An afternoon of beading at Abbottsford Convent

One of the things I love so much about Melbourne is the absolute plethora of creative options in every direction. There is such a strong maker movement here and that’s reflected in the regular maker markets that happen as well as the ongoing supply of various workshops and classes for virtually every creative medium.

The other day I went to a beaded jewelry workshop hosted by Ochre Ceramics - a ceramic maker and jewelry artist based in Byron Shire. Artist/maker, Lauren, set up a beautiful spread of food and wine, as well as a table filled with beautiful ceramic beads, pearls, metal accent beads and seed beads.

I don’t often use seed beads, but I found them to be really fun to work with and I liked the simplicity of the designs I ended up with. The sheer volume of colors available in seed beads makes them an exciting design option for me.

For my necklace, I started with a color palette and then just started stringing beads - bit haphazardly in the details but with an overall pattern in mind for adding the larger aqua ceramic beads and pearls. Beading like this almost gets me into a meditative state. I should probably do this more frequently.

And while I failed to actually get pictures, the venue for this was wonderful. It took place at Abbottsford Convent which is an arts and cultural precinct in the Abbottsford suburb of Melbourne. There are lots of green spaces, food vendors and restaurants, as well as maker spaces and markets. Definitely a place worth visiting and spending a sunny afternoon if you’re ever in Melbourne.