Julie's Birthday: Bethy's Beads and Sparklies!

From my friend Cynthia's post about Driftwood and Glass Beads here, Bethy was inspired to start a little project making sun catchers.  In fact, when I showed her the post, her face lit up and she became immediately excited.  With her mom's birthday coming up the first week of February, this sparkly project seemed perfectly right to brighten the January brown and rainy grey around us.  And there was the snow . . .

First afternoon:  Getting started.

I drilled holes in a piece of driftwood (from a large basket of small, interesting pieces I found in Etsy seller DriftwoodAmour's shop) while she finished her homework on Thursday,  After that she was on to the bead selection process.  While I normally use small seed beads (sizes 11˚ and 15˚)  and their equally small cousins (Rocailles, 3mm bugles, pearls and anything else small and interesting) in my embroidery, I have accumulated some larger ones along the way just because they are beautiful.  I showed Bethy where to find the jars and bottles holding those larger faceted crystals and drops and twisted bugles, and she arranged them in little crescent-shaped "bone china" dishes and bowls so she could make a better selection.  We even found a pink Owl bead that delighted her, because her mom is fond of owls.  That left only the lovely "job" of stringing the beads together.  We have four weeks.  We can do this!

Second afternoon:  The Sun Catcher is taking shape.

By Friday, she was really into the swing of it.  Unfortunately, playing with the beads became almost as interesting as selecting them for the seven dangling strands.  But by the time Julie came to pick them up that afternoon, Bethy was working on the sixth strand.  She is so serious as she works, but in a happy way.  When I sit beside her, she is talking to the beads, singing to them, asking them questions and telling them little stories.  How wonderful to be nine years old ("I'm almost ten, you know," she will sometimes say)!

Third afternoon:  Beginning the Birthday Card.

On the following Monday, she finished stringing the main body of the glittery Sun Catcher.   Happy Feet!

Fourth afternoon:  The hanger.

It was not until Thursday that she added the beads to the looped hanger, which might have been her favorite part of the process.  The beads are glass leaves and differently-sized seed beads that wind around the handle like a colorful vine.

The next step was to start the birthday card for her mom, which she will finish in the weeks leading up to the event.  Cards are a huge, very thoughtful endeavor on her part, and they sometimes take hours and hours to finish-- real little gems (forgive my punning!).  They always have a little story, and are so sweetly illustrated.

What a privilege it is to be part of her life!