Beadhead

I can hardly believe we are into the month of August. Tempus Fugit or something akin to that.

Actually, I can hardly believe I have not posted anything for such a long time but am well aware of the reasons. Firstly (is that a word?), I am so dog gone busy with my shows and when I am not doing a show (which is every single weekend), I am in the studio during the week trying to keep up with my stock.

Secondly, my head is so screwed into the creative bead process that I haven't had the will or drive to write anything. It just didn't seem to fit into my schedule and hasn't seemed the necessity that it has been for me in the past.

Usually, I have found writing, whether here or elsewhere, a boon and therapy for what ails but I ain't ailing so no writing medicine. Of course, there is the fact that there is a certain joy in the writing process but my joys have been elsewhere. I guess what I am trying to write (heh) is that I haven't written a durn thing in a long while and haven't missed it or felt a durn bit guilty either.

The thing I do miss is contact with my friends and family that writing here and elsewhere affords. I do miss that for sure and yes, there is a certain amount of guilt attached as I feel 'responsible' for keeping in touch and I haven't. So forgive me and hopefully understand the reasons or my excuses. ;)

Besides, I know I will get back into the writing at some point (maybe this is the start) when the mood and schedule allows.

Cecil has taken up a good deal of the computer time also since his business is now selling all our accumulated 'stuff' on eBay.

Enough about why I don't write! I have come to the conclusion that I have a golden retriever mentality. You know, the type that gets a hold of a ball and won't let go and that is all she thinks about. I am obsessive, compulsive and a perfectionist which causes me no end of grief and stress but understanding this is a way of curing the obsessions, etc. You may wonder, if you are still reading this blather, what the point is. I have no clue, I just keep on keeping on, learning to trust in the universe and knowing that everything will turn out as it should.

Beads! That's my ball, my compulsion, my obsession. I talk beads, I dream beads, I think beads almost continuously. Whether that is bad or good does not matter for it is the fact, jack. Cecil calls me a beadhead and he is right. I see holes and want to fill them, string them. Life looks like connections to me...all is connected and the bead is an example, a facsimile of those connections. Bead history fascinates me for it is the oldest known artifact that we humans have. The word bead comes from the Anglo Saxon word for prayer but besides that, in a cave somewhere or on a trek down a river ancient humans found a rock, a bone, a seed with a hole in it and strung it with some reeds and hung it around their neck. Beads have been used for contemplation, for money, for simple and elaborate adornment, for counting, and for attraction. Beads are my life but for me they also represent life...I just string it together, making connections and manifesting a vision.

Here are a few of my new visions...some are still with me, some have attached themselves to whom they were made for and are gone but not forgotten.


Beading round Beads, dichroic glass pendant, tube stitched beads, faceted carnelian


Experiment, copper wirework, moss agate


Images of an Mtmynd, milleflore beads, handmade lampwork beads by Richard Inman


Carmen Miranda bracelet, juicy fruity beads ("who's Carmen Miranda?)