The story so far...

This is a new blog, but the story goes back a little while.


I was on holiday a couple of years ago with my family. I went to a craft centre and found myself in a tiny shop, a sort of Aladdin's cave. You could buy gorgeous handmade jewellery made of pearls and semi-precious stones, but even better - for just a few pounds you could string your own necklace from (what seemed then) a tray with a vast selection of small beads. I was fascinated, and duly made myself a necklace of blue-glass beads and green shells, strung on light blue cord. The shop-owner showed me how to knot the cord to make the length adjustable, so that it could go over your head and then be shortened. The shop-owner had told me that her bead stash had mainly come from eBay at very competitive prices, and that she had taught herself beading. Maybe I could do that, I thought. That was it. That was the start of it.

I was pleased with what I'd done, but when I got home I realised it wasn't quite right somehow. Basically, it was very obvious that I'd made it myself rather than bought it in a craft show or shop! It also didn't look much different to the efforts of the six-year-old who had been sitting next to me in the shop...

I went to the library, and found a book. Then another. Then another. And then I discovered that my local craft-shop stocked a small selection of beads, findings and even some beading kits. I bought a kit, which I think was called "necklace with blue beads". I put the kit together. I got loads of compliments. The original necklace was re-strung on beading wire with seed beads and a ready-made clasp, and turned into a birthday-present for my mother.

Then I had a go at making wrapped loops (you can see I was still stuck on the colour blue at this tyime):

I freely admit that I'm still a beginner. But now I'm starting to appreciate the joys of putting different colours (not just blues!!!) and textures together, and seeing whether they get on with each other. It is a lot of fun. And, since exactly that time, the rest of my life has been changing, too. This blog is my story.