Inspiration from Bead Street Classes

In the last couple of weeks I have received at least a dozen emails from people in  Italy, Hungary, Germany, London, the Netherlands and Turkey telling me what fabulous beading we are doing in lil' ol Boise, Idaho.  Who knew?  I do know that the Super Duos (aka Twins) and Peanut beads (aka Farfalle or Butterfly beads) have been in Europe for a while.  I also know that the CzechMates (aka Tiles) and Tila beads have not.  So I'm sure that's part of the interest in this blog.

A big, big, thank you to my  Czech glass bead vendor - I get the new beads first and then our instructors create new patterns for our classes.  But then our students take those patterns and tweak them, bling them up and make them their own.  All of that even before the new beads are even introduced at the major bead shows. 

Some of you may not think this is a big deal but  I came to Boise in 1972 before there were any bead stores in Boise, the only art show was 'Art in the park', and long before Boise Town Square Mall.   Since I was a beader - resources and inspiration were lacking in this otherwise wonderful town.  To remember those days and now get emails suggesting we are on the leading edge of jewelry trends - even creating  'the'  trend..... amazing!

So keep up the great work.   I've been telling everyone that their creations are 'fabulous'.  Hopefully they now believe me.  Here is a sampling of students' work.  As a side note, we currently have 30 colors of the Twin beads, and 50 or 60 colors of the Super Duos should be here this next week. We also stock almost 100 colors of the CzechMate Tiles and 60+ colors of the Japanese Miyuki Tilas.

Irene beaded this  ladder stitch bracelet using bugle beads
 in a random pattern.  She also made the flower from polymer clay. 
 I think this was the very first project she did with clay.
You can find a how-to for the 'Chan Luu' style bracelet under Videos.

This is going to be a new class - coming soon. 
 From Penny Dixon - see more of her work on her blog,
http://www.pennydixondesigns.com/



This is from Janet.  She learned this technique in a Russian Spiral bracelet class
and then made this great necklace. I think she found this wonderful ceramic pendant
in Seattle when she was visiting her new grandchild. 
Oops, maybe giving away too much info.
Love how she beaded her own 'bail'. 




Nancy Sathre-Vogel, created this freeform peyote piece a while ago. 
But I just recently learned that the 'fish' are actually
 chopstick holders she found in Thailand.
Nancy and her family are hiking the Rocky Mountains
this summer but we will schedule her freeform
peyote class again in the fall.



Janet learned how to bezel a couple different ways
 in two or three different classes. 
Now she is 'bezeling' a lot of things - here a Tagua nut.



Love how she finished this necklace with her own 'beaded toggle'.



This is just a small portion of  Deb's beautiful, freeform necklace. 
 She learned the technique in Nancy's Freeform Peyote class. 
 Deb also combined 'ruffleing' and netting (she learned in other classes)
and added other stitches she already knew, to make this stunning piece.



A closeup of another section.  We'll have more on this later. 
 I think this necklace deserves a post of its own.

A beautiful peyote and netting ruffled pearl necklace.
 This was done by Boise Bead Society President, Mary Ireland,
in a class she attended at Bead Street.

Joy beaded all of these.  Top one she learned in Bead Street's Tila Band class
from a pattern designed by Adele Kimpell. 
Middle is a pattern Joy purchased from Kassie Inman. 
Bottom from a Tila/Tile Spiral class taught by Sandy Taylor from another Adele pattern.

Right Angle Weave (RAW) with Peanut beads beaded by Virginia. 
This is the 'Gator' pattern designed by Adele Kimpell.
 Virginia created her own version by changing the pattern 
and then adding 6mm pearls down the center.
I like this version alot.

A beautiful embellished peyote bracelet beaded by a gal from Twin Falls.
You can learn basic peyote from one of our Beaded Bead classes.

This bracelet much prettier in person. 
Beaded by Yvona from Nicole's "Ice Ruffle" pattern. 
 We have convinced Yvona to teach this -
 hopefully, sometime this summer.

This is another version of Sandy Taylor's Tila / Tile Herringbone class
 taught using an original pattern from Marcia Balonis. 
The Tiles (aka CzechMates) have been replaced with
Czech glass pearls and seed beads



We teach a number of Beaded Bead classes at Bead Street.
Masoumeh created these bracelets using beads she made in class.



 For more information and other photos, see the link at the top of this blog for a class schedule.  You can also click here for a link to Kassie's site beadingbutterfly.com.  Or here for Adele Kimpell, http://www.beadreamers.net/  and here for Marcia Balonis, http://www.baublesbybalonis.net/ .  We are currently scheduling classes for June and July.   If you would like more info or to request a class, just send us an email.