On Being Illiterate

It is hard to climb up in front of everybody and admit to being illiterate, but here I am.I admit that I am a beading illiterate. I can not read or write beading patterns.

All of my designs are done in my head. I visualize the finished piece, then I 'sketch' by making small pieces of beadwork. Testing colors, weights, how the piece lays. Some of my best ideas end up in the trash can because they will not balance or lay 'right.'

Some pieces are made out of whole cloth, like the "Talisman" necklace pictured here. It was done in a breathless rush, almost without stopping. (Almost without stopping over the course of several days!)

Other pieces are built of components that are assembled at the end of production. They are planned, meticulous, and nerve-wracking, because I never know if the piece will work until I assemble the finished jewelry. "Strength" pictured below is such a piece.

I have been beading since I was a kid. I began with just a basic mastery of stitches, and basic loom beading. (No. I do not loom bead now. No. I love you, but I will not loom bead for you either. I don't even OWN a bead loom!) I CAN read a loom pattern, but that is just a graph.

I never bothered to learn to read or write patterns because they are all right-handed, and I am not. The very few left-handed patterns that are out there are over-done or cliche.( I just checked Etsy to see if there were more or better offerings, but there are not.) And now I am used to designing in my head.

So my beadwork will never have pictures of little sugar skulls or smiling pears. There are beaders out there who excel at sugar skulls and smiling pears, and they are not me. I'm okay with that. I like my designs; they are based in solid technique, and I find them elegant. But, I'll never be able to provide you with a sketch or a computer graph of a potential project. I can 'sketch' it in beads and words, but not on paper. I'm illiterate, remember?