Marcia DeCoster at Bead Society Meeting - DeeeLightful!

Marcia DeCoster

Sinced I waxed so poetic about it last week before it even happened, I thought I'd pass on the summary of the Northern California Bead Society meeting that I wrote for my own blog.

The evening of Marcia's talk was just...wonderful. I attended my first Northern California Bead Society meeting where Marcia DeCoster was the featured speaker, and she gave a wonderful talk. She had just wrapped up the new and enormously popular Beading by the Bay retreat in San Francisco, and BSNC was able to book her for the talk.

In addition to providing an entertaining timeline of her beading career, she spoke very comfortably and casually about developing core skills in beadweaving, how to structure your environment to foster creativity, the importance of reusable components, where to find inspiration and influences for your work, the notion of exploration, and capturing ideas as they are born.

Marcia finds that her best inspiration for new designs comes when she is away from home, surrounded by other creative people, and able to focus on new ideas.

A collaboration between Marcia DeCoster and Heather Trimlett

Some of the beaded eye candy Marcia brought.

As a newbie to the seed beading world it was fascinating to me to see her work in person (it is both richly complex and beautiful), and I can hardly imagine how some of her weaving patterns come to be. Having at least dipped my toes a little into the sead beady sea I was able to understand some of the terms she used, but many are still Greek to me. I was grateful to have done the little bit I have done, or I'm sure I would have been completely lost, yet still awed.

Amazing!

Keep your eyes on her website this fall, when registration for 48 lucky beaders opens for next year's Beading by the Bay retreat, featuring instructors Sherry Serafini, Rachel Nelson-Smith, and Marcia.

Marcia, Little Hoot, and Rachel.
Visit Marcia's blog to read the story about Little Hoot.

Mary Ann, I did ask her about her hands, and she said that yes, like many other beaders, she has suffered with some pain. She treats it by doing the standard recommended exercises, taking advil, and taking a rest from beading. She said she doesn't bead as much as people would think, which is no surprise given her involvement in all of the other aspects of her beading business.

There you have it! A DeeeeLightful evening.