HGA’s Convergence 2024 was in July of this year and I was there for a week-long retreat: volunteering where I could and taking some pretty fun workshops, too! Because the conference this year was only a two and a half hour drive from my home, I decided to head down a couple of days before to help stuff goodie bags, work the registration desk, and get settled in before the classes started. I need a lot of down time- and I still had to warp the looms I had for each session.

One of the tapestries using bead and wire shared with us by Rebecca Smith (and one of my favorites), in the Tapestry Weaving with Beads and Wire class I took at Convergence. (not yet titled)

The first day went smoothly; we stuffed over 700 goodie bags in just over a couple of hours! From there, I was scheduled to help at the registration desk for another couple hours, but since it wasn’t open yet, there wasn’t much need for extra bodies, so I wandered down to the exhibits where there was. That was fun! First I helped with attaching garment swatches to the actual fashion show garments (to be hung later for another exhibit) then I learned how to assemble the pedestals and made myself useful setting up some of the pieces on display for the mixed media exhibit.

I was very impressed at how efficiently planned out and implemented both these activities were. The goodie bags were completed utilizing an assembly line approach- and it moved swiftly! I think there were probably about 14 people on task around the tables. And another 4 or 5 making sure more items were delivered as were needed. Picture Lucille Ball in that famous chocolate factory episode- minus the chocolate goodness, of course! Then down at the gallery spaces, my amazement continued. There were at least 4 separate exhibits, probably more, being organized by this tiny little diorama. All planned out and fabricated in advance. Only white gloves were allowed to touch the pieces as they were carefully unwrapped and documented. If you were one of the exhibiting artists in any of these shows, rest assured your work was well cared for.

A small section of the Diorama showing placement of some of the exhibits. Volunteers could easily see where a piece should be displayed.

I finished up the day around 6 with plans to go back to my room and get my loom warped for the next day’s workshop with Rebecca Smith’s Weaving with Wire. The evening didn’t quite progress as I’d anticipated, so I was up later than usual getting that job done. It would have ended differently had I not forgotten to bring the warping bar for the Mirrix… it’s a long story but basically I had to use a bar from another loom I had brought which created a domino effect for the entire week, each time needing another rod!

Rebecca is a great teacher and this was a fun class to take. Also fun to see so many familiar faces around the room! Hey to Lu, Karen, Nancy…

I had a basic grasp of how weaving with beads worked, but not with the wire added in. That was interesting. I think my favorite part of the class was the brilliant guidance in the very beginning. I said Rebecca is a very good teacher and here’s just one example. She had us start by stringing our beads and weaving one bead between each warp all across the loom to get familiar with the process.

This in itself was a wonderful way to start the class, but what I loved about it was this: it was also a brilliant method to space your warp threads! My loom was warped at 12 EPI and a finer sett than I was used to so I had anticipated that keeping those warp threads spread at an even distance might be challenging.

I thoroughly enjoyed this class - so much so that I didn’t want to prematurely cut the warp off. I was determined to bring it home and finish.

And so I did.

It’s no masterpiece, but I found it fun to do. I ended a little earlier than I might have simply because the other bead packet I’d chosen was a different color and didn’t quite fit into the design. It could have if I’d had some notion of where I was going with it in the beginning… but I didn’t. So I ended when I ran out of beads.

Here are some images of what some of the others were up to in the class.

We also had a wonderful intern in this workshop, and I love that Rebecca asked her to share her work and story with us. Arghavan Booyeh Khanghah Sofia. Check out her IG profile here.

I don’t know if I’ll actually use beads- or wire, for that matter, in my future work- but I might!

If you get a chance to take a class in the future with Rebecca- and this one in particular - I’m guessing you’ll enjoy it!

Notes from Convergence 2024