Bead Society of New Hampshire

March 2001 in Antrim NH

We called it a "Bead Cave", it was held at my house, organized by Marney.......but it was also the seed from which the Bead Society was born.

Today I received this communique from Gail Devoid, the current President,
"The Bead Society of New Hampshire has made you an honorary life member for all your contributions. Congratulations!"


I feel very honoured as the Society has always been close to my heart in many ways over the past 15 years.  I sorely miss the meetings and interactions with all the old friends amongst the membership.  
Arizona treats my health quite well, even with 112 degree summer days, but New Hampshire will always be home.
   Beads Rule!

Moved to Arizona

Goodby New Hampshire.... The Antrim house was cleaned, put up for sale, sold and left us with 4 weeks to clean out and leave.  Whew, what a whirlwind that was.  We only took 10% of our stuff with us and it fit in a small POD and the trailer.

Thank heavens for good friends and family helping us get everything done.  Good thing too as the new owners showed up to the closing with their dog and a truck load of things to move in.





We are now permanently in Arizona and have to start doing all the change of addresses.

.... and find nooks and crannies of where to tuck our NH things into a 900 sq. ft old adobe house.  Already I'm saying, "it doesn't fit!"  I'm going to have to have a couple of house cooling sales, including an excess of beads.


Wondering now what the last chapter of my life will bring.

Kearsarge Indian Museum

 We took a trip today to Warner NH to visit the Indian Museum. It's pretty much one man's collection turned into a local museum.

 "...Bud and his wife, Nancy, Co-founders of Mt. Kearsarge Indian Museum. The Thompsons were deeply troubled by the harm being done to the environment by greed and apathy. With the help of friends, Bud and Nancy set in motion a plan to create a unique museum, not just a mausoleum of artifacts, but an education and cultural center."

I found this loom set up quite interesting.  Although this shows it being used with quills, it would make a great portable loom.








Interesting that the quills all poke out the back side as the piece is being worked.

Huron, Micmac, Maliseet moosehair embroidery work

I didn't know that Moose had such long hair.  Nor did I know that it was used to embroider things.

beautifully delicate work.














It was one of those perfect days to be out and about in New England.

Moving & Sale

We've decided that we should live in Arizona full time, so now comes the logistics of finishing a house, selling it and disposing of  many years of stuff.  I plain just have too much stuff.  Here is some of it that might be of use to beaders or anyone who crafts. Oh, house has to go too......

I've had duplicate studios in both New Hampshire and Arizona for 13 years and need to find new homes for the furniture  fixtures and extra crafting supplies.  I warn you, very few of the things that I'll be selling can be mailed.  I'm in south Central NH near the VT and Mass. borders if you are near enough for a short road trip.  

OK, here's a PDF of  Craft related things.  CLICK HERE 

This is a special/custom built bead storage cabinet...  no beads in Plano boxes go with it and I'm not sure it would fit in a car as it's 6'tall.

Small metal light table - Pre-digital graphic arts, but I still enjoy using a light table that I can throw a T-square on.  There is also a Nikon SLR camera on the list.

Cabochons - These are several lots, no picking them apart.  Both my Father and Brother made cabs from Arizona copper minerals that are rare and from now defunct mines.  What would I do with the several hundred that I have left?  Go in with a friend, buy the lot and really save.

Who wants vintage glass, bakelite or plastic necklaces for the beads?  Great selection of them to either wear or take apart.


Are any of you (or spouses) MG car aficionados?  I've also just sorted out the remains of 40 years of car restoration stuff.  The cars are long gone, but I have 2 boxes of drawings, lube charts, original operator manuals, magazines, lots of old model cars, moto meter, car badges, etc.

Working Hands - Hopefully

It takes crocheting a lot of samples to come up with workable rope patterns.  I have some wonderful bead faeries who do a lot of it, but when it comes down to the wire, I need to see myself that what I have on paper actually works with the beads. 

The agony of inflamed and swollen joints the last 5 months has meant that I haven't been able to pick up a hook.  I had some bead crochet patterns, but then I'd see that maybe a change of one or two beads would make the design work better.  It's hard to deal with the time factor that bead faeries need when I could do it in 15 min. or less.

Finally, after misdiagnosis, no diagnosis, Doctor head scratching, more tests and more than one specialists referral ... they are pretty sure that I have a severe case of Rheumatoid Arthritis. Why me, at my age, all of a sudden?  Who knows . . . There are so many people out there who have this, live with it and manage it.  I can do no less.  Give me time to get this all sorted out and I hope to be back to beading.

The specialist has me on a modified, low-dose Chemo regime.  It'll take a while to kick in -- about 10 weeks all told.   If it works and the side effects don't drive me batty, then this bout of nasty arthritis should be pushed into remission. Thin hair and a weekly bout of nausea is a small price to pay to have my hands back again and to be able to walk more than a hundred feet.

I won't dwell on it, nor bore you with any of the details of what's working and not working.  However everyone that's asked for future patterns, books, workshops and string-alongs needs to know why I've been so very quiet and non-productive.  Getting old just isn't for wimps, is it?  When I feel I can, the first thing I'll do will be a new string-along.

Fall Color

Just because I love looking at the fall colors here in New Hampshire....

the bugs are few, the air is sunny crisp, and it's fun to kick through the leaves on the ground.

 This is what I see out of my bedroom window.  I have this great view of the path to the well into the back woods.  I love the way the late afternoon sun lights up the center of the path.

The house is on the north face of the hill down to the lake.  That means that it starts to get dark a little earlier than up top of the hill. The lingering rays of the late sun do light up the trees out across the road from the driveway.  That's the only really red red tree I've seen this season.  It's been all yellow gold this year.

a Mundane Monday

It's the end of blooming things and there are just a few of the hardy Fall blooms to be seen here and there.  We've not yet had a hard frost so it's good to enjoy what's out there in the moment. 

 I had to catch up on a few things and run some errands.  One stop was at a thrift store where I found this delightful 1970's Nabisco cookbook.  The graphics seem so dated, but the contents are comforting.  Animal crackers, first made in 1902, then a chocolate wafer cake and Nilla wafer banana pudding . . . all things that bring out the fond memories of being a child once again.

I usually crochet in the car while we are out 'n about... however this trip I had a small problem - no make that 3 small stringing errors.  I couldn't fix them, I couldn't continue to crochet and that was everything I had with me.

Once all of the provisions were put away I spent some time with the camera.  Everyone tells me that for an Etsy shop you need to have artistic backgrounds. I played around with some different papers I had to see what things might look like.  I'm not totally convinced as I think it makes it all look a bit fussy.  What's artistic about supplies?  Shouldn't they be less artistic and more practical? After all, I'm selling the piece, not the composition.

resin ended head pins (28 gauge wire)

If you'd care to take a look, I do have the magnetic clasps up in the shop as well as a couple of other bead room clean out items.   I have so many bits and pieces that need to find new homes.  Now if I can find the time to sort them out and get them listed for sale.

 Well, I did have the wire pieces out and the pliers were on the desk -  A little bit of twist & tweak, add some more wire wrap to hold the large beads in place and I think I'll have a pair of earrings.

Paid the bills, did the laundry, sorted out paperbacks to give away and admired all of the yellow falling leaves on the lawn. Yes, it has been a very mundane Monday.

Fall Colors

We've had a lot of rain and it's taken down a lot of the red and red/orange leaves.  It's still one of my favorite times of the year here in New England.  These photos are for Beverly over at No Easy Beads, who always asks for leaf photos this time of the year.  So I took a short drive today.

Enjoy...

 Harrisville Center

 somewhere near Nelson

a Harrisville doorway

Sights of a NH Summer

I got a new traveling camera today and had to go try it out.  I'd been wanting a camera for the car that had more of a telephoto aspect to it so that I could get photos of clock towers and other far off interesting things.  I'm happy to say that I think this Nikon L810 is going to do the job nicely.

We've been watching the old Antique Barn just down the road from us turn into an ice cream, vegetable and local produce market all summer. It's finally open and then this blue cow just appeared in the parking lot.  They say it's a blue ox, but it sure looks like a plain blue-painted cow to me.

A piece down the road is Beard's Brook, well hidden local, swimming pond.  The water is as low as I've seen it in August, even though it seems as if every time I turn around it's raining again.

The water was still and you couldn't see it moving.

This stump is usually underwater.  It's across the pond and yet the camera picked up every little detail of it.

One of my favorite stone arch bridges.  Sometimes I surprise myself with a photograph.  I love the reflection that makes the arch look like a complete circle.

 We stopped in Hillsboro Center, late 1700's settlement.  The Lost Animal Pound is a beautiful example of the stone walls you see along roads and disappearing into the woods.









The founder of Hillsboro, John Hill, donated a triangle of land with this pound, the cemetery,and  buildings in 1769.  It is all maintained beautifully.

 Up the road is the old schoolhouse, a nice prim & proper New England white clapboard building.











Gray shingles and barn red trim. . . all behind the garden and fruit trees.  This is why I wanted this kind of camera.  This shot was taken from 2 fields away.










New England cemeteries, granite and the oldest slate headstones, leaning every which way.










Winters can be cold and thrifty residents still heat with wood.  A well stacked wood pile means a warm house this winter.

 The grass has gone to seed, and I saw red leaves on more than a few maple trees during our afternoon's drive.


 I am pleased with the photos my new camera took. It was a great day to be out for a drive -- a nice 15 mile loop from the house.

I hope you've enjoyed a glimpse of what New Hampshire looks like in late August.

Quick Trip - Maine

 Every once in a while one needs to go some place away from home and the many projects that keep saying, "me, work on me next.".  So we threw a change of clothing in the car and took off for the coast of Maine for a couple of days.  It was also cooler over there and I was tired of sitting in an air conditioned house in the summertime.

You can see my orange Element just behind this great delivery van restoration.  I love the colors and think my Element would look beautiful painted like this.... Chicken stuff and all.


Chainsaw roadside art -- funky and fun.  But this flamingo was totally lost alongside of all the chainsawed bears. It belongs in Florida, not here.

I have a beading friend who is known for her beaded moose.  I was thinking that a 3-D piece like this might look awesome in colored beads.

 It's hard to see, but there is an eagle up there on that nest.  Wonder how often it lost sleep when the lights went on for an event?  We sat and watched the birds for a while and then turned around and watched the big cranes (mechanical, not birds) at Bath Iron Works.  Big, big cranes and big pieces of ships being moved around.

 It was so restful sitting in the empty park, looking out  to the  Kennebec Estuary.  The shipyard was upstream and the maritime museum was downstream. Nice soft seacoast breezes were blowing.

We drove home along Rte 202 and looked at several inland towns while I finished up some crocheting for my on-line String-Along.


A change of scenery is always good.