Looming Snow

We're expecting a little snow tomorrow with Polar Vortex II.

Jack has two hard exams tomorrow, Calculus and AP German so he's praying for LOTS of snow.

This past Saturday I was back at Bead Soup in Savage Mill to continue my education on bead looming.

The incomparable Erin Simonetti was back, once again, with a spectacular design...

a snowman cuff bracelet.

Loomed, designed and copyright by Erin Simonetti

What I love most about Erin's work is all of the three-dimensional elements she adds to her loomed pieces.  Like the fringed scarf, 3-D pompom and flower on the hats.

And the ICICLES!!

I am trying to learn her looming tricks because I see a real possibility with adding textile and embroidered elements down the road.

And learning from Erin is an absolute HOOT!

First of all...the woman knows how to embrace a theme.  Her fingernail polish always coordinates with the class project...

Here she is helping someone with their first row.  Just like knitting, the first row can be a bit tricky and Erin doesn't want anyone to go away from her class feeling frustrated.

She dressed for snow with her shirt and her handmade necklace...

And then she gave each one of us a necklace with either a bottle of snowflakes or snowman face parts...

I kind of like my emergency snowman kit!

Thanks to my neighbor for letting me use her shirt as the backdrop for the photograph...

Check out how neat and organized her beading set up is...

Something for me to aspire to!

Everyone always has fun in Erin's class...

And, as if all of this wasn't festive enough, Erin cranked it up about ten more notches when this guy showed up about halfway through our class...

His name is Rick Wright and he is a caricature artist and friend of Erin's from high school.

He drew a caricature of each one of us to take home, all courtesy of Erin.

I know, right?  It makes you want to move to Maryland just so you can get in on the fun. 

I was heading to our annual Tea with the Nieces and Jack right after class so I was wearing a tea cup sweater, hence Rick's version of yours truly...

Thank you Rick and Erin.

This morning, I finished the basic looming on my bracelet...

I chose a two-snowman version and a colorway that uses Miyuki's new Luminous delica beads.

That's yet another thing that I love about Erin's designs.  

She provides lots of options for customizing her designs.  Smaller design options for smaller writsts, different edgings and fringes to choose from, different methods for modifying the clasp, etc...heck, at the December class, she even provided a chocolate and vanilla version of Santa.  It's just great.  

You can follow Erin's work on Facebook here or on her blog, Beads Beading Beaded.  If you read back through her older posts, she provides tons of information on her loomed beading approach.

As for me, I'm a fan for life.  I'm off to add noses to those snowmen and figure out which 3-D elements I'd like to add.  We have class again on Saturday so I'm hoping to finish my homework today.

Happy Monday everyone.