by george, its Lush!

What a fabulous weekend! 6-7 November 2010 – the first time that George Harper East and I taught our “by george, it’s Lush!” class. 

The venue was Mango Beads studio in Barnstaple, North Devon.  
Manda and David have created a wonderfully calm, comfortable space, that manages to be both fun and inspiration, without detracting from the serious business of melting glass!

Six eager students arrived around 10am on Saturday and after a welcoming cuppa and chat, they each claimed a workspace and gathered round to choose their glass colours and watch my first demo.


We all worked happily till late in the afternoon, making a range of beads in bright funky colours, with spots and twisties, silver foil and presses.  

Lunch was eaten quickly – no time to relax for too long, there were beads to be made! I think I worked them pretty hard, everybody was tired out by the end of the day!

Most of the group met up for dinner at Pizza Express later that evening.  It was lovely to have chance to get to know each other better and relax with a well-earned glass of something!

On Sunday morning, everybody arrived bright and early, excited to open up the kilns and claim their beads.  

After much examining and admiring, and a fair bit of cleaning and even some etching, it was George’s turn to take charge. 

She set up her command centre at the far end of the studio and produced an impressive collection of pliers, hammers and other metalworking tools that I wouldn’t even know the name of!

In no time the group was turning loops, wrapping wire, hammering and filing and beautiful, unique jewellery collections were appearing all around the room.

Everybody went home proudly wearing their own earrings, bracelets and brooches – armed with new skills, knowledge and friends!

Check out my Flickr album (the photos were taken on my phone, so the quality isn’t great) and Manda’s for more pics.

We will be running the class again at Di East’s studio in Leicester on 19-20 March 2011.  We’ll also be back at Mango Beads with the class again on 8-9 October 2011 and will both be teaching other classes in Barnstaple during 2011 too.  Watch my website for more dates and details.