Groupon: Bead Bootcamp at Briolette

I purchased a Groupon for a Bead Boot Camp at Briolette's Bead & More in Forest Park, IL. This was a beginning class in wire work and stringing which included instruction and supplies to make a necklace, earrings and bracelet. I belong to a bead meetup group in my area and I've been beading for a little over a year. I purchased bead kits with the purpose of teaching myself techniques. I've done well! But there was a lot of refining I needed to do with my projects I made. So when I saw the Groupon I felt this opportunity couldn't be missed. So off I went to camp one evening.

When I arrived I was met Kate the store manager and instructor. She was an excellent teacher. First thing we did was chose our kits. They had prepackaged kits to chose for each piece. Also we  were allowed to chose from the wall the beads for our bracelets.

We started with the bracelet. We worked with the wire to make loops for all the beads we were using to make the bracelet. I've tried this on my own before. I did pretty good. I was pleased with my loops. There is plenty of room for improvement. But I did well if I say so myself. So that was the first technique I learned.

Next was the earrings and we tackled wire wrapping. This required several steps for me to master but overall I did well. It does take practice to get them to the perfect state but I was pleased with the results. Several techniques were learned with this project.

Kate also taught us how to make these really cute spirals from the wire we snipped off from our making the bracelet. These were easy and fun so I just had a ball making them as you can see. We could've added them to our bracelets but I felt they were too small to be noticed so I plan to use them on another project.




Last but not least I made a necklace. This was very easy. We used a bead design board to plot out our design and strung them on wire. There were no new techniques learned here for me but I used what we learned that evening. Fun stuff!

So here's the full set.

Now I made took this class back in January 2011.  It's been a while and I'm ashamed to say I haven't practiced any of my techniques.  Too busy!  But I do plan on doing more of this style real soon. Since then I've also purchased another Groupon for the same store.  I want to take an intermediate wire wrapping class next. 

If you haven't signed up for Groupon please do it in your area or an area you frequent.  They have great deals on so many restaurants, activities and other such things.  Make sure you use my link too!  I could use some credits to buy more! Tee Hee!  http://www.groupon.com/r/uu3207539

I hope you have a great day!