Paula S. Morgan

Paula S. Morgan, About.com Guide to Beadwork since 2000, is a lifelong lover of beads, beadwork, beaded jewelry, and beaded adornment. Textiles, fiber, glass, clay, semi-precious stones, paper ephemera, and rubber stamps also rank high on her list of beloved things. If it can be integrated into beadwork in amy manner, it is probably on Paula's list of things she's like to experiement with someday.

Growing up in a home filled with the decorative needlework of her mother and grandmothers, Paula took to needle and thread early, beginning by sewing buttons to bits of fabric and then working her way through learning each of the stitches in her mother's old copy of the Encyclopedia of Embroidery.

Beads came into the picture a bit later, when, during a trip to her parent's home state of Oklahoma, she saw some beadwork on display, and learned of her mother's deep respect for the Native American people and their artwork. Upon their return home, Paula's mother began to purchase small tubes of beads and the two of them started experiementing with various bead embroidery and the beaded jewelry making techniques, setting Paula on the path of what would become a lifelong passion; learning beadwork.

Paula studied ancient civilizations and customs under a program of independent study while enrolled at San Diego City College. During this study, she learned various methods of beadwork and the traditions associated with beads around the world and throughout history. Readily admitting to having learned more about seed beads alone over the last ten years than she has ever though possible, Paula intends to continue to educate herself about beads, past, present and future.

The art of "reinventing" "repurposing" "recycling" and just plain "salvage" were a part of my early training, as my mother allowed nothing to go to waste. If there was any part of an old textile that could be salvaged, it was, and was later reused elsewhere. This included removing buttons, decorative edgings, or the embrodery from an otherwise threadbare pillowcase. I respect this and consider it a conservation of household artifacts and artwork.

I have begun to include projects of this type into the Beadwork site in an attept teach my readers methods to preserve and protect these old bits of handmade fabric, lace, buttons, tatting and paper ephemera that might otherwise end up in a landfill.

While I love to create beadwork using a variety of off-loom bead stitches, my favorite beading methods remain loom woven beadwork and bead embroidery, probably due to my early facination with looms and my childhood education in embroidery and other forms of needlework.