Sylviebead Journal

Well here we are on Thursday again... STRESS FREE THURSDAY!!!!!

I said last night that I was looking forward to stress free Thursday and was met with that half-crooked head look that my dog gives me when he has no clue what I'm saying. I explained to the person that it's my wishful thinking that Thursday will be smooth-sailing so that Friday will get here quicker! She liked that.

So... we're going to sail smoothly into the weekend when I have MANY plans... none of which are on the list of things that I'm willing to talk about here! oooh... except one. I think I'm going to the Southern Flames (Atlanta's glass beadmaking group) meeting on Saturday. I remembered it yesterday and had to change some plans around to accommodate it... but I think I'll be there, at least for the beginning of the meeting.

Anyways... I'm looking forward to a wonderful weekend. I need it!!!

So... where were was I on All Request August??? I am still granting Regan's request of knowing how I got into beads... I got you all to the point where I was just delving into making jewelery....


I forgot to say that after college, when I was working office jobs, I also worked part time at a clothing store (I tend to be a hard worker...very financially driven, if you haven't figured that out yet). The owner of the store and her husband had a line of clothes that they sold at the Apparel Mart. I showed her the silk scarves I had been making, and she started rep-ing them at the mart. Soon I was selling my scarves to stores across the Southeast. I found a rep in the midwest (I can't even remember how I found her!) and she started selling my stuff up there as well.

I added some painted silk skirts to the line eventually and had quite a cottage business going (while at the same time working a day job and working a couple of nights a week at the clothing store... I was a busy girl, but it was needed money back then.) Eventually the clothing store closed and I was only doing the painted silks as my "other job" but I had enough orders to keep me quite busy.

This was all happening at the same time that I was learning to make the simple jewelry. I spent lots of afternoons in the beadshop buying this and that... designing pieces that got a little more complicated. The beadstore owner asked if I wanted a part-time job on Saturdays and I said "sure!" Once I was there, I learned all about jewelry construction (basic jewelry, not silver-smithing or beadweaving... just stringing and wire-wrapping... but learned to make some cool stuff).

I saw these incredibly cute "fimo beads" that a woman sold to the beadstore. They were fairly new back then and each bead sold for about $4. I thought to myself (being the entrepeneurial girl that I was), I wonder if I could make those??? And went about learning how! I made some fairly simple faces... then some wacko mask-like faces and used those to make jewelry that coordinated with the silks I was painting. THEN I figured out how to make Christmas faces... (insert ooooh and aaah here) and everything changed.

I made really cute Christmas-y jewelry and sold it to people I worked with... then got into a few local craft shows and ROCKED with the Christmas jewelry. About the same time, I found out I was pregnant and let the silk-scarf biz end. I kept working at the bead store part time and kept making cute fimo beads to sell to them and as jewelry at local craft shows.

And then I had a cute baby boy!!! And things sort of changed, as all things do when you have kids! I kept making fimo things on the side, but stopped working at the beadstore. I was still a regular shopper there though and that lead to the next installment of "how the heck did Sylvie start making glass beads??!!" Which will continue later.

Hope this is interesting to Regan and hopefully someone else because it sure is long!!!!!


coffee today - no, but I think i'll go get some in a bit.

music today - not yet... I'm at the office sans ipod