Samples for a few of my kits. I am often asked by my non-bead obsessed friends what exactly does one "do" at a bead retreat. The obvious answer is of course...we bead. Imagine about 100 of your BFFs (Bead Fanatic Friends) meeting up for 3-4 days of beading. Toss in some chocolate and maybe a little wine and more beads. Stir in a heaping helping of laughter and you have the Texas Bead Retreat.
The Texas Bead Retreat is held annually in mid January in Temple, Texas. There are four class sessions beginning Friday night and wrapping up on Sunday. The teachers are volunteers and there is no charge for the classes. The TBR has always been about sharing our creativity and love of beads.
One of the highlights of Saturday night is the Texas Bead Retreat Challenge.
The Texas Bead Retreat is held annually in mid January in Temple, Texas. There are four class sessions beginning Friday night and wrapping up on Sunday. The teachers are volunteers and there is no charge for the classes. The TBR has always been about sharing our creativity and love of beads.
One of the highlights of Saturday night is the Texas Bead Retreat Challenge.
My Texas Bead Retreat 2014 Challenge Earrings All attendees are sent the same bead related items prior to the retreat and the challenge is to create something from it. Use of other beads is acceptable as long as the Challenge items are used and featured in the piece.
This year we were sent Czech SuperDuo beads in a lovely turquoise. SuperDuos are roughly 1/8 inch in length and have two holes. This opens up a lot of stringing and bead weaving possibilities. Never having worked with any of the two holed beads on the bead market, I was a bit stumped by what to do with them. I played around with them for a couple of weeks, trying different bead stitches and combinations. I finally settled on a peyote band of SuperDuos embellished with rosettes of SuperDuos accented with seed beads. Over halfway thru, I could see that the reality was not living up the picture in my head. I ripped it apart just two days before the start of Bead Retreat. Then it hit me and I knew exactly what I wanted to do.
The end result was a pair of dream catcher hoop earrings worked in a combination of brick and peyote stitch with a matching pendant. I used the last few SuperDuos in the packet as accents on the pendant chain. I did not place in the Challenge, but I won a new design that will become a new kit and tutorial. I plan to teach the earrings at my local bead store in a few weeks. The tutorial will be listed on my Etsy store at http://www.etsy.com/shop/whistlingwoman in mid March.
This year we were sent Czech SuperDuo beads in a lovely turquoise. SuperDuos are roughly 1/8 inch in length and have two holes. This opens up a lot of stringing and bead weaving possibilities. Never having worked with any of the two holed beads on the bead market, I was a bit stumped by what to do with them. I played around with them for a couple of weeks, trying different bead stitches and combinations. I finally settled on a peyote band of SuperDuos embellished with rosettes of SuperDuos accented with seed beads. Over halfway thru, I could see that the reality was not living up the picture in my head. I ripped it apart just two days before the start of Bead Retreat. Then it hit me and I knew exactly what I wanted to do.
The end result was a pair of dream catcher hoop earrings worked in a combination of brick and peyote stitch with a matching pendant. I used the last few SuperDuos in the packet as accents on the pendant chain. I did not place in the Challenge, but I won a new design that will become a new kit and tutorial. I plan to teach the earrings at my local bead store in a few weeks. The tutorial will be listed on my Etsy store at http://www.etsy.com/shop/whistlingwoman in mid March.
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