bead retreats and deep connections

We had a small CGB retreat here at the house earlier this month, and it was another magical time. I miss the research team meetings for their sheer power, but introducing people to our concepts through teaching and togetherness is another type of forward motion and brings its own rewards. We have a few more of these (with Anvi Shah in town!) scheduled for this summer and fall. If you are a curious and friendly person, and you don’t mind taking some simple COVID precautions, have a look here and see if you might like to join us.

Perhaps some of you who have attended classes here in the past might leave comments telling others of your experiences. I get a lot of love notes when people leave but I don’t really like to share people’s comms like that, so this is a good place to sing the praises of our time together; it’s difficult for me to describe the impact without sounding silly.

Both Georgette Mayo and Wendy Ellsworth were celebrating birthdays this time, and Charles was here to cook for us (we serve a gorgeous lunch every day). Sam Norgard was in town and (as mentioned previously) she and Dawn Peterson brought the Black and White Together portrait over. Kelly Dale, the owner of Off the Beaded Path (a bead stire in Forest City, NC) joined us for her introduction to CGB’s library of techniques, and my friend Qasimah came over to show us her Doll Stories– small, powerful sculptures that sometimes include beads.

Above, Dawn, Sam and Georgette marvelling over the birthday treats. Below, I got to photograph a few of Tammy Alderman’s pieces (her craftsmanship is astonishing) and I especially loved this Eggbox that she made from one of Ingrid Wangsvik’s warped square patterns. The colours are mesmerizing, and the full pattern that the squares is so satisfying. It can be intuited from a single square, but not felt, if you know what I mean.

Brenda Stone was another first-time visitor to the studio, and I had the pleasure of teaching everyone the PodCast Bead, Rick-Rack, the All-Wing, Geometric Capture and Geometric Spirals, MRAW, the Casting Spine, and a bit of everything else. It’s always such a treat to go over our body of work in a retreat; it takes days to see it all, and to hear it explained, and learn the context that connects the different forms and strategies.

I was able to give Wendy Ellsworth back several of her pieces I had been hoarding for years, but she left the piece below with me, as it is a cherished relic in 7 or 8 exciting pieces right now. It was the bangle that quite literally exploded when I handed it to Marty Demaine, at MIT, and is probably the reason we were invited to teach. I offered her a slice of it, like people pass around bits of saints, but she left them all here. Maybe one day I will look into the box and see it has re-assembled…

About katemckinnon

Kate McKinnon has devoted herself to the study of how things are done, and how they could be done better.

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