Beading class

Yesterday I went to a beading class.  I recognized the lady leading it but was not sure she had remembered me.  It was during the Salmon Derby two summers ago that she taught me how to bead an Aleutian Wave necklace.  I am surprised by your color choices this time, she said, I thought you preferred earth tones.  I do, I acknowledged, I'm just trying something different.  She did remember me.

Beading class took class in the city building on a warm sunny afternoon.  The city building is located downtown and used to be the old school.  Now the structure hosts a variety of city offices under one roof.  The building has a charm that I can't describe, its one of those places a person feels comfortable in.

There were five of us sitting around a rectangular table.  Just talking and beading glass floats.

Beaded glass float.  The story behind glass floats is that they were used forty years or so ago and beach combers, pilots, and others in coastal regions find them.  We don't find them on our island but I hear places like Dutch Harbor and places in Bristol Bay have sitings of them too.

Other beading options.  There was a book that we used for the patterns.  The instructions were meant for those glass bulbs that you see on Christmas trees, but suited the glass floats nicely.

Pictured is the piece I am working on.

Stairs leading up to the street.  The sign to the left shows how many miles it is to various cities.  Part of the sign reads 3,585 miles from New York, 2,962 from Portland, 2,489 from Vegas, 632 from Homer, and 570 from Anchorage.