Thursday 26 February 2009

Fantastic Day!

Jelveh in beadmaking actionI've had such a incredible day today! Jelveh, a very talented and experienced beadmaker, came over to melt glass, have lunch and have a good old chat. We've only spoken by email and today was the first time we actually met face-to-face and do you know, I feel like I've known her for years. You know when you 'click' with someone? Well that's exactly what happened.

Me showing Jelveh my stringerworkJelveh came bearing gifts of pudding! And gifts of glass - she gave me a strip of the most gorgeous dichroic glass you've ever seen as well as some goldstone ribbon and some cute star murrini cane. Watching Jelveh work was wonderful. She has so many skills and she showed me some pretty nifty glassy tricks and techniques. Jelveh also fell in love with Brenda and Edith, my two guinea pigs.

Jelveh and BrendaJelveh also gave me a good talking-to, in the nicest possible way. Most of you know what an utter pain-in-the-behind perfectionist I am, yeah? Well, I think Jelveh may have helped me with that particular problem trait of mine. She tipped out and sorted through the contents of my not-so-good-beads bag. All of my recent students have seen this bag of beads and most of them do the whole "Laura, why don't you sell these?" thing and to be honest, when I look through them sometimes even I can't see the reason why some of them never made it to the website. Like I say, I have a problem. So Jelveh spent ages grouping the beads into colour sets and she made me look at my 'rejects' in a whole new light. The beads aren't seconds (I kill those in the water jug or bin them) and I've promised Jelveh that I will add the sets she put together to my Etsy shop over the course of the next few days. In fact, tonight I was going to list the Lonelies from the last post but instead I put the first of the Jelveh Groupings up on Etsy instead and guess what - they've sold while I've been writing this post!

Me with BrendaI'm really glad that Jelveh and I spent the day together. I've learnt a lot from her and she's shown me a whole new way of looking at my work and enlightened me about the way other people see my beads. She is such an amazing lady and I loved listening to her American accent. The way she says 'aqua' and 'awesome' is so cool! Most of all I feel like I've made a really good friend and it is such a shame that Jelveh is moving back to the States next month. I hope I get to see her again before she goes.

Make sure you check out Jelveh's beautiful beads in her Etsy shop and also pop over and have a read of her blog.

6 comments:

  1. Wow! looks like you had such a good day! Some great pics too! Going to pop over and look at Jelevh's work now :O)

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  2. I can't belive you've sold them already.... well done you... but i wanted them!!!! hehe, I didn't even get to see the set. you will have to put them up on your flickr :-)

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  3. I had a such a great time at Laura's, fell in love with her...thanks again for a great day...I saw the beads you put up, they looked great, the person who got them is very lucky....

    Jelveh
    Peace

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  4. Hi Laura!
    Am I jealous here or what?!
    I'm glad you both had such a wonderful day!
    Have another one today! MJ

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  5. Misshapen, imperfect, seconds, rejects?! Bring 'em on sistah! That's the stuff of the world. I did 6 lampwork beads and I love how imperfect they are . . . they're your little babies.

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  6. Thanks for all the comments everyone.

    MJ - We had a wonderful time. :o)

    Erin - Love your beady views. I've really got to let go of my perfectionist ways. I do try.

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