There’s nothing like great bead friends. We meet them in the bead store through classes or shopping, or we teach our existing friends all we know about beading and make them into hardcore beaders like ourselves. We’re willing to convert anyone! Sharing the love of beadwork comes to us naturally. We just look for an opportunity and then seize it!

Quite a few years back I realized what a great group of bead friends I have. It was when I still lived in Maine, and my stride had just opened up with bead weaving. I decided to invite my beading friends and family to a beaders weekend, which I planned out with my sister, Deb. We chose a hotel suite in a city that seemed evenly spaced amongst us all. We figured we’d be up all night beading, so we didn’t need different rooms. We made phone calls to everyone as an invitation, and then set back to watch the clock tick each minute by in quite anticipation for the weekend to come!

We met on Friday in the late afternoon before dinner. Oh, the luggage we brought that had nothing to do with clothes! We packed beads, stringing materials and needles. We packed fibers, findings and books. There were grocery bags full of snacks. There were gifts! And bags of projects galore for show and tell! We checked into the hotel, piled up all our loot and headed to barricade ourselves in our suite for a couple of days.

We were chitter-chattering like a bunch of hens for the first few hours. Bags opened up and the most wonderful stuff started pouring out! We were squealing and laughing and groping at all the amazing beads and beadwork. We were trying on jewelry and dancing around and letting the silliness get to us. This was a giddy bead-high at its best! Then we all sat down on the floor and had a chance to tell about where our bead adventures had taken us since the last time we visited. We had projects from classes we’d taken, and beads from shows that we’d bought. There were contest pieces that had won prizes. We actually got a sneak peak at some pieces being beaded for Suzanne Cooper’s current book about to be published. Some of our friends are lampworkers and they brought out their current beads for some feedback. Some are wire workers and they gave some demos on some interesting clasps they’d designed and were going to teach classes on. Then we realized we were starving!

Out came the food. I imagined bags of snacks like chips and dip, chocolate, and popcorn… and I admit, I think we all brought our weight in chocolate. But to my surprise, out came the home made spinach-artichoke casserole with tortilla chips, muffins with huge caps, fresh fruit, and a bounty of other foods that were fit for the Gods. Our room had a little fridge and stove, and we made the best use of it. When the time came, we did opt for pizza delivery and once we adventured out in our pajamas to see if we could find a diner or corner deli. We sure didn’t starve that weekend.

We brought little gifts for each other. Beads, patterns, fibers, tools, charms and kits were being handed around in little bags or on strings. This hadn’t been planned, so it was sweet to see that everyone had thought of everyone else!

Great food, comfy slippers, good music, great company and BEADS! BEADS! BEADS! Once we got settled in we really got our hands dirty. It was a great time for visiting, but very productive time in spite of all the chatter. We finished some of those half baked projects, or handed them over to more willing beaders who wanted to adopt them. We shared techniques and designs and tips on how to do what we do easier. We told stories of bead stores and shows that we’d been to. We beaded into the night and then the days and nights ran into each other. We slept a little here and there with naps, and took showers only to come back to the bead tables with wet hair and no make up. Deodorant was enough. Anything beyond that cut into bead time.

Soon it was Sunday and the afternoon pittered away. We had to go back to reality, and we did… begrudgingly. We packed up our projects and bead cases. The tools and stringing materials and books got bagged. Uh, there were no snacks to pack. :-) We made a vow to do a beaders weekend on every “A” month, April and August. And we did for quite a while. We even borrowed a camp on a Maine lake and the landscape was astonishingly beautiful. Since we had full amenities, we planned elaborate meals and did serious groceries before arriving. We built a fire and hunkered down in quilts at night. Not that we slept much. We never did on those weekends.

So do it. Don’t just sit there. Get out your calendar and address book. Choose 5 or 6 friends and see if you can get them all to commit to a weekend away. Send them a formal invitation if you have to. Keep planning it until it really happens. It’s a retreat that will change you in a way that you can’t get anywhere else. Be the one to organize it, and then just let it take its own course. You’re in for a magical experience.