Christmas Bead Commotion

Teaching the jewelry classes at Jo-Ann Fabrics has brought to my attention what sorts of jewelry people like these days.  I can see the same styles mimicked in magazines and on TV.  So I’m thinking that perhaps I may be able to use this in my personal jewelry making business.  Also, the holidays are creeping up on us again, and I thought about the beads that I use.  I use the beads everyone else uses. So I made yet another decision.

To make jewelry using my own created beads.  Christmas beads!  I have noticed some new polymer clay beads in my store, and decided to go off of that.  So I began with Santa Head beads, and when those were complete, as of last Tuesday the 14Th, I followed that with little Gingerbread men!  Now I was hooked.  I combined some red glitter in with my translucent clay to make some snazzy sparkly stockings with little snowmen on them.  It didn’t stop there, either!

Then something occurred to me.  If I don’t make something with the beads, some people won’t know what to do with them, and probably won’t buy the beads themselves.  This is when I had come to the conclusion that I should apply the designs I’ve been learning about in my teaching, and combine that with my new beads.

So today, one Tuesday later, I have made six necklaces each using one kind of the new Christmas beads I made.  I am so proud of them! I’ll be making bracelets with the new clay beads with bells soon, too.  I should have those up in another week!

View my new folder of Christmas creations at this link:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/spiritbeader?section_id=7382995

To Visit Spiritbeader on Facebook, click on this link:

www.facebook.com/laura.e.lheureux

Beading with Mom: An Unusual Relationship.

My mom, Patti Byard, came up from Indiana to attend my bridal shower last Saturday, the 8th.  We look alike, talk alike, and we say the same things at the same time, but we are so totally different that we just don’t get it. Even though this happens all the time, we are still surprised, and a new onslaught of high pitched giggles comes from the dining room.

Mom introduced me to beads when I was a wee child.  Once, I took a few different colors of tiny seed beads, and dumped them all in the same bowl and mixed them up to create my own delicious bead soup!  Mom was furious, but I had no idea.  She knew I was just a kid, and put the beads up after that, until I was older. 

We strung them, we wove them and she always put the materials right in front of me, and I learned to use them better than she did, and after awhile, I was the one teaching her!  I advanced to a level she couldn’t follow, but she is still my biggest fan ever.  I wish there was internet at her house. You cannot add her as a friend, or even email her.

So I’m getting back into craft fairs a little more timidly this year, as I haven’t been too successful with them in the past!  So she helped me make a ton of quick selling one and two strand bracelets, and I made her 20 pairs of earrings to sell at her yard sales this summer.  We had the table all scattered with odds and ends… beads and bowls, wire and pliers, thread and clasps, crimps, findings and sculpey and tools.  It was GREAT.

She stayed an extra day because we were having so much fun!