How I started my beading

As a young girl I was always playing with my Mum's button and beading boxes. I was fascinated with the colours and textures of all the different antique buttons and beads. When I was 12 years old I made a cosmetic case for my Mum and beaded her name on it. She loved it and still uses it today - 30 years later! I just kept beading and making various things.

Then in 1993 I beaded my wedding dress and the

 headbands for my bridesmaids.

 It took me 86 hours for the dress and 20 hours for the headbands.

Lucky I will only have to do that once in my lifetime!!

My beading continued and moved into areas such as my husband's pure cotton shirts which were in excellent condition except for the cuffs.  I converted them to a ladies' size and altered the cuff.  I actually wore this one for many years with a beautiful boucle black skirt.  I had 5 different styles of shirts in this beaded format.  They were YSL pure cotton.  I beaded the collars and often above the pocket section.  Here is an example of one that I kept - it is now my "official gardening shirt".  I cannot bear to part with it.

My beading took a short break during the years that my children were little - fear of them swallowing a bead or tipping over the box creating a colourful and dangerous carpet. In 2006 I was in a boutique in Melbourne looking for a gift for a friend's 40th birthday. I saw this magnificent necklace and thought that it was great but not perfect. It was that moment that I thought "I can recreate it with a twist". A visit to my local bead shop, purchased the materials, did a short course on making jewellery (ie my Mum bought me 2 books on the subject which I devoured over a weekend) and recreated the necklace. It was my first piece of jewellery.  I was so proud of myself for being inspired and improving on the design that I had seen.

From there my collection of beads has grown 10 fold. I source beads all over the world and have now branched out into making necklaces and brooches from different materials - such as fabric, coiled metal, buttons, glass and wooden beads, resin beads, and crocheted flowers.

My beading box is now multiple boxes, the dinning table, parts of the study, my bedroom, husband's side of the wardrobe etc.  Here is a small sample.

A favourite necklace made for Cricketer's teacher in 2008. 

I had a lot of spare time on my hands in the 90's