I found a sweet deal on iPhone this week, ordered, received it, and now playing with it. Goodbye beadwork ! At least I can blog on the fly, now.

NYC Trip !

I just got back from a three day trip to New York to be a part of the annual "Lavagem da Rua 46" which is a Brazilian parade based on the "Lavagem do Bonfim" in Salvador, Bahia in Brazil. The festival and parade took place on 46th Street which is known as Little Brazil. I went as a member of my all-women percussion band, Batala Washington and marched wearing all white as is traditional. The excitement was unbelievable as the famous Brazilian musician, Carlinhos Brown , led the parade and performed afterwards. I never knew anything about him, but he is a fantastic entertainer. I'm going to download some of his songs. After the parade, I was walking down 6th Avenue and discovered several bead stores. Treating myself to a few goodies was the icing on the cake to an excellent day which included samba and caipirinhas !

New Items Listed

Seems forever since I have posted to my blog. I haven't had a spark of creativity for the last six months. I guess, since I left the Artists' Undertaking Gallery last summer, I had less reason to bead as much as I used to. I'm still at the Potomac Fiber Arts Gallery (recently renamed) and we can jury in items each month only up to three times if they don't sell. I took my overstock to a new art/craft shop in Hyattsville, MD last October and sold a couple pieces, but they had to close down in May. So guess what, MORE jewelry just sitting around the house. Now I can wear it all the time, though ! Anyway, haven't felt like making MORE new stuff, just 'cause I can't think of what to do with what I already have. So, little by little, it's going in my Etsy shop, like this bracelet I made last fall: Bracelet Got the Blues and these earrings I made around the same time:Red and White Ball Earrings

Etsy Beadweavers' August Challenge Entries

The latest challenge the Etsy Beadweavers have engaged in used the theme "First Ladies of Style". Check out the incredible entries in the challenge and make a visit to the Etsy Beadweavers' blog to vote for your favorite. As usual, I haven't entered. I guess it's been almost two years since I entered something. Seems I was always under the gun to finish something completely unrelated for my galleries, and could never fit in the time. I WILL make something again sometime, I promise ! For now, all I can do is vote !

Shades of Grey Necklace

Shades of Grey Necklace, originally uploaded by ambrosianbeads.

Finished up my second beaded cab project and have enjoyed the entire process. Looks like I'll have a few more up my sleeve, I've had a bunch of cabs chillin' in a box now for about six years !

New Classes at Off the Beading Path

After re-thinking my beadweaving class offerings, I decided to go with shorter, more beginner level classes at a very affordable price ($15--can't bead, I mean beat that !). I was originally offering 3-hour classes which used my kits, but wasn't getting any takers for those. I came up with some smaller projects which the owner approved and put them on the schedule. I offered an intro to beadweaving which had the student make a simple leaf design with size 8/0 beads and intro to brick stitch which used a simple graphed pattern I made with BeadTool. A few students signed up for those and had a good time. The next class on the schedule is bead embroidered cabochon pendant or pin and I have several people down for that. I'm also offering triangle earrings, peyote tube bracelet or earrings and brick stitch circle earrings or pendant. These are the upcoming class dates:

Feb. 28 2-4 pm Bead Embroidered Cabochon
Mar. 14 3-4:30 pm Triangle Earrings
Apr. 5 2-3 pm Peyote Bead Tube Bracelet or Earrings
May 9 2-3:30 pm Brick Stitch Cirvle Earrings

YouTube Views

As I was winding down from an afternoon of beadweaving classes, I decided to check my YouTube channel to see how many views I've gotten on my one-and-only beadweaving tutorial. I was shocked to see that it's been viewed almost 7400 times !!! I think it might be due to it's location on a jewelry and beading blog that I didn't know about until it showed up in my Google Alerts.

I'm not that happy with the tutorial as my camera doesn't take great macro shots, nor do I have a digital video camera. However, I wanted to get something out there as an experiment until I am ready to upgrade my equipment. The one thing I love about the tutorial is the music of my friend, Nana Frimpong, and his amazing djembe playing. When I post another tutorial, I plan to use more of his music. I think it has a certain meditative yet purposeful sound, perfect for beadweaving.

Etsy BeadWeavers February Challenge...

JanFebMosaic, originally uploaded by wMarlaine.

...is entitled Tropical Holiday. Please visit our Etsy BeadWeavers blog where you will find links to each entry then vote for your fave !