Come on Baby, Light My Fire!

"Education is not the filling of a bucket but the lighting of a fire."

~W.B. Yeats

I love to learn something new. And to do that with friends is a the best of all possibilities.

I always take classes at Bead & Button. I have taken some really awesome classes. My preference is for at least whole day classes, and multi-day are even better. I  need time to get into a rhythm with an instructor, and getting to know them is a great opportunity. This year I was determined to take a class with Richard Salley. Easy to do since he was teaching a class every single day at Bead & Button. But I am also the Great Procrastinator. And I waited too long. I was so disappointed. But there are like 559 other classes there so there was bound to be something else. And I looked. And looked. But rather than take classes that I was not fully invested in, just to take them, I decided to start looking around for an alternative.

I found it in the upcoming ArtBliss workshop coordinated by Cindy Wimmer and Jeannette Blix. The workshops coming up in March feature Stephanie Lee of Semiprecious Salvage fame. You know I am a serious bibliophile. I have virtually every jewelry making, craft wielding book on the market. I remember vividly when Semiprecious Salvage was in my hot little hands. I was practically weeping in awe of the beauty of those projects and wanted desperately to be that sort of artist who can see the possibility in the mundane and the beauty in the everyday object. And now I get to take a class with her. I can't tell you how thrilled I am that I will get to meet her! She will be lighting a fire for sure with me... literally!

There are three classes being offered. I opted to take the Junk Drawer Metalsmithing class all day on Saturday and the Pipe Dreams class all day on Sunday. I think that they will build nicely upon each other. I mean if I am going to fly out to the D.C. area I need to make it worth my while and stay for a bit! If you are in the area, I think that this is going to be one awesome workshop. Come! Join me!

I just booked my non-stop flight to D.C. on Friday with a return flight on Monday. I am getting in nice an early so that I can enjoy the commute from the airport and still have time to relax and unwind. I sent in a request for my reservation of space in both classes and hotel room. I have a long list of supplies that I need to start gathering., and I have been making arrangements with Cindy and Jeannette and Lori Anderson to meet up with them since they are each taking one of the classes that I am in. I think that almost more than the classes with the great Stephanie Lee I am very excited to get to finally meet some blogging sisters. This will be a B.L.A.S.T.

So I will be learning metalsmithing techniques in 2011 and building on what I have already learned and hopefully actually using what I learned. What about you?

What new techniques are you hoping to learn this year? 
Is it something that you could teach yourself using tutorials and online classes and eBooks? 
Or is it something that is best learned from an expert in their field? 
If you could take a class by anyone, anywhere and money were no object, what would that class be? Who would the teacher be? Why would you want to take it? Do tell!