Buryd Treasure Studio

Windows Pendant with Jane Salley.  What a class.  Jane again made it all seem easy – we etched metal, aged metal, cut metal, sanded metal, drilled metal (or punched I should say), added ephemera  and mica for the window, added screws to hold it together – and there was our first pendant.  She gave us enough supplies to do two and I finished the second before lunch ended.  But what I really studied was her technique with the sari ribbons (I have two bundles myself).  THREAD – who knew – I kept tying multiple knots and hating the thickness of it.  I just don’t think outside of the box enough lately.  Anyway – here are some photos so I won’t forget this class!

The first two photos are my work from class.  The last two photos are examples Jane brought to class…

Day 2 of conference I didn’t take a day class.  I have learned PACING is very important!  So I only took something in the evening.  But what I did do was map out an afternoon of shopping.  I come to Houston every year for the Quilt Festival in November.  DO I ever venture anywhere else to shop or see things?  NO!  Well this day was a lesson in learning to appreciate any city your travel to!

So lets talk shopping first.  I swung by Old Spring to the local bead store.  (They also came to vendor night at Adorn me!).   Picked up some wire and a couple strands of crystal AB.   Then got back on the Hardy Toll road and headed to Rice Village.  There was another bead store and an old fashioned 5 & 10.  Both were interesting.  The bead store had BOWLING BALLs for décor in the window.  When you think about it, its pretty much a BIG BEAD.  Cute.  What I loved about this store is they had mega containers of loose beads so a person could really just walk in and put together earrings or a necklace without ending up with a lot of left over beads.  I added pieces for the earring class (evening ) I had scheduled on Saturday with Emily.  The 5 & 10 – its just felt old fashioned.  Got some kitschy stuff and was very happy!

Next I headed to the Heights – got a bit lost on the way, but the whole trip was an adventure.  Went from mansions (on pretty small lots) to Victorians – what a treat.  The Victorians are part of the Heights.  Well worth the drive.  So ended up on 19^th Street and visited several stores, including a craft store – focusing mainly on craft classes.  Cute.  I love that these are popping up all over the country.  My sister actually the next day ended up signing up for their beginning crochet class that weekend and was very happy. 

So then I visited antique store #1 – bought a few more pieces based on Diana’s class.  Then went into another antique store and a Mexican art gallery.  Both very nice also.  Finally ended up finding ANOTHER BEAD store.  Who knew?  It was probably my favorite of the three.  

After that I headed towards the Embassy Suites for my class that night – FUNKY RINGS with Jane Salley.  Great class.  Taught me a bit about Jane’s style of teaching – very laid back.  She is always checking her students and moving around the classroom but she lets you design the ring, just reinforces your virew.  That is actually a great teacher – it helps a student develop their own style rather than duplicate the teachers.  I wish I had photo’d this one ladies where she had made a ring with a square glass bead – it was just definitely a “FUNKY RING” like the class title.  Definitely an artist ring.  

So here are my relatively simple bead rings – it taught me how I can make rings and attach pieces, it was a great class.  And we used the same screws and nuts in Jane’s class on Sunday so it was good practice.  Another project (2 actually ) finished!