2008  - JAN MEETING - Michael Dean Demo

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We were so glad that Michael Dean agreed to show us how how he makes his beautiful floral beads at the January Meeting.  Then it snowed and we had to cancel the meeting.  Fortunately Michael agreed to a new date and we were able to see him work when the meeting was rescheduled for the following week.

Thanks also to Diane Kovach our co-president who took all of the photos of Michael and his beads.

 

Michael Dean with Margo Knight, Marcy Lamberson and Kristy Nijenkamp watching.
 

The first step in making complex multilayered floral beads is preparing  stringer.  Here Michael is organizing the stringer that he will use to make the flowers.
He prepares the base bead.  It starts small because the bead will grow with the many layers of petals that Michael adds.
 

The first set of dots is applied with stringer to make the flower petals.  They are melted in and another set applied.

  

After all the petals have been added, melted in and cased, Michael does the final rounding up of the bead using a Marble mold to help get the final shape perfect.
A close-up of three of Michaels gorgeous floral beads.  A wonderful example of the detail and depth in his beads.
 

 

 
A tray of Michaels Beads with close-ups of a couple of them below.
 

 

 
One last photo from the meeting.  It mystified the Web Mama who wasn't at the meeting until Diane Kovach who took the photographs explained it.  If you didn't go to the meeting, see if you can guess what it is before you look at the explanation beneath.

Ready??  It seems that Kristy Nijenkamp is blowing or winding  hollow globes for a larger than life Abacus that will be displayed in her living room.  One of the glass balls exploded and Kristy though it looked so cool on her worktable that she decided to frame it in a shadow box.  (You guessed that......right!)
 

 

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