A whole month has gone by without any blog postings. How quickly the time passes. I managed to squeeze in some surgery in between the semesters and have recovered nicely. Couldn't disrupt the jewelry classes!! Here is a picture of the Winter Class and all but two ladies from that class are in the Spring Class along with some other returnees!
We finished the Winter Session of jewelry classes with the Lily of The Valley Necklace, which turned out lovely for all and the Ladies Choice class, with many different projects all being done at the same time. Usually that class has me running back and forth, but that week went pretty smoothly. We are now more than half way through the spring session. Nine of my "regular addicts" have returned for the spring session and we have picked up a new recruit, Alicia.The very first week, I was warning Alicia about this group, how we laugh, joke, and tease with each other, and how she would have to be able to hold her own. One lady mentioned to her that she was our new student this semester and when Alicia asked what had happened to the new student from last semester, I knew she would fit in just fine! By the end of the evening she was adding her own humor to the mix!
We have made three projects so far, with very minimal whining! I've been greatly surprised. We started off with a lovely copper bracelet in a right angle weave. Most of the bracelets were completed by the end of the class and the ladies moved into designing their own matching earrings. I had thrown one earring together just before class and got some friendly criticism that there was only one completed earring. We got about three different designs that evening for earrings and it was great that they were feeling comfortable enough to venture out into the design direction.
For our 2nd week, they got a bit of a break. We made a cute Hummingbird Bracelet and matching earrings but they got both projects done in a short period of time. The project isn't that difficult and they all left with a finished set. Many of them hung around after class for awhile just to visit and talk with each other.
Last week made up for the short week before. We made the Summer Hues necklace, pin, and earrings set and it went well over into the NCIS time space. Now, not only do I have to design or decide on a project, keep it at a reasonable cost, and make sure it doesn't take too long to complete, I also have to make sure that we are done in time so that they can get home and watch NCIS. There is "no pressure" in this class!! That's what I keep telling myself.I knew that this last project would take awhile to complete because of all the stringing involved and the small holes on the gemstone chips, so I actually brought a kit for me to work on in class. Usually I don't bother because I am usually back and forth answering questions or demonstrating techniques, but that night I got quite a bit of the way through another necklace in the same pattern but different colors. It was noticed by one of the ladies, who wanted to mark it on the calendar!
Most of the ladies were really focused on stringing the little chips onto the wire and it was pretty quiet on one end of the tables. The other end, however, was on the chatty side and where several of them are in the medical field, chose to share some of their "dead people" stores that they had encountered in their careers. It made for an interesting but unique conversation while beading! It was another first!
This week's project is the Tree of Life pendant and I think they are a little nervous. They thought it was very pretty, but were not sure if they could handle this new technique. They are going to give it a try on Tuesday and some have chosen different colors for the leaves. I'm anxious to see the variety of trees that will be created.
Stay Tuned!
