  As a child I loved and was fascinated by marbles, I still am and have a display jar of beautiful handmade ones… Beautiful glass beads for me have been the follow on to that. I developed the bug for beads several years ago when on holiday in Crete. It was late in the year and most of the little artisan shops were shut up or only opened for a few hours a week. This particular shop – that I spent quite a long time with my faced glued to the window of had swathes and strings of beautiful beads. I started making my own jewellery the minute I got home. I am basically self-taught with the help of books and online lessons and several lessons from artists in the field of jewellery making.  I have a fabulous wooden cabin/chalet that my husband built in the garden for me and I spend as much time as possible in there creating my next design. I am a terrible muddler and the vast desk is piled high with boxes of beads and tools and jewellery in various stages of development. Whilst in my lovely workroom I am inevitably in the company of my 2 little dogs. Rosie my 6-year-old West Highland Terror! No not a spelling error… and Daisy my 18month old black Cairn Terror – even naughtier than Rosie – but they are my babies and I adore them. Moving on - I then went on holiday to Venice a couple of years back and visited the island of Murano where handmade beads, glass ornaments and chandeliers are made and are famous for. I came away from Venice with a case full of individually handmade very expensive glass beads and dezigns galore buzzing away in my head! |