I head off to Egypt to teach tomorrow and a last minute panic has got me beading like mad.

Originally I thought I would be teaching experienced beaders but now it seems, from the information I have been sent, that these will be jewellery makers, wireworkers and stringers, possibly all seed bead virgins. Yikes- bang goes my plan for advanced triangles then!

So instead I have been raiding all those boxes of beadwork I have created over the years and rooting out easier bits of peyote and square stitch to show the students. I plan to teach them both stitches to start with, and then base the rest of the time on what they want, their level of beading, personal preferences etc. But if anyone wants to create something more advanced I shall be prepared. We have 4 days together in class so I'm looking forward to seeing what they produce in that time.

Part of my panic was making sure I had some basic geometric work made up in seed beads and just to be extra sure I have beaded a new bracelet to show them. It's a long time since I have done much geometric work in regular seed beads so it has been nice to do that again, but also a challenge as I'm so used to the gorgeous regularity of cylinder beads.

Now when I curse the minute size differences in colours and finishes of cylinders I'll remind myself of beading this and the complete difference in the seed beads and how in the end it all worked out ok. A good lesson.

Please cross your fingers for me, and for the poor students who maybe won't know what's hit them very soon!