What makes a Artist?

Sometimes it is happiness, sometimes lonliness and sometimes sadness.

I  create from all but mostly happiness , maybe a wonderful bright colored new piece of fabric or a chance sighting of a Kingfisher sitting on a piling in the water, or maybe a little girl walking on the beach with her bright yellow sandpail picking up shells and enjoying life as it should be. 

Whatever your catalyst is , you must not ignore it....because it will not go away.   Those doodles that keep dribbling out of your pen at business meetings or during long phone calls are telling you something.  You have a creative streak, Oh my gosh your a streaker, oops not in that sense, you need to get someplace where you can play like you did when you were a child in school remember the first day of school and the smell of a new box of crayolas or the paste in a jar or how paper smelled.  Ok so now you are saying to yourself , this chick is crazy , well maybe, I have been called Bohemian by more than one person in my life and you know what it fits for the most part.  My love of my fellow people and the idea that many think they can't be creative just sends me spiraling trying to figure out how to get them headed to where I am . Its ok they know me here, and I just want others to see how much more fun life can be with art in it.  Art is not expensive, does not require years of study, and is the most personally uplifting process you can ever experience in today's tough times.  When you create no matter what it is, it is ART!  and YOU are a ARTIST!  

So what makes a artist, allowing yourself the freedom to sit down and create .  Look over the following photos that I have taken in the last few months...maybe one is the inspirational key to opening your creativity.

One Bead at a time....Bead weaving with a twist..

I have always loved things that sparkle and glitter so it seemed quite natural that glass beads, old jewelry with its rhinestones and bits of sparkle have fascinated me since I can remember.  I think my first major Sparkles were the glass and crystal bead necklaces my dad would bring home (I was about 6 years old) from the Carnival he worked at.  He had a guess your weight booth...and you would get either a necklace or a piece of chalk ware either which I would gladly love to have today.  I still have a few crystal beads left over from one such necklace.  As a matter of fact those necklaces and the metal butterfly pins he brought home were my first retail business.  I got a old shopping cart a few days later and hung the necklaces from the push handle and had the butterflies in the seat and some penny candy in a box .  I would push it around and sell to the neighbors and the kids.  Lasted a couple of days till one of the kids mothers got mad because I was selling "Junk" to her kid and candy for twice what it cost.  Well heck I was the only one allowed to walk to the five and dime...carrying cost and my first entrepreneurial adventure.  All because of beads.

Now 49 years later I have worked Art Shows most of my life selling my creative works and have spent the last 14 plus years in which I opened the first free teaching bead store and classes on a walk in basis and loved teaching people that yes Indeed they can make it themselves.  Kinda shot myself in the foot tho...because then everybody could string jewelry or wrap sea glass...so I concentrated on the one thing most do not want to do because it is too time consuming.

Bead Weaving  Off Loom style or as its called Peyote Stitch.  A bead stitch that is done one bead at a time...there are so many size beads one the size of a grain of sand...to huge bead babies...but I use a size that is called 6 aught.  I love it because it creates pieces with texture and design that you can see and appreciate.
The beads come in all styles and finishes , opaque, transparent, silver-lined , color-lined, matte finish, and more.   I now use an expensive beading thread that allows me to create pieces that can be worn every day without fear of them coming apart, and should for a reason beyond my control that happens I will gladly repair it or replace it.

So many people love the look but are just not sure about how it will hold up because they have bought made in China stuff that fell apart a minute after they bought it.   My Bead Art is all made by me in America one bead at a time.   I am a Fairy Godmother would I fib to you.

All of my jewelry has no metal unless mentioned...I believe everyone should be able to accessorize and feel as beautiful as they are....so if you have friends , family or yourself who cannot wear mass market jewelry contact me today.  Small bracelets and anklets  start at $24.00.  All fastened with buttons , many antique and vintage.  Earrings start at $15.00 and are available to be made in your choice of colors.  Do you have a loose treasure laying around let me create it into a piece of Art you can wear and enjoy.

So take a look at the pictures ,,,there are early pieces here that I did in the last 20 years and recent, which I am concentrating on Art pieces you can and should wear every day or almost.

Demonstrating Bead Weaving at Frisco Native American Museum

one of my early pieces  2002 no pattern

Tubular Peyote Amulet Bag for sale $125.00

My first big piece with tiny beads that I had collected as a child ...a seascape with semi-precious stone animals 

Vintage Glass  beads and Rare Stone necklace  $65.00

Make lemonade ...

stain glass dreamin'    Sold

close up of stain glass dreamin"

Beauty in a broken shell ...I have always loved shell pieces and of course now that I live at the beach I have many beautiful pieces or fragments of the life at the beach, I was inspired by a book called "Beauty in a Broken Shell" and it works.   Wear a piece of paradise every day even when you are not here.

This piece is called "reaching for the moon" and happily lives on a young lady's neck in Tennessee

details of one of my fun bracelets - Sold

Sold

Sold

Sold

Dragon Bracelet the fire comes out of his mouth and is the clasp
one of a kind  $225.00

simple but pretty (sold)

Freedom (sold)

a new design I just created ...this is any anklet done in oranges and turquoise

 All of my jewelry has no metal unless mentioned...I believe everyone should be able to accessorize and feel as beautiful as they are....so if you have friends , family or yourself who cannot wear mass market jewelry contact me today.  Small bracelets and anklets like this one start at $16.00.  All fastened with buttons , many antique and vintage.

RAW Stitch bracelet wood button no metal  lasts forever "thread"Bracelets like this start at $16.00 I can custom make any color combination or theme.

Another Amulet Bag
This one I gave away to a little girl at Manteo Farmers Market that fell in love with it...I knew she would love it and appreciate forever ,,,,I hope she is

Benedict Quilt block earrings  $12.00 a pair

Hair clips available in all sizes $12.00 a set

one of my  shell necklaces  a beautiful gray tone lightening whelk
I hand pick the shells on Hatteras Island, NC