Well, I’m just back from teaching my second workshop of this year at Stitchncraft Beads in Semley, Dorset, and what a fabulous time I had! I left home expecting to teach ten people, which seemed like excellent news to me. By the time I had reached Dorset, numbers 
had swelled to a full workshop of twelve! I was teaching my French beaded roses and gypsophila, so luckily we managed to scrape together enough bead spinners to go round. Friday 11th July dawned bright and sunny (miraculously we seem to be having a lovely summer so far here in the UK) and set up with a good night’s rest and an excellent breakfast thank to Lynn and Kevin who always look after me so well, I headed to the workshop. I think I mentioned in a previous post on here that Stitchncraft is in a very beautiful part of the world, in a converted barn with stunning views across the countryside, well, it looks even better on a hot summer’s day.
It was lovely to see some of the people I had met back at my workshop in May, plus lots of new faces, all of whom were a joy to teach and an excellent group of students who took to the French beading extremely well. I thought it was about time I found a proper home for the photos I’ve been taking at a lot of the workshops I’ve taught recently, so I now have a new page in the gallery, dedicated to workshops. You can take a look at the students hard at work at Stitchncraft last Friday, plus some of their roses and gypsophila in different stages of progress. If you like the sound of this, I can let you into a big secret…I’m going to be teaching there again next year, so watch out for the formal announcement of those plans in their workshop programme for 2015. I’ll update the teaching section on here as well when everything is confirmed.
I’ve been doing a lot of teaching recently. Aside from another of my courses at Hobbycraft in Watford (I’m starting up a regular Friday
morning slot there from 25th July), I’ve taught my Tempting Triangles bracelet and earrings project at Blue Haze Arts and Crafts. This one came from my Beaded Clasps book. The previous week, I taught the donuts project from Sweet Treats – the first time I’ve taught this particular project, but it’s one that I really love and again, I was lucky to have excellent groups of students for both workshops.
I’ve got a week off, but only to prepare myself for some upcoming fun. It’s just under two weeks now until my next big adventure at Beads Up North. I will be teaching two mini workshops there during the course of the festival. I know places are filling up fast, so you can book in advance or, if there is space left, come along on the day. I’m going to be playing with pearls in the pearl clouds bracelet. The materials for this workshop have ben kindly donated by Silvar Design and I can let you all into the secret that we have a lovely range of colours with plenty of choice! The second workshop is my little dahlia beaded beads. Again, these are available in a choice of colours, so for those of you not so keen on pink, don’t panic – you won’t be forced to make pink flowers! Halfpenney’s have very kindly supplied the materials for this project. So I’m looking forward to meeting lots more new people at these workshops. I will also have my books and patterns with me, and maybe kits too!
There’s lots more information about all my upcoming workshops on the teaching page here on the website, so do pop over and take a look and I hope to find myself teaching you somewhere soon!
