A little further away I could see the smiling face and attractive display of Dutch designer
Sandra Scholte. To the left of her was the well known US based bead artist
Zoya Gutina (originally from Russia) – I met Zoya at the first fair in 2011 so we greeted each other like old friends. At one point I looked up from one of my demos to see US designer and teacher
Adele Rogers Recklies beaming at me, we’ve been Facebook friends for a number of years but never met in person as we live so far apart, and now here she was stood right in front of me wearing one of the fabulous crochet snakes I’d always admired. The same thing happened with
Helena Tang-Lim from Singapore – Helena travels all over the world to teach her intricate designs and we had wanted to catch up with each other for years but never quite managed to organise it, but this time we got to meet, hug and pose for a photo together. And as if that is not international enough, I also got to meet and spend time with
Joanne Ivy, a bead store owner who had traveled all the way from Australia to check out the various new bead shapes and also take a bead crochet class with Adele!