Bead Envy By Emma Green (Bead Sets)

My week long class of glassy wonder with Julie Anne Denton

So what was it like? Brilliant, utterly brilliant!! The whole week was wonderful and in fact for me it was life changing.

So what was so wonderful about it? Well some of us stayed for the whole week and some just came for certain days, beginner, intermediate and the last two days were more advanced. Not only did we have Julie to teach us but we also had the very talented Diana East and Sally Carver on hand to help us too. I love Sally and it was wonderful to be able to spend so much time with her.

So we started every day with a little meeting. Julie would ask us what we think we got out of the day before, what we had learnt and what we would expect to gain from the day to come. These little sessions become my fave part of every day. We all gained and learnt so much from our morning gathering, not just stuff about glass but stuff about ourselves and of course we could talk over what we had discovered with other like minded people who were going through the same kind of emotional glassy turmoil. There was just something so special about our little group and of course Diana and Sally would join in with our meetings too.

After our meeting we would all go into the studio and Julie would tell us about the demos she had planned for us.

She would demo, we would try our best to copy the techniques and forms. Generally this meant lots of brain strain and cracked glass and a few tantrums and tears......oh no my mistake that was just me :-)

Then it would be lunch time, we would gather outside again, eat, drink tea and talk about glass and beads and glass beads. It was so good to be surrounded by other glass obsessed people who would happily talk about glass and beads all day and night and not only that they would be listening, not pretending to listen(you know who you are, hubby).

Then back inside, more demos, talks and learning.

On the last day we made paperweights, but we had to leave them in the kiln and Di would have to post them out to us later. So I haven't seen what mine's like yet but I think it went well. I'll post a picture of it when I get it.

Here's just a few of the millions of pictures I have taken.

Julie shows us how its done

Then we go to our torch and have a go. Above:- Sam(my roomy for the week)concentrates on the new task.

Julie demonstrates how to make an elephant

And here's my first attempts. Corr this off mandrel stuff is very tricky!

Julie makes a Penguin...ahhhh now I'm in familiar territory

Julies baddy Penguin complete with swag bag.

Here's my effort. I still need a few years practice at making things without holes but you can see that I am more comfortable with this subject.

Julie demonstrates how to make a torso. She specializes in the human form and although this sort of thing is not really my cup of tea, I really enjoyed pushing myself.

Here is my first attempt. Great butt I think you will agree :-D

We also made Goddess type pendants.

Mine is less goddess and more old age pensioner, but hey old can be sexy too you know!

You know, we would sit and watch Julie make things, all with our mouths open saying things like 'WOW' and 'Oooooo' and then to our horror Julie would then turn round and say 'now you try it'......gulp

Lets just say, I wont be putting Julie out of business for some considerable time LOL.

Julie's bottle stop. I loved this and Julie gave it me on the last day...bless her :-)

This ones mine and I have to say I was pretty chuffed with myself.

I really got into making these funky bottle stops. Somehow it all seemed to come together for me on the last day.

So the final day came and went and I was very sad to have to say goodbye to everyone, especially my room mate Sam. We had become very close and often lay awake talking and giggling all night, even though we were so exhausted from all the learning.

I learnt lots about myself and was able to concentrate on what I really want out of my glassy life.

So what happened when I got home? What did I change?

I came home cancelled my metal work shops which I have been taking for 4 years. I've become quiet advanced but realise that you can be a Jack of all trades but only master of one and that one for me is glass.

I also made the huge decision of telling my mother-in-law that I would be leaving the family run Stained Glass Centre to concentrate on melting glass full time. This would not only make me extremely happy(and probabley extremely poor lol)but it would also leave me with spare time to help my dad take care of my mother who, as some of you already know has early onset Alzheimer's and at the tender age of 54 it is now at an advanced stage. I would like to be on hand to give my dad some well needed time out and of course spend lots more time with my hubby and kids.

Thank you Julie, Di and Sally for helping to change my life for the better!

Heres what I made. I made other stuff too including a funky fish, but they broke:-(