So, what started me on my creative journey?
A few years ago (2002) I got very sick with some random nasty virus that completely flattened me (probably something related to glandular fever/mono but blood tests didn’t show what). During my slow recovery two things kept me going. The first was that shortly before I fell ill I had treated myself to my first digital camera (Canon S1IS). I was fortunate that that year we had a glorious summer and I was able to spend time in the garden resting and taking photos of flowers.
The second was that a friend brought me a bead kit to keep me occupied while I was still housebound. It was a simple little thing from the Beadworkers Guild, instructions and just enough supplies to make a spiral staircase bracelet. When she left I chucked it in the back of a drawer and ignored it.
Apart from a brief period when I was very young (<10) I had always been a bit of a tomboy, even when I was younger I rarely played dress up and tea parties with my few dolls, they were always having jungle adventures in the garden and building treehouses instead. Hence the idea of making a bracelet, let alone a beaded one really did not appeal.
A week or two later, bored out of my skull, unable to focus on tv or a computer screen properly for more than a few minutes, I pulled the kit out and sat down to play fully expecting to hate it.
I loved it ! It grew so quickly and felt lovely, even though the colours weren’t really me.
I was hooked. As soon as I was well enough I got someone to drive me into town to a bookshop where I bought the first of many beading books. I also popped into John Lewis and grabbed a handful of tubes of Guttermann beads, and thus my addiction was born.
