Knot Fairies

Knot Fairies/The Devious ways of Thread
As beaders we all know how quickly and easily thread can become a knotted tangled mess. Have you ever put a project down for a few minutes, maybe the phone rings or the dryer buzzes or the hubby calls for help, when you come back the string has gotten a knot in it that will take from 2 minutes to 30 to untie? How does that happen? I have had this happen with all types of beading thread. I use thread conditioner. Some of the worst knots happen with the silk thread I use to knit beaded bags. I have actually just taken my eyes away from the string for a few seconds and looked back to find there is a knot there. Wasn’t there before. It’s not a serious knot. This one won’t take long. But, still, it’s a knot! Knots take away from valuable beading time. First I blame myself. I think: I must have been in a hurry to jump up from my beading to do that thing I so wanted to do (Yeah! Right!), wadded up my precious project and dumped it on the tray or in the bag or, heaven forbid, in the seat of the chair! I would never do that. Maybe I am using too long a piece of thread. What could I have done to get it in such a tangle? What did I do? Then I say to myself, ”Hey, wait… a…. minute…..here.” I didn’t do anything. Then I think: It’s the thread. Thread is devious. It has a mind of it’s own! It sits waiting for the right moment. It puts up with being licked, flattened, pinched and shoved through the tiny eye of beading needles. Knots are its way of getting back at us. There’s nothing worse than disgruntled thread. But, this can’t be right. Thread is just a fiber. It has no thought process. It has no malicious intent. Thread can’t make knots on it’s own. Maybe it has a little curl to it from being on the spool and it just boings itself into a knot. Now, that’s a possibility for little knots but, not this big of a knot. I reason with myself, it needs help. It needs an accomplice. There must be an invisible force. I see no problem with this line of thinking, which might shed some light on my state of mind about knots. I shake my head. What is wrong with me?! I must be really losing it! Then, it comes to me: Knot Fairies. There are little fairies that fly around and tie the thread into knots! Yes! That’s it! They’re light, barely visible. They have wings. OK. I can see this. This actually makes sense. I once went on a trip to Texas for a family reunion, husband’s side. I carefully prepped my beading gear. I taped the thread end to the plastic cone and put it in my beading box. When I opened the box there was huge tangle of thread, too big to untie. I tried for about an hour to untangle that mess. As hard as it was to do, I pulled it off the cone, cut the thread and tossed it. The Knot Fairies had been there! Just bouncing around in that box all the way to Texas having a thread party! Knot Fairies are everywhere. They just hang about waiting for a moment when you are not paying attention, when you look away, when you get up to do something and they have their way with your string! Beware! Be careful! They are mischievous creatures those Knot Fairies.

Biography

People ask me how my business name came to be "Cactus Company Beadwork". Well....... I have a friend, Leslie, who I have been friends with since 1969. We discovered beads together in Jr. High. In the summer of 1970 I went on vacation to Montana with her and her family. I met many of her relatives. Leslie's Grampa George could never remember my name, but he could remember I was from Arizona and Arizona reminded him of cactus, hence the "Cactus" part.
The "Company" came from Leslie. My initials then were CO, so Leslie gave me the nickname "Company". So, I am Cactus Company Beadwork. Sometime in that year after Leslie and I first met, we went to Tandy Leather and bought a pound of black seed beads or maybe they were white. We took them to her house, poured them into a glass bowl and took turns putting our hands in to feel this wonderful new sensation. We were hooked. After wiping the drool from our chins, we bought more beads and bead looms and needles. We didn't buy any thread. Foolishly we used cotton sewing thread and then graduated to dental floss. I have Leslie's first bead strip. The thread is disappearing and it needs the thread replaced. We made peace sign arm bands for our rebel friends and bead strips of all kinds just to fondle and give to each other. I still have my "company" strip with a black background and yellow black striped beads.
I have gone on to sell my beadwork creations at art shows in Oregon and to teach classes in several states. I never thought I would be the teaching kind. But, I have found it to be the most fun and satisfying part of beading life so far.

Fluffy Treasure Pouches

The findings and where they come from. The findings in the Fluffy Treasure Pouches and Purses come from many places. My Dad polished some of the stones. I polished some. Some I have gotten from people who know I love rocks. They have a bag of stones that their son wants to get rid of and they think of me. I am a student of geology. I love to watch the naked desert landscape go by as we travel down the road. I see the same hills, the same volcanic cores. Still, I am always fascinated. Growing up, my family armed with a topographic map, lunch basket, plenty of water and a sturdy 1955 International panel truck my Dad called Bessie, would go out into the desert looking for a gold mine. Dad would go hunting his mine. Mom and us kids would hang out at the truck, play in the wash and occasional creek and gather rocks. We would sift through the sand, gathering "sand rubies" and "iron garnets". We would pick out those tiny little treasures and keep them in the tiniest glass tube or bottle we could find. They were our gold, priceless to us. I have grown to love bigger treasures, bigger rocks. I make spheres from obsidian, crystal, rose quartz and chunks of glass. You name it. Now and then I toss my left over pieces into a tumbler and see what comes out. If your kit has a piece of rose quartz that isn't a round or oval cabochon, then it's probably one of my chunks. I have lots of, what we call Langell Valley Opal from Southern Oregon. It isn't the gem opal in rings, but it is beautiful in it's own caramel candy-like way. These yummy looking pieces will be in some of the kits. There is a place on the Northern California coast called Fort Bragg. We went there one summer with our 5th wheel trailer not knowing what to expect. We found there weren't many places to stay. It was cold and rainy. It seemed a miserable place. But, we had come because I had heard there were beaches where the abalone just washed up onto the shore. The next day it was drizzly and cold. We didn't find any abalone on any beach there, but we found a shell shop. I bought some beautiful polished abalone pieces there. They suggested I go to "glass beach". It used to be the city dump. I might find some abalone on the beach there. In the early 1900's people would toss their trash over the cliff and let the ocean deal with it. I thought, "That sounds really ghastly." We followed the directions given us and to our surprise there was a place to park and lots of other people walking in and walking out. The out-walkers told me to be sure and take a bag of some kind. I would need it. I didn't listen. I thought I could pocket any abalone I found. My husband and I walked down the sandy road to the beach, turned the corner and were totally amazed. There is a short beach that is made up of tiny pieces of the past. The "sand" on the beach isn't sand from nature. It is small pieces of ocean washed glass. The remnants of all the bottles and dishes and containers thrown over the cliff to crash against the rocks to eventually become the beach. As we looked closer, we saw truck and car axels that had become a part of the huge rocks. Barnacles had grown on them. The ocean had taken them over and made them a part of her coastline. This wasn't such a dismal place after all. I was so excited about this beach glass, I ran back to the truck and got the only bag I had with me, the bag I had needle pointed for art class in high school 24 years before. It was a treasure in itself. I had drawn the design, which was my dream place to live: a cabin in the forest. Then I spent 9 months needle pointing. The bag has been used to carry my music books and flute to band. Carried diapers and supplies for my children. My books when I went back to college and now it was going to carry this wonderful beach glass back to the truck. Dewey asked me if I was sure I wanted to put this stuff in my bag. It would get dirty. It would be heavy. It would be just fine. I just scooped the beach into it. I filled that bag until it was spilling over. I cradled the overloaded bag in my arms as we walked back to the truck. Later, back at the trailer, I poured the beach onto a towel and picked through the pieces. There were some great pieces of old porcelain and pieces of other wares that still have the etched and painted designs on them. There were chunks of bottle necks with remnants of threads still on them. Some pieces still have lettering and other markings. Of all the objects I have found to bead around. These are some of my favorites. There are shells in some kits. The larger ones I bought at different shell shops. The smaller ones I picked up at Pismo Beach on the California Coast. I try to include a little of the ocean and a little of the land in each kit. I love the beach, the mountains and the Sonoran Deserts of So. Arizona. So, these are the things I decided to put into these Fluffy Treasure Pouches and Purses kits. Things I have hunted, found, tumbled, scooped, and been given over the years. Treasures.