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I guess you are no longer wondering how I come up with weird dreams of men that glow or have leopard spots - my titles are starting to explain what goes on in my head

Saturday 29th March

As I’m chowing down breakfast in our Murano apartment this morning, I hear a knock at the door. It’s Mike Frantz. “Hey, what you guys doin’ for breakfast?”. I offered, “Prunes.” Mike disappears.

Pati’s Aquarium bead - Day 2. Pati shows us her way of doing some of her undersea creatures - my favourite is the crab. I’m really happy with this and think straight away that I want to show this to my friend Dom at home who is also a Cancerian. I’m determined to be good at ‘drawing’ crabs. I name it “Crabby Pati”. Pati starts singing Sponge Bob Square Pants theme song - her and John are fans of the show. No wonder I get along with them both!

Pati gets stuck into showing us how she makes a seahorse murrini. It’s very cool watching her work these murrini, I’ve never seen it done so I’m quite fascinated with the process. And then something happens that leaves me in awe of Pati - her almost completed seahorse breaks from the punty, flies through the air into a plastic bag which starts to melt and smolder. Unfazed, Pati says, “Don’t panic” and retrieves the seahorse, re-attaches it to the punty, picks off the bits of melted plastic and resumes encasing it! A perfect example of what to do when you drop your bead - pick it up, dust it off and keep at it. Loved it! We make our version of her aquarium beads and I have better success with it today.

During the class, we get visits from Lucio Babacco, Diego Bottocini (spell?) of CriDi and Luigi Cattelan and then later on Mike Frantz and Davide Salvadore. These guys just come for a visit and a look at what we’re doing. No demos, but it’s pretty cool. I resist the urge to pick up my camera and photograph them.

After class that day, I get chatting to Sharon. Sharon is wearing one of her beads today - her sculptured rose. I tell her how I remember her rose but not her at one of our bead meetings in Brisbane last year. I also tell her how I got an idea inspired by the Vetrofond odd lot colour “Pineapple Sparkle”, to actually make a pineapple with that colour. She shows me how she makes her sculptured rose, and she uses “Free range organic salmon” pink (which I think is “Watermelon”) - pretty! After that demo, Sharon has a go with making a pineapple. It turns out awesome! And she gave it to me!! Sharon rocks.

Corina and Mike come visit the studio again, and Sarah H and Indie too. Sarah H has been dying to do a Bead Mash-up and talks Corina into doing it. So the two of them sit down and proceed to make the Bead Mash-up beads. What happens in a bead mash-up is that they both start making a bead, around half-way they swap beads and finish it off putting their on style on it. I hope I’ve got this right, but Corina turns Sarah’s bead into a fish. And then puts a frog onto her bead. They end up being very cool beads - a little bit Sarah and a little bit Corina. And it was very fun to watch. I’m not sure who has them now. Anyone know?

It’s late by the time we get back to our apartment. Marianne and I scrounge up a quick dinner of pasta. Our front door is open for some reason, and we get a visit from Corina and Mike. Corina brings wine, fruit and chocolate. Mike brings a collection of Davide Salvadore’s murrini. Wow! That stuff is hot. I’ve got a few pictures to of them too. I saw a catalogue of Davide’s African collection of glass musical instruments in our last apartment, so I recognised a few of the pieces. We all chatted and joked around, told some stories. And we eventually buy a selection of the newest Vetrofond odd lots from Mike. Marianne and I eventually get back to our apartment and go to bed.

The days are starting to get slightly surreal - it starts and ends with Mike Frantz, a good dose of Pati, Corina and Sarah with sprinklings of Italian artists - Salvadore, Diego and Lucio. Excuse me sir, when does my head stop spinning? Even though I’m not getting a lot of sleep, I am not really tired. The adrenalin, the anticipation and the excitement of each day keep me going.