Hannah Rosner - my Sunday teacher at Bead and Button

Last but only chronologically to this series of posts is the great class I took with Hannah Rosner of Good River Gallery on Sunday at Bead and Button.  Man oh man, did I ever feel like I hit the jackpot of teachers this year....let the good times roll. 

I've met Hannah before - not only at B&B last year but because we are both lampworkers.  We both were part of Jeri Warhaftig's focus group for Jeri's book Creating Glass Beads so we all communicated with one another while the book was being created.  Hannah is an incredibly skilled  lampworker and like me is finding ways to use that lampwork in a variety of ways.  Hannah also has a background in working with seed beads and bead embroidery.  But unlike me Hannah has now pushed that to it's limits and has created some large and incredible necklaces not unlike the great works pictured in the Bead Dreams photos of the last post.  I have seen several of Hannah's works in that very competition and wish I had one to share here but didn't get to all the cases due to light restrictions, etc.  For a much larger view and a collection of Hannah's extensive talent please go to her Etsy site HERE or her web site HERE.  Not only can you see the scope of her work she also has lessons and kits....even free tips.



Neptune's Tail by Hannah Rosner

Hannah presented a class on working with soutache braid within the realm of bead embroidery.  She's a skilled instructor and took a ton of precautions to make sure the class went off without a hitch and that our focus was on using the braid.  To this end she even had done the preliminary work, peyote stitching around a rivoli, and we only had to zipper the piece around the rivoli and begin our lessons with the braid.  What fun and how fast beading with soutache can go - a whole lot faster than with beads alone.

These are Hannah's bracelets and what we were shooting for in our lesson.

There were ladies within the class who never made a misstep and were very nearly done with their pieces.  I am not that fast since I don't work with beads as much as I used to but I certainly know where I am going with this and it won't take me long once I sit down and just do it. 

Hannah will be teaching at "The Gathering" in July and has a pretty full teaching schedule this year so if you visit her site I'm sure you can quickly catch up with a class or pick up a kit and learn this interesting technique.  For me it's great lap work while the TV is running so I couldn't wait for my lesson - and Hannah did not disappoint!

This is my piece in the last photo - really, it won't take me long from here - I just need to pick up the needle and go for it.  As you can see - I really enjoyed working with the braid and I can't wait to mix this with some lampwork beads.  This wont be my last soutache braid - for sure!

My unfinished braid.  I was going to go for a cuff but I think I'll go soft bracelet now.

Class Projects from B&B

My piece from Richard Salley's class "Double Hinged Pendant"

My pieces from Salley's "Making An Impression" class.

Two of the classes I took at B&B were from Richard Salley. I had some great results in those classes. I love the pieces I made while I was there. I learned both how to stamp with StazOn Ink and how to use PNP paper to create etchings. I kind of had the basics and have etched many times before but I've never used either of those products. Mostly I've just drawn with a sharpie marker and then etched. The process was interesting, fun, and the results couldn't be beat.

The first piece with 'the eye' is etched on the outside - the doors close and you see the etching front and back.  Here we used the StazOn and stamped it.  We etched, we sawed, we hammered, soldered, riveted, and so on.  It's a fun piece with a ton of techniques to try.  Another thing I'd never used before is what I call stained glass solder - it's a silver bearing solder but very "low tech" and apparently extremely useful.  Who'd of thunk it? We used it in both classes.

The second set is from the "Making An Impression class".  We made PNP etched pieces and turned them into simple stamps.  How wonderful is that?  After that we learned to heat the low tech solder and stamp it while it was molten to add some distinction to the surface of the metal we were working with.   Again - pretty darn cool process.  I can't say my second piece turned out all that well (I'm not fond of my design choices) but the technique and the possibilities with this are totally wonderfully cool.   Am I excited?  Absolutely. 

Would I recommend a Richard Salley class - Oh hell yes.