Thoughts for the New Year

The above is my latest bead creation that I call Red Whimsy.

I should be stringing words. Instead, I’m stringing beads, hundreds of teeny tiny seed beads. People always say they don’t understand how I can have the patience to work with seed beads, but for me it is meditation. I’m not good at sitting still. My hands always have to be moving. I blame my mother who put a needle in my hand pretty early, not for practical reasons, but for pleasure.

I don’t know how many needlepoint projects I did as a kid, but I think I got the same thing from it then-peace and meditation. I’ve translated the needlepoint and cross-stitch of my youth into off-loom beadweaving. Off-loom beadweaving means that you get the look of loom beading, but you don’t use a loom. You stitch each bead together individually. I love the texture created by stitching each bead together, and I’ve always loved sparkly things, not necessarily diamonds, but sequins. That must come from my youth when my mother and I would watch the Miss America Pageants. I know that’s not very feminist in nature, but my mother always wanted to be a fashion designer and that’s why she watched the pageants. I just liked the way the sequins sparkled in the stage lighting.

 Now, off-loom beadweaving is like a metaphor for writing, or a distraction from writing. I don’t have a pattern. I just use a specific stitch and let the beads take me where they will. I love the process. It’s just another form of creativity for me. It’s normal for a writer to be captivated by other art forms. That’s the basis for the creative writing MFA program that I am in. Sena Jeter Naslund, our director, always talks about the interrelatedness of the arts and how many writers were painters, sketch artists, photographers and more. I’m a writer and a bead artist. All I want is for my life to be filled with creativity and I want the same for my children.

In 2008, I hope that we all can use our creativity and have fun doing it. Cheers and Happy New Year!!