Post-show Ups 'N Downs

First, the "Ups" - a great big THANK YOU to all of you who came to visit us at the Stitches West 2009 Show. I had a wonderful time! It was great seeing old friends and meeting new folks. Thank you for your patronage, fun conversations, and great feedback. And I want to personally thank Carin Engen for getting me hooked on roving a year ago. At Stitches West 2008, Carin had a booth kitty-corner to ours and I couldn't stay out of it. I'm a color and texture fanatic, and her booth kept calling to me. I went home from that show loaded with wool roving, silk roving, and a pack of felting needles. Carin, you created a monster! But a very happy one at that.

I had so many inquiries about teaching felting workshops that I'm in the process of organizing materials, procedures, and other logistics so that we can get started. And it looks like I might (not definite yet, still in the very early talking stages) be teaching a felted vessel workshop up in Vancouver, BC later in the year.

Unfortunately, and despite the wonderful chair massage that I indulged in on the last day of the show, I caught a nasty cold. It hit me on Tuesday, so I've been trying to keep a low profile and get over it as quickly as I can. I'm teaching a bead making class in San Jose this Saturday and I don't want to pass out at the torch - yikes!

Speaking of bead making classes, I've been scheduled out to the end of the year! And there are 2 new classes for those of you who know the basics and want to expand your glass repertoire. I've added a couple of "Beadmaking: Working With Metals" classes. These are classes that explore adding metal to the hot glass while making the bead, not metal smithing classes. They're broken down into 1a and 1b - 1a for the folks who have completed Beadmaking 1 and 2, and 1b for the folks who have completed Beadmaking 2. It's a series of classes, so if you're interested you should take Metals 1a before you take Metals 1b. To see my class schedule, go to the BAGI website for the Torch Working classes - click HERE.

And now I'm off to feed my cold a cup of tea and work on my new classes. Let's see, instructions for the felted vessel or samples for the Working With Metals class? I'll let my cold dictate what I can accomplish today.

Have yourselves a happy, creative day!