Life and Beads

When I started beading I was pregnant with my son, now 15 months, and realized that if it wasn't for the new life growing inside me I never would have taken up such a wonderful and fulfilling hobby! Now I look at my beaded treasures as not only little pieces of art, not only as something to wear or have, but a part of my very being, my life. Also, whenever I sell a beaded piece it like giving a piece of my love away to someone. I guess that really true for all artists.

You know, you put so much time and energy into one piece of jewelry or object of some sort, that when it's done it hold your memories in it. It's like a mini document of your life.

For example, my uncle was dieing of cancer and he was sent home because there was nothing else the doctors could do for him. One night we got a phone call telling us that he probably won't live through the night. Other than crying, what else could I do to cope with it? I beaded. I started this sweet bracelet that was one of the projects in a magazine. I made it with pink crystals, pink seed beads and the toggle was a beaded crystal heart. The pattern started with the heart and worked down to the bar part of the toggle. As I was working I was thinking about the last time I had visited my Aunt and Uncle. I was 8 months pregnant with my son and two states away from my OB/GYN. It didn't matter. I got to see my Uncle and my dad sail in the "Viking" boat my Uncle had from his home country. My Uncle had to store the boat that day so it was the last sail of the year. I remember helping to clean the little wooden boat by being the official coin depositor at the car wash. I watched as my Uncle teased my Aunt by spraying water at her. Just like a couple of teenagers. I could tell they loved each other very much.Those memories were being put into that pink bracelet. Then as I worked I thought about my aunt and how her life was going to be different once her husband was gone. I started to cry again. I knew life went on; there had been many deaths in my family, but it never gets any easier.We got one more phone call a couple of days later. It was the call that my uncle had passed away. I was almost done with the bracelet and realized that I couldn't keep it for myself. I had to send it to my aunt. It's not just my memories in this bracelet, but also hers. This is what I wrote to her.

I started with the heart because that's where love starts. I chose pink because pink keeps us young, just like love does. Each crystal is a memory of a treasured moment.

When we got the call I was working on the bar part of the toggle, I realized that although love sometimes ends when life ends it is needed in order for love to be complete. You can't wear the bracelet without the beginning and the end. You can't love someone unless you accept that there is death at the end of life.

That's why I bead.