Sylviebead Journal

Tuesday Takeover

It's a quiet Tuesday because I still don't feel great.

In bead news... there has been a coup in the studio. It's been taken over by junior beadmakers!!!!!! I met G at the bus stop and he immediately said "I want to go make beads." I told him "you have to do homework first" (thinking this would give me a little time in the studio myself) and he said "already finished it" DRATS! I should have said "you have to do your chores" FIRST!!!!!

SO I let him make a few beads in the studio while I worked on my Head Over Heels sample (more on that in a minute). He seemed to get it a little better today, but is still really stubborn and impatient. He wants to do it HIS way and I'm trying really really hard not to correct him too much. I'm used to correcting students who WANT to be corrected, so when I see his bead getting too hot or too low in the flame I REALLY want to say something, but have to hold my tongue because he won't hear it as helpful, he'll hear it as mom telling him what to do. (this is why I didn't want to be the one who taught them and found someone else to give them lessons. They listened to him WAY better than they would have me.)

While he was in the middle of making his 3rd bead, H came home, came straight to the studio and said "when is it my turn?" I said the same "when you finish your homework" and found out that HE didn't have homework either!!!!! This is rare. They ALWAYS have homework!!! So, G finished his bead and H got to make beads for a while.

H is really really patient and his bead shapes are really pretty good for a beginner. He wants to be corrected so that they'll be better, so I'm a little more vocal when I see him doing something that's easy to correct. It's mostly the difference between being 13 and 10, but also a little bit of their personalities.

I don't have aspirations of my kids becoming beadmakers, but I'm happy they are having fun at it for now. They just have a bit of a skewed view of beads... beads are money to them. They grew up in an environment of "if we want to go to Disney, mom has to make enough beads." (There was also the "if we want to pay the bills......mom has to make beads" part, but the fun stuff like Disney was what would have been important to them!)

So they understand beads as currency. My favorite mothers day card was one that Harrison made in pre-K. It cracked me up. It was one of those fill in the blank things that the teacher had made and the kids filled in the answer. It said...

I love my mom because.........

She makes beds to get us money.

(beds=beads. The teacher thought I was a maid I think.)

That was exactly how things worked at our house, so he was quite observant for a 4 year old. I'm wondering if they are learning to make beads because they see it as a way to make money OR if it's just fun for them. Hard to know.

guess it's the same question I ask myself a lot. Am I doing it for the love of the art or for the money??? What money????? Guess I answered that! LOL


In Head Over Heels News - I finished the bracelet... of course I'm still embellishing. I tend to get a little carried away with that part. If I didn't embellish it, I would have been done on Sunday!! I just started decorating it before it was all the way assembled. I couldn't resist!!! She's SO SO SO cute!!!! And it's inspired me to do some follow-ups! YAY!!!


tiny blah blah blah

coffee - nope. Still on an iced-tea thing. Feels better in my throat

music - I'm in a rut!!! 2 days of Corinne Bailey Rae!!! Going to make her the song of the week for that reason.