An away day beading

Julia Cameron in her book The Artists' Way prescribes having an away day every now and again but I think I'm going rather over the top lately! I had booked myself on a class to make a wirework embellished pendant with the Beadshop in Haddington in the morning and enjoyed it so much I also stayed on for the afternoon when we made a wirework coil link necklace.

Both classes were taught by Joan Gordon, the editor of the British Beads & Beyond magazine with great expertise. I sat with 4 other participants and by the end of the day we had really gotten to know each other, shared our supplies and admired each other's finished pieces.

I used a shell for the pendant see picture above) and could not resist hanging a fish charm onto it as it was too big to fit onto the pendant itself but I felt I looked great looking up at the shell.

Joan encouraged us during the afternoon class to do our own thing using the techniques she explained to us and I had a lot of fun adding Swarowski crystals. I really seem to have acquired a taste for them! They do sequins too and I can already see them appearing on a quilt or two! Sorry about the sparkle on both of the scanned pictures!

I must really get my nose to the grindstone now and start tacking my latest and very large (and I swore I would not do that again!!) quilt after this very pleasant interlude!