Bead Expo in Portland

Sarah Shriver Pendant

Early Friday morning Rita and I headed south to Portland for a fine silver fusing class that began at 9am. This required us rise at 3:30am. The Bead Expo in Portland, Oregon ended up being a great learning experience. We both took Low Tech Metalsmithing from Anne Mitchell . Anne taught us to fuse fine silver. I learned quite a bit from her that morning including that the two torches I own are not ones she recommends. After the tool and safety talk, we made ear wires, "S" and "J" hooks, toggles, bales and textured fine silver. Fusing silver is much easier than soldering. But even after taking this class my fear of working with torches is still there. Julia Sober says she'll work with me at clay camp in May to resolve these issues. If you have a chance, go visit Julia Sober's website, she makes some innovative polymer clay and silver creations.

Friday evening Jayne Hoffman took us to a very trendy place in Portland for dinner and then for dessert. Pix Patisserie has unusual desserts that are definitely not diet material, but were so yummy. I indulged in the Shazam! It is a rich and creamy caramel mousse, with salted almonds, dense chocolate almond cake, and more caramel…Shazam!

Saturday morning we had time to browse the bead show before heading home. This allowed me the opportunity to purchase another pendant from Sarah Shriver who was exhibiting at the bead show. I enjoy Sarah Shriver's work.