New beginners beading classes in Geelong

If you'd like to learn some basic beadweaving stitches consider joining a small, friendly group of women learning to bead at the Vitality Cafe on Saturday mornings. You can download details here.

Festival of Glass presentations from Wathaurong Glass

You may recall that I am part of the organising committee for the annual Drydale Festival of Glass. On 10 June, Mark Edwards, General Manager of Geelong-based Wathaurong Glass and Arts (part of the Wathaurong Co-op), presented personalised commemorative glass plaques to members of the organising committee of the 2011 Festival of Glass.

Thought you might enjoy seeing the photos of the committee and of me receiving the plaque.

My personalised commemorative plaque bore the message: 'Wathaurong Glass and Arts. Presented to Glenda Mac Naughton in appreciation of your commitment to delivering a successful Festival of Glass - 2011'.

The Wathaurong people are the traditional owners of the land on which I live and do my beadwork, so it is a thrill to receive this plaque. To honor this history and the genorisity of Wathaurong people in the present I have decided to add a statement of acknowledgement on my blog:

I proudly acknowledge the Wathaurong Tribe as the original custodians of the land on which I live and do my beadwork and share in the hope of the Australian Declaration Towards Reconciliation (2000) for an Australia in which there is justice and equity for all.

“Our hope is for a united Australia that respects this land of ours; values the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage; provides justice and equity for all.”

(Australian Declaration Towards Reconciliation 2000)

The 2011 Festival of Glass was held on February 20 at the Potato Shed in Drysdale. It attracted over thirty glass-related artists, craftspeople and businesses and over six thousand visitors. The 2012 Festival of Glass is on February 19 2012. Learn more:

• www.festivalofglass.net.au
• www.wathaurongglass.com.au

Procrastination and handy beady facts: they may not change the world but they can save time

I have a wonderful business card from a local beading business that has simple pictorial information about bead sizes and wire gauges on the back. I find myself checking it often when I need to order wire findings or specific sized beads. Looking at it again today got me thinking about what information it’s handy to have just at your fingertips rather than several searches through a book or Google away. For instance, at the weekend I taught a beginner’s herringbone rope class and to prepare the kits I needed to know how many grams of size 8/0 seed beads were needed to make a certain length of herringbone rope.

To find out was easy but a little time consuming – I beaded an 8cm piece of rope and weighed it. I am sure I have a book somewhere that might tell me but searching through my ever growing beading book library I know I would have been totally distracted by other things. So, I now know that 3 grams of size 8/0 seed beads make approximately 8 cm of a herringbone rope with four beads as its base. One fact does not a book make but I have decided to start a ‘handy beady facts’ file where I can safely store my new handy beady fact till I need it next. Alongside this handy beady fact are going some others that I’ve found on scraps of paper in a recent tidy in bead studio. They are the bits of paper I keep meaning to put away but never seem to do it and never seem to know where.

Talking of what I keep meaning to do … Years ago I had the idea of developing my own Bead Abacus – full of all the facts and figures that beaders need to calculate everything that needs calculating as a beader. Maybe now’s the time to dust off the idea, tackle the procrastination actually do it!!!! I’ll try out the “15 minute rule” to avoid procrastination - just set the clock and spend 15 minutes on it right now… instead of blogging!!!

Be back soon and love to hear what your handy bead facts are… or how you stop procrastination when it sets in…. my 15 minutes starts now.