Hobby Versus Obsession

I admit it, I'm obsessed with chainmaille. Most of my jewelry designs revolve around it. I do have a hobby though, well, really a few but this one is what I do second most to chainmaille. Bead weaving. When I have my moments where I can't seem to come up with a design using chainmaille then I pick up the seed beads and weave. I have quite a few bead weaving projects that I have started when in a chainmaille funk only to put them down to get back to the jumprings. I will eventually get back to them but for now they sit waiting for me....patiently.



Every trip to the bead shop ends up including seed beads of some kind. I just can't resist them, all those gorgeous colors and shapes and sizes. Well, I usually end up with some shade of pink or green since those are my favorite colors but I have been trying to curb that and go for other colors. Of course bead weaving isn't always just seed beads, you have to add some pearls or crystals too. Take the blue and topaz necklace above. That middle bead is a rivoli from Swarovski. It has no hole and you have to bead around it. So much fun to play around with colors and designs. Again, I have about 5 rivolis sitting in my bead stash just waiting for me to come up with some cool way to play with them. I have another that I have already finished but haven't actually attached it to anything yet. I'm thinking of making it into a cuff, sort of like a corsage. So that is one of the reasons why I decided to start adding some of these items to my shop on Etsy. I know that the Etsy Beadweaver's Team aren't going to be running over to ask me to join and that is fine. I could never compete with those designs they come up with. I'll just stick to my hobby and work hardest on my obsession.