My name is Anna Mochrov (over the Internet, I'm known as Anna Master), I live in the heart of Europe, and more specifically, in the city of Prague, the Czech Republic capital. This is a very inspiring place, perhaps that's why it's very easy for me to think of something; thoughts and images are waiting for implementation, my creative work is in full swing!
Nevertheless, my beading career started not here. It was long time ago, in 2007 my husband and I moved to Cyprus. Very soon we realized that it was a little boring island and life there was not interesting. For this reason, in the evenings I spent a lot of time on the Internet and somehow accidentally saw a beautiful beaded piece of jewelry. Further searches led me to believe that I also want to try to do something similar.
My first inspirers were Huib Petersen, Karen Paust, Zoya Gutina and Guzel Bakeeva - they all have created jewelry that could ignite you! Having bought the first one, then a small "portion" of beads (that process, by the way, in Cyprus was not easy because of the almost complete absence of craft shops), I began to "reinvent the wheel". Looking for classes and tutorials, and so on is not my style, because to invent something is much more interesting to me than doing according somebody's tips.
Looking at pictures of beadworks, I adopted "engineering way of thinking" and took patience, and began to speculate logically on how the items on the photo could be made. As a result, my way into bead world turned out to be longer than many others' who did not make "discoveries" in the field of peyote and herringbone stitches and other basic techniques, but just learned beading using tutorials.
I had only pictures of finished works found on the Internet as the examples, so I "played" with beads on the principle of "what will happen if I do this?" Something was made pretty well, something was altered, and something was ripped. That time I've worked in a large company at the very nervous position and came home from work morally squeezed. Beadwork became my outlet, my wonderland, where fascinating discoveries waited for me every day, favorite heroes lived and feats were committed.
Moving from simple to complex, by trial and error, I was more and more fascinated by beaded flowers - not made using French technique (on the wire), but woven. Looking at the photos of live flowers, I thought about how this fragile beauty could be create in beads and invented all sorts of fancy flowers, which then I began to put into floral arrangements. Since I've been a self-taught beader and have never been interested in anybody's tutorials, I didn't think whether there was something like that; the thought to create instructions didn't come to my mind.
That is why I cannot repeat many of my first beaded flowers - because apart from a couple of photos of them I have nothing left. Two and a half years ago one of my friends, who makes beautiful flowers from leather and also teaches classes on that, asked me why I didn't conduct workshops. We discussed many pros and cons, and she convinced me that the question "oh, who needs that?!" wasn't correct, that not everyone could create amazing things on the fly as I could but would like to make beauty with his own hands.
Since I prefer the remote contacts to personal ones, the best solution for me was to create tutorials. For the sample, I made a couple of them and posted in my Etsy shop. To my surprise, it turned out that such products are really in demand. Then I made a few more tutorials and promised myself to do them more often...
Unfortunately, due to my permanent busyness, I create new projects very rarely, so I apologize to those who are waiting for my new instructions. If earlier I had a lot of free time to think about and implement new ideas, now most of the projects are made to order and very often I replicate the old ones. I cannot say this is a very interesting and exciting (if is it interesting to repeat the same things in different ways?!), but each such an order is at least a challenge.
Try to make the next, for example, the fourth copy of the same necklace that looks "like the original" at the client's request, but at the same time different from the original one because I don't create replicas in principle. I sell unique jewelry, and guarantee to buyers that this is a one-of-a-kind creation they won't ever see somewhere. This is an advantage of handmade: each item is unique and carries a bit of the artist's soul, so the buyer gets a lot more than just a piece of jewelry.
I'd like to say that when I create a tutorial on how to make a necklace, I explain how to make its elements, but give a student a choice: it depends entirely on his imagination which composition to make up. Though in the tutorial there is a photo of the finished item, which I created, as well as a couple of other assembly options. Maybe my approach has a right to exist, too.
My personal opinion is that if a person is not able to think about not only flowers, leaves, stems and buds, but also of how to arrange them, perhaps he needs to do something different, for what deficit of fancy is not a problem at all. It seems to me, that if a person is creative, it will be very boring and uninteresting to him to make a project on someone else's tutorial "from A to Z", he will want to add something own, somehow modify or improve the proposed initial version.
Probably one of the most difficult questions sounds like, "How is a new project being born?" - And the most honest answer is, "Different." Because sometimes it is a flash, inspiration, a vision of the finished item. It is only necessary to keep it in front of the eyes, quickly draw a sketch and choose the appropriate stones and beads. In the process, first I usually make elements and then start to make different compositions from them until I achieve the desired harmony. At the same time I make pictures of all versions, which helps me choose the one I like.
Sometimes there are joint creative "sessions" with my beloved husband: I share the ideas and he offers interesting "engineering" solutions or simply tells me his opinion about a new piece of jewelry look. It also happens that a new idea comes to me during a shopping walk. For example, when a sort of beads you need for a project is gone, it is necessary to go for "hunting". And it is absolutely impossible to avoid unplanned purchases; I bet, 100% of beadworkers will agree with me!
When you come to a craft shop and see some 2-3 hanging alongside bags with beads of very interesting colors, the inspiration comes, "Oh, this could be used for..." - and images of future creations begin to swarm in your head! I have often made up new flowers and compositions from them. What a pity that many projects still remain on paper or even just in your imagination!
And sometimes quite a disappointing thing can happen: a piece of chic jewelry comes to you in your night dream and you think, "I'm not going to wake up, I'll draw a sketch in the morning," - and the next morning you only remember with sadness that there was some kind of an interesting idea in a dream... Alas, dreams are fleeting, so if Muse made you happy with a visit at night, you have to wake up and somehow retain the idea arose, at least schematically!
I have to confess: I am a pretty negative to huge and time-consuming beadworks. While working on such items I need to do compulsory pause briefly to switch to something completely different (leather crafting really saves me, it's a terrific outlet), otherwise the piece is likely to remain unfinished if it's not pre-paid order. Probably, such a situation is known not only to me: fatigue accumulates, the inspiration is lost, and the project is postponed to the side to wait for an appropriate mood, which may never return for this item.
Until now, my mixed media necklace "Fly with the wind" made for a competition remains most of my laborious achievements. This necklace took me at least a month (approximately 250 hours) of hard though very interesting work, but due to the poor result my interest in competitions is gone. In addition, I don't have extra month or two that I could devote to unpaid work, even if it's very exciting.
Therefore, most likely, my favorite "Phoenix" will be my first and only serious competition work. Although I don't exclude anything because anything in this life can happen. By nature, I'm not vain, so I'm quite happy with the presence of commissions, satisfied customers, positive emotions on work well done, and the approval of my husband; I'm not very interested in honor and national recognition.
If you think the number of pictures attached to the article is small and you want to see some more, then please visit my Etsy shop - there you can see more pictures, buy or order my tutorials and beadworks and even some stones from my personal collection. I still follow with interest the work of my favorite artists, look for new inspirational creations and save them in my Pinterest. If you want to keep in touch with me, you can find me on Facebook, I'm always happy to make new friends!
My gallery on MyLovelyBeads.com
About author:
| Anna Mochrov (Anna Master), Prague, Czech Republic | |
| Etsy Shop: | etsy.com/shop/gemsplusleather |
| Facebook: | facebook.com/gemsforall |
| Pinterest: | pinterest.com/gemsplusleather |
