My first bead memory

Su, that was a really nice post. I wish my first bead memory was as nice.

*sigh* Mine is that of my mother spending three hours with a pair of tweezers up my nose, trying to get a square yellow bead out of it, when I was three yrs old. *sigh again*

~Candace~ your local hemp goddess :)

I had to laugh when I read your first bead memory Candace because it was sorta similar to mine!

My first bead memory is when I was about six years old and I was on a school bus playing with a pretty little plastic faceted bead. I put in my mouth (as you do) and rolled it around feeling the texture with my tongue and then the bus jolted and the bead went straight down my throat.

I remember being terrified that night when I went to bed because I was certain I wouldn't wake up the next day after having swallowed a bead. I didn't want to tell Dad when he tucked me in because I thought he'd be mad so I just hugged him goodnight and then prayed that I didn't die in my sleep.

I don't remember what happened the next day, most likely I'd forgotten about it by then!

For me it was a grommet or eyelet up the nose. Why oh why do kids think putting objects in the nose is a good idea? LOL

On the positive side, I always loved my grandmother's jewelry... she had lots of nice "paste" pins... a few of which I'm priviledged to own. And she loved beaded necklaces. Her favorite costume was gypsy... loaded with necklaces! She also was very creative, she sewed, crocheted, knitted and taught me how to do all of those and more. She loved embellishments - She didn't believe a dress was finished unless it had some rickrack or fancy lace. And forget "store bought" patterns! She taught me how to make things and create my own patterns. It's amazing when you think about how one generation seeds the creativity of another.

On Sat, 8 May 2004 21:43:27 +0000 (UTC), "Su/Cutworks" wrote:

I wish I could say my love of beads started that far back. With me it was rhinestones. And bits of broken jewelry with rhinestones in them. I collected and hoarded them. They were my "treasures". I didn't start stringing beads until the 60s, when everybody was wearing "love beads". Then I had to work for a living, and beads weren't paying the bills. But even then I had sporadic periods of jewelry making and I would sell what I made to people from work. I never envisioned doing it full-time. Now if I could just get well and do it full time again! Tonight my son took his lady love to her prom. They looked wonderful. She was wearing a necklace that I made for her. She thinks Matt made it (he did help). She never takes it off. I hope it sees her thru the weeks and months to come, as he leaves for a year in Japan on Wednesday. She's a wonderful girl. I hope she brings me grandchildren to play with some day a few years down the road. Meanwhile, his older brother is out drowning his sorrows at a buddy's house. Big brother's lady friend called him long-distance to break up with him this afternoon. Seth and Matt have always been each others best friend, always there for the other. Now Matt is head over heels for Emma, and Seth is licking his wounds alone. I feel so sorry for him. It's strange having them home to visit at the same time and have them not be together every minute. Probably even stranger for Seth. At 22, he's too old to sit in mommy's lap for comfort, but right now I can almost bet that he would be glad to be little again for a few days......boy did this get off track! But I think I'll leave it alone, just the same... Barbara Dream Master

If you want to make God laugh, tell him your future plans. Woody Allen

My first bead memory is rather silly. When I was about 7 or 8, my father was laid off, and I couldn't go to Girl Scout camp, as I had planned. I was one of those kids who left happily, and cried when it was time to come home - my sister never went to anything but day camp, because she was not going to sleep anywhere but her own bed, with her own blankies, and her own Raggedy Ann doll. My mother felt badly that we were being denied camp, so she worked out an arrangement where we could go to camp free, if she worked as a camp counselor.

That was the summer where we did nothing but go to camp: we started the Monday after school let out, and ended the Friday before it began again in the fall, since Mom worked all the sessions. I had a bunch of camp tee shirts and navy blue shorts, and along with my bathing suit, I was totally set in the wardrobe department. I might have had shoes, not that I would have cared if I didn't.

It was my kind of summer: run around at camp from dawn to dark, then sit by the campfire until I dozed off. I don't want to consider how bad that sleeping bag was after eight weeks, but I do remember my mother insisting I go home to bathe each Sunday between camp sessions. Of course, she went home every night with my brother and sister, who weren't in the overnight program, and she still had to cook and clean for my father. (rolls eyes)

I remember one counselor wondering aloud where I put all that food, but was was probably burning off 5,000 calories a day, between swimming, rowing, hiking and every other outdoor activity they offered. I was a little monkey and totally fearless: you could tell by my huge variety of bruises, scabs and mosquito bites. The photo from the first day of school that following September shows me as wiry, lightly tanned, with hair bleached white from the sun.

(Enough background stuff, Kath. Get to the beads, willya?)

But this wasn't a Girl Scout camp, as I had been used to - it was a Camp Fire camp, which is run differently. Instead of working for a sash full of badges, the Camp Fire people handed out large wooden beads in various sizes and shapes, each with a different meaning. By the end of the summer, I had a fairly good stash of beads, and not one clue as to what should be done with them. Finally, I got a shoelace, strung my beads and wore them as a rather chunky necklace for a while.

Later, I learned that Camp Fire Girls got a vest, and the beads were attached in various complicated patterns. Too bad, I would have given them away to a girl for her vest, and if she had gone to Girl Scout camp, I'd have been happy to take a badge or three off her hands. As surprises none of you, I was one of those competitive little overachievers who earned all the badges and filled my entire sash. There wasn't a troop for high school girls in my town (and by then I was working), so I didn't get the Silver or Gold awards, though. bummer.

Great summer, though. One of the best I ever had.

Kathy N-V

On Sat, 8 May 2004 23:38:18 -0400, Karleen/Vibrant Jewels wrote (in message ):

I never had a "store bought" costume, either. At first, I thought my parents were just being cheap, not letting me have one of those cool princess costumes *with a mask* that we had been eyeing at Woolworth's since the end of August. No, I had to wear a bridesmaid's dress that my mother got at a yard sale, cut down and *sewed.*

I figured that Mom just didn't get it, and that I would be mocked for being different. Like Karleen's Grandmother, my mom believed in heavy applications of rick-rack that she bought in enormous quantities from Home Sew. Yet, I was pleasantly surprised when I won the "best costume" prize at school, church and at Girl Scouts.

The next year, I went as Pilgrim, and my mother made over some old brown curtains into a reasonable pilgrim dress, with a white bonnet and collar. Again, by some strange coincidence, I won all the costume prizes again. Light still hadn't dawned, and I was still jealous of "store bought" costumes. I think I "got it" the next year, when I was a gypsy. Mom put rows of rick-rack on my head shawl, and everything was fringed. (Old kitchen curtains and a tablecloth) By then, the other kids were muttering with discontent that Kathleen was just going to win again, so why bother? Hmmm. Maybe all the work my mom put into the costumes was actually worth it.

My own DD never wanted a store bought costume - she always wanted to be things that you'd never find in a store: penguin, tooth fairy, squirrel, clown fish, turtle, iMac and some others I've probably forgotten. She was much smarter than I was at her age: she never thought I was being cheap - she just looked forward to winning the best costume prize every year.

Kathy N-V

P.S.: The "Tooth Fairy" costume had a very original set of beads: mini marshmallows strung on thread and allowed to dry out. They looked a lot like a string of teeth.

LOL!

That may make my top ten list of Reasons I'm ChildFree .

Glad you survived the incident, and even ended up beading after that.

Cheers, Carla

Candace wrote:

My first bead memory was certainly before I was three years of age. My mother took me to see my grandmother who was ill in bed. Grandmother died soon after.

During the visit my grandmother asked me to pass her a trinket box of the shelf. Inside was a necklace of beads. The clasp was broken. The bead are an unpolished moon stone I believe, but I could be wrong. Grandmother gave me the necklace. However it never got the clasp repaired and the chain got taken of the beads which were on wire links.

Those beads went with me through house moves and I still have them. I put a new chain on them. I have had them at least 65 years. Shirley

In message , Su/Cutworks writes

I don't have any beady memories until adulthood and moving to Austin. I guess I was too much of a snob only thinking 'real' jewelry was only gemstones. I'm not that way any longer.

I'm not even sure how or why I got into making jewelry a few years ago. I know that I saw Nomadic Notions in one of the free Austin newspapers and was interested in their classes. Once I took a class I was hooked. I think one of the things that kept my interest is that they only used top quality wire and findings. It was all sterling and gold. And the beads were wonderful. That's when I first saw the lampwork beads that I had a cow were so expensive. I know better now.

My first bead memory is of finding a beautiful cobalt-blue glazed ceramic bead outside by the trash heap at my sister's art school. I'm not sure how old I was, but I think she was 16 and she's 8 years older than me.

I carried that bead around everywhere for years. I wish I still had it!

-Kalera

Candace wrote:

My personal favorite costume I made for my daughter was the Last Supper that she wore to a Harvest celebration at our church. I took a box and cut a hole in it for her head, put a "tablecloth" on it, glued a glass, a plate, some plastic wear, some grapes... and she won a prize too! I can't remember how I decorated her head... maybe a halo of garland or something... I'll have to ask her...

Come to think of it, my first beads were wood. The glass I loved were the glazes on clay, ceramics, and pottery. Starting before I went to school, my mother would give us clay to give as presents. Which she would later fire and glaze. Our neighbour across the yard was a professional china painter of international reputation. And my cousin, who was born around 1915, was a tile maker who was known internationally for the glazes she made and used -- some of which she got (formulas) from the big china companies (Bing and Grondal, and Royal Copenhagen, etc).

So I loved glass and I loved beads, but not initially as the same product.

Tina

I bought seed beads at head shops back in the 70s. Believe it or not, I still HAVE some of those seed beads, which are now actually being put into use as jewelry elements! I remember stringing seed bead necklaces in high school... using a sewing needle and thread, and clothing hooks-and-eyes as catches, because I had no idea there was any better way. I had some interesting patterns, but my interest didn't last; I'm fairly sure the materials problem had something to do with that.

30 years later, I've gotten into jewelry-making "the back way", via my interest in gems & minerals. Buying handcrafted jewelry made me curious about the process of making it, so I bought a couple of books and started reading. Lo and behold, it didn't look all that hard -- so I got myself some tools, and some inexpensive beads, and took a shot at it. And here I am, making beautiful things for my own enjoyment *and* getting to sell them to other people as well!

Celine

Having also grown up in DG, IL, I am trying to figure out what is Ray Bradbury-esque about it... :) maybe my problem is that I grew up in a sub-division?

Until recently (when I decided to go back to school in another state) DH and I were planning to get an old house in down town DG. :( soon there might not be many left. All of the older houses in all of the towns around here are being knocked down to build huge new houses and/or townhouse/condo complexes :(.

Bead memory related, everyone's discussion has reminded me that when I was little my mom gave me her seed beads from the 70s. I guess I used some kind of needle and thread with them (which is funny because now I can't figure out what to do with a needle and thread).

marisa2

Su/Cutworks wrote:

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Well, this was in the mid to late-1950s and it was in one of the older neighborhoods, at least 47 years ago now. It was a lovely street with coffee trees, which we called Indian cigar trees.

Sadly, the same thing is happening everywhere. Here in Yorkshire, it's at least a step better as the old mills are being renovated into housing. The problem is that it's all 'luxury, executive' housing. One of these days, come the revolution, as Douglas Adams used to say, executives will be among the first against the wall.......

-Su

:/

The annoying thing about these "luxury" places in the old downtowns (for which the prices are usually higher then a stand-alone house in the same town) is that they probably want to be IN the old downtown because it is cute. But soon it won't be any more.

*sighs* At least they will still be able to get to the train to go work DownTown (something I hope I never have to do again).

I guess you could say the same about the subdivision my parents moved into when it was being built in the late 70's. It used to be in the middle of farms. Now it is in the middle of more subdivisions and shopping malls etc.

Of course they are nocking down a lot of those houses too to make the huge mostrosity houses. I do not "get" those houses. I know NOTHING about construction but I am getting the impression they are not using great materials except where it shows. But the houses are HUGE. I can't immagine cleaning them. Other people keep telling me that people who are buying those homes don't need to do their own cleaning, but... I am doubting that. There are so many of them that I doubt they are being sold to the super-rich. I think they are being sold to middle-income families who are working themselves silly to barely pay for them. The same type of people who I work with and can't "afford" to get layed off because they can't go a month without their current paycheck and pay their morgages, and therefore (in a feat of logic that deludes me) refuse to look for any job outside of the company. These people invariably look at me like I am insane when I tell them of my plans to go back to a student life while working on a PhD.

Ummmmm...don't know where all that came from, sorry!

marisa2

er...I think.

*head on desk*

my brain is toast.

marisa2

Don't worry, logic usually deludes me too!

-Su

I am trying to figure out the probability of two active, posting members of this newsgroup, neither of whom know each other offgroup, both being from Downers Grove IL.

-Kalera

Marisa2 wrote: