Getting Ready for IOLI Convention

I am now working on getting the projects that I'm going to teach at IOLI Convention ready and documented. I've never taught these projects before, so I have a lot of work to do to get ready for it. I only hope I can do a decent job and get the ideas across to my students. Here are the projects from which students will choose:

This necklace is made with snake knot. The bead/charm on the necklace on the left is a 'Lampwork Floral' from Kahn-Fagan, who were vendors at our Lace Day, which is held the first Saturday of every November. The picture does not do it justice -- it's actually GORGEOUS, with beautiful greens and purples and opalescence!

This one has snake knots made onto a charm (I guess that's what you'd call it) that I bought at JoAnn's. I have to warn everyone that these necklaces are addictive. Once you start making them, you find you want to make more and more. There are so many wonderful charms and beads out there that just BEG to be made into a snake knot necklace!

These are the front and back (not sure which is which, honestly) of an amulet bag made with square knotting (macrame), with a bit of weaving thrown in. A snake-knot neck chain finishes the project off nicely. There are several other designs from which to choose, and one can mix and match the bag and neck chain styles, all of which are my original designs.

This is a floating key ring. It is made to resemble a boat side fender. The nice thing about a floating key ring is that, if you're on a boat and drop your keys, as long as there are not too many keys on the ring they will float, so that you don't have to go diving to retrieve them, or worse, consider them lost forever!

This is a pink ribbon that I made from square knots. I was asked to make something out of macrame for Breast Cancer Awareness, a couple of years ago, and this is what I came up with. It's very simple to make, once you know square knotting, but there is a little trick to making the ribbon stay crossed without any glue -- I don't DO glue!

This can be made with any color cording, of course, to represent the cause of your choice.

Also, I have permission from the publisher to teach from the books Hemp Masters and Hemp Masters Getting Knotty and I'm happy to announce that I will have a FEW copies of each book for sale at the Convention. Please let me know IN ADVANCE if you would like me to reserve a copy for you! Here are some of the patterns I am considering teaching:

The first one is made with hempcording. It has beads and a single-holebutton incorporated into it, and a VERY clever closure, which I presume is an original design by the author of both books, Max Lunger. The second is a similar pattern made with braided cotton cording, cloisonne beads and a floral button that looks like it was made to go with the beads, but I actually got them all separately. The last one is made with a different pattern. I had the charm and thought I'd like to make the necklace with that. Well, with all the black widows we have around here, when it came time to choose the colors for the necklace, I had to use with black and red. The Josephine knots (Carrick Bends, called Pretzel Knots in the book) in this pattern remind me of the hour-glass marking on a widow's belly.

On the left is the Double Solomon's Bar key fob. There's a trick to making the loops at each end, with no ends showing, when the piece is completed.

On the right is a variation of the Double Solomon's Bar key fob.

It's fun to see what designs people are able to dream up with this technique.

The week-long Convention takes place at the Hilton Los Angeles Airport Hotel (info at the link below), July 25 through August 1, 2009. You DO NOT need be a member of IOLI to attend, and you do not need to go for the entire week! There are a FEW spaces still open in my classes, as well as a few other classes. The classes are filling up quickly, and the registration deadline is approaching very soon, so if you're interested, please go to the Freeway Lace Guild website (hosting the Convention, this year) and get all the information you need to register. I suggest registering QUICKLY, in order to get the class(es) you really want.