Some of my favorite shows feature people making creative stuff happen. From baking competitions and Project Runway, to high-end Hollywood makeup, these shows are exciting because when creative people are under pressure, their talent shines.

For the first time, I got to be involved in the creation of a project like this!

I’ve got the creative bug

A few years ago, I heard about CreativeBug.com through my brother and was immediately intrigued. The company’s creator, Jeanne Lewis, wanted to create a gorgeous online resource for videos about hand-made crafting and making. Her vision was of a company that creates archival-quality videos to preserve art and craft forms that are slipping away. In the process, she also wanted to provide a living wage to artists who teach for the company to help get new generations interested in a wide variety of art forms.

It sounded exciting! They were still early in their launch when they asked for a sample video of my teaching. I did a short demo and—even after viewing my brother’s wacky video shots—they wanted me!

Lights, camera, action!

A filming crew came out to my house and did a day-long shoot to create a bio about me. Megan Read, a production assistant from Creative Bug, and the whole team made it fun. It’s amazing to realize what you see on a show isn’t what’s happening behind the scenes. There’s so much detail and so many little things to arrange. They’re top notch at what they do. I’m proud to be affiliated and represented there.

Not long after, I went to their studio to shoot four of my most popular classes. They wanted to focus on basics and techniques that give the viewer a finished project at the end of the video. Pulling from the things I’ve taught before and that sold well in bead stores, we chose the knot bead, caged class, charms, and wire linking—a great basic techniques class.

 

Making knot beads with wire

Of the four tutorials I did for Creative Bug, the knot bead is the most evocative. When I’m at shows, people will look at my handmade metal beads and ask me, “Were you angry when you made that?” (I wasn’t) or “How did you do that?” They’re really curious about all that coiled-up wire.

My knot bead idea came out of a class with Lynn Merchant when I was learning to make a whole series of different wire beads. One was called “Spider on LSD”—and we had to just make up the design. The knot bead came out of that experience.

In the video, I have a formula that shows students how to make it. Even with a step-by-step instructions, knot beads come out different every time. It tends to be very popular, and people love to wear them.

Creative Bug lives on

While I haven’t been back yet to do more than the first four segments, in the last few years Creative Bug has added more high-profile folks and expanded into many more diverse crafting projects. All of the videos are high quality, super creative, and fun to watch.

If you’re part of their online community, you can participate in the challenges they send out. If you’re like me, you can just watch the tutorials for fun without any plans to actually make the project. It’s amazing eye candy for (and by) creative people.