Looking Back on 2014

I have just been adding three patterns to my website and, strangely, they bring me back full circle through the year, so I thought today would be the perfect opportunity to spend a little time looking back on 2014.

January saw the publication of my coral reef bracelet in the Beadworkers Guild journal and now, here at the end of December, I’ve just added the project, in the form of a clown fish pattern, a turquoise fish pattern and the coral reef bracelet, to my website. The months in between have brought a huge change, but it has all happened so gradually that, although the year seems to have flown by, it’s actually pretty sobering to see just how much has happened in my little beading world!

Back in January I was looking at the prospect of moving house, which also meant having to find a new venue for the teaching practise that I have been building up since 2012. I haven’t yet moved into my new home (I’m just waiting for planning permission to build a new beading room there!), but my beading classes have been round and about a lot and I am enormously grateful to the lovely ladies who have stayed with me through all this change. They have given me enormous support, both practically through finding a new temporary home for the classes, and in the emotional support they’ve given as they’ve listened to my tales of woe through the many, many ups and downs of this whole process. So I’m most certainly looking forward to 2015 and getting myself settled once again!

Just for fun, I thought I would look back over this website too. Of course it had a little makeover this year, which I hope everyone has been liking…I’m still tweaking a few things here and there behind the scenes, but once again, I am enormously grateful to the customers who have shopped here and the friends I have made through my work on here – thank you!!! I also checked and it turns out I’ve added 64 patterns to the site over the past twelve months. I’m not sure whether or not I’ll be breaking that record in 2015, but it is safe to say that I have a lot more patterns in progress. I am sitting right next to a netted bracelet and a herringbone rope necklace that have been strategically placed to ‘remind’ me to write up their instructions, so look out for those in January! I also have a whole notebook full of French Beaded flower patterns to be written up next year. First, though, I need to finish the manuscript for my next book: French Beaded Corsages, which will be a follow up to my popular Bead Flowers and Wedding Bouquets, and will hopefully be published in spring of 2015.

Speaking of books, looking back on 2014, I had almost forgotten that I published two new books at the very start of the year. Bead Embellished Cabochons has led to a lot of teaching opportunities, with more to come in 2015. Beaded Clasps has proved very popular and seems to have inspired many people, which is a great honour.

January 2014 also saw me starting work on my other website, My World of Beads. This has been growing slowly over the year as the rate at which I’ve been adding to it has been rather patchy, but it’s now getting into good shape and I have some big plans for it for 2015, so if you want to be in on the action, pop over there and start following the blog!

I have a few ‘firsts’ to celebrate in 2014 as well…my first year teaching at the Gerrards Cross Summerschool, back in July. I had a fabulous day there teaching oxeye daisies and in 2015 I will be back to teach two classes: French Beaded rose and my snowman Christmas decoration, so if you’re interested, check out their website and make sure you book up fast when the time comes! This was also my first year teaching at Stitchncraft where I also had a wonderful time, thanks to the hospitality of Lynn and Kevin and the lovely friendly and talented beaders who booked onto the workshops. I’m hoping to see some familiar faces when I’m back down there again in 2015. Then of course, I had my first experiment with Shibori silk and made my first Kumihimo bracelet…I think 2015 will bring more of both these materials!

Looking back on 2014, there have been tougher times too, both personally and in the beading world! I’m ending the year with the spectre of VATMOSS hanging over the entire craft industry. The campaign to get the EU to clarify the new laws and ensure that they make sense for individual traders like myself, continues. I know it is making progress, but whilst I am still unclear about how best to proceed, I have ended the year by transferring my patterns from automatic download to emailing them out along with personalised tips from me. I hope this is going to work for all of you as well, but things may change again in 2015. After celebrating the growth of two websites, I also should confess that my third website, Beads for Men, still remains ‘an idea with potential’! I simply haven’t had the time to grow that as well, so we’ll see what happens there in 2015!

I’m going to finish up my reminiscences looking back on the biggest change of all for me in 2014…that surprise phone call that asked me if I would like to become editor of Bead Magazine! I still can’t actually quite believe that I do this job, but it just goes to show that you never know what’s around the corner. So, as my third issue is about to hit the newsstands in early January, I can’t help wondering what 2015 will bring! I do know that there is already some hugely exciting news for the summer, but I can’t share it just yet, so tune in next time to find out more…

My heartfelt thanks to all of you who have shown me so much friendship and support through 2014. I hope you have a wonderful new year and that 2015 brings you good health, happiness and lots of beads!