Keeping Things Simple...: Interview With A Star - Albina at AroundBeads

Keeping Things Simple...: Interview With A Star - Albina at AroundBeads

How It Started...

Ever since I was a child, I have loved doing anything by hand, especially knitting. I knitted sweaters for my brother, father, my mom, and myself. I enjoyed to make very complicated ornaments and one-of-a-kind cloth. 

My favorite brother's sweater - perfect for skiing:)

In 2003 my life changed a lot! I met my soul mate Peter and moved to Arizona where we were married. Arizona does not have real winter (like I used to have in Russia): it's always "summer" there. We had maximum +27C (80F) this February!  So... there was no reason to knit nice sweaters for my husband or for myself (although I made some nice things for our daughter) ... 

Once, my Russian friend living in Japan sent me a beautiful red beaded rose as a Christmas gift. I thought, "Is it possible to make something as lovely as Mother Nature creates? Probably not, but sometimes copies can be worth that of the original." That is when I fell in love with beads and wire. My first experience was to make this beaded Money Tree. 

In spite of the fact that it looks like an old untrimmed tree and has a lot of ‘technical’ mistakes, I still love it.

So, I was mostly "floral beader" making beaded trees and flowers...

And even now I use mostly wire and gem stones to make my jewelry, I love beaded pieces. I really like Maria's jewelry made with seed beads:

Ode of Life.