Making home made jewellery was never my first intentions, but now it is my dream and drive in life.
I first got into it when I was taken ill at work, doing a job that had been my career for 31 years. It had become a strategy of life and bought in the money to live easily. Having a medical problem that wouldn't let me return to that career, I was racking my brains for a spare time interest to keep me busy after my early retirement. Around this time, a neighbour and best friend took me to a large craft fair on the Sandringham Royal estate, here is where I found my inspiration. I was introduced to several stall holders all making their own designs of jewelry, I have lengthy conversations with a number of them, they jointly gave me the confidence to try it myself.
After that I was introduced to a woman who taught me the correct way to make jewelry with seed beads, using needles and thread. She was very patient and taught me so much about strategies and also gave me details of the easiest way to source the beads. It was then that I realized that I too may be good at this craft and I could make something more of this amazing pastime.
Nowadays I get much pleasure from purchasing semi-precious stones, and freshwater pearls, coral pieces and more. The best pleasure of all is in the designing process. I try to imagine what my buyers would like, and how they would like their jewelry to be finished professionally, so that it will give them great joy and a life time of service. Taking the basic components and shaping them into a statement piece of jewelry that not only I, but others too would adore, gives me great pride and a real sense of accomplishment.
Lately I've been in a position to share this fantastic pastime with some locals, by means of teaching. I was asked by a local economy woman to hold workshops in the art gallery attached to her working windmill. The women are also dependent and they all anticipate meeting me once a month to fill their minds with the abilities of this amazing hobby.
One of those women is blind, and arrives at the workshop along with her reliable guide dog "Olivia". This blind lady has felt her way through each workshop, using beads bigger than the other women. She was my latest inspiration to make jewellery for those that could not see, or were partly sighted in a way that they could manage to put it on independently. All this has been achieved with the usage of toggle clasps that can be easily felt.
Another change to some designs that I have recently made for lesser-abled women is for the ones that suffer with metastatic inflammation and need to use magnetic clasps, the power of these is set by the weight of the beads threaded on the jewelry.
Pioneering jewellery designs for the lesser-abled women in my life and seeing how content it makes them has driven me to keep going with this passion, giving it a new lease. I hope to be producing many utilitarian and imaginative designs for many years to come for women of all ages, styles and backgrounds.
I first got into it when I was taken ill at work, doing a job that had been my career for 31 years. It had become a strategy of life and bought in the money to live easily. Having a medical problem that wouldn't let me return to that career, I was racking my brains for a spare time interest to keep me busy after my early retirement. Around this time, a neighbour and best friend took me to a large craft fair on the Sandringham Royal estate, here is where I found my inspiration. I was introduced to several stall holders all making their own designs of jewelry, I have lengthy conversations with a number of them, they jointly gave me the confidence to try it myself.
After that I was introduced to a woman who taught me the correct way to make jewelry with seed beads, using needles and thread. She was very patient and taught me so much about strategies and also gave me details of the easiest way to source the beads. It was then that I realized that I too may be good at this craft and I could make something more of this amazing pastime.
Nowadays I get much pleasure from purchasing semi-precious stones, and freshwater pearls, coral pieces and more. The best pleasure of all is in the designing process. I try to imagine what my buyers would like, and how they would like their jewelry to be finished professionally, so that it will give them great joy and a life time of service. Taking the basic components and shaping them into a statement piece of jewelry that not only I, but others too would adore, gives me great pride and a real sense of accomplishment.
Lately I've been in a position to share this fantastic pastime with some locals, by means of teaching. I was asked by a local economy woman to hold workshops in the art gallery attached to her working windmill. The women are also dependent and they all anticipate meeting me once a month to fill their minds with the abilities of this amazing hobby.
One of those women is blind, and arrives at the workshop along with her reliable guide dog "Olivia". This blind lady has felt her way through each workshop, using beads bigger than the other women. She was my latest inspiration to make jewellery for those that could not see, or were partly sighted in a way that they could manage to put it on independently. All this has been achieved with the usage of toggle clasps that can be easily felt.
Another change to some designs that I have recently made for lesser-abled women is for the ones that suffer with metastatic inflammation and need to use magnetic clasps, the power of these is set by the weight of the beads threaded on the jewelry.
Pioneering jewellery designs for the lesser-abled women in my life and seeing how content it makes them has driven me to keep going with this passion, giving it a new lease. I hope to be producing many utilitarian and imaginative designs for many years to come for women of all ages, styles and backgrounds.
About the Author:
Lorraine Cannell is a handmade jewellery designer and entrepreneur. She is also the owner of thebeadqueen.co.uk
