Living a Simple Life with a Back Porch View
Grab a glass of lemonade and settle in for a visit! Listen to stories designed to encourage, uplift, and help you Live a Simple Life with a Back Porch View. Find out what that means, and how to shift your own lifestyle. Then relax and enjoy while learning the different aspects of a Simple Life - from following your dreams and passions to handcrafting, cooking, tending to the home and garden, and more. And from time to time, there will even be a recipe and freebie or two!
Living a Simple Life with a Back Porch View
Life Lessons from a Bead Loom
We all have lessons to learn in life. Some are big and only happen once or twice in our lifetime. Some are pop quizzes which we never saw coming. And others are small, almost imperceptible, which happen as a learn as you go lesson.
But some lessons come wrapped in unusual packaging with a unique delivery system. And not too long ago, I found myself in class learning more about a subject I don’t really think much about.
Tedium. That boring, frustrating, and irritating – but inspiring, beautiful and soothing part of life we all have to deal with from time to time. And of all the places I could learn more about it was sitting at my bead weaving loom.
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We all have lessons to learn in life. Some are big and only happen once or twice in our lifetime. Some are pop quizzes which we never saw coming. And others are small, almost imperceptible, which happen as a learn as you go lesson.
Think about the last time you were working on a particular job, and in the process, you discovered a shortcut or a better way of doing it. You learned a lesson that day. Consider standing at the kitchen counter with an array of herbs and spices in front of you. Your goal is to create a unique spice blend. Through trial and error, you learn which herbs and spices blend perfectly, and which ones don’t. Now that you’ve learned your lesson, you can pat yourself on the back and move forward.
But some lessons come wrapped in unusual packaging with a unique delivery system. And not too long ago, I found myself in class learning more about a subject I don’t really think much about.
Tedium. That boring, frustrating, and irritating – but inspiring, beautiful and soothing part of life we all have to deal with from time to time. And of all the places I could learn more about it was sitting at my bead weaving loom.
Bead weaving has long been an interest of mine. I first started the process as a teenager. While sitting in the den with fishing line, a needle, and bags of beads, I didn’t realize that my dad had been watching me. I was also so absorbed in the process, I never noticed him leaving the room. But a couple of hours later, he returned and handed me a bead loom he had gone out into the shop to make. He suggested that instead of making a single string of beads, I learn how to make bracelets and other items the way the Indians used to do.
Honestly, I don’t know when I drifted away from this craft, nor do I know what ever happened to that first loom. But what I never lost was the interest in the craft. There was one occurrence when I thought I would pick it back up again. When my kids were younger, I created trim and medallions out of beads for Halloween Indian costumes. But time and agendas got in the way, and those beads were placed back in storage.
Several months ago, I ran across an article on bead weaving, and like a firecracker when exposed to a flame, the desire to work with beads exploded once again. As a gift, the Country Boy found me a bead weaving loom, and with what I already had and a few small purchases, I was once again working with beads. And some of the things about it I had totally forgotten started coming back. The first thing? The tedium.
First, keep in mind – many of the beads I work with are around 11mm in size. That calculates out to be .433071 inches. Tiny. Miniscule. And there is an even smaller hole in the center that is roughly .6 to .8 mm. A beading needle is understandably not much thicker than thread in order to fit through the hole in a bead. And that needle does have an eye which needs to be threaded. They call them ‘big eye’ needles, but quite frankly I think that’s a misnomer as you can’t see the eye without a magnifying glass. Actually the ‘big’ mean the eye is a longer slit than one you would expect to find on a standard sewing needle.
Now that you’ve strained your eyes threading your needle, you will need to follow a draft in order for your project to look like the pattern you selected. A bead weaving draft is basically a grid. Each tiny square in the grid represents one bead. The grids are usually marked with the color of the required bead, a letter that refers back to the weaving key, or both. In order to follow along exactly as drafted, you need something to mark the row you are working on. I use a magnetized board and magnet strips, but I’ve known some people will use paper taped to highlight the row being worked and covering those that aren’t. Which means that for every row you finish, you have to stop, reposition the paper and then start the next row.
When weaving beads, your loom is first warped with horizontal threads pulled taut on the loom. To weave the beads, you first pick up the number of beads needed in the required order, then place them to the back of the warp, making sure there is one bead between every warp thread. You then take your needle and run it through each bead on the top of the warp, making sure the warp thread is underneath your needle.
Are you getting the idea of how tedious the bead weaving process can be? By definition, it’s slow, dull, and tiresome work. That is, until you finally start seeing the design emerge. Then it can be well worth the tedium to string and weave those next rows.
Our daily lives are filled with tedium. It’s tiring to do laundry. Separate the colors, add the detergent, haul the finished load to the clothesline, then remove them from the line, fold or hand them and put them away. Housework can become tedious. And as much as I cringe when I say this, learning to live a simple life has quite a bit of tedium woven into it.
I actually enjoy the time I spend weeding my garden, but pulling up those tiny invaders row after row and between every single plant can become tedious work. Meal planning and trying to come up with something different to serve can be tedious. And most definitely, mowing the grass, mending clothes, and sweeping the floor – for the third time in the day – can become tiresome. Even our routine chores, such as feeding the animals, can become boring and unexciting.
But one day, we have the opportunity to glance at all that tedious labor, and we begin to see the pattern of our lives developing. We see the smiles on our family’s faces after spending a fun afternoon together. We taste the deliciousness of a loaf of bread fresh out of the oven. We use the eggs we picked up this morning to make a pound cake to serve during coffee with friends. And we see the beauty, cohesiveness, and joy of the simple life we’ve been working so hard to create.
As I strung and wove row after row of beads on my loom, I began to rethink the tedium of bead weaving. Instead of picking up Turquoise C with my needle, I was picking up the blessing of contentment. And when there were 3 Black Ds in a row, I counted the number of birds I heard singing during afternoon tea. The best part was when I strung 6 White As together and was able to remember that, because I now lived a simple life, there were fewer ‘beads of busyness’ I had to contend with, because they had been eliminated from my schedule and my life.
And as the rows kept stacking up on the warp, I could see the pattern of my beautiful, content-filled, and enjoyable simple life come together in a way I had rarely given myself the opportunity to see.
The project on my bead loom right now may only be a simple hatband, but it is also a representation of a lifestyle that I am slowly but surely weaving into my heart. And as I work on each new beaded project, I will be able to not only see a new aspect of my simple life become reality, but I will also be able to see tedium in a whole new light – and embrace it as a vital part of life.
If you think you may want to learn a few lessons while sitting at a bead loom, be sure to check out the links in the show notes. You’ll find one for the bead loom I use made by Oakhill Family Farms, as well as patterns from several different Etsy shops and books I recommend that can be found on Amazon. And if you do take up bead weaving, be sure to share photos of your projects. You can email them to me at julie@thefarmwife.com.
If you want to learn more about living a Simple Life, just visit my website at www.thefarmwife.com/ . If you’re enjoying listening to these podcasts, please consider supporting the show by clicking the SUPPORT button in the show notes. When you do, you’ll be helping me continue bringing you fun and helpful ideas for living the Simple Life you love!
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Thanks again for stopping in. I will see you next week on Living a Simple Life with a Back Porch View. And while you are waiting for the next episode, grab that glass of refreshment, pull up a rocker, and sit back for a while. It’s time to relax and enjoy.