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My name is Olga Hazerodt; I'm from Sulzbach, Germany. I learned crafts from my mother and two grandmothers, Sophia and Anna, for which many thanks and bow to them. I've been knitting, crocheting and cross-stitching since 6, and the times of shortage of some goods in the Soviet Union only contributed to my creative development.

I've thought for a long time, that I was already an adult when I knew beads, but it was a mistake. Recently I remembered one already forgotten fact: when I was in school my friend showed me a very nice beaded jewelry and invited me to the classes held in the Palace of Youth (I was living in the city of Astrakhan at that time). I was bored sitting and stringing bead by bead on a thread, I wanted to run and jump and my first lesson became the last.

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The years passed. It so happened that my family (my husband and my children are the Germans) and I have already lived in Germany in a small village surrounded by vineyards for more than 10 years. I was pregnant with a third child, when during one of the rides by car I saw a billboard advertising an exhibition and sale of Easter eggs. I asked to stop for a short time to see the exhibition. Watching beauty and art design of Easter eggs created by craftsmen from across Europe made me want to try my hands and become part of the creative show next year.

I asked the organizers of the show and I was given six months to create my collection, but how could I pay the attention of experienced professionals? Turning over hundreds pages in the Internet, I came across a beaded Easter eggs, and beads burst into my life with a bang! Gradually the scope of bead use have expanded, I've learned more and more techniques.

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Chinese proverb says, "Tell me and I'll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I'll understand." - that can be completely applied to my working process.

I like taking part in the bead contests: you are given a theme and you offer your interpretation. I love to plunge enthusiastically into the world of bead art of other artists, explore and enjoy themed beadworks by my colleagues for hours. For me, the main part in the competition is to find an idea, a style, and then step by step to pick up everything necessary and to try new materials, new techniques, and this is a victory for me: I did it!

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Each person has his own strengths and weaknesses. For example I can't draw. No, of course I try to do a sketch of a future piece of jewelry, but it's more like a picture of a 3-year-old child. Then I make a further description, pointing arrows where some elements should be located. I put more or less suitable beads on the picture and make photographs, and then I start working following a photo. Very often I am happy with the result though a finished beadwork differs from the original picture.

As to my source of inspiration, it's like in my favorite children's game, "I'm tired of all the flowers... but..." and then my look falls at the roses in my garden, or sunflower, peering through a neighbor's fence, or fragrant strawberries in the shade of summer trees, or the waves of vineyards in the autumn chill. A thread with a needle already makes its own work!

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According to numerous letters and requests from my hobby colleagues I've tried to write step-by-step tutorials of some my bead designs. It was a test of maturity and the next exam for me. It was easier to take a needle, thread and beads and to copy a beadwork than to describe with understandable words how I have created it. I want to take my hat off to the beadweavers who writes tutorials!

That is miracle when the germ reveals what is laid in the tiny seed when is surrounded by warmth, care, affection and love! Thanks to my husband and children for their permanent patience and support. Thanks to Galina Pchelkina for her online classes and assist in my publication in the Wonderful Moments Magazine, thanks to Zoya Gutina who opened for me a window into the endless and beautiful world of bead art!

Confucius said, "Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life."

My gallery on MyLovelyBeads.com

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