OT A favor

Hmmmm - I don't think I can even remember how exactly I came to the
newsgroup - other than that I was interested in beads and looking for places
to talk about them. That was several years ago. I started out like
most people - finding beads in a shop and instantly falling in love. My
first beads were bought at a fabric store - the one where I worked actually.
I liked seeds best to begin with. I started out stitching them to fabric
for embellishing, and then moved on to making hair jewelry. I began weaving
bracelets not long after that. Then I found rec.crafts.beads after playing
with beads for about 5 or 6 years.
Here, I was introduced to all sorts of cool things - it was here that I
first became interested in stringing. I loved looking at all the pictures
of people's work, and also loved looking at pics of beads themselves.
Searching eBay came not long after that - along with beginning to make work
that was good enough to sell. I fell in love with lampwork and began to buy
tons of it, making it into jewelry and collecting it. Same with Swarovski
and sterling silver. Those became my three favorite types of beads - along
with seed beads of course.
As time passed by I became practically obsessed with lampwork. So much so
that I started posting lists of it from eBay and Justbeads and other places.
I was so in love, that I talked about it non stop. Pretty soon, the posters
here got the idea of helping me take my first class, and they got together
(with Sooz heading the whole thing - that sweetie!!) and gave me a gift
ceritificate that had enough money on it to take a local bead making class
and buy some supplies. I was dumbfounded, moved and ecstatic. I took that
class - a little over a year ago - and was hooked.
I have met some wonderful people from this group, and hope to meet many
more. The first person I met face to face was Paulette Insall - we became
friends instantly, and because we lived in the same town, we spent a lot of
time together. She is also a lampworker, and soon we struck up a deal where
I became her apprentice. That lasted not long enough, because I then had to
move to WA for hubby's work. We still see eachother often though, and
remain very good friends.
This group has gone through a ton since I have started posting - and I am
sure will go through a lot more. I have forged some wonderful and lifelong
friendships here, even with people I haven't met face to face. I love it
here - no matter what we go through - and will always be grateful to the
people here for helping me to find my bliss.

--
Kandice Seeber
Air & Earth Designs
http://www.lampwork.net

This recovery thing is boring to the utmost. Im reading most of the posts
and catching up slowly, but havent energy to post much. Im taking this
getting better job seriously.
Reading posts is fun. Could I ask you, oldtimers and newcomers alike, to
amuse me with the story of how you came to RCB and why you stay, what
brought you to beads and what keeps you enthralled with this lovely
medium?
It would mean countless minutes of diversion for me. Make them as long as
you want. We can just use up the bandwidth from one of the less populated
groups. :-)
Thanks in Advance,
Diana, not feeling bad, just feeling tired. :-)

--
http://photos.yahoo.com/lunamom44

This recovery thing is boring to the utmost. Im reading most of the posts
and catching up slowly, but havent energy to post much. Im taking this
getting better job seriously.
Reading posts is fun. Could I ask you, oldtimers and newcomers alike, to
amuse me with the story of how you came to RCB and why you stay, what
brought you to beads and what keeps you enthralled with this lovely medium?
It would mean countless minutes of diversion for me. Make them as long as
you want. We can just use up the bandwidth from one of the less populated
groups. :-)
Thanks in Advance,
Diana, not feeling bad, just feeling tired. :-)

--
http://photos.yahoo.com/lunamom44

In article ,
says...

Reading posts is fun. Could I ask you, oldtimers and newcomers alike, to
amuse me with the story of how you came to RCB and why you stay, what
brought you to beads and what keeps you enthralled with this lovely medium?

I got into beads and beading sort of "thru the back door" -- gems & minerals.
I've always loved looking at and learning about the stones used in jewelry, and
eventually I became fascinated with the process of making jewelry. So I picked
up a few "basic bead stringing techniques" books... and said, "Hey, this
doesn't look like it would be that hard!" Sure enough, when I tried it, it
really *wasn't* that hard; the learning curve from "beginner" to "acceptable"
is relatively short. I discovered quickly that this would be a very expensive
hobby, so (with my partner's assistance) I decided to go for it as a home-based
business. That way I get to make lots and lots of *different* things, some of
which wouldn't be anything I would wear personally -- but I know there's
someone out there who will!

My initial interest area strongly shapes my beading style; I use primarily
stone and semi-precious beads in my work, though I also like organic materials
such as bone and wood. Seed beads, for me, are only accents -- I don't have the
*patience* to do serious seed-bead work! One of the things I like best about
stringing is the "instant gratification" factor; give me half an hour and I
have a pretty necklace, or 5 minutes for a nice pair of earrings. This is also
why I'm not especially interested in *doing* lampwork, though I enjoy looking
at good lampwork and have immense respect for those who *can* do it. I also
enjoy the design part of the process -- I've never been particularly good at
visual arts, so this has been a totally new area of creativity for me. It's so
cool when a design comes together and just looks RIGHT.

As to how I got into rcb, I was looking for a forum in which to ask "stupid
newbie" questions, and someone (I forget who) pointed me in this direction.
IIRC, I first started hanging around right after the WTC attack, and almost had
second thoughts due to some of the obnoxious Christianism (as opposed to
Christianity) that was being expressed -- I wasn't sure that someone who was
openly non-Christian would be welcome. But I tried anyhow, and was made very
welcome indeed, and have been here ever since except for a couple of "RL is
catching up with me" hiatuses.

It's a bit different and interesting, hanging around in a group which is almost
entirely female -- which is something I've never really done before, because I
get bored with "girl talk" fairly quickly. But this group talks about so much
more than just clothes and TV that I haven't gotten bored yet! I'm definitely
on the "don't mind OT threads" side of that particular discussion. g And
right now I'm looking forward to the opportunity to meet up with Tink and
Jeanne IRL, on the way back from Canada!

Celine

--
Handmade jewelry at http://www.rubylane.com/shops/starcat
"Only the powers of evil claim that doing good is boring."
-- Diane Duane, _Nightfall at Algemron_

Diana Curtis wrote:
This recovery thing is boring to the utmost. Im reading most of the posts
and catching up slowly, but havent energy to post much. Im taking this
getting better job seriously.
Reading posts is fun. Could I ask you, oldtimers and newcomers alike, to
amuse me with the story of how you came to RCB and why you stay, what
brought you to beads and what keeps you enthralled with this lovely medium?
It would mean countless minutes of diversion for me. Make them as long as
you want. We can just use up the bandwidth from one of the less populated
groups. :-)
Thanks in Advance,
Diana, not feeling bad, just feeling tired. :-)

Got interested in beads through belly dancing, decided to make my own
costume bits and pieces. Then realised that to co-ordinate the jewlery
I'd have to make my own as well, not got very far with it yet, RL interuption
and trouble finding supplies locally, but I have ideas in my head.

Update from 6 week check-up with GP, she told me to wait until 2 months are
up to start back with the dancing so I've got more time to finish sequining
at least one veil!

--
Melinda
http://cust.idl.com.au/athol

I started looking at the newsgroup, I think, on the suggestion of Suzanne Hye
of Hye on Beads. I also used to go on the rec.crafts.professional n/g, but that
was hacked by trolls so it is not as good as it used to be.
I use semiprecious beads, charms, and dichroic glass in my work. The
dichroic glass I fuse in my own kiln. I admire lampworkers, but I found out I'm
afraid of torches when I took silversmithing (don't ask), so I buy lampwork,
but don't do it myself.
I do craft fairs and Suzanne sells my dichroic pendants in her bead shop.
Patti

I figure before too long I will have met EVERYONE here. LOL!

Celine wrote:

right now I'm looking forward to the opportunity to meet up with Tink
and
Jeanne IRL, on the way back from Canada!

Then Kathy N-V said:

I can't wait for January, when I'm going to Florida to meet Tink and Co.
DH
keeps telling me - "go! take as long as you need, your friends will watch
out for you."

Well, it's 4:30 a.m. EDT, I can't sleep, and I don't want to watch a movie
about piranhas, so I'll tell my story....

I have been an artistic "fidgeter" since I can remember. Art can be a good
thing to help you forget all the crap going on in your life. But I won't go
there.

Anyhoo...I'm lucky enough to have at leats one person in my life who would
"feed" my obsessions. I was always drawing, doodling, whatever. I used to spend
summers with my grandma, and one day she bought some of those plastic tri-
beads and some string. Youngin' that I was, I just strung them. I did about a
gazillion of them and promptly took two strands and hung them from the name
sign on the porch. There they dangled in the wind, and she left them up until
they finally fell off. That was the beginning.

In high school, I remember this guy (yes, guy) who brought in necklaces of
simple seed beads strung on fishing line. He sold them for $2 a piece. I
thought, I can do that. Not long after that day, I headed out to the local
store and bought a little of this, and a little of that.

So here I am, for quite awhile, with this really dinky "stash" of beads. My mom
got me a little beading loom for Christmas once. I've made a total of 1 thing
on it. I don't have the patience to thread it. LOL.

Every now and then, I'd get bored and make something. Usually just seeds
strung on sewing thread (multiple times of course) with barrel clasps for
closures. A few years ago, a couple of people asked me to make some necklaces
for them. I was stringing them bead by bead. I forgot about the little beading
needle that came with the loom!

I've even gone so far as to separate about 5,000 seeds by hand, by color. I was
really bored and don't plan on doing that ever again.

Ok, fast forward to present day. Well, about a year ago, give or take. B/f was
surfing on the 'puter, when I walked in and noticed he was surfing newsgroups.
I had to see what the deal was. One day I popped in the word 'beads' and voila!
RCB.

I swear, the first couple of conversations I read I thought "these people are
on crack!" I had stumbled into the "close-knit" conversations the happen quite
frequently. And then somebody mentioned peyote. I kept thinking they were
talking about the drug. Something about a peyote purse. I think my thought was
along the line of "dang, they sure are brave to post about peyote online!"
LOLOL!!

THEN I found out in was the *stitch*! I think I must've been on crack!

Somebody would mention something they did, and I had to try it. So, in the
short time I've been here, I have tried it all except actually *creating* the
beads myself. I'm not any good at a lot of things, but there is plenty I can
do. And now the kitchen table has "mysteriously" disappeared....

Now I can't seem to get enough of the little buggers. There are days I just sit
at the table and stare at them, take some out and fiddle, then put them back. I
like to run my fingers through them. I stay here because I'm always wanting to
do something new, or get some inspiration.

I can't help it, I'm addicted. I didn't even try to resist....






Rachel T.
Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons
For you are crunchy and good with ketchup.

Thank you for sharing your story Jo Jo. Its always a matter of curiosity to
me to learn how people came to be where they are in their lives, and also
how they found usenet.
Im enjoying this so much!
Diana

--
http://photos.yahoo.com/lunamom44

"Jo Jo" wrote in message
hlink.net...
I'd never heard of newsgroups before. I was reading posts on AOL's bead
board last year and sometimes someone would mention rec.craft.beads and I
finally asked what it was and someone posted a link. Needless to say, I
stopped posting on AOL's bead board, not that I didn't like the ones on
the
bead board, rcb was just easier and not so slow loading as the bead board.
I swear that thing was so slow, sometimes it would finish loading but it
wouldn't show the posts and I'd have to close it and re-open it. Then
they
changed the format of it and I think it made it even worse.

I love reading your posts here, you guys are a riot sometimes and I love
Kandice's droolworthy lists and I've learned alot from ya'll to.

I don't know what it is about beads, I love the way they feel for one
thing.
I also love it that I can make something for myself or a gift for someone
rather than buying it. Not that I don't still buy jewelry, I'm just more
apt to make my own first. Its just fun. Also, another thing about
finding
RCB, I look for better beads and I try to think of pieces that are not
ordinary. So a big thanks to all of you.

Jo Jo

"Diana Curtis" wrote in message
...
This recovery thing is boring to the utmost. Im reading most of the
posts
and catching up slowly, but havent energy to post much. Im taking this
getting better job seriously.
Reading posts is fun. Could I ask you, oldtimers and newcomers alike, to
amuse me with the story of how you came to RCB and why you stay, what
brought you to beads and what keeps you enthralled with this lovely
medium?
It would mean countless minutes of diversion for me. Make them as long
as
you want. We can just use up the bandwidth from one of the less
populated
groups. :-)
Thanks in Advance,
Diana, not feeling bad, just feeling tired. :-)

--
http://photos.yahoo.com/lunamom44

Thats one of the most appealing things about this group to me too, the level
of discussions. They may start serious and end up baudy, or vice versa, but
they arent quite the stereotypical talk of other *womens groups*, recipes
and ...I was going to say fashion tips but there is some of that here as it
relates to coming trends in jewelry!
Diana

--
http://photos.yahoo.com/lunamom44

"Kathy N-V"
Beads might be the reason we all got here in the first place, but the
discussions cover everything under the sun. This is a very mind expanding
place --

Kathy N-V

That wins the award for the most unique way to come to beading so far. Im
very surprised that you have to wait so long to resume belly dancing, but it
is better to be safe than sorry.
I hope we get to see pictures of your veil when its done!
Diana

--
http://photos.yahoo.com/lunamom44

"melinda" wrote in message
news:1061173487.334745@webserver...
Diana Curtis wrote:
This recovery thing is boring to the utmost. Im reading most of the
posts
and catching up slowly, but havent energy to post much. Im taking this
getting better job seriously.
Reading posts is fun. Could I ask you, oldtimers and newcomers alike, to
amuse me with the story of how you came to RCB and why you stay, what
brought you to beads and what keeps you enthralled with this lovely
medium?
It would mean countless minutes of diversion for me. Make them as long
as
you want. We can just use up the bandwidth from one of the less
populated
groups. :-)
Thanks in Advance,
Diana, not feeling bad, just feeling tired. :-)

Got interested in beads through belly dancing, decided to make my own
costume bits and pieces. Then realised that to co-ordinate the jewlery
I'd have to make my own as well, not got very far with it yet, RL
interuption
and trouble finding supplies locally, but I have ideas in my head.

Update from 6 week check-up with GP, she told me to wait until 2 months
are
up to start back with the dancing so I've got more time to finish
sequining
at least one veil!

--
Melinda
http://cust.idl.com.au/athol