Dutch treat

Take a look at the kit my husband bought for my Valentine's Day gift.  This is what I'm working on right now.

from Petersen Beadwear

This gorgeous Sweet Pea Butterfly necklace is a kit from Huib Petersen.  Petersen is one of the handful of men I've run across who are working in beadweaving.  And he is also originally from the Netherlands where I lived for a year as an exchange student, and from where my paternal grandmother's family comes.  It is a small country, but throughout the last 30 years I've made an amazing number of Dutch connections in all facets of my life. But that is another story.

For a long time I felt that making pieces from kits was somehow "cheating."  Then I realized that it was really more like taking a workshop via paper.  Here I am in little Quitman, Georgia.  Where the Georgia governor may come to toss a skillet, but few workshops are held anywhere near here.  I've looked into driving four hours to Atlanta, but they always seem to fall on a day when I absolutely cannot miss work or have to be some place else.

I had such a great time and learned so much from making the Gingko Leaf Necklace by Diane Fitzgerald that I thought I would give another kit a try.  Even if you aren't interested in buying a kit, take a look at all the flora and fauna in Petersen's work.  It is really spectacular.  Petersen also has his Daisy Chain necklace in the April 2012 Bead & Button.