back in the (beaded) saddle again...

ok...so it's been a couple of of months since my one and only post. so what? (ha ha). in my defense, admittedly i am a member of the lead-pencil club, i.e, just don't do technology. having said that, i am nonetheless trainable. i have come kicking and screaming into the 21st century, hence my second blog posting.

opening the bead store meant that as a first-time retail owner/operator i had to learn about business financing, govenment red-tape (oy), acquire a working knowledge of a wide range of beading/jewelry making techniques, cultivate vendors, customers, IT knowledge and develop a multi-faceted approach to keeping the bead empire afloat over the past 3 l/2 years. what a long, strange trip it's been. but i've learned a lot in the process and feel like my gray matter has compounded exponentially in the process but not w/o taking a significant toll on my personal life regarding creative pursuits in particular. sooooo...this summer i took a step back from the shop, took a deep breath, dusted the cobwebs from my neglected studio, reclaimed my creative life and the flood gates opened. summer was awesome. life is sweet again. i think that even in our dormant periods our creative souls are simmering even though we don't know it at the time. as my dear friend, annis mcCabe, once said: we have "donkey" years. as mothers, spouses, employees, sisters, daughters, best friends and volunteers, our lives are overrun with obligations which leave little time for ourselves. opening and running the shop for the past 3 1/2 years constituted a series of "donkey years" where i often felt overwhelmed by all the things i had to learn as a new retail business owner, as an instructor, as a person who is trying to balance the "all of it" both personally and professionally. so it was especially sweet this summer to make the choice to step back and rediscover the "why" of opening a bead business and to be reminded that it all started with the love of art and the act of creation, with a desire years ago to cultivate beauty into my everyday life and to share that desire with other people in my community. so here we are going on our 4th year of business (thank you dear friends and customers---you made the dream happen). i hope that you'll pop by the shop to check out the fruits of my summer and don't forget, as well, to stop by the university of richmond's "arts around the lake" sunday, september 30th. the empress will be holding court in booth #30. see you there! m.

we love bead kitty.
moxy the bead kitty loves all things sparkly.

bead empress

i started teaching beading/precious metal clay classes out of pure selfishness about six years ago. i couldn't find a beading community so i decided to create one myself, sort of like in "field of dreams", i.e, if you build it they will come. and come they did. after teaching about 5 years and on a complete whim, within the space of one week i flew across country to attend a 2-day consultation for people interested in running a bead shop, then flew back home and immediately signed a lease on a little shop. little did i know the challenges & pitfalls that temper the joys (ahem?) of owning your own business. after 2 years, however, the beads began to fall in place and we seem to be in the flow...