Upper Midwest Bead Society 25th Anniversary Fun!

I had such a lovely afternoon!  The Upper Midwest Bead Society 25th Anniversary celebration was held in Eden Prairie, in a pavilion in an Autumn-colored woods, with huge glass windows.

I stepped through the door, to find my friend Jean Erickson, visiting for the occasion from her new home in the Southwest, and it was great to see her!  I really miss beading with her before meetings.

She took my picture.  I SHOULD have taken hers!  I got to wear my new beaded vest and cuff and while I was pleased, I also learned loads about where I want to go with these ideas.

I also saw my friend Ann Gilbert, who was one of my first beading teachers at the original Bead Monkey, and I was honored to sit between her and the founding mother of the society, Diane Fitzgerald. Besides being a delightful lunch companion, Diane wore a FABULOUS long beaded sleeveless coat, which was to die for!  We were served ribbon sandwiches, which had such a vintage flair that I thought my mother could have made them.  Layers of pimento, egg salad and your choice of tuna, chicken or ham salad.  Delicious!

Society President Nancy Miller talked about what life was like back in 1989, without the internet. She showed us a beading book from the period which was printed in black and white, was spiral bound, and had four pages of color pictures. Diane then talked about how she single-handedly created a group of beaders over the course of five years.  This was before e-mail and facebook, so she announced meetings with hand written postcards.  Wow, what energy and determination she had!

Glass artist Jeff Barber created a special limited edition anniversary bead, and there was a friendly contest to use the bead in a creation of your choice.  There were a range of entries, from jewelry to a stained glass creation to hang in a window. 

The event was judged by Jean Campbell, and my friend Jean Erickson took second place with a wonderful necklace with included micro macrame. The imagery reminds me of Diane's "Finger's in my Pocket Dolls", but in this case, the fingers are in plain view!

2nd Place Winning Beadwork by Jean Erickson, photo by Jean

Another friend, and my very first teacher, Barb Knoche, won first place with this glorious, reversible necklace. 

!st Place Winning Entry by Barb Knoche

  Jeff also chose his favorite entry and it was Barb's piece as well!  Here's the other side. 

Both of these photos were taken by Barb and used with her kind permission.

And then there was a People's Choice category, which I was surprised to win. I think combining lampwork and seed beads is a big challenge.  Thanks UMBS members!  The voting was blind, with no names on work, but some of my friend's work was recognizable.  :)

Here is my entry, and the Anniversary bead.

The committee who assembled the event did a fabulous job, with a door prize for each attendee, wonderful food, beautiful table settings, goodie bags, and a super program.  THANKS SO MUCH to everyone who worked so hard to make this all come together and all those who generously gave goodies and door prizes. And Happy 25th Anniversary to the Upper Midwest Bead Society.  You did a GREAT thing Diane Fitzgerald!

Pearls from China

My friend Doris Coghill spoke at the Upper Midwest Bead Society meeting a couple weeks ago, providing insight and information from her many years of beading, teaching beadwork, and selling beads.  When asked about beading supplies from China, she used a very bad word.  She explained that the Chinese government has recently forced the retirement of many skilled workers to provide jobs for younger people entering the workforce.  When many of those experienced workers left, with them went skills and ethical work habits. 

One of the results of this forced mass Chinese early retirement program is a flood of poorly drilled pearls on the market.  Earlier this fall I bought piles of pearls at the local Gem and Lapidary Workers Show when it visited Minneapolis.  I love to weave with pearls, but usually find I must buy them wholesale to afford them. Weaving eats up materials quickly, and the GLWS is a great place to shop.

So when the blitz of my fall costume work ended, I happily sorted through my goodies and got out my favorite 3 strands of golden bronzy 3mm-ish rice pearls and two pieces of Biggs Deschutes Jasper and set to work, with this result:

The jasper was pricey, especially the upper piece, but the pearls were very reasonable, so I had plenty to play with, and after configuring the focal section, I decided to drape the pearls on each side.  I liked the exclaimation point image I had, but wanted to soften and disguise it a little, so it had subtlety and invited a closer look, since the details in the focals were so lovely.  This is where my trouble began. 

When you are draping strands of anything, uniformity is critical to success.  And these pearls were far from uniform. I loved the differences in color, since they echoed the depth in the jasper.

But the differences in length were more problematic.  For what I had paid for them, I didn't think the size differences were unreasonable, and the surfaces were smooth and lovely and with a deep glowing nacre.  I sorted them by length, and realizing that I would not have enough of any one length to do the job entirely, tried to organize them in my draping to provide the best results.  They were visually deceptive!  Fatter ones looked shorter than they were, and vice versa.  But all that was 100% acceptable to me and my purposes.

What I found disappointing was the funky drilling of many of the pearls.  In my triangle weave section, it didn't matter, but in the draping, it did.

I did the left side first (ok, REALLY I did the right side first, hated it, and did the left side and got a better result, and then ripped the right side and re-wove it) and I was able to use mosly the pearls with the holes drilled straight through, but by the last strand at the bottom, I had to start encorporating the pearls with the angled holes.  See the one in the center of the picture? There's one in two strands from it as well.  Sigh. 

And the right side has more of those badly drilled babies.  I don't see this as a crisis.  My piece is still pretty.  But my friend was right.  Less care and skill is going into the drilling of pearls from China.

Now, maybe the specific Chinese supplier makes a difference, because I ordered the pearls for my Victoria's Secret piece from China, and I was really pleased with their quality, price, and super fast service with reasonable shipping costs.  Better than companies in this country that shall remain nameless.

So, for future reference, caveat emptor!  When you buy a strand of pearls, hold them up and look at how they have been drilled and consider your purpose before plunking down your cash.  If you want to drape them, you want the holes drilled straight.  Thanks Doris, for opening my eyes.