LADYBUG BEADS

I was so excited to step into my new craftroom once I had it all set up! New carpeting, 1960's
wall paneling still in good shape, a contemporary white desk/work table in front of two windows
overlooking both my street, and the soothing, quick-flowing Wells River. Every bead in its
correct bead box, all three dozen stacked, by category, on the desk's L-extension. My vintage
fabric stash along the back wall, in tidy plastic crates. Sewing machine on an oval, butcher block
table in the center of the room. Sun streaming through the open balcony door. It was a long
time coming! All my collections had waited patiently, for years -- it took a relocation to
Vermont, from Cleveland, Ohio, to allow the creation of the inspiring workroom I'd always
dreamed of!

I designed my first necklace , choosing jewel colors of garnet red, a deep amethyst,
and some white pearls. Oops! There went a few stray beads onto the carpet...oh
well, I'll rescue them later I thought, and continued to pick & choose, just the right-sized
beads, the right combinations, sequences and spacers. By the time I was done, more than a
few beads, crimps, and sterling balls had slipped through my fingers.

I usually leave my current piece in the bead tray until the next day, "sleeping on it", making
sure I'm happy with the final design. Before leaving the room I decided to get down on the
carpet and pick up those errant beads. Whoa! Couldn't really see them at first. Got a
flashlight and started crawling around. Well, my penchant for jewel tones had also led me to
select a carpet with flecks of the whole jewel pallette in it! Seems like I'd doomed myself
to a lot of long recovery missions down on the floor! Not wanting to step on any beads
and push them down into the pile any further, I sat down and started a sweep of my hand
in wide arcs, "feeling" those beads back into their little cribs!

My right knee moved ever so slightly and I felt a little crunch. Ah! Got another one! I picked
up some more beads and put them in my other hand. In a moment I moved over to my open
boxes and started putting more beads where they belonged. Uh oh! Seems I was also picking
up some ladybugs. I looked more closely into the sections of my open boxes and saw a few
more sitting there among the Czech beads. I picked them out with a tweezer and dropped them
into my rattan wastebasket.

The next afternoon I returned to my workroom to put the clasp on my necklace.
It was a warm day and just as I sat down in my swivel chair, an asian ladybug
dropped from the ceiling onto my arm. I heard some muted buzzing and noticed about
a dozen more flying around the windows. I'd left one of my bead boxes open overnite
and wouldn't you know there were five more bugs in the box!

Well, that was a few weeks ago, and while I've never been especially bothered by insects,
and know that ladybugs can be a sign of good luck, I now have a good sized plastic
bag full of several varieties of the little beauties, sealed up for eventual disposal, 'cause
I'm just not going to start stringing them up into some avant garde bracelet to put on Etsy
as an organic work of art!

What do you deal with in your work space?!

Written By Candice  On Tuesday, May 18th, 2010
Candice's Etsy Shops: Art By Candice and Reams Of Fun