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I'm Nancy Dale; I live in Vermont, with my four dogs (two Pomeranians and two Chows) and my husband, who is also my business partner in every sense, from conceptualization to reality to photography and web design.

I am a self-taught bead artist, I started beading over 19 years ago, and have been working with beads for almost 20 years; I also do scrapbooking sometimes, and make cards. I focus on seed beads, semiprecious stones, and precious metals in my work, and use handmade lampwork glass beads, cabochons and findings most of the time. My inspiration lies in many different places and eras, from Medieval to Victorian to Modern and from nature. I love trees, and they are liberally represented in my work.

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Beading is not just what I do, but who I am. I originally started beadweaving as a form of therapy; my therapist inspired me to begin. The first stitch I learned was brick stitch, my absolute favorite beads are seed beads, I adore how they can be combined and stitched into limitless objects and jewelry designs.

My favorite colors to work with - wow, what a hard question to answer! I love all colors, with the exceptions of pastel shades, which just don't normally speak to me. I base most of my colorways on what my focal piece is; so I go with the colors in my cabochon or lampwork bead.

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My favorites include cobalt, deep purple, black, dark olive green and silver. I rarely work with whites. I love the colors of autumn, and the bursts of color in some insects and flowers. I spend a lot of time browsing nature based photos and researching very-very old jewelry, such as ancient Egyptian and Roman pieces.

So many different artists in the bead world inspire me! I am attracted to organics as well as to carefully structured work, so the range is huge. I am a member of the group The Bead Mavens, and have a TON of fun with my teammates, Cynthia Newcomer Daniel, Christina from Good Quill Hunting, Linda L. Jones and Mikki Ferrugairo and each of these ladies inspire me greatly.

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My favorites bead artists are Linda Jones, Marcia DeCoster, Heidi Kummli, Sherry Serafini, Carol Wilcox Wells and Melissa Grakowski. I did a blog post on some of the ladies and gentlemen, who inspire me a bit ago, please do visit my blog if you'd like to read more! I have an Etsy shop, an Artfire shop, and have pieces in the Sharon Arts Gallery in New Hampshire and New England Beads, also in New Hampshire.

I think, for now my greatest achievement is that one of my necklaces "Dryad", received the unique distinction of being selected as a finalist at 2010 International Bead and Button Show; and I hope to continue beading, and to push my creativity farther each year.

My gallery on MyLovelyBeads.com

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