Sewing, refashions, jewelry, and random thoughts
I don’t know why I love bracelets so much. Â They seem to be the only thing I like to make lately. Â It’s not because they’re a small project because I don’t like to make earrings as much as bracelets. Â It’s not that they’re easy, because some of mine are more complicated than my necklaces. Â Maybe one day I’ll figure it out, but meanwhile, here is one I just finished. Â I used six different beads in a random pattern. Â It closes by pulling the large Czech beads through the slot one at a time.
I’ve recently been asking myself where my obsession with tiny glass beads began. Â The best I can remember my first encounter with seed beads was at Cherokee, North Carolina in the 1960s. Â We lived near the Smoky Mountains and often travelled there in the summer to picnic, but this time we went a little farther to see the Cherokee Reservation and the town.
What impressed me were the “Indians” in full southwestern-style head dresses and the handsome people there. Â I’m a very white person and have always been attracted to dark people. Â Then my grandparents took me into a little souvenir shop. Â Everything was wonderful to a kid. Â All kinds of trinkets and plastic doodads, head dresses, feathers, fake arrowheads–then there were the beaded belts.
The colors were vibrant and the designs intricate.  The textures were amazing.  I had to have one.  A leather belt with a loom-work seed bead strip down the center.  It must have cost quite a bit.  I remember, barely, how they tried to talk me out of that item.  I insisted.  We bought it.  (Yeah, now that I’m a grandmother I’m that easy too).  I made it home with it in my hand, but I don’t think I ever got to wear it.  Mama put it away to “keep it.”  She let me look at and feel it from time to time.  I can still picture it.   I can’t remember what happened to it, but I’m sure that belt started my love affair with beads.
I took a class from Amee K. Sweet-McNamara at White Fox Beads in Knoxville a few weeks ago.  She taught us how to turn soutache and beads into jewelry.  All you need is Ultrasuede, needle, glue, thread, beads, and soutache.  I am hooked!  This stuff is addictive.  I keep creating little swirls and twirls, seeing different color ways and selecting beads in my mind.  This is the result so far.
