Beadlust: Life, Creativity and Beadwork

I'd like to share here a blog that i stumbled onto recently. Robin Atkins is a bead artist who, in 1985, rediscovered a childhood fascination with beads, and very soon, "developed an incurable case of bead lust." Robin teaches, among other things, improvisational bead embroidery classes, and features her own improvisational beadwork in her blog, "Beadlust."

Stumbling onto her blog was a real revelation for me, because i had never before seen improvisational beadwork. One beautiful example of her honest and heart-ful sharing is her post on this work (see above), which she entitled "Love in Delicate Balance." In the post, she describes the difficult, "character-building" heart-work of love and marriage in times of pain and difficulty.

This post touched me and so many! (more than 33!) others, sparking such an outpouring of appreciation, validation, expressions of support and empathy, leading me to remember again a Carl Rogers phrase that my teacher, Dr. Honey Carandang, repeats to us often: "That which is most personal, is most universal."

Robin and her fellow bead artists contribute to a monthly "Bead Journal Project" (BJP), an online journal where each member contributes a personal beadwork "journal page" each month. The goal of each journal page is "to give an impression about each month, to journal our experiences and record our feelings in a visual way. Another important goal is to stretch our creative and technical limits."

A stroll through some of the journal members' personal pages has left me breathless! Such beauty is life, and life in art!

In another blog post (Bead Journal Project... If At First You Don't Succeed....), Robin displayed how she had turned several of her BJP pieces into "soul cards," of her beadwork, featuring the beadwork on one side, and a painted/stamped paper on the other side, with some personal notes. So wonderfully creative and soul-touching. Here are just two of her pieces:

Just so beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.

Thank you Robin, for such a beautiful sharing of life in art.

Perhaps one day we can get together our own online Creative Journal Pieces!

Let me know what you think!

Hello!

My blogger nickname is abbie-at-play and i am a psychologist in the philippines. i work with children, adolescents, and adults also.

in my work, i use play and creative expression to help my clients enhance their self-awareness, healing and growth. i use play and creative expression for my own growth too.

in 2006, with some fellow psychologists, i had the great luck to learn sandplay therapy from two very generous sandplay therapists from australia-- Karen Daniel and Anna Russo. (You can read more about their work at http://www.emotional-transformation.com.au/index.html)

since then, sandplay therapy and creative journaling have been my main tools in my work.

It works great for adults!

"Abbie" is the name i gave to the little "girl" in the picture here, in the very first sandtray that i made in my new playroom at home. i identify with her a lot. she likes to play and she has a lot of precious stories to tell, just like all of us.

Let's walk this journey together :)