Grateful for the support of my community

 Of all the making things I do, one became a career for me.  Starting when I left my corporate career I became a full time traveling bead teacher.  It was a good life.  I supported myself well, traveled and met many many people.  

I also became part of a community.  A community of other traveling bead teachers. It's not your normal job, there are a LOT of things that go into making it successful enough to make one's living.

It starts with being proficient in beadweaving, requires a solid design sensibility and moves onto to all the things it takes to bring your design into a teachable state.  There's illustration, photography, sourcing supplies, kitting efficiently, the sometimes dreaded marketing, making travel arrangements, creating contracts and then there is the teaching itself.

Many aspects of this require technology so we need to constantly be flexing that technology part of the brain.  The one that didn't require technology in the past was the arriving at an event and teaching in the classroom.

Covid has thrown a curve ball, elminating our ability to gather together, yet a beaders life goes on.  Quickly, very quickly teaches and students adapted to an online class platform called zoom.

Which was great, but then I'm retired, well except for 2 to 3 engagements per year, those I wanted to do in person to see my colleagues and people who have attended classes many who I have spent a lot of time with over the years.  I wasn't anxious to take on the technology required to join the bead zoom classroom.

 But Covid had other plans, the Beaders Dream Retreat I was looking forward to, out of necessity has become a virtual retreat.  This is great news really because it will open the classes up to more people which is a good thing, but......technology.

So here is where my smart, kind, generous bead community has come together to share their knowledge, hold one another up, encourage one another, answer questions, offer to be available to practice, suggest the best technologies and best practices for this new way of being in a classroom.

I truly could not be more proud or more grateful for the friendships and support of this community.  It makes me teary eyed to be part of this group of men and women who of course need to focus on their own success but are willing in every way to make sure we are succesful as a whole.

So to my friends in this community, I thank you so much for your guidance, for leading the way and for helping me play catch up. I love you all!

Amarissa is my very bohemian pendant I will be teaching at this retreat.  It's small in stature, but it is incredibly wearable and suits a wide array of tastes.  I wear mine with my heavily embroidered Johnny Was clothing and I love it! I always say a nice long dangly pendant makes me tall and thin, at least in my mind.

If you are interested in hearing more about this retreat hosted by Beki Haley, have a look at the Beaders Dream Retreat website and stay tuned for details.