Yesterday I was all prepared with my story for this blog and then, I cannot believe this happened! I spent the precious time watching videos on YouTube of Nora the cat playing the piano : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZ860P4iTaM&eurl=http://clix.expresso.pt/video_nora_a_gata_pianista=f498080
I watched the sequel, the piano tuner sequence, the "Nora defends her piano" and the Holiday Greeting and then I watched them all over again. This was so not something I would do. I think I was having a small possession.
I really had to get off the computer at noon because we had a meeting of our bead group at the Gualala Arts Center. It was a good thing we had the classroom upstairs as we had so many people show up we never could have managed in the Conference Room. The show and tell table was very bare. Rhoda had brought some bead extras to sell and Vicki had snatched up a toaster oven at Pay N' Take for only $4 which Rhoda bought. This bent our minds to working on the polyclays. Then Judy showed up with a really classy necklace and to our surprise she had made it out of polyclay. I wish I had gone downstairs to get my camera to take a picture of it, but I was so tired (a big storm was coming in) the idea never formed.
Then while talking to Barbara, a new member who weaves tubes out of wire (it is not as easy to do as she made it look - I tried it and made a huge mess) also was telling us of a class she had taken that taught how to transfer photo images to clay. This got us fired up and we easily agreed to do polyclay next month - March 21.
This group is very loose - in the very best way. Instead of focusing everyones attention on one person, 99% of the time we sit by each other and talk one on one. It is really amazing how this works. At some time each person makes the rounds seeing that others are working on and discusses this or that and then moves on to the next interesting project.
The only time we all listened to anybody was when Sue said that even though she was knitting more than she was beading, she was glad to send out the meeting announcements and we all murmured our "thanks" and she was re-elected to the only official office of the group. She had the presence of mind to remind us that we needed to discuss our meeting times because Kathy works at the post office in Point Arena until noon and can only get to the meeting by 2:00. Someone said maybe we could have people who need to learn or fix something to come at 1:00 and the rest of us would come from 2:00 to 4:00. Some nods and yeses and we turned back to our work.
Vicki is probably the most responsible for making sure people show up for the meeting. The orders she sends to Fire Mountain are delivered to her and everyone wants to get their hands on the new things! The other advantage of this group buying is we all get to see what others have ordered. It is hard sometimes to order items we can only see photos of, but here we get to touch them and copy down the order number.
Marianne had gotten several varieties of the fabric covered beads, which I, with my less sophisticated search techniques, could not find. These are really interesting beads and I doubt I would have been interested in them if I had not been able to touch them. Now to get my two projects done so I can return to jewelry making.
Star, who makes marvelous stained glass windows and wind chimes, came for the first time. Her daughter works across the street from Legendary Beads in Santa Rosa so she had gotten hooked very neatly. It was interesting to note that her only beads were various shapes and sizes of the crystals - the closest to the colored glass panels she could find in beads.
Claire came wanting to learn the brick stitch so I sat down to teach her. At one point she said she would probably need written instructions to remember it all, I looked around and saw several bead magazines spread on the table. They were from Sue who rips out what she wants to keep and then passes the zines along to others. I think Sue and I have some kind of strange karma. Any time there is something I want or need at a meeting, she has it and gives like a sister. We do this over and over. I am always touched by shivers as it happens again.
Lynne came with her seeing-eye dog and made baskets. She embellishes them with beads. She is always interested in what we are doing and it is so good to smell her baskets. We are constantly amazed at what she does. She was describing a current project where she makes lidded containers that stack up like a wedding cake and how it is possible to nest them all into the bottom section.
Rhoda was supposed to make a presentation about how to sell beads but it turned out that only Vicki and I were interested in the discussion so we pulled up chairs together. Rhoda's information was more about how to interact with customers so we decided to keep that until the meeting before the Memorial Day Arts and Crafts Fair in May. What we did discuss was putting our work up on Etsy. Rhoda already has posted some of her work at Rotaroter. Vicki already had a name and I was still debating whether to call my shop "AHA Beads" or "Leapin' Lizards." Keep tuned! And next month I promise to bring photos!