A busy day today but again I manage to not squeeze in any beadwork.

My day starts with packing to go away and teach at Stitchncraft Beads in Shaftesbury. I will be showing how to make my Geometric Stars in the class and my first job is to print out and bind 12 booklets.

When I first began taking beading classes, it was common to be given a badly photocopied page from a book which served as your instructions. I know myself that I don't go straight home from a class and finish something, and I used to find that a few months later, when I decided to pick up the project again, the instructions made no sense.

So when I began teaching I was determined to try and provide better. I love being able to give people a hand-out I know tells them all the information they need and which they can use a a reference guide after the class and now I have an electric binder the process of printing, collating and binding twelve 23 page full-colour, spiral-bound, plastic-covered booklets is a bit easier!

When I teach I also like to take a wide range of beadwork with me for display. Again I know from my own experience how disappointing it is when a teacher turns up with literally no work to show. I love looking at beadwork and what people have made. One of the highlights when I teach my longer geometric classes, is when I ask people to bring work they've done with them. It's always nice to see the eyecandy and chat about what people have done. As a teacher you don't often get that opportunity, so if you ever do a class and bring beadwork along, don't be shy, show your teacher!

So I pack up a couple of boxes of some of my most recent work and some which best exemplifies things I will talk about when teaching. I always make sure I pack items which I am more than happy for people to pick up, handle and try-on. After-all we all know how tactile beadwork is and there's nothing worse than than seeing a piece you want to examine and it having a "Do not touch" sign next to it.

My evening is taken up with a talk on publishing your own book at X marks the Bokship, an alterntive bookshop in East London. The talk is more relevant to publishing an art book but very enjoyable and informative and it's nice to see some of the work they have for sale.