Me and Beads
My passion for beadwork began I suppose, as a child, when I had a little coin purse, and a red indian doll with a suede dress covered in tiny beads. Then there was my mother's antique ivory pansy necklace, which had a daisy chain also made with blue and white seed beads.
Fast forward a few years...ok fast forward many years, and I have leared to shape and weave seed beads into beautiful jewellery, how to make diagrams on my laptop, and put them all together with instructions to make the tutorials you see in my shop. I also have a book out on Amazon, just search my name.
So how do I go about writing a tutorial?
It begins with an idea. This may be something that wakes me in the middle of the night, or during a walk in the woods, or just be having some beads in front of me.
The next move is to make a rough draft diagram, so I can work out the best way of putting it all together, then making the first prototype, making notes as I go. There is usually a lot of unpicking and starting again here.
Once the first one is made up, I will usually unpick it all and start again using my notes, to make sure the pattern is as intuitive as I can make it. A second and sometimes third piece will be made in other colours. Photos are then taken and edited.
Then the actual diagrams are put together, stage by stage, and written instructions added. This is all laid out in a publishing program before being proof-read several times and converted to pdf. And that is it.
Oh I forgot to mention, this probably takes at least 40 hours. Rome wasn't built in a day you know...neither are my tutorials, but I love doing it.
You may ask why Iceni Bead Design. Norfolk where I live is at the heart of the ancient tribal lands of the Iceni, whose queen was Boudica. It's that simple.
