Our March meeting was led by the lovely ladies from Bead, a new shop in Harrogate which has an incredible array of beads (as you would expect!) plus all the bits to turn the beads into some beautiful hand-made jewellery.
The demonstration was easy enough that all of us could follow it, but we could each use the instructions to make our own earrings as simple or as extravagant as we wanted.
Once we had been shown what to do, it was time to give it a go ourselves. There was a bit of a scrum as nearly 60 women all attempted to find matching sets of beads at the same time. With a bit of patience and a lot of searching, everyone found what they needed to make the kind of earrings they liked and returned to their seats.
Then, it was a case of arranging them to make a pretty drop earring and snipping off the wire at the top with the wire cutters provided by Bead, leaving just enough to make a little loop so it could be attached to the earring hook. Thoughtfully, Bead had supplied kits for both pierced and unpierced ears, so everyone could make something which they could use afterwards.
With so many people there, all fiddling with tiny bits of wire, beads and pliers, things could have been slightly chaotic, but the team from Bead was more than capable of making sure everyone knew what they were doing, offering advice and guidance as they went around the room, and keeping a stead supply of beads ready so everyone could find something they liked. By the end of the evening, everyone had at least one pair of ready-to-wear earrings, and quite a few people could be seen modelling their creations before they left for the night.
The raffle proved very popular as well, with a prize of a £10 voucher for Bead, so one lucky person could use it to follow up the inspiration we had been given. There were some other kits on sale, although Bead offers many more in its shop on Bower Road. The team also offers other workshops and no doubt some of the Spa Sweethearts will be looking into these, to create necklaces, bracelets and other jewellery to coordinate with their new earrings.
Thanks very much to the ladies from Bead for a fun evening, and to our hostesses for the night who did a great job of keeping us all topped up with tea, coffee and juice – along with some lovely cakes baked by our members.
At our next meeting, we’ll be learning all about bread, on Thursday, April 11. If you haven’t been before, you’ll be made very welcome – just get in touch to find out more.