Love Beads

What do you think of when you think of Love Beads?  The funky beads of the late 60's or early 70'....peace beads, daisy flowers?  Well let me explain to you what I call Love Beads.  About two years ago in Dallas, Texas, I was visiting a Assisted Living home.  As I was walking down the hallway there were a bunch of beautiful ladies sitting at a table rolling balls of polymer clay.  I walked in the room, sat down and ask what they were making. They proudly answered, "beads."  I watched as they laughed and giggled while rolling there beads.  I then excused myself and went upstairs to my fathers room.  You see one of these lovely ladies was my mother.  Once a very talented professional artist, she has a disease called Vascular Dementia.  Not quite like Alzheimer's but it does rob the person of all short term memory.  My next visit to Dallas was not so pleasant...you see I was there to clean out my mother's room because she was being moved to the Memory Care Unit where she would have to be behind a locked door as this disease was claiming more of her beautiful mind.  While cleaning out her room I came across the beads that she and her friends had been rolling out while laughing and telling stories.  I put them in my pocket and brought them back home.

 These beads hung around on my desk for several months while I was trying to figure out a way to use them.  One day while looking at  pictures of a fellow beaders, I thought how lovely it would be to incorporate these very childlike beads in a beautiful necklace.  Well the colors were odd  and the shapes were very irregular.  So I turned to a very dear friend and ask if she could do something with these beads.  My very dear friend Nancy Dale has made the most GORGEOUS necklace imaginable. She carefully and lovingly picked out the beads that would go together and encased them in little loving beaded hands that hold them in place. The are just no words that can match the beauty of this necklace. These my friends are Love Beads to me.  Beads that will hold memories for a lifetime.  Thank you Nancy Dale<3

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