Why I Started Beading

This title is a lot like "How I Spent My Summer Vacation," but I hope I can express here what I love about this community. I haven't been beading for very long (and seem to be a slow learner about lots of it) but I have made some remarkable friendships along this journey. It is amazing to me how kind and helpful and encouraging you all are. I read blog after blog after blog because I just really like knowing you all and how you express your creativity along w/ the doubts and fears and love and joy it brings you. I want that, too.

I just made a bracelet this weekend for a neighbor who has been particularly great to my husband and me (and one for her mom, too). (This has some onyx, a lovely focal from Lauren at Redredmelt on Etsy, some coral, and sardonyx.) She called and was so profuse with her thanks that I was embarrassed and kept telling her that I don't know what I'm doing yet, that I'm still learning, that this bracelet isn't so great!!

Wouldn't it have been so much better to just shut up and say thank you. Yes, it would! So clearly I'm learning another lesson while learning to be a beader/jewelry maker. And that secondary lesson is a much harder one for me.

I loved making this and making it for a particular person made it more enjoyable for me. I tried to think about her colors and the colors she wears and hoped to find something to blend.

The one I made for her mom was much much different. First of all, her mom wears softer colors and more yellowy, greeny things. So this is what I came up with for her. [This photo makes it look like the jump rings are all scratched and marred but they aren't.] There are 2 kinds of jade, some pink lepidolite and those flat shells are in green & yellow. Because the backs of the shells are not so pretty, I used two each time back-to-back. I was wondering if I should have glued them together but decided not to (well, not exactly decided -- I didn't have any glue!).

So why I started beading is to learn something new, to play with all you bead bloggers, to get immersed in color again (quilting and knitting came before beading). And what I'm learning is a lot about beading and a lot more about myself and some life lessons I need to learn.

Seems like a win-win situation for me. Isn't that grand?