After convincing myself the last few days my beadwork is all rubbish, I start the day by giving myself a good talking to and, after soaking up some sun and stroking Kate's lovely cats, I decide to hit the day full of positivity.

I am helped in no small part by looking around at all the different people here and all the different work they create. I know that even if we were all given exactly the same beads and instructions, we would all still bead something completely different and each piece would have its own merit.

One small example of this is two pieces of beadwork produced over the last few days by Kate McKinnon and Marcia DeCoster.

Teresa Sullivan has brought with her a great book by an incredible beader, Joyce Scott, who I have never been fortunate enough to meet, but I did get to see some of her work in New York last year. I did once travel to Istanbul to take a class with her to no avail, but one day maybe.

Teresa has beaded a type of curl/ fringe and explains to us how it is done and straight away Kate and Marcia begin beading their own version and it is great to see the different ways each of them play with the idea.

Kate's is kept plain and in one colour, with one size of bead (you can see it here) whilst Marcia goes wild with different sized, shaped and coloured beads (as seen here). Completely different interpretations of the same idea and technique, yet both are beautiful and I would be delighted to have beaded either one. This is enough of a lesson for me to relax about my work just because it isn't as 'artistic' or the same as that created by others.

Also just being around Marcia DeCoster is a big help. I have long admired her work and it's nice to see someone who works in one sense in a similar way to me (i.e. usually always working towards a finished project which needs writing up), but in another sense very differently (i.e. she is an expert in RAW which I rarely use, uses thread I don't know how to use and her work is often more ornate and elegant than mine). Yet at the end of all the similarities and differences she creates amazingly beautiful work which leads me to realise there is no right or wrong way to do all this.

When I first started beading I was frequently told I wasn't doing 'proper beadwork'. Yep, you read that right. Basically it wasn't all amulet purses (of which I have done plenty) and copies of other peoples work and therefore it wasn't quite right and how dare I do it?

Fortunately I stopped listening to those who said that and branched out with beadwork I liked doing and continued daring to 'get above my station' by teaching my own classes and submitting work to magazines- and I'm glad I did. But one comment I received had always stuck with me without me even being aware of it. When I first put on my own classes I was rung and told by someone "I don't need to do that, I'm an artist". Somehow denegrating me and my work as commercial made them happy and I guess I took that on board and thought that creating work which I wrote up, taught and sold was bad in some way. Even as I write that I realise how silly that sounds, but it's amazing what you take on board from others isn't it?

Being around others who choose colours, as I do, because they like the look of them, create pieces because they find them appealing to the eye and wearable has convinced me that if they can do it, and create works I love and envy, then if I am doing the same there's nothing wrong with that and that's just the way I work.

Do you know the tale of the scorpion and the frog? Maybe I am just like that scorpion and beading in the way I do is just in my nature. There's no point in wishing I was a frog and I guess I'll just have to live with it!

So, now that I've convinced all of us that I am worthy, time to continue my tale...

I begin my day carrying on making a beaded ring (triangular of course) I began the night before. I don't remember beading a ring for years so am enjoying making something I will wear. But strangely I soon realise that I appear to be using some brown beads instead of the blue I thought I was...

Of course the curse of 'bad lot beads' seems to have struck again and my carefully chosen blue beads are shedding their lovely colour as soon as I use them. But unlike yesterday I decide to live and let live and keep calm and carry on.

As we all sit around beading, chatting, laughing, drooling over each others work etc Mark (Marcia's husband) mentions that he would like to buy some turquoise to be made into a ring. These simple words begin a chain of events which rapidly changes the course of our day.

Once Mark says this, Kate mentions that Gary Wilson (of Gary Wilson Stones) lives in Tucson and she thinks she has his card...

Almost immediately the atmosphere in the room changes and we all sit up like little meerkats listening in and trying not to get too excited.

I have once seen Gary Wilson's stand (back in 2006 at Bead and Button) and have never forgotten it, nor all the things I should have bought but didn't. My main memory of the stand was of it being packed with trays of the most amazing stones I had ever seen but the stand being so busy that I felt like I had to grab a tray and hope it had something I wanted on it as I may never get a chance to see the stand, or even another tray, again.

As Kate rang Gary and told him we were around, she asked if it was possible for us to come over and, if so, when? You could almost hear all our 8 minds thinking "Now, please say now" and what do you know? He said now is a good time.

In what seemed liked seconds we were all in the cars (apart from Kate who stayed home to cook dinner) and heading to Chez Gary.

The thought of being able to see his stones unhurried, and all to ourselves, drove us on and soon, after a few wrong turns, we were at his house and of course, not only were we all wowed by what he had available but also his kindness, knowledge and own personal collection of stones which he gave us a peek at.

It was like discovering a complete treasure trove and we all poured over the trays to our heart's content and each left with our own treasures, which I am sure you will see popping up all over our work. You can see what Marcia wrote about the trip here.

All spent, physically, mentally and monetarily, we headed home where we were too hyped up to bead so indulged in the amazing meal Kate had cooked and spent the evening enjoying margaritas and martinis by the pool as we chatted more beads and beading and admired Dustin's amazing beaded ties.

I took lots of photos of the ties, and don't worry I will treat you then to soon, but I thought for now I would show you the amazing scene I stood back and took in as I watched people from different backgrounds and countries with different tastes, educations, lives and experiences all enjoy eaach others' company and talk the international language of beads and I was glad to be a part of it all.

A good day all round.