Video – A visit to The Dangerous Beaders

The Dangerous Beaders, was started by three friends, Sandra, Jacqui and Joan, who met in 2002 at a beading workshop held by Pat Trott. They discovered that they all lived within 10 minutes of each other and started getting together to bead in Sandra’s living room. Gradually they began bringing friends with them and soon had eight regular members, so they began to need more room. One day, in 2003, I received a call from Sandra asking me if I’d like to join them – she’d seen my card in Hobbycraft. I was delighted and joined in a flash; by now the meetings were being held in Jacqui’s sewing workshop at the bottom of her garden, complete with a little kitchen – we always had teas, coffees and all manner of tempting, scrumptious biscuits. Our numbers continued to grow and Jacqui moved house, so after a short spell in my workshop we knew we needed a lot more room! The Dangerous Beaders finally moved to a local community hall which was just perfect for our needs. It’s beautifully spacious and light, with plenty of seating and there’s a kitchen where we stretch our arms and shoulders after some intensive beading, whilst the kettle boils. About 30 strong now, we hold meetings once a month and run a schedule of events, tackling an optional project every other month. All the members bring their own projects and work at their own pace in a jovial and chatty atmosphere. I consider them all to be my extended family, and the friendships I’ve made here will last a lifetime.

Having so many working around the table is a great source of knowledge and inspiration to one another – sharing ideas, tips and information sources, as well as beads is invaluable.

My husband came into our last meeting and made this video just to give you a flavour of what a beading group is like. It’s a particularly quiet day for the Dangerous Beaders as many had gone away for Easter, nevertheless it still gives an idea of what our meetings are all about. It’s also one of our ‘non-project-do-your-own-thing’ days, which is great because you can see everyone working at their own level and pace and a wonderful variety of styles and colours going on.

In the video I’m at one end of our table with a brand new member who is very new to beading; I’m doing a little one-to-one workshop with her.

If you haven’t got a local group, why not start one of your own? All the beading groups I’ve taught at start out the same way as The Dangerous Beaders, so it’s easy to do. And, when numbers start to grow, it just takes a phone call or two to find a local community or church hall for your meetings. The mission of the Beadworkers Guild is to spread beadworking knowledge and techniques, and bring beadworkers together, so they posted our information on the bead groups page of their website, enabling local beadworkers to get in touch.

Materials:
Bead On It Board from Stitchncraft