A Time to Blog

Who am I and what's "The Beaded Carpet"?

I ask myself that first part of the question quite regularly and though the answer may change around the edges the core is extremely constant. I'm an artist and a designer. It's not something I can change even if I wanted to. It creeps into everything I do even if I'm doing a non-creative job. The thing I've learned about myself in my 50 years is that without creating some form of art I get deeply depressed and life becomes not worth living.

The answer to the second part of the question is "the floor of my workroom". Every beader, at one time or another has an 'accident' and beads bury themselves into the carpet. It's just more of a regular occurence for me....a little accident prone, you may say. My dog likes to remind me every so often that I need to get the vacuum and the pantyhose out by scratching at the carpet so the buried beads are uncovered and sent 'pinging' into the walls and furniture.

How I got here.

Fifteen months ago I quit my job doing recreational therapy with Alzheimer's patients, not because I didn't like it, I loved the job but I hated the politics and couldn't live on the pay. I had planned to go back into real estate marketing and had a job lined up. My first day of the new job had my stomach in knots, my gut was telling me this was a wrong move. My brother was visiting and said he couldn't understand why I wasn't doing something with all my "creative talent" and that I should think about being self employed again. Not knowing if it was the right thing to do but knowing the new job definitely wasn't I called and quit. If there's a cliff to jump off, please don't show me.

I had seen that my local craft store was looking for instructors and as I do nearly every craft out there I decided to apply. When I met with the woman hiring and asked what crafts they needed instructor's for her eyes went straight to the necklace I was wearing and she asked "Did you make that?" When I said yes she told me they needed a beading instructor and after looking at some of my work I was hired. It wasn't going to be a great deal of income but it was a start.

I was off and running....well, crawling really....but it's amazing what you find when you're on your hands and knees.....for one thing, a lot of beads in the carpet!