Featured Artisan- Bijoux Designs For You

I am very proud to offer you an interview with my greatest inspiration, my mom. Enjoy!

What would you like people to know about you as a person?

I am a mother of three grown children, grandmother to one very adorable little guy and wife of a great guy who has been totally supportive of all my endeavours for 33 years. I am a terrible homebody who loves my house, loves to cook, adores my family and of course loves to bead. I wake up ridiculously early, so you will find me with my coffee at the dining table spiraling, fringing or right angle weaving to my hearts content, enjoying the peace while everyone else is still sleeping.

Black and Amethyst Tennis Bracelet

Tell me a bit about your art and your products. What inspires you?
My crafting endeavours have taken several paths over the years. Quilting and folk art ruled our house for a lot of years. Several years ago my daughter and I took a beading class and fell in love with beads and their glorious colour and sparkle. I currently have an obsession for beadweaving. I love incorporating those tiny seed beads with crystals and gemstones to come up with amazing creations. Currently I'm working on several designs to work into my line. I love how beadweaving can get you to push your creative juices to the limit. I'm always inspired by the things around me, particularly my garden in the summer. Nature offers you such a wonderful palette.

Pink Ladybug Stitch Markers

How do you share your creations? Where can we find you? Currently I have a shop on Etsy, Artfire and Zibbet. I do several craft shows around the outskirts of the city and am looking into doing a downtown market this summer. It is always so much fun to meet customers face to face and their feedback is invaluable.

What is your most important lesson since starting your craft/business?
Running a business from home can be very distracting. Treat your business like a business. I set business hours for myself and as hard as it is, let the house and laundry wait till I am finished work. Keep accurate records. Follow what is working for you so that you can expand on that. Always be willing to learn and perfect your skills. Stay true to yourself.

Some Fun Tidbits:
Coffee, tea or hot chocolate? Definately COFFEE
Your favourite candy? Anything with chocolate
Your favourite colour? Blue
Your favourite movie? Titanic
If I were to catch you grooving it would be to this song... I'm dating myself, but anything by the BeeGees and I love Celine Dion

Valentine's Banner Giveaway!

I have recently become addicted to creating banners! Let's face it....the creative bug is a hard one to squash! I wanted to offer this simple yet classy Valentine's banner (minus the kawartha beads) to one lucky reader, sized to fit your Etsy or Artfire Studio. All you have to do to enter is either become a follower of this blog or follow me on twitter. Yep, that simple. Be sure to leave a comment below letting me know and if you follow both you get two entries! Hurry....giveaway ends at noon EST. February 1st and the banner will be emailed directly to you so you can add some love to your shop for Valentine's Day.

Good luck!

The Next Step...

So where to now? I am hoping that this blog will be a great resource for artisans/crafters in the City of Kawatha Lakes, Peterbourgh and Durham areas. Over the course of the next few months I will be featuring local artisans/shops, compiling a list of crafty events in the area (with a sidebar link) and hope to add some tips/tricks and other resources. If you are a local artist and would like to be featured, know of an event or have a tip or trick to share send your submissions to kawarthabeads@gmail.com

What's in a name?

So how did I come to choose Kawartha Beads as my name? Anyone who has ever tried to set up an email+blog+etsy account knows that finding an available id under all of those is difficult AND to have it be meaningful to you and your endeavours is equally challenging.

First of all I live in the beautiful City of Kawartha Lakes, about an hour outside of Toronto. Kawartha is an Ojibwa word meaning "shining waters" and I thought that the relaxation and feeling of peace that creating gives me is similar to relaxing by the shining waters of one of the many lakes in this region. Beads of course are my addiction and thus Kawartha Beads has been born!

Welcome!

Welcome to Kawartha Beads! I hope that you will come along on my journey.
I am no stranger to blogging or the online world. I currently operate a beading supply shop in conjunction with my mom Rouge River Beads. Previously we also offered our handmade creations at Bijoux Designs For You which my mom has now taken over to leave me some more time to concentrate on our supply shop and to enjoy some additional time with my little guy who is now...sigh...a toddler! As I'm sure many moms can relate juggling a business, or two, work outside the home, laundry, dishes, cooking, cleaning and children can be a bit of a three ring circus! However, the creative blood is still flowing so I will use this blog to share with you some of my own personal creations, tidbits, handmade fav's and whatever else comes to mind. I hope that you will learn, laugh and share along with me.

April