Great Escapes weekend beading retreat – Beaded Bottles Workshop

I had an absolutely fab weekend with Great Escapes in Guildford. It was the first outing of the Beaded Bottles workshop and I was blown away by everyone’s creations and colour combinations. As I expected every bottle was different (except 2 – and those girls sat uncannily next to each other!) and everyone’s beadwork was unique. It was definitely a ‘spread your beady wings and fly girls’ weekend. The food was excellent, the surroundings beautiful and the company sublime – it was so lovely seeing some old friends and making some new ones too. We also had some gorgeous chill out music from an acoustic guitar played on the patio for the wedding downstairs. I’m just totally cheesed off that I only remembered to get the camera out after some had gone and virtually everything was packed up! So I only got a few shots – Doh!!!

Jane Dickinson runs Great Escapes and, my workshop aside, I wanted to say what a great package she puts together for a weekend retreat. The level of care you get on these weekends is superb, the food and wine is excellent and the grounds of the hotel are beautiful. It’s wonderful to go for a walk, early morning before breakfast and take in all the beautiful gardens, fresh air, peace and calm, then return and join friends for lots of fun throughout the day. Before you know it it’s coffee time with cakes…. homemade cakes and biscuits – oh don’t get me started!!!! With the workshop interrupting lunch and afternoon tea (with more beautiful cakes, scones and cream…..) it only remains to change, and meet up in the bar for aperitifs before delectable dining. We sometimes manage to roll, giggling upstairs for a tad of beading after dinner, but it’s funny how you often find the next morning that there are beads in your beadwork that really shouldn’t be there – Xenobeads! Warning – wine and beading don’t mix unless you’re working on a freeform piece!

I will be putting images of the finished bottles on my Students’ Work page.