My mom's beadwork leaves me in awe

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I love my mom’s beadwork.

She has never said whether she ever beaded when she was a child, and oddly enough, it never occurred to me to ask until right now as I’m writing this.

All I know for certain is that she began beading in earnest about 20 years ago. Back then, three of my four siblings and I had left home, and the youngest, my baby sister, was in high school. Suddenly, Mom had time for pursuing crafty hobbies.

She began the way many people do, working from patterns in books she bought at Hobby Lobby and other craft shops. She started with earrings, the dangling kind that you often see in Native American patterns, and gradually branched out into making barrettes, dream catchers and headdresses.

And at some point, she began creating her own patterns, and that’s when she really began to wow me. Everything she makes is in the Native American style (we’re Cherokee, my mom is full and I am half) even if she doesn’t use the traditional colors.

Recently as I was looking at some of her creations, I offered to list a few on my Etsy store. Here are the two I chose:




If I could wear earrings, I’d get them from her myself, but I have yet to find a pair that doesn’t irritate my ears and I haven’t bought that magic bottle of Jeweler’s Skin Guard I found back in April in a Fire Mountain Gems catalog.

So for now, I just admire my mom’s beadwork and hope someday my own daughter will feel just as wowed by mine.

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