Bead Cruise 2016 Recap

On Monday, I arrived home after a week of fun on the 2016 bead cruise, hosted by Heather Powers.

Cruise ships in port in St. Maarten

This was my third time attending and this year my husband, Colin came along with me.  He also took all three of Heather Power's  polymer classes!

Coco Cay

Day 1 was boarding the ship and the welcome party at night.  Day 2 was our stop in Coco Cay in the Bahamas.  This was a nice, restful beach day.  I explored and found conch shells, sea urchins and lots of little fish.  

Tango by Beki Haley

Day 3 was our half-day classes.  I chose Tango by Beki Haley.  I struggled with right angle weave at first but Beki is a great teacher and got me on the right track.  I haven't finished the pendant yet but I'm pretty sure I will get this one done!  We also had part 1 of Heather's Van Gogh Sunflowers workshop in the afternoon (more on that below). 

St. Thomas

Day 4 was spent in St. Thomas.  Colin and I were originally going to spend the day at Coki Beach but we caught colds on the airplane and didn't feel up to it.  We decided to take a bus tour of the island instead.  We got to experience some fabulous views, go shopping and I still got to dip my feet in the turquoise water at Coki Beach.  

St. Maarten

Day 5 we docked in St. Maarten.  We walked towards town, found a small local art gallery and then shopped some more.  We lasted a couple hours before the heat got to us and we returned to the ship. After a shower, we spent several hours enjoying the view from the lounge on the ship.  Also, food. There was lots of eating involved...it's a cruise afterall!   

Van Gogh Sunflowers Class

Day 6 was the second part of Heather's Van Gogh Sunflowers class.   This class involved the most intricate polymer canework I've ever done.  It was a bit frustrating for me but it makes me appreciate Heather's work that much more.  You can see a few of the beads Colin and I created in the lower, left hand photo.

Tropical Bon Bon class

Day 7 was the final day and Colin and I signed up for an optional class.  I had so much fun in Heather's Tropical Bon Bon class!  I can see myself making more of these, including them as cabochons!  We had some free time after class and then went to the farewell party.  

Misc. scenes from the trip

On Sunday, we headed back to the hotel in Orlando and enjoyed the pool and some dinner with other cruisers who were flying home on Monday.  It was a nice way to end the trip.  

I just love everything about the bead cruise; the people, the workshops, the ports...  I highly recommend you give the bead cruise a try!  There are still a few spaces left for Bead Cruise 2017!  Click here for all the details and to register for the best bead vacation you will ever take!  You won't regret it!

A big thanks to Heather, all the instructors, sponsors and fellow beaders who made 2016 a wonderful experience!  I look forward to Bead Cruise 2017!

BeadFest 2015!

It's that time of year again when the AJE team swings into final preparations for BeadFest in Philadelphia... except that this year, it appears we've changed things up a little. I'm the only one teaching (for the first time) and Jenny Davies-Reazor is the only one vending. The others are just coming to play, which is a refreshing change (for them) from the annual craziness that usually accompanies BeadFest prep (you can read a bit about last year's preparations here, here, here and here).

Susan Kennedy's prep from last year

Or at least I hear it's a refreshing change. Because since this is my first time teaching at BeadFest Philly, I'm obsessing a little about making sure I'm completely ready.

My bullet journal overfloweth

The good news is that I'm excited about the workshops I'm teaching - they're fun and two of them are a really good fit for people who just want to get started with metals. While I was discussing all this with the other AJE team members, they thought it might be a good blog post so... here you go!

Friday, August 21 - Roll Printing and Keum Boo

I've written before about my love of roll printing and especially the patterns that are available from Rolling Mill Resource. Tracy was kind enough to help me put kits together for this workshop, which is going to incorporate roll printed designs with keum boo - one of my other favorite techniques.

The addition of 24k gold to sterling silver makes such a statement - and it's surprisingly simple, too. I'm looking forward to introducing folks to the process, which will really just scratch the surface of the possibilities it offers. It's a great workshop for people who want to get an introduction to some of the characteristics of sterling silver and two simple processes for embellishing it.

Saturday, August 22 - Welcome Home Jewelry

My friend Gail and I designed this jewelry set for our very first Roadhouse metals retreat last year - and if I'm being honest, it sort of kicked our butts! I've reworked the design a bit to make it a little less intimidating and now I think it's a fun project for either a confident beginner or someone with a little bit of soldering experience under their belts.

We'll also be making earrings to go with this pendant, so students will learn a cool method for creating embellished earwires and will also have the opportunity to set small stones in bezel cups. It's a good multi-technique project for anyone wanting to up their metals game.

Sunday, August 23 - Chain, Chain, Chain!

I adore this project - so simple and easy, and such an elegant result! We'll be introducing fusing principles with an easy pair of earrings, just to get everyone started, but the star of the show will be this embellished loop-in-loop chain bracelet.

I've heard this called by all sorts of other names, but I just call it embellished loop-in-loop - and since I'm a sucker for handmade chain, I make this one a lot because of its ease of construction and elegant profile. And the little balls... well, you all know I love balls. This is a perfect project for someone with absolutely no experience, and students will leave with two finished projects!

So are you planning to come to BeadFest this year? If so, I'd love to meet you and say hi - and since there are still spots open in these workshops, we could even have a little playdate if you'd like! Don't forget to stop by Jenny's booth and ogle all her gorgeous work - I'm sure she can even arrange for you to take some of it home with you as your very own.

Hope to see you in Philly! Until next time....

Glass Craft Expo!

One of my goals for 2015 was to expand my teaching venues beyond Roadhouse Arts - and I was a little nervous about it, because there are some seriously awesome teachers out there. (You know that little voice in your head that wonders how you measure up? Yeah. Me too.) After a lot of back and forth, my friend and business partner Gail Stouffer finally suggested that I send applications in to Glass Craft Expo, and come up with some projects that would introduce metalwork to a very glass-oriented audience.

So I did.

And all four classes were accepted.

source

(Yes, I was a little excited.)

I had never sent teaching applications out because I was intimidated by what I thought the process was going to be, but it turns out to have been a lot easier than I expected. I spent some time imagining what metalworking techniques might be of interest to someone who loves glass, based on some of the things I learned in the first year I worked with glass. Putting myself in the shoes of prospective students is one of the things I do regularly when I'm developing my regular projects and classes, so this didn't feel particularly alien to me - but I also asked glass artists I know (especially my friend Gail Stouffer!) what they would want to know if they were just starting out with metals. Then I wrote up the descriptions, put together the sample projects and snapped some photos.

Classic Glass: Bezel Setting Cabochons

Bezel setting is one of those things beginning metalsmiths generally find very intimidating - I was one of them. There is very little that I find more rewarding that watching someone in that mental place achieve success with this technique - and all with a culinary torch, even with larger pieces.

Sticks and Stones: Prong Setting

Making organic prong settings for flat-backed cabochons is easier than it looks, and the results can be quite dramatic. It can also be done with a simple culinary torch, which makes it a terrific technique for the "kitchen table" jewelry maker.

Cuff 'Em: Copper Cuff with Glass Cabochon

This is a simple, uncomplicated cuff that combines some very useful techniques for people just starting out with metal: annealing and forging copper, drilling holes in glass cabochons, texturing and cutting metal, and creating and setting rivets out of copper wire.

Hang 'Em High: Pinch Bails

I love this one! Some simple texturing and basic soldering techniques yields a unique, customized bail that can be added to any cabochon or pendant with a front-to-back hole.

* * * * *

I am so excited - and a little nervous! - about teaching at such a huge venue. I am sure I'll have some tips and lessons learned after I've actually done the teaching part, but for now I'm working on making all the glass cabochons I'm going to need. And if you're going to be in Las Vegas next April, I'd love to see you - make sure you stop in and tell me you're part of the AJE community!

Until next time -

Teaching: A Few Questions

When I first started making jewelry eight years ago (wow - time flies!), teaching was the furthest thing from my mind. I spent my entire professional career in administrative work - secretarial, office manager, small business management - and although I'd done some training in the course of all that, it wasn't a big part of my personal or professional history.

So I'm more than a little surprised by how much I've loved teaching. I wrote about some of why I love it a while ago on my own blog, and it's undeniably been a huge part of my own personal and artistic growth over the last several years. But when someone asked me a couple of days ago what made a good teacher, I thought I'd rock the boat a little by sharing a few of the harder lessons I've learned from teaching over the last three years.

• Why do you want to teach? Your motives as a teacher are going to inform everything you do in the classroom, whether it's conscious or not. Teaching is certainly about making an income, and there's nothing wrong with that. But do you love helping other people get better at what you do or does that idea - that your students may outstrip your own ability - make you feel defensive?

Soldering students at Roadhouse Arts

• How well do you know your stuff? One of the biggest challenges of teaching is troubleshooting problems on the fly for students. I promise you that in almost every class, there is going to be one student who goes "off the reservation" and will insist (sometimes passively, sometimes overtly) on doing things his or her way. Are your technical skills up to the challenge of getting a student out of a jam or engineering a creative solution to a problem - even when it's of their own making? There is nothing more painful and embarrassing than to find yourself - as the instructor - staring down at a failed student project and have nothing to offer in the way of solutions. At a minimum, can you help a student understand where they went wrong, just by looking at their work?

I loved this student's focus and commitment!

• Do you love the medium you're teaching? I'm going to tell you the truth: teaching is hard. There's a lot of prep work and planning involved, and not one single class is going to go exactly the way you planned it. Why? Because there is a factor every single class has in common, and you have no control over it: students. They are unique, individual, and - sometimes - really, really challenging to deal with. If you don't absolutely love what you're teaching, it's going to turn into a grind.

I love teaching metal techniques - and etching is among my favorites!

• How well do you handle failure/rejection? This is a tough one. As much as I'd like to tell you that every teaching experience is full of golden light and positive outcomes, the truth is that it's sometimes... the opposite of that. (I taught a class not too long ago that - at the end of it - had me questioning why I ever thought teaching was a good idea. My sweet husband had to ply me with wine and talk me in off the proverbial ledge - it was bad.) Here's another truth: your classes are going to wind up becoming as much about you as about the techniques and projects you're sharing. Not everyone is going to take to you or your style, no matter how tight and snapped in your technique may be. How well will you be able to manage that dynamic? Because teaching is never as easy as making your favorite project in front of a group of people who are hanging on your every word.

Student work from a recent fold-forming class. I confess that these cuffs made me feel a little envious and a little inadequate - they were much more beautiful than the demo piece I made that day!

• Do you have something new to offer? Let's face it: for whatever reason, there are lots of people out there who think this "jewelry thing" is a no-brainer, and teaching it (whatever "it" may be) is even easier than that. The result is that there are a lot of teachers out there, some really good and some really (really) bad, and many of them are teaching essentially the same stuff. What sets you apart? How are you different? Where and how are you able to leave a mark?

There are wonderful teachers out there, and I am grateful to have encountered some of them. Good teachers are life changing - but unfortunately, so are bad ones. A few years ago, I was very close to just giving up on jewelry altogether, and it turned out to be mostly because I just didn't know any better. So if you're planning to include teaching as part of your creative life, purpose to be a really good one. Plan for it, do your homework... and then give yourself away. In so doing, you may just find yourself. I did.

Until next time -