Some of you may know me as an author. But for several years before I published my first novel, I made and sold handcrafted jewelry. Several months ago, after ten years of full-time writing, I decided I needed a break, but I also needed a creative outlet. So I dragged out my bead stash and went to work.

This time, in addition to stringing, I also did some bead weaving, an off-loom stitching technique using tiny seed beads. I’ve made bracelets using peyote, brick, herringbone, ladder, peyote with a twist, and square stitches. I have many more designs I’m anxious to get to … including bead woven necklaces. And now, though I’m working on a new novel, I find that distracting myself with pretty beads is beneficial to working out dialogue and sticky plot problems.