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The Perfect Photo

I don’t know about you, but before I started writing beading books, I hadn’t really thought that much about the photos in them. Of course I have admired the beautiful photos in the large collection of beading books that I’ve acquired over the years, but I had limited understanding of what goes into each photo…

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Finally…My Battle Piece Revealed!

Hopefully if you’re reading this you’ve already seen my Battle of the Beadsmith entry, ‘High Stakes’ and now, finally, I can share all the things I’ve been bursting to tell people, but having to refrain from doing in order to preserve the mystery that is such a great part of this competition. Those of you…

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Creative Confidence and Fear

The universe keeps throwing things into my path that makes me think it wants me to consider the idea of creativity and confidence, or self-belief and fear. So, while we’re all waiting for the revelation of the full complement of Battle pieces, it seemed like a good time to sneak in a few thoughts on…

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Motivation, Value and Pricing

I was taking a break from beading and looking for a little inspiration when I stumbled upon a TED talk about motivation. The synopsis said that the talk aimed to explore human motivation at work and challenge the idea that we will work harder if we’re simply paid more money. I thought that sounded interesting…and…

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Battles, Books and Reflections

Well, as forecast, I’ve been busy beading! Unfortunately the majority of my planned 35 or so beaded beads for my battle piece remain unfinished (well actually, mostly un-started!). Some of my fellow battlers are posting that their pieces are finished already! Ok, so we still have a month left to go, but as my piece…

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Battle Skirmishes and Strategic Changes of Direction…

I’ve decided that there’s some kind of correlation between how good I think my beadwork is and how successfully/easily it’s coming together. Or to put it in another way, I’m beginning to think that the battle isn’t so much with my opponent, the very talented Christian V. Rodriguez (did I mention she did rather well…

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