That's lead me to several new websites, including one called the Bead Journal Project. This is a group of people who commit to each doing one project a month for a year, and it must use beads. They're each making a kind of visual journal, some using just beads, some incorporating objects that have meaning to them or words they want to focus on, even one doing something each month that focuses on some form of meditation. They have some really beautiful pieces - you can go to their current blog to see the most up to date information. I find it really inspiring, and also kind of enlightening, in a sort of, well-duh-of-course-you-could-do-that kind of way. See, when I think journaling, I think, notebook, pen, writing words about what I'm thinking and feeling. I never though about using any kind of art or visualization to journal, but I think it might be fun to try, so I think I may be working on that, not necessarily with beads, but something more creative, less logical. I'm curious to see whether I end up feeling differently about things that I express in a more creative way than I would if I just wrote about them.
Anyway, another site I've found recently is that of Linda Richmond, who designs and sells jewelry and kits and patterns for making jewelry. I ordered one of her Learn to Bead kits, a series that's suitable for beginners who have never done any beadwork before. I had my doubts, because it can be very hard to learn to do something from written instructions, but it truly was easy to follow.
The kit I bought was a complete kit that contained all the beads, thread, needles, instructions, and everything needed to make two bracelets. I just finished the second bracelet today, and I'm pleased with the results. I can also see me using what I learned from this kit to make these bracelets in different colors or with different sized beads, because it was easy to do and didn't take too long.
Here's everything that was included in the kit:
It was all packaged neatly, each color of bead in an individual bag, labeled so that you would know exactly which to use in each step of the instructions. The instructions were clearly written, and I had no trouble following them, even though I'd never attempted anything like this before.
I'm not going to show the work in progress, since it's someone else's instructions, and I don't want to show anything that could be construed as a copyright violation or anything. But here's the end results:
Bracelet number one:
And bracelet number two:
I definitely enjoyed making these, and I'm definitely going to try to order other kits or patterns from this site in the future.
