bookmark
FLUER DE LIS BRACELET
PHOTO NIKKI MCPHAN

With the final set of classes finishing up for the retreat at 4.30pm the realisation of the retreat coming to an end started to dawn upon me. I was sad but also happy. Happy to be going home to see my family ( hubby & 4 children) but so sad that I would be saying goodbye to some amazing women. Thankfully I can catch up with them on FB & have those friendships continue to strengthen. Until such times Ican hang with them all again.
With all this in mind, I set off for my last dinner at the retreat with my new friends.



After dinner all of the retreaters had the fabulous opportunity to purchases more goodies with another "Mini Market" taking place. This was just genius really as some of the tutors where selling kits to their classes that had been held. Perfect as I had seen many finished projects from these classes & set off to grab kits for my girls & I to complete at home. Not to mention of course all the supplies that one had to have LOL.

BELLA BEADS
MY MINI MARKET STASH














Once I was all Mini Marketed out, I sat for a while with the very generous & super clever Sharon Hutton for the Free Beading session, Sharon guided me through learning a twisted herring bone rope using two different sized seed beads,which gives a lot of twist & definition to the rope. It was getting late & I wasn't far off wanting to hit the sack. So myself & E.K got to clearing up the big conference hall,putting tables away & giving the whole place a once over with the vaccuum. Phewwww worked up a sweat....Was rewarded with a Jersey Caramel Vodka, now there's a drink that will knock ya socks off LOL.

Time to turn in, Back to the cabin, got myself sorted to pack up in the morning. Guess What???? My cabins mates & I where up again gas bagging till 3am.
Fell asleep finally ! Only to wake up at 5.30am to this face peering in at me from the darkness of our cabin door......I was stunned & befuddled all at once! Door shuts...I flew up out of bed ready to attack, like a Ninja. Only to discover it was just Chez, looking for her travel companions. Just got the wrong room....Talk about laugh. :-).
I did actually go back to sleep till around 8ish, got up showered rushed off to breakfast. Finished up there,packed the car did the rounds for about an hour of see ya's,hugs,kisses & goodbyes before heading off home.

So there you have it, five days of fun & creating that I would highly recommend to any of you who are keen to bead/create with like minded people.
The next retreat takes place in January in Canberra http://aussiebeadingretreats.com/
If you would like to be a part of the Aussie Bead Retreats please follow the links to the web pagehttp://aussiebeadingretreats.com/ & FB Page, https://www.facebook.com/AussieBeadingRetreats

All images & projects featured here in this Blog & on the Aussie Bead Retreats site are protected by IP laws of Australia. Photo's used have been done so with the permission of those who have taken the photo's.

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