Beadwork at Common Ground

I am packing my car preparing to head on down to Common Ground at McDaniel College in Westminster, MD. I will be teaching a beaded bead necklace I call Chinese Jump Rope. Students will learn 4 types of beaded beads based on brick, peyote, square stitches as well as right angle weave.

While I attended an overcrowded city junior high school, “temporary” (still there today) classrooms were erected in the girls’ play yard. That left only the margins around the buildings in which to go outside during lunch break. Girls were never allowed access to sign out sports equipment so we devised games that could be played in small spaces with equipment that we could carry with us all day. One of these was “Chinese Jump Rope” in which we looped rubber bands together to stretch between the ankles of two stationary players. The “jumper” would then hop in and out picking up one or the other of the rubber band ropes and perform intricate foot manuvers that involved passing one or the other “ropes” over the other. During a trip to China, I actually saw girls out of our passing bus window
 
I have interspersed the beaded beads with polymer clay beads by polymer artist Grant Diffendaffer. To keep the kit cost down, students will be using resin beads by Natural Touch instead of the artist beads.

Selection Of beaded beads to be taught at Common Ground:

Beads laid out with Natural Touch Resin beads in preparation for stringing into necklace:

Last year I taught my Falling Leal necklace and had great success with students including a 10 year old.
This is my most recent Falling Leaf necklace just completed. The faculty exhibit in Peterson Hall has several of my Falling Leaf necklaces on display as well as my Magnum Opus "Clubbing the Night Away" blogged here Sept 2009-Feb 2010. Keep cool. Joanne