I began beading at 9 years of age when I was on holiday one year in the Greek islands with my mother. An islander showed me how to loom weave using a piece of driftwood with nails stuck in both ends and strung with embroidery silks. From that minute onwards I couldn’t be prised away from the beads and my loom, and they went everywhere with me. My only frustration was the narrow colour range of beads that were available in those days, but how could I have dreamt of the wild spectrum that is available nowadays.
My Grandmother was wonderfully creative and always had her sewing machine out making outfits for the family. When I was little I would sit beside her as she sewed, and use her mother’s beautiful, mother of pearl inlaid, hand-cranked machine to make doll’s clothes from leftover scraps Gran gave to me. She also played the piano and was a talented water colour artist, with an astonishing eye for colour. My Grandmother always encouraged and taught me to try making things, to the extent that I always look at objects of beauty and try to work out how they were made. I think that’s the scientist in me.
Creativity went on hold to a great extent while I pursued ‘O’ and ‘A’ Levels then on to university for an honours degree in Life Sciences and MSc in Pharmacology. At 22 I entered the Pharmaceutical Industry where I remained for 6 years. During this time I began poking around antique fairs and flea markets where old pieces of beadwork and jewelry caught my eye. I gained ideas and working knowledge from these antique pieces, either buying them or taking notes and rushing home to try out my own versions. Often they needed repairing, and I would pull them apart further just to see how the stitches were worked. I had no idea I was training myself to do off-loom, bead weaving stitches.
Steve and I met in 1982 and pretty much from the first moment we knew we were made for each other. In 1987 James was born, changing my world completely. Whilst at home with baby I found more time to create and design, but beads took a back seat whilst I ran up curtains, cot paraphernalia and baby clothes on Gran’s fabulous Bernina machine. I even made trousers for Steve, which he categorically states are the best fitting trousers he’s ever worn! Gemma was born next in 1989, so I continued to be Mother at home with the two little ones, and did Steve’s paperwork and accounts. I loved every minute of it and wouldn’t have changed a thing.
Once our children were a little older, I decided to take up teaching Science at secondary level, so that I could be with them during school holidays. However whilst two thirds of the way through my PGCE at the University of Hertfordshire, I realised number three, Louise, was on the way; goodness knows how that happened! So although I carried on and completed the degree, the teaching went on hold until 2001.
From a beading point of view, suddenly everything gelled when I attended my first workshop in May 1999, run by Ann Mockford, at the Great British Bead Show (GBBS) in Coventry. I found myself in a room full of like-minded souls. The stitch was one I already knew but had never put a name to it, along with all the other self-taught stitches. Ann taught a great workshop and I learnt so much more from her. I was hooked and immediately, joined the Beadworkers Guild (BWG) and hit the Sunday bead bazaar with gusto. That evening I thanked the gods that I traveled home by train, because I could carry on beading throughout the journey.
Joining the BWG, was one of the best things I ever did; it opened up a whole new world to me and my off-loom work took off in earnest. It led to meetings, a couple more workshops, putting names to those stitches, exchanges of helpful tips and ideas, and, most important of all, I was encouraged to begin teaching what I knew. When one is passionate about something it is a wonderful opportunity to be able to teach it to others, and I began holding workshops in all different levels and techniques.
Christmas 2000, I was clearing up my messy beadwork boxes and was about to throw out a handful of mangled silver wire. Just before I did so, I had a sudden idea and just had to try it out and see if it would work (a “What if…” moment around which I base my designs). It also involved a casserole dish and just about every green bead (that wasn’t a seed bead) that I could lay my hands on, including shells, poured into the dish. The idea was successful, but took a year to complete in the odd hour here and there (amongst the building debris of no kitchen or living room). And so the Big Green Basket came to be. This was the prototype for my Urns and Vases (drawing from my childhood years spent in Greece), and later the Posh Premier Bag. The Basket was hauled with me to the BWG stand at numerous venues where I was helping out, to cries of horror at the thought of the green bead soup in the dish. Interestingly since then I have had a thing for creating bead soups, which spills into my workshops and often generates fear at the thought of emptying perfectly sorted beads into a chaotic mix. That fear soon subsides, turning to delight when students start to mix and play with the beads, not only do they feel nice to blend by hand, but also the colour tones that can be achieved are wonderful. I have found that there are beads I own which I rather dislike, perhaps because of their colour or finish, but with which I am loath to part. However, these beads can be thrown into a soup and take on an entirely new character – they can even be a very important addition.
I took up a Science teaching post at a local secondary school in 2001, and found it impossible be a Mother and do anything creative, so the beads got packed away until I left the school and began supply teaching. Beading re-surfaced at this point, becoming a relaxing medium for me and I would often work until late into the night on a project, whilst all was quiet. Ahhhh Heaven.
With my background in science it was almost impossible for me not to find ideas for designs creeping in from that area. In 2003 at the GBBS I taught two workshops for my Scintillating Spheres (a name gleefully dreamt up by Isobelle Bunting of the Guild). These spheres were inspired by ‘Buckminster Fullerenes’ or ‘Bucky Balls’, balls of carbon atoms bonded in a most elegant way. I had longed to sit down and mimic the hollow, latticed pattern these atoms formed, and when I finally did so, I was delighted with the result and found they could be embellished and hung as decorations. What a change from the endless embellishment and fringing on glass baubles. This inspired me to explore a more three-dimensional approach to my work, and develop my wirework which had taken seed three years earlier.
With all this wire around and the Graecophile still rampant in me, I developed a grapevine with woven and wired beads. This together with the Urns and Vases provided the basis for two more workshops at the GBBS in 2005. For what happened next, follow my Bead Blog.