Edinburgh Beadery

It was Marvellous with a capital 'M'! Jo and I flew to Edinburgh on a gorgeous sunny day and it only took 50mins in the air. Arriving in Scotland we were picked up by Lesley and taken into the city to wait for Kim at the rail station. The sunny weather made it ideal for people watching and we were amazed by the facial piercings on one lady. Later, we Googled 'Edinburgh Pierced Lady' and saw her in many images so we knew we weren't delusional.

A quick stop at the Stockbridge branch of Bead Shop Scotland where I was fairly restrained and only bought a few seedbeads and a string of tiny green goldstone facets. Then, after an afternoon chez Lesley in Falkirk, I took the train back to Edinburgh, and was met by Joe who guided me by bus to his and Mary's house. This was very kind of him since we'd never met and the only photo he had seen of me involved a plush orang utan sitting on my head!

In the evening, Mary and I met Jane for dinner at Hanam's Kurdish Restaurant in the old city, and had a nice evening stroll back to the car (roadworks seem to cover most of the centre of the city so parking was a struggle).

Next morning I caught a bus and rendezvoused with Jane for part of the journey, so that we could pick up our lift to Haddington. Wendy kindly drove us out and on the way we collected Selina (83 and still a keen beader). We made it there with enough time to spare that we could have a quick scope around the shop (busman's holiday for Jane since she works at the other branch) before the class began.

Kim having a peruse of the beads in BeadShop Scotland's Haddington Branch

Huib Petersen's teaching style is a little different, but he made a lot of use of the whiteboard to draw threadpaths, and was very patient when unravelling the mistakes for us. By lunchtime we'd made reasonable progress on a Sweet Pea flower, and as the kit had been supplied in different colourways it was nice to see a natural range of flower colours. We had a break with some Huib directed stretching (and creaking and groaning) to regain our natural postures. After lunch we continued with flowers and the pod components.

One of the nicest things was being able to look at, and handle, the pieces Huib had brought with him. Seeing the 'Alice in Wonderland' up close was just a revelation, especially the watch face with beaded numerals, and the White Rabbit. My other favourite was a waterlily neckpiece, but sadly I didn't get the camera out. Take a look at Huib's work on his site and you'll see what I mean. It's truly mind-boggling! Having said that it was amazing to see that his design process really does distill the naturalistic construction of flowers and insects into fairly simple stitches and structures, and we were encouraged to take this process to our own works and try new forms for ourselves.


Here is my total achievement in the class:

Doesn't look much but there is a lot buzzing in my brain as well!

Oh and I may have bought a few beads...