Merry Christmas Eve! I’ve got a couple quick announcements to share in today’s post.
Firstly, last year I worked on lots of designs and prototypes for Christmas ornaments made using French Beading techniques. I wasn’t planning on publishing any of them this year since they still need some work. But, I while I was working on a separate, larger Christmas project, I was inspired to pick up one of my prototypes to alter it for that project. And then I decided to go ahead and work on finishing up that design and publish it.
So, my first announcement is the publication of my very first French Beaded Christmas ornament pattern, which I have titled “Bauble #1”. It’s coming out a couple weeks later than I planned due to some other circumstances, but, better late than never! And also better than waiting until next year.
The pattern is now available in my shop.
January Class
My second announcement is for a class that I’m teaching in my Facebook group in January. This is the “Learn how to make French Beaded Flowers” group that I run with fellow designer Fen Li from the Bead Flora Studio. We’ve been planning out a schedule for our bead-alongs for next year, and I volunteered to teach in January.
I picked the Miniature Daffodil for this class. This design will be great for those who have already worked through my Beginner Course. In addition to some of the Beginner techniques, we’ll be learning my Continuous Basic Frame technique, how to deal with long leaves, how to bead the stems, and one of my go-to methods for potting plants.
To participate in the class you will need to be a member of the Facebook group. To be admitted, request to join, answer the membership questions, and agree to follow group rules.
If you do not want to participate in the class, the PDF for my Miniature Daffodil design will be released in my shop in early January. The videos from the class will be released on my YouTube channel in February.
Sneak Peek
I mentioned above that I was working on another, larger Christmas project. This one was originally slotted for my first book, “Christmas Collection”. However, my first rendition of the design had blue flowers. After I’d made half the flowers for it, I decided I didn’t like it in blue. So I restarted with red, but got worn out of making that flower because I’d already made them many times over. So the project got set aside.
In November I started feeling the Christmas spirit. It gets me every year, but this year has been particularly rough (for everyone, I’m sure) and I needed to work on something special to lift my spirits. Then I remembered this project that was sitting in a tub, unfinished, and decided to restart it all over again.
This time with white flowers. Can you see how this project inspired me to work on my Bauble #1 pattern?
Technically, I already have it assembled. But, something is off about it and I can’t decide what. I think it’s the color of my topper. It has too much red in it compared to the rest of the project. So I might make a new one. Or add something else to the whole project. I also need to reassemble portions of it. My goal is to have this one done and published by New Year’s. But I’m taking a couple days off to spend with my babies and husband for Christmas.
Happy Holidays to all! I hope you can all find a way to find joy, even during this very weird, and maybe even a little lonely holiday season.
– Lauren Harpster
