Bead Fest

Just coming back down to earth from my adventure at Philadelphia Bead Fest.  This was my first time attending Bead Fest. Living  in a small town with limited access to great "bead" shopping, I have to say seeing so many beads in one place was sensory overload. But I soon recovered and found lots of goodies!

I was fortunate to take classes from two great jewelry artists, Linda Larsen and Kim St. Jean.

Linda Larsen taught the first class "Lockets".

These are some of  her class samples...

There was lots of sawing, which I hate but I did get better at it and maybe don't hate it quite as much.  We learned techniques for making a hinge and shaping the locket but  having it "snap" closed  was what we were looking for in the end.

This was my finished locket... so proud of it...not perfect but you have to start somewhere!

My next four classes were with Kim St. Jean.
The classes were "Copper Soldered Necklace", "Ruffled Bracelet", " and "Greek Goddess" and Air Chasing".

 So many techniques and tips learned from Kim-like....

 How to know if you had the flame right...

  Soldering the bezel...

  Making a bail....

 Using a metal brake....

 Annealing metal...

 Fold Forming...

These are my finished pieces...

 Now the hard work begins...trying to remember all I saw and figuring out how to apply the techniques.