Monday, Monday!

Happy Columbus Day!

I quite like the idea of celebrating Columbus day as it kind of celebrates courage. Setting off for parts not only unknown but non-existent...cos many thought he was going to sail right off the end of the world.

Beading is sometimes like that...you start something with no idea how to end it....ok...segue way to Bead Mavens' Blog today and a wonderful article by Linda Jones on clasps.

Freeform is something like that too....you let the beads talk you into going certain ways that you might not have planned and that's often when the magic happens.

This is the piece I started before I went on vacation and I'm getting back to it for the Bead Maven's November Challenge, an "Autumn" piece. It's the first time I've used freeform for a necklace so we'll see how it turns out.

Challenges are great for pushing you to create something, expand your beading vision and give you a direction you might not have thought about.

Last year I was selected to do the Beadwork Challenge and it was exactly that, a challenge!  I worked with Lucite for the first time and big pieces of it to boot. I learned a lot doing that challenge, about myself and about beading.

I learned that I can be scared by beads...lol!

Also that I can overcome those bead fears and work with anything and any theme.

I highly recommend taking part in challenges. So...gather up your courage and enter one....what's the worst thing that can happen? There's no end of the world to fall off ;)