Celebrating!

Yesterday, my husband and I spent the afternoon strolling the Artists Market at the Decatur Arts Festival, and met Dan’s friend, Jessica, and her husband, John, at an outdoor café overlooking the festival for lunch. Perched atop high stools, we had a front row view of the festival goers and the artisan works on display. As we were getting to know each other over pulled-pork sandwiches and bottles of ale, Jessica asked me how I got started in beading. I recalled a trip to the beach nearly four years ago with several of my sisters-in-law. Each night, Dan’s sister, Kathy, spread her bead stash across the condo’s dining table and everyone dug in to create colorful masterpieces in glass and stone. Jewelry was not something I gave much thought to, and although I did manage to string a simple bracelet, I spent most of those hours organizing Kathy’s stash by size and color. There was something about the feel of those beads in my hands!

Once home, I ventured into a local bead store to find a clasp and some crimps for my beach creation, and as I approached the cash register, I noticed a magazine cover and realized you could SEW with beads, too! I left with my first tube of seed beads and a package of needles. That magazine was Bead and Button, so you can imagine how excited I was when I learned last night that my necklace created for this year’s Bead Soup Blog Party was chosen by Kalmbach Publishing as a winner in the Best Use of Seed Beads category!

  

I am so honored that my necklace received the same award from Beaducation. As I’ve branched out from beadwork into wire the last few months, I discovered the work of Lisa Niven Kelly, who is such an inspiring wire artist. The online classes at Beaducation are the first place I turn to master a technique and explore the possibilities of metalworking.

And, of course, showers of thanks go to the extraordinary Lori Anderson, for her tireless work in bringing all this about, and a huge personal thank you from me for being my Bead Soup blog partner this year. Lori gifted me with the sensational Thai silver elephant pendant and I had the fun of dreaming up a design worthy of it!  

Who knows, maybe next Memorial Day week-end I’ll be experiencing the Decatur Arts Festival from inside one of those artisan booths. It's fun to dream!

You can see all 46 Bead Soup Blog Party winning designs by clicking here.