Monday, February 17, 2014

A Looming Mystery

Last Saturday was a day full of mystery.

Seventeen of them to be exact.

That's the day when seventeen of Erin Simonetti's bead looming students gathered at bead-mecca and home-away-from-home, Bead Soup in Savage Maryland.

Unbelievably, Erin had prepared a different mystery bracelet pattern for each participant, custom-designed to our interests, loves and hobbies.

We had no idea what our bracelets were going to be so there was no choice but to select our beads and start beading row by row.

Here is how my mystery started out...just piles of beads and a chart telling me how much of which bead goes where...




I was so excited.  I loved the colors already especially the blues and purples.

Here's what my design looked after the first six rows...



We bead from the center and down one side, flip the loom and then bead the other side.
Here's what my mystery looked like after two more rows...


OK.  At this point, the staff at the shop are telling me..."O my gosh, you should totally know what that is.  The black gives it away!"  How about you?  Can you guess?

All over the room, you could hear people trying to guess their designs as they beaded.  When I heard someone thought theirs might be a naked fireman, I tore myself away from the "next row syndrome" and walked around.

This is Mickey and you can already see what her bracelet is going to be...


Eunice is from Hawaii and she had some of the brightest beads of the day...


Here you can see the beginning of a blue koi with hibiscus and plumeria flowers.  Beautiful.

Lisa has a Pomeranian dog...


and Beth loves the beach and being by the sea...


Erin spent lots of time snooping on her students' lives online using social media sites such as Facebook.

Here's my bracelet after a few more rows...


Can you guess yet?  I couldn't.

My seat mate Lynda's pattern had three huskies.  Erin remembered that she had once asked for help in designing a husky pattern.


You can see 3/4 of one head on the lower half...rotate the pic 90 degrees counterclockwise and you can see it better.

Anna loves to knit and crochet.  You can just see the handles of a pair of scissors and a couple of balls of yarn appearing on hers below...


And Betty loves to embroider and sew...


Emily is our resident golfer...



And Maureen loves tree frogs...


What I enjoyed even more than the mystery of each design was getting to learn something new about each person in class.

Most of them didn't realize I had this blog until my pattern started to reveal itself even more...
Now can you guess?

At this point, I could see that the pattern probably said "Plays with Needles"...

Can you imagine? Creating seventeen different patterns for one class...each one unique? For those of you who have taught before, you know how much work it is to teach one pattern, let alone seventeen!

And the shop? Well, they were equally as wonderful for selling delica beads in one gram bags so that we didn't have a huge expense to purchase the beads that Erin used in our designs. What shop does that?? It was really a day full of gifts.

Here's our Maven of Mystery, Erin Simonetti.



It's not really a fair picture of her because I took it when she was a bit choked up. See...the class just really was grateful for the amount of work and effort she'd put into making them a personalized pattern and they had just told her so.

Personally, I like the teary-eyed shot because it tells you how much heart and soul she put into creating a marvelous mystery day for each one of us.

She is one of the most generous teachers I have ever met. She loves beading on the loom, she loves her students and it feels great to be taken under her beautifully-beaded wing.

Thank you Erin. It was one of the greatest classes ever.

And thank you Bead Soup for embracing looming, stocking seed beads and creating such a wonderfully supportive and stimulating environment.

Now, here's the mystery finally revealed...



For those who read this blog through a reader, you may not recognize it. So here you go...



It's patterned after the header of my blog! Now I can't wait to finish it.

Erin has written a detailed post about the day with the final finished patterns of each design on her blog here. Go check it out.

And now for the solution to another mystery. If you emailed me in the past week or so and haven't heard back from me, I was out of town. I'll try to reply as soon as I can but it may take a few days.

Happy Monday everyone!

25 comments:

ERIN SIMONETTI said...

Susan, you threw a Mystery, right back at your readers, here! You made me wait til the very end to see how the cuff turned out!! Don't make me wait longer, to see the finished cuff. Thanks again, for being YOU.

Vicki W said...

What an amazing gift for each of you!

Unknown said...

Your blogs are always SO inspiring no matter the topic. I notice that quite a few of the ladies have a bead tray with fabric surround, what is the origin and are you able to purchase these from somewhere? Also what brand of loom are you using? Rae

Cath said...

What a fantastic teacher :-)

Margaret said...

What a delightful day you had -- and yes, such generosity on the part of the shop and your instructor. I was blown away by the wee piece you've turned out, and to think she did seventeen of them, each different!

Ruth said...

How completely and totally WONDERFUL !!!! Congrats on a brilliant day and awesome project. :)

Bead Soup said...

Erin is an amazing teacher and I am so lucky to have wonderful customers to bring her hard work to life. June is right around the corner so make sure those nails are naked!!! Can't wait to see you wear your cuff into the store. See you soon

Leanne K said...

Thanks for sharing your fun filled day and class with us !! I can't imagine how much fun you all had with your mystery patterns....it will be fun to see the final cuffs.

FlowerLady Lorraine said...

How exciting seeing everyone's mystery coming to life, so to speak.

What a LOT of thought and work went into creating these patterns.

That is a lovely photo of Erin.

Happy continued creating ~ FlowerLady

Judy S. said...

What a fun class that must have been; she sounds like an amazing teacher. Love your unique project; what a gift!

Lisa said...

It was a fun day as always and I feel very lucky to have Erin teaching me. Thanks Kathy at Bead Soup for bringing her to the store.

wendy said...

That looks like it was so much fun! 17 different patterns!! I would love to learn how to use a loom and do more with beads.

Wendy said...

Such an amazing teacher to have...your cuff is just wonderful and I know you will cherish it always...cannot wait to see the finished cuff...

Unknown said...

Thank you so much for showing all those beautiful cuffs! I totally agree, Erin is a one of a kind lady. I hope I can get up there someday to attend one of her classes. I so love the pattern she created for you, it is just wonderful!

Lisa Boni said...

What fun!!! Sounds like a truly amazing instructor as well as a wonderful group of students!

Createology said...

You, Susan, and Erin are the ONLY reasons I would ever consider living on the East Coast. I absolutely adore your cuff and how personalized each student in this class was treated so specially. WOW!!! Amazing Beaded Bliss...

Mouse said...

ohhhh wow .... lost for words ... they are soo cute ... bet she would have had fun with a stitching mouse ...lol .. well done to all the students as well to reproduce those cute designs :) love mouse xxx

margaret said...

what an amazing teacher to create all those individual designs for her students, they are all wonderful. You must be thrilled to bits

Rachel said...

I can indeed imagine how much work would go into designing one of these for each student, and it's making my hair stand on end! I am wildly impressed and green with envy!

Carol- Beads and Birds said...

So much FUN!! What an amazing teacher! Susan, I think you are the epitome of Positive Attraction!
xx, Carol

CraftyPretender said...

that beadwork is astoundingly gorgeous!! Truly wearable art!

Suztats said...

What a wonderful teacher! Love your pattern. How perfect.

Elisa said...

bravo ! They are soo cute

Mosaic Magpie said...

How blessed you were to find this shop, the class and such a caring teacher! What a beautiful piece you created!

Catherine said...

Oh my gosh ~ what an amazingly fun day!! And such a talented group of ladies you all are!!

Related Posts with Thumbnails