Back from Turkey...

Hi all, I am back from Turkey, I had the most fun in one of the best classes I have had in a long time...the Glass Furnace & all of its staff were as nice as ever. Although the weather was colder than the last few times I was there, the grounds & the river were still very lovely to visit...in my two week class I had 4 great students, Aybuke, Elif, Nasrine & Gozde, my class assistant & translator Gunay was with us the whole time too (thanks for all the work girl). In the first 3 day class we also had my new boy friend Alten & his assistant in real life Gulsan in the class as well, then on the last 3 days we had a total of 14 students in class with me & Gunay (16 of us in total) which made for a fun busy room full of glass bead makers...we had so much fun, the picture above was taken on the second day of the advanced class...

This past Saturday was graduation, many of the students got their certificates the day before after class ended, only the original four & Meneske were able to stay for the ceremony & exhibition day.

I will never forget the amount of fun we all had in the past two weeks...we made so many beads & had a great adventure...I so miss everyone & wish to see them again very soon. my next class at the Glass Furnace is scheduled for May 30th to June 12th of 2010. As usual I will have the two week class, plus two 4 or 5 day advanced classes as well...

Below you will find some random photos of our time at the Glass Furnace...

some of the beads I made while in class... Here we all had fun trying on my sun hat, sadly not too much sun for me to wear it...Gozde had the best hat attitude... After everyone got their certificates, our class photo...we had all cried a bit at this point... Aybuke's Exhibit... Nasrine's exhibit... Gunay's Exhibit... Menekse's Exhibit... Elif's Exhibit... Gozde's Exhibit... Gunay, Fulya (last year students, life time friends) & me... The Bee Kingdom doing their magic...awesome that we got to see them... Need I say more...I mean Really??? Nasrine plays pool, rather well...my student who came from Iran for the class... My new friend Gaye, whom I met through my old friend Pinar Hakim, Gaye was the reason we had 10 students for the advanced part of the class, thanks a bunch girl, see you next year... Student from last year & this year & friend forever Mari-Liis who came from Estonia to have some fun with us... another shot from Istanbul, this one from the ramp while waiting for the next train to come, watching the big cruise ships on the Bosphorus sea...Turkey is so lovely & did I mention I love the people & the food...

Thanks for stopping by...life is good...will have beads for you next week...

Jelveh

Peace

Greetings from Turkey....

Tonight at the Persian Dinner Nasrine & I made, OK Nasrine made dinner, I made Salad & Yogurt Dip with the help of Gunay who cut vegies...it was a great meal...thank you Nasrine... Hi all, I am in Turkey, have been here for about 5 days now & yes Ginny I am having a blast...everyone is awesome & they are all now addicted to glass beads...my student Elif said to me today that she no longer wants to be a Ceramics students at the Mimar Sinan University, she is here with her friends Aybuke & Gozde on scholarship as a part of their degree in Ceramics & Glass Design taking my Glass Bead making class...I also have a student from Iran named Nasrine (makes the best beads) who saw my beads on line last year & waited to take my class this year...also I had two other students for the first 3 day class, my new boyfriend Altan & his assistant in real life Gulsen...

Last but not least my assistant & favorite bead maker friend Gunay has been doing the very hard job of translating from English to Turkish...I teach in English to Gunay, she translates to Turkish, then I teach in Persian to Nasrine, at first it was odd, but now we all speak English, Turkish & Persian, sort of...its kind of a mad house, but a good one...we have discovered that Persian & Turkish have many words in common, so we have started a list on the board in class...We laugh so much that the office people & hot shop people walk by our class wondering what kind of party is going on inside...Next week I will have 15 people total in class including Gunay & myself, most everyone will be speaking Turkish, it will be an interesting 3 day class I am sure of it....

First night here, out to dinner with my friends Pinar Hakim & Gunay & my new friend (red head)Gaye. A photo of our lovely dinner... Nice day for a drive to Istanbul...

Brenda wins the bead set from last week, as she was correct I was just leaving the house & saying goodbye to Sammy...so pick your colors girl...

Thanks for stopping by...Life is good...Turkey is Awesome...

Jelveh

Peace

Bitter Sweet...

Hi all, So by now most of you know that we are on our way back to America. California, the land of sunshine, where our home is & most of our family & friends live...the last year in England has been awesome, we have visited so many great places, we have lived in Oxford known world over for its lovely spires and prestigious schools...one of my fave is the New College which was built in 1379 ...This town is so gorgeous that during WWII Hitler told his military not to bomb it, he wanted to live here after the war...we have met some lovely people & made great friends here...going back home is always sweet, but leaving great new friends behind is the bitter part...what more can I say, our life is good indeed & we are grateful for all of it...

over the weekend we went to the British Museum & saw a couple of exhibits...I must say the one about Shah Abbas, one of the Kings of Persia who ruled about 400 years ago, was not as cool as I thought it was going to be. It seems that the new Government of Iran is trying re-write history again. They were responsible in a large part for making the exhibit happen, this was so apparent to myself & many other Expats as we noticed that the Persian part of Iran was kept out of the exhibit for the most part, all the writing & art that was displayed from the time of Shah Abbas was all in Arabic & Islam related...it was kind of deflating to see that the new Muslim Government of Iran is trying to kill off the Persian in the Persian History of Iran...After all Persia's history precedes Islam by about 1500 years or more, don't get me started...

The photo above is of the Egyptian part of the museum, its of core formed glass perfume bottles, coal eye liner bottles & fish made over 3200 years ago, I actually teach this technique of Core Forming in one of my advanced classes...as you can see contrary to what modern glass bead makers might tell us, raking designs have been around for many a millenia...

I have listed 2 new bead sets on etsy, click here to see them...

Kristen wins the bead for last week, send me your addy girl...The Pink Berry Splash bead above is this week's giveaway bead, you can enter to win it by making a comment on this blog post...

I had such a great time with Laura these past few weeks...will miss her lots...

Thanks for stopping by & for all the love...see you on the other side...

Jelveh

Peace

I made beads at Amy's...

This past Thursday I met up with the lovely artist bead shop owner Amy Surman at her shop in Oxford...I have just found out about her by way of one of my new clients who is taken jewelry classes from Amy at her shop...one of the nicest, most creative, hardest working people I have met, she is not only the shop owner, the jewelry teacher, a new glass bead maker, but an amazing Silver artist as well...I have traded & purchased some of her silver work which I will share with you when I take some photos...

She has been so kind to let me play on her torch in her studio, I started on Thursday, I came back on Sunday & met her lovely & also very creative sisters, we played on the torch for a while, then I was there again today, we played some more...I had such a good time, she even bought my kiln, since it would not have worked in America, this one I had got just to use with the UK power...above are some of the beads I made while visiting, they are not for sale...and a photo of the front of her shop, Amy is the one on the left...the place is amazing...I am going back to pick up some beads I made for me & to take more photos later this week...

Amy & her sisters, Kay & Lucy, were so kind to me, they fed me & hubby on Sunday as well...just a very kind cool creative group of people that I am so glad to have met & will be friends with for a long time to come...

Jelveh

Peace

Great day with Laura....

Its not often that one comes across a really decent nice person, Laura Sparling is truly a kindred spirit, never mind she is one the best glass bead makers I have seen in a long time...I met her yesterday at her home & we spent a very short 5 hours or so chatting about everything from beads to me falling in love with her guinea pigs...The girl fed me a very nice lunch, we talked about all things glass beads, we spent some time on the torch making beads, we found out we had so much in common from bead making to the people we knew in the industry, down to our favorite color, purple...she is truly a delight, I am just sad that I get to meet her only a few weeks before we leave England...but I intend to keep in touch with her.

She is a great bead maker, a true artist at heart & a crazy perfectionist, the combination of which makes for awesome beads...you can find her beads in her etsy shop here like many a great bead maker she has been selling her beads to a very lucky group of people for years on her site & before that on ebay...

I loved her work space, her dad and I fell totally in love with Brenda one of her guinea pigs, at the end of the day I was asking if I could move in...it is always nice when you find a new friend...thanks Laura for a great day...

Jelveh

Peace