For my birthday, I spent two days making beads with Anja Basan of Anastasia Beads. This was an incredible piece of luck, as she was only teaching in the US at Arrow Springs and here at Blue Moon Glassworks. I originally signed up more than a year ago for the workshop to be held in April. After my accident, I had to cancel my seat. Then the volcano forced the class to be rescheduled, and I was sad that I had given up my place. Recently, when I took my oxygen concentrator in for repair, I found out that there was one opening available, for the class now to be held on my birthday. Providence!
My father sent me money for my birthday, which I used to purchase one of Ana's bird beads, this incredible swan feeding a chick. Thanks, Dad!
During the first day of class, we did numerous small practice beads to learn the trick of working with hair fine stringers and enamels. Considering that I've been off the torch for five months, except for a few practice beads in the last couple of weeks, those fine stringers were a challenge. I'm happy to say that muscle memory is a wonderful thing. I wasn't great, but I wasn't as bad as I feared. These are the practice beads, with different line, dot and enamel techniques.
The big project of the day was learning to make Anja's trademark tree beads. Here are the two I made, along with a spiral/helix bead.
I need to go pick up my beads from day 2, so that I can show them.
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