Question of the Week: What First Attracted You to Beads and Beadwork?

re: Question of the Week: What First Attracted You to Beads and Beadwork?

lcoppinger — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 13:30:23 GMT

I am a plus size woman and most of the necklaces and bracelets I liked were not made for me or women like me. I looked at a necklace one day and thought "I can make something like this." I live in the country so no bead stores anywhere nearby. I got on ebay and WOW did I find beads. So then I started researching beading sites, magazines, catalogs and through lots of trial and error, I started making jewelry. My teenage daughter wore some to school and her teachers wanted to buy it. So now I make jewelry in all sizes for all women and have a blast doing it. I still keep a book of interesting designs I find and adapt them when I'm stuck for a project. I love beading. Currently working on learning Chain Maille and multi-media projects. I love that the same beads can make something totally different each time they are put together. Most of my projects are one of a kind, I only make repeats if a customer asks for one. I keep a photo log of my pieces, sorted by bead color and metal color. I love looking at my early pieces and thinking "I thought this was good?" Learning never stops and I love that about beading.

re: Question of the Week: What First Attracted You to Beads and Beadwork?

WendyH@49 — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 19:23:38 GMT

I've sewn and done various fabric-related crafts since childhood, but for some reason never paid attention to beads. Then in 2004, I was browsing through craft and sewing books at Barnes & Noble while waiting for my husband. The texture and vivid color of Robin Atkins' "Rosie the Uncaged Hen" on the cover of Lark Books "500 Beaded Objects" immediately caught my attention. My husband eventually had to track ME down, saying, "Let's just buy the book and go home."

I joke with him that it's THE most expensive book he ever bought! I've been hooked on beads ever since. It was a thrill to actually meet and bead with Robin Atkins a few months after buying the book, and thank her for her contribution to my favorite new passion. Her book "One Bead at a Time" was a huge inspiration to me, too.

I've tried and learned all sorts of beading techniques, but really seem to favor improvisational bead embroidery...the thing that started it all for me.

re: Question of the Week: What First Attracted You to Beads and Beadwork?

Dragonstar — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 06:49:42 GMT

Found Beadwork Magazine on a newstand back in 2003 I think is was (beaded spice bottles on the front). Had already been beading since 1991 and was just drooling over the cover of that magazine and have been hooked since then. Just can't get enough! I have a dedicated blank book just to write ideas and color combos into. What I love about Beadwork magazine are the clear pictures and instructions. I am dyxlexic and have problems at times with written instructions. Your magazine has been very helpful due to the clarity and research you do with all the instructions you produce. Yours projects were the first written patterns I could reproduce an item from. Your magazine is also a great source of inspiration and product knowlage, I use it as a resource tool as well. Thank you for such a fine publication.

re: Question of the Week: What First Attracted You to Beads and Beadwork?

Lauretta1214 — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 20:01:38 GMT

I have been a quilter for years, and a scrapbooker, but it was the evolution into crazy quilting that first drew me to beads. I would embelish my crazy quilts with all those wonderful seed beads, but it still hadn't occurred to me to make jewelry with them. About the same time my mother-in-law who had been beading for awhile, really started doing these amazing bead embroidery cuffs and collars and three dimensional work and I was just struck! It was like discovering a new country! I began purchasing bead magazines and books and now while I still quilt and embroider and scrap, I can firmly call myself a dedicated beader, too.

re: Question of the Week: What First Attracted You to Beads and Beadwork?

Stone Designs — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 12:46:42 GMT

I took a class on how to make those fringe earrings back in th 80's! Then years later I saw a freeform peyote bracelet and the rest is history!

re: Question of the Week: What First Attracted You to Beads and Beadwork?

barbaraw1949 — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 11:34:54 GMT

I started beading earrings in Native American patterns. During my bout with chemo I found the same place Beki's grandmother had found. It is still my sanctuary. And all the colors, shapes, materials...so relaxing.

re: Question of the Week: What First Attracted You to Beads and Beadwork?

katsommers — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 18:36:30 GMT

My Mom said that I have always played with beads - from the "Snap Pop" kind as a toddler to date... I started in earnest when I rearranged a necklace my Grandma gave me in sixth grade because I didn't like the balance. I wanted sooooo badly to go and work with my Great Grand Aunt, who did jewelry-making with aurora boralis beads and crystals but she chose my sister, Lynda, instead... Lynda ended up a sculptor in ceramics, glass and bronze and did not go into jewelry... particularly like the bead and fiber concept and am currently doing macrame' with seed "beady beads"....

re: Question of the Week: What First Attracted You to Beads and Beadwork?

mary7117 — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 13:46:00 GMT

Like Kerri Slade, I was going through a bad time when I wandered into a bead store and that was that. Playing with the colors and textures and possible arrangements helped me keep my sanity through a trying time. I went from stringing to bead weaving and now do almost every kind of beading you can imagine. The endless variety of beads, textures and colors super fires my imagination and I know I'll live long because there are just too many projects that I have to do before I can die!

Viva la beads!

re: Question of the Week: What First Attracted You to Beads and Beadwork?

mary7117 — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 13:45:52 GMT

Viva la beads!

re: Question of the Week: What First Attracted You to Beads and Beadwork?

b.barth — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 22:51:40 GMT

Correction!

My dad drove trucks all over the country, when I was very young he brought me a small Indian doll with beadwork, I was facinated and hooked. Also my grandmothers Jewelry drawer, loveley beaded necklaces oh so pretty!

re: Question of the Week: What First Attracted You to Beads and Beadwork?

b.barth — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 22:42:40 GMT

My dad drove trucks all over the country, when I was very he brought me a small Indian doll with beadwork, I was facinated and hooked.

re: Question of the Week: What First Attracted You to Beads and Beadwork?

DAZ52 — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 16:12:25 GMT

BEADWORK magazine...that is what got me started :)

re: Question of the Week: What First Attracted You to Beads and Beadwork?

cool_moon — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 14:59:24 GMT

Kerry Slade's story sounds like mine! I was bored, depressed and in need of some comfort. I found the solution to all of it with beads - and have now turned them into my business, my joy and my passion. Everyone long ago tried to tell me that beads were 'a fad'. If so, it's a fad that isn't going to go away any time soon. In fact, I just keep seeing more and more, and with it more and more creative things being done! Yay beads!