I particularly find myself drawn to off-loom beadweaving. I love peyote and herringbone and everything in between. I found a Bead and Button magazine and I just had to make what they had on the cover. That was how the bug got me.
I live in the Philippines so finding the materials for the project wasn't exactly easy. But thank heavens for online stores so I bought my initial supplies online and had to wait a few weeks before I could even start.
But I got started all right. And kept going.
I bought a few more magazines, found local stores with some of the materials I needed, and bought the rest online. I had to follow patterns so that I could learn the techniques, and I wanted wearable pieces already instead of just practice swatches so I dove right in.
To date I've made nineteen pieces of beaded jewelry and sold eleven of them. I'm currently negotiating with a shop owner who wants to buy my pieces.
I can't truthfully say that I'm a designer just yet. I've made pieces from patterns designed by somebody else. I would choose different colors, add a little something here and there, but I still can't call them my own. I look forward to that day though when I've mastered enough of the techniques to let my own expressions flow freely. I know it doesn't happen overnight but I'm willing to take it a day at a time. After all, this is technically a hobby.
And every day is a beading adventure. Sometimes the ideas come and sometimes they don't. Sometimes inspiration comes and other times I feel that I really have to rely on a magazine pattern to tell me what to make. But I'll get there.
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| An early swatch attempt with square stitch using 10/o seed beeds with what I now know as Ceylon finish. |
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