One Beader's Story: How One Man Found His Way to Beading, As Seen Through The Eyes of a Non-Beader

How does one find her (or in Pedro's case, HIS) way into the colorful and enchanting world of beading?  Does she rekindle her passion for making beaded friendship bracelets or pins that she once had in childhood?  Maybe he sees a beaded bracelet, bag, or trinket in a store and decides to create a similar piece for his loved one. (Point of caution: Once a beader starts buying beads and beading accessories, there is no turning back. An addition to the house should be added immediately. Best to factor the extra room as a material cost. Trust me!  It could be worth your sanity. Just so you know, we don't have an extra room.....but having fun and finding one's creative self IS what it's all about. And this I believe!)  Anyway, however you wind up on your beading path, whether you are doing it professionally or as a hobby, I bet you one thing is shared by all beadists: your call into the beading world could not be avoided, nor should be. YOU MUST BEAD!!! HE MUST BEAD!!!  All roads lead to beads!!  (Yes, I've been dying to say that!)  The Sirens play their seductive tunes and any true beader at heart who happens to be passing by at time of the Siren call is lured into the beading world, forever changed and transformed by this unstoppable, creative passion!

Okay, it's a bit dramatic, but it's our first blog, so I figure, why not!  It's my story, and I am a "non-beader", so I'll tell it like it this. Okay, that's not completely true. I have beaded, too, and I've enjoyed it, but for all purposes, I'll say I'm a "non-beader". Anyway, I wanted to show you how Pedro happened upon on his beading path, so here it goes....

Pedro, Beadist and Designer of Pachamama Native Art, was called into the beautiful world of beading like this... or at least this is how I remember it...or at least this is one version of how I remember it. Pedro's creativity predates this story I tell, but I needed to start somewhere and this is the most relevant place in relation to the work you see on our site.... 

Many years ago, on a drizzly late autumn (or was it spring?) day, while we were still living in the Boston area, Pedro and I had just finished eating brunch in Coolidge Corner. We headed out of the restaurant, kind of bored, not having any particular plans for the rest of our day. We stumbled upon the store, Ten Thousand Villages, which sells beautiful fair-trade handmade items from all over the world.  High upon a shelf was a gorgeous life-size Huichol style beaded deer. Did I say GORGEOUS? Absolutely incredible, amazing, to die-for bead-work!   Anyway, the Sirens were singing to Pedro. He was mesmerized. The beading bug bit him; no cure needed. We left the store and went directly to a craft store to buy seed beads and then home to investigate as much as possible about Huichol art and culture.  (He investigated, I wondered about this new, kind of expensive hobby that he was getting into. But, just so you know, I've always been truly supportive of Pedro's creative projects...not just because I benefit from them - our wedding rings, my engagement ring, lots of jewelry and cool things, but because I think he's talented and I can honestly see how it's transformed his/our lives for the good. Now, back to the story....) So, that very day, Pedro started beading on objects, following in the Huichol style, but also creating his own designs and patterns. Here are some of his earlier works. You can see how much his work has evolved and transformed.

Pedro's Earlier Beading Projects

Dried flower and bead work on leather and wood.

---

"Boston Skyline" Beads, shell, bamboo, on leather and wood.

---

Beaded and leather coasters  with clear resin finish.

---

Currently, Pedro mostly beads on the loom, although he definitely still does a lot of beading on objects and gives workshops to help people get started with their beading passions, too. (He's become a Siren himself, calling others to come forth to the beading world).  I'll leave the story of how he got started beading on the loom for another day.  It was definitely destiny how that happened, too. Isn't funny how life leads you to your destiny?

For now, I'll leave you with this. As a non-beader, I am truly amazed that beaders have patience and ability to put seed beads one-by-one or string-by-string to create scenes and pictures on objects, or to put each seed bead on a loom, or to do all sorts of stitches to create beading masterpieces. Pedro's "mandala" loom work pieces are created by him without a pattern. For me, that is really inspiring. All that counting and concentration. All those similar colors.  He says it's meditative. I can definitely see how working with beads IS meditative. That will be the topic of our next blog. Beading as Meditation. But in the meantime, I would like to know: Are you a beader?  If so, how did you heed to the Sirens' call? Are you a non-beader who lives with a beader? I'd like to know, do you pick up the seed beads or sweep them away?  Comments are welcome!