Ok, this is not an ad, it's a bit about what we've done and where we're going and how.
Mike, as many people who are regulars here know, has been signed off his teaching position due to ill health now for so long that his job has turned into a 'vapour position'. The school would love to have him back but he physically cannot cope with teaching as it is. This is why he's turned to beads (no, not into beads, although that would be interesting, a beadhusband to match Kalera's Beadwife!). Beads kept him sane, and alive. I believe that.
We're no farther along with the mess that is his job situation, for those who are interested. He's not employed and not unemployed. We're in limbo and it's a large, echoing place to be.
However, life isn't a large echoing place, we've moved out of the SH*D and into a studio, Mike's been making beads almost daily, the only things that keep him out of the studio are our trips to bead fairs or life as we know it involving the First Mate. We don't take the boat out now, as the weather has been hideous all winter and physically it's just too much for Mike, there has even been gut-wrenching discussions of selling up and moving to dry land but that is an absolute and I mean ABSOLUTE last resort which is not to be contemplated unless we exhaust all other options. That means more time in the studio though, which has been good for Mike. I personally think his beadmaking has progressed so much, his week in Ireland with Michael Barley was a turning point in his approach to glass as much as giving him more technical tools to work with.
He loves beadmaking, he would do it for free. I love making things with his beads. The First Mate is now developing a dab hand at cleaning beads, and he loves helping string sets up and helps lay them out for photography. We believe in starting them young, and being a chimney sweep is not an option as at the age of not-yet-7 he's already
4'3" and growing like mad.We're taking huge steps this year, figuratively. We've been accepted into the British Crafts Fair in London, which is exciting and scary as hell as it's a step and a half up from the regular craft fairs we've been going to. We felt it was time to 'raise our game' slightly but yow! I'm terrified I won't cut the mustard as a jewellery artist but I have every confidence in Mike's beads so we should be fine.
I've been working like mad, and I owe several people here some beads but I've been waiting till they are the right ones. And they're definitely ripening to fruition.
In many many ways we would not have been able to accomplish as much as we have done without the individual and combined strengths of this group and people in it. I miss many of the ones who no longer post, I'm glad to see many of the ones who are still here and keep the group alive. I know that all groups mutate and evolve but I hope this one doesn't evolve to the point it loses its ability to communicate the love of beads that brought me here in the first place ages ago looking for sources for beads and info on stringing materials.
Who knew?
-Su