Back to Healesville

At last, my classes in Healesville have resumed. Today I went up there for the first time since the horrible bush fires in February. There have been many reasons for the delay, not the least of which is that the fires lasted so long and disrupted so many peoples' lives. We played around with wrapped loops and charm bracelets today.
Tomorrow is another class at Bennettswood and I thought you might like to see the wave bracelet in another colour:

In the class I am making the same pattern in black, red and white and it looks great. Hope to finish it tomorrow.

Mother's Day in Australia

Tomorrow (Sunday) is Mother's Day here. Our family will be having dinner together as we are all mothers (one is "mother" to a dog!) now and no one should have all the work and no fun. There will be twelve of us altogether.

My husband and I are so lucky to have our Mums still with us and both of them still mentally "with it" and in reasonably good health. I was reading a blog about someone whose Mother is suffering from Alzheimers and felt so sad for her.

My maternal grandmother developed Alzheimers when she was in her eighties and it was a very sad time for us. Both Mum and Dad were involved in caring for her and for my Grandpa who later suffered from some form of dementia (age and diabetes related). My thoughts are with everyone in that situation as it is so difficult to cope with the physical presence of a loved one, who unfortunately is no longer the same mentally.

Holiday project

Over the Easter break we went down to Metung, on the Gippsland Lakes to stay with some friends. Whilst I was there, I decided to make the bracelet in the "Bead" magazine, which I had mentioned in the last post. Didn't have quite the same beads as the one in the mag, but this is what I came up with. It matches some fabric I have bought to make a top with.

Needed a new tutorial for a class next term.... So after much thought, made the bracelet pictured. Then I went into the newsagents and happened to see the new "Bead" magazine from the UK. There is a very similar design, although it is made in a V shape, not just slanting. It seems there is rarely anything completely new and with all the exchange of ideas around the world making something unique gets harder and harder.

A couple of weeks ago, I needed something to match a blouse which I wanted to wear. After assembling beads in the colours I needed, this is what eventuated. Smoky grey briolets, surrounded by white, black and brownish Miyuki triangles.

Dangle Earrings

Had a lovely time this afternoon, teaching some very nice students how to make these dangle earrings. Its amazing how everyone seems to add their own small touches and all the earrings look a little different.

More Cancelled classes due to the Bush Fires

So many people are effected in various ways by the bush fires here in Victoria. Even though I have not been close to the fires and our home is 50 km away from the major fires it has had an effect on us since my classes at Healesville have been cancelled this term. This is very sad because I was enjoying teaching up there. Hopefully next term things will take off again.
My Greenleaf Necklace class has been rescheduled to May 15 and 22 and surely be then things will be more settled and people in the bush fire area will be looking for some relaxing classes.
Although its a very simple necklace to make, it gets a lot of comments when I wear one. I put a photo of the blue version here as well.