Happy Thanksgiving!

I’ve been dealing with a major funk the past few weeks.  Not a normal depression type funk where I don’t feel like doing anything at all – but more of a muse on vacation type of funk.  No beading, no knittting, no coloring, no Zentangles, and only cooking what is necessary to feed us.  I couldn’t figure out why I was just feeling so void of any inspiration.  I mean, I’d just done a bead show and that usually fires up the muse into overdrive.  I’d taught two full classes, which is also a major muse fuel stream.  What could possibly be wrong with me?

I took my complaint to a group of my fellow beady teachers and the wise, and still very young, but amazingly astute Melissa Shippee solved my issue by saying, “sometimes when it's the time of year something big and bad has happened to you in the past, it's like a grief anniversary”.  She could not have been any more correct!

17 years ago today my Mom passed away.  It was also the day before Thanksgiving that year.  I was only 35 with 4 small kids and Shawn had already lost both of his parents and my Daddy had been gone for over 6 years.  I felt so lost.

But there really wasn’t a lot of time to grieve.  With 4 young kids I needed to get my act together.  My Mom told me a few days before she passed to not let this event ruin the holidays for my kids.  She made me promise to always make it a special time for them so they had the same joyous holiday season as she always tried to give to me.  I’ve worked really hard at that, but I’m wondering – now that they’re all grown am I finally beginning to grieve the holiday instead of celebrate it?  I sure hope not!  Maybe I just need to learn to recognize when that funk is coming on, face it head on and accept it. 

Shawn reminded me to just slow down and enjoy the process of getting ready for Thanksgiving by sharing what I see, smell, taste, and experience with my Mom. Let her enjoy it again through my eyes.  So I’ve been trying to do that these past few days and I’m thinking it has worked a bit to help me enjoy everything I need to do to prepare a great meal and make a nice home for my family to spend together tomorrow.  Which is exactly what my Mom used to do.  It made her feel good to do all these things and I want it to make me feel good again, too.

I’ll close by sharing a special story about my Mom’s passing.  I am the youngest of 5 and was always introduced as “the baby”.  Even after having 4 kids of my own!  LOL
My Mom was diagnosed with cancer (breast) the first time when I was 12.  She said she would just pray to live long enough to see me raised. She also told everyone “I don’t want the baby to see me die”.  Amazing how a Mother’s first concern is how her child will be affected. 
The following year they found the cancer in her other breast and removed that one as well.
 5-6 years later she was diagnosed with lung cancer.  She prayed again to live long enough to see me get on my own feet. 
5-6 years later she was diagnosed with another type of cancer, a tumor in her jaw area that had two types of cancer.  One that could go to her brain and one that could affect her internal organs.  She prayed to live long enough to see me settled down with a family. 
 

After 23 years of surviving all these hits from the insidious cancer she was diagnosed with liver cancer.  Sadly, she had no more prayers for survival.  She was just ready to go. 
 

Hospice came and helped us get her comfortable at home.  She quickly went into a coma.  All of her kids would take turns sitting with her and caring for her.  On the night of her death I had spent a couple of hours telling her some stories about my kids, than it was Sharon’s turn to sit with her.  I sat down across from her on the couch and listened to Sharon praying with her.  I watched the curtains gently blowing in the window.  Moments later one of my other sisters was waking me up letting me know that Mom had passed.  How could that be?  I was just looking at her seconds ago?
She had gotten her wish!  Don’t let the baby see me die.  And so I had not. 

Even in her passing she looked out for me.  And even now, 17 years later I can feel her sitting here with me reminding me how much I have left to do before tomorrow.  So I better get in the kitchen and get busy….I’ve got a huge family coming to enjoy Thanksgiving Day!

Thanks Mom!

What an Honor!

I’ve been honored over the years to be included in many publications and have my work featured on the cover, or back cover of a few beading books.  I know I was supposed to keep track, for self-promotion sake, but I’m not real good about that sort of stuff.  Go ahead, lash me with a hank of beads, I deserve it!

 I was on the back cover of Suzanne Cooper’s Then & Again book of redesigned beaded purses for Deco Flames(sadly, I don’t even have an image of this any longer) but that link will take you to an image on Suz’ website.

I was on the cover of Charlene Hughes, Beadin’ with BeadyBoop.

And on the cover of Valerie Hixson’s Wild Things….I beaded the giraffe.  

 I think I also had a piece on the back cover of Bloomin’ Beads, but I’d have to go find the book to be certain.  (more lashings with the hank of beads!)

I was also honored to have several designs included inside the covers of several of these ladies books.

But recently, I am most honored to have not only been asked to be included in the upcoming Marcia DeCoster Presents by Lark Publishing, but I also just found out that one of my pieces was selected by the publisher to be on the cover along with several other stunning pieces of beaded artwork.  Enchanted is in the upper right hand corner! 

Now, I’m not saying that my other book covers weren’t as thrilling, they most certainly were!  But the newest always seems to feel the best.  Plus, I’m included in with so many awe-inspiring beaders that it makes my head spin to think of being included in the same pages along with them.  29 others to be exact - from all over the world!  I hesitate to include names because I don’t want to leave anyone out.  Some of them are mentioned in the Amazon listing.  Where you can also pre-order your copy….hint, hint!  ;)

I will mention one of these artists, Linda Jones, who was a dear friend of mine.  She started off as a customer, and after a few phone conversations regarding beads, we hit it off.  Linda had a beautiful voice that matched her spirit and I loved the time I got to spend talking to her.  She was also an amazingly talented beadweaver who had an eye for color that awed me beyond belief.  Sadly, this amazing woman lost her courageous battle with cancer last year, but not before Marcia was able to interview her for this upcoming book.  

So, of all my “honors” to date, I am humbled to the core that I will be included between the same book covers as my sweet friend Linda.  And knowing Linda, she would be saying how humbled she is to be included with all those other amazing artists.

So, here’s to you, Linda!  May your beautiful spirit that you let shine through your beadwork live on forever in the eyes, memories and hearts of all those beaders you’ll be inspiring in this upcoming book!

And thank you, Marcia, for not only inviting me to be a part of this very special book, but for also featuring my sweet friend, Linda L. Jones!  

Dragons Tail Colorway Options for BABE! 2013

Below are images of the various colorways that the Dragons Tail class kit will be available in for my students at BABE! 2013.
An ooops in the email!  The class is Nov. 15th and 9am....not Nov. 5th.  One little number can make such a HUGE difference!  :)

This is a sold out class.  Sorry, I do not offer kits of projects I am currently teaching outside of the classroom.  This post is for my students to be able to select which colorway they would prefer so that I can reserve it for them.

These necklaces are all created with SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS Crystal Pearls and Japanese Seed Beads.  Remember to bring your Fireline or Wildfire to class.  If you forget or need to purchase some I'll have some available in class in 30' spools. 

Copper Dragons Tail

Petrol Dragons Tail

Bronze Dragons Tail

Cream Dragons Tail

Green Dragons Tail

Please reply to my email with your color choice at your earliest possible convenience in the event that I need to order more product.

Thanks!  See you in class!

Not My Holiday

Did you know I am a high school dropout?  It is certainly not something I am proud of, but it is a fact and one I have learned to stop hiding from.  I’ve managed okay since then with hard work, determination and amazing people in my life. 

I’m the classic case you’ve heard about; a kid who couldn’t manage to conform to public school standards.  I had my own ideas and that really ticked off the teachers and administrators in my school.

The last report I turned in was on Christopher Columbus.  I got a big fat red F, was called into the principal’s office and my Mom was called and also reprimanded for allowing me to “speak my mind”. 

I ripped the pages up and dumped them on his desk just before I walked out.  I returned two days later to pick up stuff from my locker and never returned.  I did go to a vocational school, but that didn’t pan out very well either.  While I had the height and build, I did not have the tenacity for modeling.  Those girls are ruthless!  LOL

Anywho, on to why I hate Columbus Day and refuse to celebrate it as a holiday. 

These are facts; you can look them up if you don’t believe me.

Columbus did not “discover” the new world.  Leif Ericson found it about 500 years before Columbus got lost looking for the East Indies and stumbled onto the shores of a group of islands off the coast of Florida that we now refer to as the Bahamas. 

His greed when he saw the native inhabitants wearing gold was the impetus for his highly funded return trip.  The original voyage was meant to establish a better trade route to Asia.  Instead he returned to Spain with 25 native Lucayan aboard his ship.  Of them only 7 survived.  Columbus noted in his journal, “I could conquer the whole of them with fifty men and govern them as I please”.

When the queen was made aware of the prospect of that much gold, she sent Columbus back with an arsenal of ships, weapons and 1,500 men.  Sounds like a friendly approach, eh?

Columbus returned with a renewed vigor to “conquer”, and set up horrible forms of treatment of the indigenous people raping and killing their women and children and setting up a token system whereby they would supply him with what he wanted (gold) or face a horrible torturous death.   

Another excerpt from his journal: "A hundred castellanoes are as easily obtained for a woman as for a farm, and it is very general and there are plenty of dealers who go about looking for girls; those from nine to ten are now in demand."

Columbus' acts of cruelty were so unspeakable and so legendary, even during that age of debauchery,  that Governor Francisco De Bobadilla arrested Columbus and his two brothers, put them in chains, and sent them back Spain to answer for their crimes against the Arawaks. But the King and Queen of Spain, their treasury filling up with gold, pardoned Columbus and let him go free.

It is estimated that the final death toll from post-Columbian disease and starvation was between 3-5 million. 

 

So, the next time you’re disgruntled that the post office is closed to celebrate our federal holiday of Columbus Day consider what took place in our history to bring that about.

Oh….and also consider that it was FDR who established this day as a holiday.  I’ll save you from hearing my tirade about that! 

Mine, Mine, Mine!

Ut Oh!  Controversy!  Proceed with caution, there is an opinion ahead. 

My thoughts are mostly about "ownership" or perceived notions of "ownership" regarding beadweaving.  That should scare quite a few peeps away!  LOL

Having been online for almost 20 years now, joining in with groups, newsgroups, email lists, online forums, you name it - that have anything to do with beading, mostly because I LOVE beaders and hanging out with them, and sharing ideas and oohing and aahing over other peoples beautiful creations, I have also managed to hear 1000 times, “I learned to bead from my Grandmother, Mom, Aunt, etc.”. 

I did, too!  And then I learned more stitches from my SIL, and even more from the Native American folks in my area who shared their knowledge freely with me….because that’s what you do.  You share what you know with others.  Especially in beadweaving.  It is how skills have been passed down from one generation to the next.

In history, most arts and crafts or even artistic skills, such as lampworking from Italy, or the Matryoshka dolls from Russia, or German brewery, or Native American basketry, Brazilian Woodworking, Japanese Origami…. I could go on and on, had skills that were passed down from generation to generation.  Many times with no written documentation.  Each successive generation was just shown how to create something and many times they added their own unique style or even additions or simplifications to the completed work.  Sometimes they were closely guarded family or cottage secrets, but many times, in order for them to continue or flourish they were shared outside of the family.  In some cases it was to ensure the preservation of a technique, in other cases it was to ensure the industry did not die out.  And many times these skills were given freely to the most eager ones who wanted to learn. 

This is not to say that charging to teach shouldn’t happen.  Obviously I am not against that either as I do it myself, and as often as I can manage.  But I also try to share things freely as well.  I have an obligation to pass on what I was taught by some.  It was part of the condition of them sharing so freely with me that I would also share freely when asked.  I have an easy vehicle for that as I’ve owned a brick and mortar bead store for 28 years.  I cannot even begin to count the amount of times I’ve shown someone how to make a proper loop on a headpin, or how to keep their tension even in beadweaving, or how to get your knots secure on a strand of pearls, or what the proper thread path is for Peyote stitch….just because they came up to me and asked.  I also cannot express how fulfilling it is to me to be able to pass along what I was taught to another.    

And in thinking about what is, or in my “opinion” should be shared freely, it brings me right back to the impetus for the blog post.  Bead weaving stitches.  My personal opinion….they don’t belong to you!  Even if you “think” you came up with some unique thread path all on your very own, chances are you are sharing it with some other mind somewhere on this planet.  Now, the design you create with that stitch….all yours.  Any words or illustrations or images you may create in order to share or teach that to someone else….ALL YOURS!  But the course that the needle and thread are taking through those bead holes??  How would you ever have a way of knowing that it has not been done before?  I mean, it could have been a mistake I made just yesterday.  Or it could be something a Zulu tribesman is fine tuning right at this very moment, or it could be something a Pomo Indian perfected 100 years ago.  You don’t know.  I don’t know.  We have no way of ever truly knowing.  So let it go.  Stop with the Mine, Mine, Mine attitude about it.  It makes you look petty, and frankly rather selfish and snide as well. 

Do you ever see a knitter talking about a stitch being hers? A master tailor saying those fine crossed over stitches belong to him?  A fiber artist claiming stake to combing two fibers into a beautiful knot?  Heck no!  They are not vain enough to presume they’re the only living soul since the dawn of man to tie a freaking knot in some thread and you shouldn’t be either! 


I am not saying that every single one of us needs to share what we know freely.  I will say that I enjoy doing it as often as I can so maybe try it once in a while and see if it fills a space in your heart as well.  What I’m truly trying to say here is that if you let go you will be amazed at what comes your way.  If you share just a little you will gain more than you can possibly contain.  If you stop with the notion that something is Mine, Mine, Mine and realize that is pretty close to impossible and instead focus your energy and attention on what you can create with those thread paths, not only will your life be more peaceful but you will also have opened your mind to more knowledge than you can possibly imagine.

Let it go….it was never yours to begin with. 

With respect,
Happy Beading All!