So how are you all doing on your Bead&Button Show class projects? Have you finished? Are you stalled? Did you decide that the technique you tried just isn’t your thing?

I took Naomi Sakuma’s Prima Rosa Lariat class, a beginner loomwork course, and completed my project last week. Here’s my finished lariat, featuring approximately 7,500 11/0 cylinder beads. I have to say I found loomwork to be very enjoyable — it’s repetitive, and so very meditative. In fact, I took up my needle and thread in the middle of the night during a system of violent thunderstorms that passed through Wisconsin last week – the loom calmed me right down.

The other thing I love about loomwork is that when you pick up a row’s worth of beads, they don’t look like anything but a bunch of random colors strung together. But when you lay them on top of your previous rows, you see a wonderful picture emerging!

I am looking forward to making smaller loomwork pieces, like bookmarks and little squares that I can attach to greeting cards or mount in my scrapbooks. Also, I want to try converting cross-stitch patterns into loomwork patterns. One of my coworkers found this wonderful site that converts DMC cotton floss colors into their Delica color equivalents (make sure you scroll down to the bottom of the page).

P.S., The Bead&Button Show Web site is already being updated for next year’s show, June 6 – 13. Start marking your calendars for all the important dates!