Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Bead and Button 2017

The highlight of my summer is often the shipment of my class proposals, all carefully packaged in a box, to Bead and Button for the following year.  Many changes are coming in 2017, some beyond the results of the election this year.  In the bead world, Bead and Button changed the requirement for returning teachers to ship the physical samples to Wisconsin for the initial evaluation.  I understand, it is expensive to ship all those projects back!   Initially, I welcomed the change.  No projects to send, no worry about my samples gone for so many months.  This is a bonus for their repeat teachers who are bead designers sending in proposals.

However, for me it was also a bit of a let down in some strange way to mail my class proposals, as paper only, in a flat priority envelope.  I have done it this way since before 2003!  (My first two years they did not pick any of my proposals.)  Ultimately, not mailing in is a good thing as some of the proposals this year are also being taught elsewhere before B&B and now I won't have to have as many samples.  As I entered one last piece in the system on August 10th, there were 541 proposals in the system.  I'm positive that many people wait until the very last minute so there will be many more by the deadline which has now been extended another week!  Lots of work for staff to evaluate and make selections.

I now anxiously wait until fall to hear which of my class proposals they select.  I like them all but I do have a couple favorites and I'm hopeful they will see it the same way.  I also have a several still on my bead mat unfinished.  I had to stop from creating anything else as I needed to prepare for my Artisan table and teaching at BeadFest Summer in Philly.  As usual,  I have mostly bracelet projects.  I tend toward bracelets because I cannot wear much around my neck any more.  Too many years with heavy pieces have taken their toll.  I'm not complaining, it is only a fact of my life.  It is somehow hard for me to design something I know I can't wear.  Here is some eye candy of my 2017 Bead and Button class proposals.  And now the WAIT begins.



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