
124 - The Bead Shop
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As a family, we used to go on regular trips to London, partly because my grandparents lived there. And when I was about 15, we visited The Bead Shop, which I think was on Neal Street in Covent Garden. It was a large room with dark brown shelves and tables topped with built in compartments and stacked to the rafters with glittering glass beads. Some came in plastic tubes and some were loose. You had to pick them out carefully and put them in tiny plastic bags to purchase them.
I was in second Heaven! It was the beginning of a few years of jewellery design for me. A very creative and inspired streak. I was totally engrossed. And I had a stroke of luck - a woman in our village used to do a craft fair every week selling silver jewellery and she let me have a space on her stall. So I suddenly had a regular pocket money job.
Conversely, I wasn't lucky in the future with making things and selling them at craft fairs but the jewellery I made in my teens was popular and used to sell quite well.
I also did a bit of fashion design - the blouse my sister is modelling for me here was made from two 1970s evening dresses that I bought from a charity shop or jumble sale.
The paper cones necklace, bauble necklace and the cracker toys on a chain were things I made to wear myself. They didn't sell at the craft fair - a bit too outre.
It's funny how little I've changed when it comes to creative stuff. There's still that mixture of creativity, nerdiness and obsession.
I really want to make up for all the years I spent working in an office in my 30s and 40s. I needed to do that at the time - and not just for the money, for the emotional grounding and security too. But I was born to be a creative. It's corny, and I don't mean it literally I suppose but it feels like a destiny. I have to do it NOW and I am not going to stop doing it ever again. I suppose I never actually stopped completely but I mean creating is now at the centre of my life and that is they way it is going to stay until the end.
The orange square earrings were very innovative, with novel use of materials and a novel mix of techniques: I used Letraset transfers to create the patterns. (Letraset was a pro brand of letters and shapes on special sheets that could be transferred onto paper. It was used by graphic designers to create layouts before the digital era). I then cut two squares of acrylic plastic and glued them together with clear glue. The glue slightly melted the plastic, making it twist and it also created bubbles in the centre of the piece.
Paperchase had just opened (for the first time) on London's Tottenham Court Road and that was another source of exciting new materials for me. For example, sheets of transparent film with a bubble sheen.