Weekend with Kieu Pham Gray...

We are so lucky to be able to work with Kieu Pham Gray.  She's a talented jewelry-maker, teacher, and all-around tool guru.  Kieu and her husband, Andy, have a wonderful jewelry-making supply business called The Urban Beader.  They offer a wide array of tools and interesting jewelry-making materials.  We at Allegory Gallery hosted her weekend of workshops and we used Main Exhibit Gallery's awesome new classroom space.  Make sure to visit Main Exhibit Gallery's website to see a listing of all the great classes that they're offering in the new art center.

Kieu taught six classes.  On the first night, she taught how to solder and make the Double-cross Bracelet.  On the second day, she taught how to saw and solder in the Essential Pendant class.  The Essential Pendant is a wonderful project, featuring a diffuser pendant for essential oils.  We had a break between workshops for a book signing (with tasty treats from Warrior King Pastries) and then jumped into drilling beach glass and tube riveting.  Since our class was smaller for pearl knotting, we had the class at Mountain Palace over plates of steaming dumplings and Northern Chinese cuisine!

On the third day of classes, she taught torch enameling and silver-casting with cuttlefish bones.  It was a really great weekend, filled with creative information.

It was a really fun weekend and I think everyone had a really good time.  These weekend intensives are really a wonderful immersion experience and I feel my head swimming with possibilities.

One of the things that I love about these weekends is that they provide quality classes that might otherwise be out of reach for a lot of people.  They're also smaller, so there's a lot of individual attention and I feel like you get to know the instructor (and your fellow classmates) better.

We had such a marvelous time that we're already talking about having Kieu back in 2017!  It seems like a long time away, but it'll be here before you know it!  We are so appreciative of all the students who came out to support these classes; without you, we would not be able to do these things.  We are also grateful to Kieu for coming out to Ligonier to share her wealth of information and provide a fun and relaxed learning environment!  Thanks, Kieu!

OH!  And be sure to sign-up for a new project that Kieu is working on!  It's called, Ever Crafting and is an online community for serial crafters!  I'll be playing along as one of the jewelry gurus!  CLICK HERE to sign up.