Workshop & AGM Weekend

St Hilda's Gift - A Beaded Ammonite Necklace Workshop by Jenny Boyle

Free to members - 2 places still available

Saturday 16 July 2011: 10.00-4.00 in the Normanby Room at Whitby Museum, Pannett Park, Whitby, N Yorkshire YO21 1RE Click here for map

Why St. Hilda's Gift? St Hilda was the niece of King Edwin of Northumbria . She answered the call of St Aidan, Bishop of Lindisfarne and became a nun around 647 AD. In 657 she became the founding abbess of Whitby Abbey.

St Hilda's Gift necklace

Local folklore says that Hilda got rid of evil snakes by praying and cracking a whip. The terrified snakes fell over the cliff and were turned to stone. This was a medieval explanation of the spiral ammonite fossils found in the rocks below the cliffs. With this legend in mind, Victorian geologists named one local species of ammonite 'ammonite hildroceras'.

In Jenny's workshop members will encase in a bezel an uneven object (a fossil ammonite), and use spiral herringbone, spiral staircase, twisted fringe & a beaded bead cap & fastener.

Materials to use in the project will include:

* Ammonite fossil (provided on the day)

* Size 11/0, 15/0 & 8/0 seed beads

* Swarovski pearls.

If you would like to book a place on the ammonite workshop, please let Carole Morris know as soon as possible (post, telephone or e-mail).