My name is Ruxandra Puscas, I'm 39 years old and I live in Sibiu, the beautiful historical town in the heart of Romania. I believe that I'm fortunate to live in one of the most beautiful countries in the world, a place which can be a source of perpetual inspiration.
By chance, three years ago I discovered beading when I saw a few pairs of beaded earrings on Etsy. I was so amazed that I realized I had to find out how things like that could be made! I started researching and reading about various types of beads, watching tutorials, studying articles and books on beading.
After three months of studying I bought beads and created my first pair of earrings. They were in the form of snowflakes and made according a YouTube tutorial. Then I made lots of other earrings varying patterns from tutorials until I managed to create my own designs. The feeling of total accomplishment at the end of every new project made me totally addictive. And how I love this addiction to this day!
After designing earrings of different styles I've tried my first necklace. It was created for a local beading contest called "In Memoriam Christian Dior". My source of inspiration was a Dior's necklace from the 50s. I basically created several components and afterwards made the connections between them, and it brought me the first prize!
This remains my favorite approach when I create big necklaces. I start small with a vague idea regarding the final result and create several components at first. If I like the colors combined I go on, if not I re-create elements in a different colorway. I learned how important is not only the combination of colors, but also their proportion in an element.
After having different components I think of ways to connect them. I like light, lacy jewelry most and this is why I developed a way to imitate lace when creating the connections between parts. I think that the negative (empty) spaces are as important as the actual beadwork, so I give much thought to their distribution and size.
I do and undo a lot and try to keep my entire patience to do the best that I can. Always, without any exception. I think, in beading there is a point which is important to be recognized - namely to know when to go on and when to stop. To me, giving up means to recognize a failure, a dead-end, and restart from the very beginning, from scratch.
What I like most is to bead unique and unrepeatable jewelry, like my pendant for contest Concours-Jeux Les perles par Puca 2017. At first, I took photos of every step in order to create a tutorial for it later on, but at a certain point I realized that I wanted to make it unrepeatable even for myself, so I beaded on and enjoyed every second of the process. It was the greatest joy when my Enchanted Lily Pendant won this competition.
My absolute favorite beads are Miyuki 15/0. I love them so much, that I decided to dedicate them a necklace. The initial idea was to use any Miyuki beads with dominating 15/0 size, but then I thought: what if there will be only 15/0? And I did so.
The creation of this necklace, Caprice was a fabulous "journey" which taught me a lot about constructing volume using just one size of beads, about the importance of color and not last about the true needed patience in this artistic field. Caprice brought me a place in the semifinals of Battle of the BeadSmith 2017.
I love beading and someday I really wish to turn it from passion into profession. I'm working on my projects every single day, every spare moment I have. I go to sleep every night and wake up every morning thinking of different designs I would like to make, and how to achieve my dream. I have no doubt that one day I will succeed. As Henry Ford used to say, "Whether you think you can, or you think you can't - you're right." I think that we all can, whatever we want, if we truly want it.
My gallery on MyLovelyBeads.com
About author:
| Ruxandra Puscas, Sibiu, Romania | |
| Email: | ruxandra.puscas@yahoo.com |
| Facebook: | facebook.com/public/ruxandra-puscas |
| Etsy Shop: | etsy.com/shop/margiques |
