Day three saw us beginning with a session with Dani. His session was called "scrap clay" and he produced the most wonderful beads from just that - scrap clay. Clay of all colours lay on his table and he sorted this out into colour families. By simply twisting and pulling he produced the most wonderful beads - very "art nouveau" in appearance. Because he showed us so much we did not have a great deal of time for making our own beads. As a "newbie" I did not have very much scrap clay but Irene did give me some of hers and I made the two square piece above.
One of the amazing things Dani did was to make a square block of clay and then by precision (very mathematical) slicing he produced a beautiful pyramid bead. He also showed us how to make "Natasha" beads and "Natalia" beads - the latter named after his wife. I could spend a whole day with Dani just watching and trying his wonderful methods.
Our next and final session we had been eagerly awaiting - it was with Donna (Kato). We were to make a bracelet, something we had watched others do, but realised there was no way we were going to complete it. I don't need to say here that Donna is a wonderful tutor but she is. She first of all showed us how to make the form of our bracelet and we got those cured as quickly as we could. Then she showed us how to apply a zip cane on the top and bottom edges. That is as far as we got.
My favourite of her samples had triangular pieces and curves on and she showed us how to make the canes for that one. Whoo hoo! When I get my replacement roller (yes, I have lost it) I need to try one of those. I have the photographs of her finished work but don't feel I can publish them to this blog without her permission. Sorry folks!
All too soon it was time to pack up - this was an earlier finish than previous days as the room had to be cleared on time and made ready for The Party.
We said our goodbyes to Helen who had to head back home as she had work the following day, and headed back to our hotel for a quick shower and change.
On our return we all swapped beads (we had to make 60 beads prior to attending) and the bottom picture shows my collection. Note the birds nest and the ice cream cone in the top left corner. There were some fantastic beads made by participants and they will be treasured and serve as a reminder of the wonderful weekend I spent in Nottingham.
Afterwards we had a fish and chip supper, cooked by our resident guys who had done a splendid job of feeding us each lunchtime - thanks guys! Then it was time for the lucky draw. At the start of the weekend we had been each given a lucky number (mine was 7) and these went into a draw which Dani supervised - I got a lovely Hansa keyring made by Iris which now proudly sits on my handbag with her signature on the back to show it is an original. Helen and Jacqueline got barettes, also made by Iris and Ciska got the most gorgeous ear-rings courtesy of Sylvie whilst Irene got a Donna brooch.
A wonderful weekend which ended all too soon, goodbyes and thanks were made before we headed back, some to their hotels and some to face the journey home. Helen had done a marvellous job of organising the weekend and thanks to her everything had run like clockwork. She really is Wonderwoman.
