Bead retreat + Beach retreat = Bliss

Dunes at Dewey

Beads and the beach? Beach combing? Hanging out with friends old and new? Stitching and shopping? Sign me up! 

And so it happened that three of us ( Diana, Jenny and Sue) arrived at Dewey Beach DE for the final Bead My Love retreat of 2015. I had attended last year (my post is here) and loved it! The beach off season is gorgeous, spacious and just as stunning than in summer time. Sue greeted Diana and I with the picture (above) while we were still on the road. 

Meg and Moggie host multiple retreats during the year, spring and fall/ weekend or weekday. Included in the registration are some meals, a few perks, instruction, an outstanding project kit... Camaraderie, friendships, relaxation - all free with the package. ( Bead My Love site for details) The retreat welcomes all levels of seed bead experience, and everyone is bound to learn and be inspired! 

My view across the table! Love it! 

Sue at work - and the progression of her piece from kit to halfway completed. 

Susan: I loved taking this workshop because, first, I got to hang out with Jenny and Diana and I don’t have any beady friends here in Pittsburgh. I loved this workshop second because I never have time where I can just sit, spread out all the beads, and be creative. This gave me uninterrupted time (except for talking with beady people) to just create, and not worry about what’s the plan for dinner or having to be anywhere! Meg does a great job teaching and is available for questions and demos the entire workshop. It was a lot of fun and I would definitely do it again!

Diana's kit, learning peyote, and the progress steps in her fab scarab piece. 

Diana: The Bead My Love bead retreat was wonderful! One of the great things about this retreat is the relaxing, pressure-free environment in which you get to create. There was no set project so you picked a kit and created your design from start to finish using your imagination (and massive supply stash). Everyone was friendly and encouraging and it was fun watching their projects take shape. The best part of this retreat though (besides finally learning peyote bezel), was getting to spend time with my friends just beading and beach combing. I hope to take another Bead My Love bead retreat in 2016!

Jenny's workspace goes from organized to jumbled as a few different projects take shape. 

Jenny: What can I say that they haven't already said? I do quite a bit of bead embroidery these days and I relish the retreat as a place to play, to learn, to experiment, and to relax. It was great fun to have a beady sleep over at the family beach house! I feel energized and tired, with new ideas percolating. 

There were beach walks and beach combing. 

The off season rates/ retreat pricing are quite reasonable, but we three stayed at my MIL's beach house. Pretty nice, huh? We took advantage of the beach whenever we could! And we were gifted with great weather!

Diana's found treasures, Jenny's impromptu found bead dish, Sue's finished piece!, Jenny planning yet another one... 

 Dinner out in Rehoboth Beach, DE - great seafood! Great fun! Then the next day? More beading, its a win-win situation.

Dinner? Seafood? yes! 

 I knew many of the attendees from last year's retreat. Lovely to see new friends again and what they are up to... Simply walking around the room and viewing other's WIP was inspirational. Everyone is ready to share a technique, offer ideas, and discuss.

We loved seeing our friends and colleagues cabs! Can you spot a Lisa Peters cab? A Staci Smith polymer pair? And a Celtic cab by yours truly.

Diana, Jenny, Meg our hostess, and Sue. 

And now we are all home. Unpacking our loot, finishing our pieces and starting anew. I mss them already! Until next year... bead all the things!

Goodbye ocean... until next year. 

Beads at the beach: a bead retreat

Two weeks ago I headed to the beach. Rehoboth Beach, Delaware to be exact. We were having the coldest temperatures of the year to date - It was like 16 degrees F in the morning! But I was headed to a wonderful three day retreat,  doing bead embroidery.  What did I care about the weather?

I took about 10 minutes on the beach one morning. Until my ears froze. Had the place all to myself - heaven!

Many of you might know Meg and Moggie of BEAD My Love. They are regulars of the bead show circuit, from Beadfest to Tucson. Their company sells everything a seed beader could need: Ultra suede, stiff stuff, needles, cabs... and beads! (And so much more!) This charming and talented mother/daughter duo also host retreats.

I signed up after Beadfest August, if I remember correctly. Their retreats happen a few times a year, and fill up fast. The November retreat I attended was Tuesday - Thursday; perfect for my teaching schedule. I have been doing bead embroidery for approximately a year - and was ready to challenge myself, learn new stitches, go bigger?

Starting out: my kit, some beads from home... my orderly Virgo approved workspace. 

We arrived at 4 pm - a very welcoming group who adopted me and made me feel right at home. Many attendees were there for a second, or third time! Upon arrival we selected our kit for the weekend. Returnees arrived early and lined up at the door to get first pick! Meg makes up stellar kits with everything you need start to finish - in such fabulous color palettes! My kit included: 2 agate cabs, a face cab from Melanie/Earthenwood Studio, needles, thread, and beads ranging from 15s/11s/hex/drops... (More beads than I used up - I am excited to continue to design with the palette I chose. )

Once settled, and introduced around the room - we opened up kits and started to dream up designs. The room is set up to shop - I quickly decided the ammonite  (above) HAD to go with one of the agates... And we started beading. And chatting. And shopping. Designing, discussing, sharing. Meg and Moggie gave one on one instruction to any and all; beginners were started of with the basics of peyote stitch for a bezel. More advanced students planned larger, layered pieces, and composite pieces made from components beaded and joined together.

My neighbor Diane working on her piece with a Marsha Neal Studio button. A gorgeous palette of sages and copper; finished piece on the right. 

A forest of Ott lights: the room seen from the far corner. Thats my empty chair at top right... 

It was exciting to see things from the other side of the table... as a beader, not as a ceramic artist. BEAD My Love has carried my cabs for a few years. ( I'm still honored, and excited by that...) Watching people select their kits - Lisa Peters cabs, Earthenwood Studio , Marsha Neal, and my own "Mythic Nature" cabs... knowing these artists, their clay, their glazes... It was great fun, and inspirational to see the women at the retreat work their own creative magic with the ceramic cabochons. It presented my own work to me in a new light, and for that I am grateful.

My fellow attendees work in progress. Yes - thats my lunar raven in purple! 

Still orderly... All the bags on the left were my "kit". Tubes and labeled bags in the center were my additional beads. 

The three day weekend (I know it was during the week! It FELT like a weekend) was phenomenal. I would highly recommend a BEAD My Love retreat to anyone that is into bead embroidery - or wants to learn. There were break out groups throughout the 'weekend' to demo brick stitch, soutache embroidery... We worked all day and socialized over lunch/dinner. We came away with new friends, and new skills.  The structure was relaxed and informal. The people I met were interesting, creative, and funny! with diverse careers, interests and experience. I left the 'weekend' sad that it was ending/invigorated with new ideas/inspired to try new things/and happy tired. 

From my weekend: two completed pieces and one work in progress. The WIP piece is an enameled focal from Anne of Gardanne Beads. 

There is even a newly created Facebook group for BML retreat alumni to keep in touch and share pictures of new creations. All in all a fab weekend. When can I go again?

For now - you know I am bead embroidering Holiday gifts... off to the studio!
Jenny

Goodbye Rehoboth! Until next time... 

The retreat included your project kit, and additional supplies, one dinner, 2 lunches. Snacks and beverages were also provided. Lodging was not included. 

I received no loot, favors or free stuff from BEAD My Love in exchange for this review. 

Bricks and Mortar

As most of you know, I've been somewhat preoccupied with the launch of a new business venture. In fact, I am aware that I still owe everyone a followup to my hammer post to discuss the results of my experiments with hammer dressing, but the truth is that shortly after that post went up, the bulk of my studio went into boxes in preparation for the move to the new space.

One of the many piles of studio stuff waiting to make the trip.

So I haven't had a lot of creative time lately - it's been 16 hour days of one business related thing after another and I was really stuck about what to write for this post. I put the word out to my AJE peeps and asked them for suggestions - what could I share that they would like to know more about? The response: tell us what's gone into opening a bricks and mortar place.

Now THAT I can do.

1. Why open a studio/gallery in the first place? 

Great question. And there are a couple of answers. First, I love teaching - I didn't expect to, but I really do. Having a comfortable, well-equipped place where students can come to learn was a big motivator. I've been really fortunate to be part of the teaching team at Wired Designs for the last year, but it's been a lot of work for my friend and mentor Gail Stouffer for going on 12 years now. Frankly, the administrative burden of running a retail enterprise was wearing on her and taking a lot of the joy out of the teaching and creating she was able to do. And for a lot of the last year, I've been doing what I can to help - but it's still work that takes you away from the creative things you'd rather be doing. No matter how much stock you have, there will always be some tool or material or supply someone is looking for that won't be on your shelf, and you will always have to calculate the balance between having what people need and tying up too much of your capital in your inventory. Blech. So we're cutting out the stuff we don't like so much in favor of freeing up time and overhead for the stuff we do, which is teaching, creating, and working with other artists.

Torch-fired enameling class in progress

Second, I do much better with my schedule when I have somewhere to get up and go to. The whole idea of working at home is very appealing, but truthfully, at home I get distracted by phone calls, laundry, Facebook, the dog, errands, the possibility of a nap, etc. If I have to get up in the morning and go somewhere to work, I'm much more likely to get things done.

Finally, there is really no substitute for creative collaboration. At home, it's just me. At a studio, there are like-minded folks who work in disparate disciplines and whose energy sparks my own.

2. Why partners? Isn't that just asking for trouble?

That's a decision you should never enter into lightly, for sure. As I said above, creative collaboration is a huge draw for me personally. There's also the added benefit of pooling resources - and not just financial. My partners have tools and expertise that I don't, and vice versa. We're able to stock a vastly expanded studio because we're all putting our tools and equipment into it - much less expensive (and therefore less limiting) than if I was opening a studio and had to do all that on my own. And honestly, I am grateful for access to alternative perspectives and insight from passionate people who are equally invested in the same outcome.

So if you are thoughtful about choosing your partners and establishing the ground rules ahead of time, you stand to gain a great deal and have a much better chance of it being a successful partnership in the long run. Below are some things I strongly encourage you to consider if you're going to be working with partners.

• Make sure your strengths are complimentary. My partners and I are all radically different people with varied artistic perspectives, and we bring diverse strengths and abilities to the table. Gail is a vision caster and business wonk, I'm a social, financial and administrative "doer", and Lisa is a planner and organizer. It's unlikely we'll step on one another's toes by exercising our respective interests and gifts.

A peek into what will be the teaching workspace, and where we will have room to work together.

• Commit to keeping business business-like. We're friends, and that's great, but business is business. We have meetings, we take minutes, and we make to-do lists for ourselves and one another. We are really clear on what area each of us is primarily responsible for, and we generally don't make big decisions independently of one another. We've also made an explicit commitment to one another to put relationship first - our respect and affection for one another means that even if we disagree, we are obligated to see one another as people and friends first, and business partners second.

• Make a business plan. And then stick to it. I know that sounds like the most boring thing ever, but being in agreement with one another before you ever spend the first dollar is vital to making sure you stay on track. The things you're working on today should mostly be the things you discussed and planned for six months ago. We met every week for most of the summer and made up a written business plan to guide today's work, projects and decisions. Once we get the doors open and have caught our breath, we'll start meeting again to review and update it - we know a lot more now about what's realistic and important to us than we did when we started this journey six months ago.

The cover of our actual business plan

3. How do you pick a location?

Start by thinking about what the space needs to do and be for you. In our case, we really wanted to have a gallery space, not just where we could sell our own work but where we could offer space to other regional artists. We also wanted a place that was able to support all the various activities each of us is engaged in creatively - teaching, making, experimenting, photographing our work, and doing all the administrative stuff that goes along with running a business. We all wanted someplace close to home (since Lisa and Gail both live in the same general area, they won on this one, but it's an area that Nick and I love and would consider moving to) and we wanted it to be in some kind of artsy, unusual space instead of a strip mall. We wound up renting part of a 100 year old building that used to be a German ninepin bowling alley back in the day - a single long room (almost 1800 square feet!) with wood floors and funky windows. It winds up being large enough that we have room for a modest gallery, plenty of teaching space, and roomy individual workspaces. 

The outside, before we signed the lease - our door is behind the handicapped sign.

Most recently, it was an antique store - the ship's wheel and the furniture were not part of the lease!

Next, consider the cost. In our case, we wanted to be sure we didn't become obligated to sell, sell, sell in order to cover our monthly "nut" because that just puts us back in the cycle of having to worry more about retail than teaching and creating. We were able to lease this space for a reasonable amount both because of its age and because it had been vacant for a while. And we're located in the same building as a very popular four star restaurant, which means we can gear our gallery hours to their open hours to capture the best foot traffic and spend the rest of the time using the space for teaching and creating.

Maybe most importantly, make sure it's a place you're going to enjoy spending a lot of time in. Any business launch, whether it's a bricks and mortar place or an online shop, is going to require many, many hours of focused commitment. They'll be harder to put in if you can't stand the space where you have to spend your time. So if opening a physical studio or shop is something you are seriously considering, hold out for one that is really right for you - it's out there, and you will really regret it if you settle for something you don't love. For us, we were very drawn to the idea of being "local" - and we're in an interesting old Texas community, with terrific neighboring businesses (a restaurant, a bakery, a co-op art gallery, a small general store/gas station and a wine bar), and a few "pets" already on site!

These guys escaped from up the road and stopped by to say hello!

Sadly, this fine fellow hasn't been seen for about a week. I suspect fowl play. (Har har.) There are other chickens, but he was pretty spectacular.

And a last tip from me: EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED.

When we signed the lease and started planning the creative space we were going to be working in, this was not the vision we had dancing in our heads.

This electrical panel has consumed every bit of energy I have for the last two weeks.

I now know more about electrical panels, amperage, breakers, load capacity, and wire gauge (not the fun kind) than I ever wanted to know. (More on all that another time.) Just know going into it that all the planning in the world isn't going to stop Murphy's Law from entering into the picture, especially when you're setting up shop in a 100 year old building. There are just some things you will not have control over, and there's not much you can do about it. Build some buffer into your budget and your timeline, and tell yourself and your partners ahead of time that you're going to roll with the punches when the time comes. Then do it.

* * * * * * * * * *

Lest you think it's been all work and no play, we have been doing a lot of planning that involves some pretty exciting classes and instructors. Among other things coming down the pike is a week-long retreat in the Texas Hill Country with guest instructor Jessica Jordan, and we have more announcements coming! I will say that getting to seek out the artists we want to work with and design the classes we want to teach has been very exciting. And the retreat is the culmination of almost of a year of dreaming out loud about what we would want in a retreat if we could make it anything we wanted - we can't wait to see how it all comes together.

I will be writing more about all this here and on my own blog over the next couple of months - you'll probably be sick of hearing about it by then! In the meantime, I'm eager to get my new studio space set up and get back to work. Not exactly the most traditional way to spend the holidays, but as tiring as it's been, I'm enjoying the heck out of it.

So have I scared you? Does opening a bricks and mortar studio seem more or less appealing to you?

Until next time -

Coming full circle...

Last weekend I had the pleasure to attend the ArtBLISS retreat for the fourth time! (Four of four - I haven't missed one...) The weekend for me is a chance to replenish, renew, and feel reinvigorated. I try to select classes that will challenge me and inform my body of work. This year I was taking "Three Ring Circus" with Richard Salley and Jessica Jordan; two of the three days of ring classes if not all three. I have worked with Richard before; having met him over 10 years ago at The Shepherdess in San Diego. (Any chance I could get, actually...) and I had the pleasure of meeting Jessica online and recently, briefly, at Beadfest. I knew the weekend was going to be great - but ... 

Spinner band textured and soldered. Day 1. 

I have a tendency to drop into conversation that I studied metal smithing in art school. It was one of my areas of concentration. Like I am name dropping someone famous... while I feel that was crucial to my development as a designer, to creating my sense of self as an artist... I haven't soldered since. Yes, you read that right. 

Bezel soldering demo. Richard in motion. Day 3. 

Why not? When I learned, torches were attached to large tanks, chained to the tables in the studio. Propane. Oxy-acetalyne. I learned all the basics, and love sawing to this day. But the large tank set up wasn't applicable, or acceptable to apartment living after college. And now, 20+ years later, the technology has changed so, making the tools readily available and safe for the home studio. Where to begin? What to buy? Add to that a love of cold connections, the challenges inherent in problem solving the right way to attach and integrate pieces together. Sans glue, of course. Glue is a four letter word. So I can explain away the absence of soldering in my life. 

Enameled focal, bezel, sterling ring shank. Day 3. 

Needless to say this weekend was all about the soldering.

Bezel soldered. Ready to design and saw. Day 3. 

Test fit of enamel. Tube setting in place. Day 3. 

Day 3. Final pieces. 

The classes were a huge success. Student left with 2-3 spinner rings Friday. They were all diverse, and proudly worn. Sunday was triumphant as well - new friendships formed, assistance lent as needed... and the magic happened. Rings adorned dirty fingers, pendants planned for future necklaces.

Top row right - purple and green ring by AJE teammate Melissa Meman

I felt excited, exuberant, giddy even. I was rejoicing - strong word, I know - at being at the torch again. Becoming comfortable with this or that, remembering and accessing long filed away information. It wasn't until the ride home that it hit me even harder. (The ride home is always bittersweet and a bit sad. After a weekend of camaraderie and creating it can be deflating to head home to the mundane. Knowing you won't see these friends in person for a while...)

I got a little emotional, I will admit - to have back what I had thought was gone. Maybe it was not  gone, but not currently accessible. This may not make sense to everyone - if you recently learned _____  ( you fill in the blank ) skill and enjoy practicing it and continuing to learn - that is very different from reawakening a passion. My classmates were happy with their class, their acquired knowledge, the experience, and their pieces. SO was I - but it was deeper than that. It felt like a part of me that I had lost was returned.

But - enough philosophy! I have an order to place, and pieces to sketch... its an interesting journey. As I pick up seed beads to do a bead embroidery piece I am ordering solder and CZ's. Wishing you all a day with joyful contrasts and rejuvenation!

Jenny

www.jdaviesreazor.com