Bead and Button show report - Pt 1

I arrived in Milwaukee late on Monday 2^nd June. I decided to get a good nights sleep so I was fresh for the rest of the week. The show has started at the weekend with master classes already in progress.

I was awake early on Tuesday morning and after a quick breakfast went out for a wander trying to find my way around. I headed to the Hyatt hotel where registration for the show was open. I got my bag, passes and a few bead samples, good start ! I then took a look at the spaces still open for classes. At this point I had only booked in to one class and that was on Thursday. I decided to book in for 2 more classes and pick up a ticket for the ‘meet the teachers reception’ too.

There were a few classes going on in the rooms surrounding the reception and I saw Diane Fitzgerald walking around – first famous teacher spotted.

There was also a space set up for people to sit and do some beading and a couple of stall holders were set up in case people needed supplies for classes before the Thursday night opening of the show floor. Not being able to resist looking over bead stalls I had a good look, then walked away. Ok, I went out to have a further wander around, then I did come back and buy some beads. Interesting cabs and vintage Swarovski stones were my first buy.

The show venue

Most of the hotels are connected to the building where the show was being held by sky walks, so I wandered round these for a while finding out where I was to go for my classes. I marvelled at the number of classes in progress, there were a lot of people learning stuff, it all looked very intense. My hotel did not have a direct sky walk to the show, but it was only about 200m walk and cross the road, so all very convenient (or so I thought, but more about that later)

Wednesday I had booked in to a class with Laura McCabe. I have admired her work and was interested to meet her and see how she worked. She was a fun teacher, but also quite structured in her approach. I guess you have to be with a large class, which was approx 20 students. I didn’t feel at all neglected and had plenty of opportunity to see close up how the techniques were to be used. The kits were also top quality, really well presented in little tins with beautiful beads. I managed to get about half of the piece complete, I will have pictures available when it’s done.

Wednesday evening was the meet the teachers reception. I thought I’d get there early to see how it all worked. There was a queue, so naturally I joined it and waited. You pass that you wear around your neck has your name and where you are from on it, and a lot of people notice this. So it was whilst standing in the queue that this lady looked at me, slapped my arm and said ‘get away, you’re not from Australia?’ Well, yes I am! Really she was a nice lady is was just an odd start to the conversation. She lived in Milwaukee and found it hard to understand people travelling so far to a bead show. This was a recurring theme right through the show, so I ended up saying to most people, ‘yes, but it’s worth it, it’s a great show’. Still waiting in the queue and Ruth Davies(from the Bead Society) found me, I knew she was at the show somewhere we had just not met up yet, so we had a quick chat about what we had been up to so far.

The doors opened and a flood of people merged in to a big room that had been set up with rows of tables. Phew a floor plan, just what I needed, must take notes. Ruth and I split up as we had some serious business to attend to. I headed off to see Sherry Serafini as I had to buy a kit at the request of a friend. Sherry was lovely, we had a short chat, but she had a lot of Japanese customers eagerly waiting to be served, so I moved on. I wandered around up and down, looking at all the tables the teachers had set up. Most were selling kits of their work. Interesting to note that most were not selling kits of classes they currently teach – good move on their behalf I say, gets people going to their class rather than just buying a kit. I imagine that most of these teachers are not making a fortune doing this. I had a chat with Cynthia Rutledge, as she is coming to visit Australia in September. The great thing about this reception was that so many teachers were all in once place and so accessible. If you had a question about any product or kit the person who created it was right there. There were also lots of examples of the kits made up to provide inspiration. Overall a great experience. I left there about 9pm, as I had another 8am start the next day for my next class,

Thursday morning, bright and early, a full days class to get through, then tonight the show floor opens for the registered attendees. Excitement was building !

Anyway the Thursday class was with Dallas Lovett, the techniques were a bit out of my comfort zone, wirework ! so I was keen to learn how this piece was constructed. Dallas was also a great teacher with many funny stories to tell. He had a helper in class, which worked well, as this was also a sizeable class. We were kept busy all day, and most people just managed to finish their piece before the class finished. I was very pleased with mine and so I popped it round my neck while I walked back to my hotel. Had to get ready to go back to the show, which was opening at 4pm

I had a bit of a drama, I managed to lose my pendent from my necklace on the way back to the hotel. This caused a bit of a panic, and I retraced my steps as fast as I could. Luckily I found it, but it looked like someone had stepped on it, so it was a bit squashed, I eased it back in to shape pretty well though and put it away safely until I could ensure I was not going to loose it from the necklace again. Got ready for the show and headed back over there in time for opening.