At this time the shopping cart is not operational. If you see something you would like to purchase please contact me via the contact page and I will give you details for payment via PayPal. PayPal is preferable as it offers security for both buyer and seller. If the goods are lost in transit or are damaged the cost can be retrieved through Paypal.

Cheers Wendy

Welcome....

I am a hobbyist beader. The funds from the jewellery I sell I use to buy more beads to fuel my passion!

I worked for 37 years as a Primary teacher in the Victorian state system. During this time I used knitting, stitchery, including cross stitch, tapestry, embroidery and canvas embroidery as my relaxations away from school. I just love working with colour shape and texture. Just before I retired in 2004 I met a beader, Jenny Marsden, who introduced me to the wonderful world of beads and beading. I was immediately hooked! The colours, shapes and textures were so alluring.

Here in Australia at this time, beading was just beginning to take off so there were not many bead shops around and because of my rural situation access to teachers and experts was a problem. Thus I am mostly self taught. Being computer literate I began trolling the internet and to my absolute joy I found a myriad of blogs, websites, online shops and forums with lots of tutorials, patterns and advice. I become aware of names like Laura McCabe, Lisa Kan, Sherri  Stefani, Carol Wilcox Wells, Dianne Fitzgerald, Marie Geraud, Jean Power and so many others too numerous to name. Their work is inspirational! I have so far to go!!

I invested in many beading books beginning with the easy instructions and am now working with more intricate and difficult projects. I pored over magazines (Bead and Button, Beadwork and Jill Oxton's Cross Stitch and Beading (just to name a few) and worked my way through their projects trying out as many techniques as possible. I have become affiliated with as many beading forums as I can, both in English and foreign languages ( the translate button on my browser is a godsend). The members of these forums are wonderfully generous with their help, advice and sharing of patterns, knowledge, experience and ideas.

When I look at my very early work I smile as I think of the journey so far  and how far I have come, and look forward with anticipation to the journey still to come. I am experimenting with design tools and I am using the techniques learnt to design and make some simple projects . This is just in the early stages so as yet I don’t have any patterns I am ready to share, publish or sell but maybe the time will come. At this time much of my work especially the woven items are based on the designs of others.

I’m still learning, and we all know that never stops, but I now think my work has developed enough to be marketed in a wider way than the local Sunday Markets. So  here I am. Please take the time to have a peek at what I have to offer.

Cheers Wendy

May 2010