Beadweaving Beginnings

I was thinking back to how I got started bead weaving and I dug out the very first pieces I made.

I did not know what I was doing at the time...I was just making it up, drawing on my weaving and sewing skills....I'd never heard of bead weaving.

The first ones were made like loom work...very much drawing on my weaving skills (I was doing weaving and spinning exhibitions at 11 years old).

The next one I switched over to my sewing skills and this honeycomb was basically done with a variation of RAW...which I had never heard of at the time and thought I'd invented something, well, for about a second and then I told myself it was so simple someone must have done it before. Little did I know!

I discovered bead weaving when I opened an Etsy store for my paintings and some basic jewelry I was making because I'd started teaching it. I saw a bead woven bracelet that turned out to be the work of Sandfibers and ended up in her store gazing in awe at her gorgeous work. The only thought running through my mind was "I want to learn this".

So I Googled. Found online tutorials for the basic stitches and I was off and running. Quick study that I am I had all the basic flat stitches down pat in a week and then started to learn the circular and tubular versions. You could say I became obsessed but I think I had just found the one thing that brought all my previous crafts together and it was and still is exhilarating.

I've come a long way in eighteen months and I know this is what I want for my future. I want to be Marcia DeCoster or Jean Campbell or Rachel Neslon-Smith or Cynthia Rutledge when I grow up. And for the first time in my life I have a determination that seems unwavering which tells me that I really have found what I'm supposed to be doing. At 50!!! As my family would say "About bloody time!" ;)