"Weave it, Wire it, Lovett"

That very clever slogan belongs to the super talented Dallas Lovett, who taught one of the classes I took in Milwaukee. We learned how to make Raindrop Earrings - here's a picture of the finished product:

and here's a picture of me with Dallas and my good friend Heather, who also took this class (both of us girls wearing our newly made earrings, natch):

These earrings were one of the few things I actually finished in any of my nine classes during the week long Bead and Button show. Karen Elmquist said it best: "I finally am accepting the "process-not-product" concept of class-taking and wasn't chastising myself this year for having unfinished pieces. Plenty of notes and a head full of ideas will do me more good than an assortment of rushed finished pieces."

In some cases, it was impossible to finish anything given the short duration of the class, some of which were only 3 hours long. In other instances, like during the 3 day session with Susan Lenart Kazmer, we each finished a few pieces but we learned so many things, it would have been impossible to create something reflective of every single idea and method - we had to pick and choose what we wanted to do in the time we had vs. what we would take away with us and implement later.

That said, I'm still feeling pretty glad to have these earrings to wear now, rather than have to wait until I have time to finish the project.