Ferntastic Beading

One of the places my family loves is Fern Resort in Orillia, Ontario. For one week, each summer, we

escape to this beautiful place where we can put all our cares behind. The only way to really describe it in one sentence is to say that it is exactly the same as Dirty Dancing.

What I love best about Fern is that we can do whatever we want. If we want to sit by the pool and read, no one bothers us. If we want to get out and be active, we can walk through the woods, go swimming, kayak around the lake, or find dozens of other activities. And if we want to participate in a group activity, there are plenty of those to try as well. Mostly at Fern we sit by the pool and relax the day away, but this year we took part in a couple of fun group activities. One was cocktail mixing – good fun sitting around the bar, getting a quick lesson, and then drinking some generous samples (what’s not to love). The other group activity I went to was jewellery making class.

The jewellery class at Fern is great – or Ferntastic as those at Fern resort would say. (Sadly, people at Fern will find endless ways to make up positive words and sayings using the word Fern – Ferntastic, Fernerrific, Feel the Fern, etc.) Back to jewellery class… A wonderful woman named Nancy comes to Fern for a couple of hours in the afternoon, sets up some tables with beading tools and lets us come in and help ourselves to her beads and make some jewellery. She sits around, keeps us chatting about whatever, and then she helps put clasps on or whatever else people need to create a few projects. She is a super nice woman and as long as the others in the class don’t get their elbows up around the beading table, it is a very enjoyable experience.

I’ve done the class on two different trips to Fern and it has been a highlight both times. In 2009 I particularly enjoyed watching one 18 year-old guy, who thought he was quite something, create a necklace, bracelet and earrings set for “the one back home”. Naturally each of his pieces was loaded up with pink, plastic hearts. His creations were great – made with so much love (and so entertaining for the rest of us in the class.) He wasn’t at Fern this year as he had to stay home and work. We all missed him.

Here is one of my creations from 2009. I also made a great bracelet, but it sadly fell apart one night and I didn’t think to save it from its demise.

This year’s jewellery class wasn’t as entertaining but it was still typically Fern fun. For most of us it was relaxing, except for one girl who was trying to juggle beading and water-skiing at the same time. Her father kept coming in counting down the minutes to her water-ski time and Nancy was kind enough to extend the class time so she could come back and finish her jewellery after a quick ski around the lake. Gotta love a place where you can transition from water-skiing to jewellery making in a matter of minutes.

Here are my creations from this year’s class.

I knew writing a blog would be a learning experience, but I didn’t realize how quickly I would learn that I am not a great photographer. I tried to get a good picture of the necklaces, but I just couldn’t do it. To prove that I do have some photography skills, here are a couple of other pictures from Fern.