A Cottage Industry
When I first moved to Floyd, 21 years ago, it didn’t take me long to look around and say to myself, “I have to learn to make something.” Here in Floyd, what one can make with their hands becomes a currency, whether it be wooden bowls, clothes, flutes, pots, or stained glass. Back then, it was especially true, as many of us were raising children full-time and living on very low incomes. We had a yearly Barter Faire for showcasing our wares and selling or trading them. For a time, some of us used the Lets System (Local Economic Transfer System), a way to exchange goods and services using local Lets credits.
As a newcomer, I admired the translucent and iridescent hanging beaded earrings that several alter-native women in Floyd were making and wanted to learn to make some of my own. Those women became my first teachers. I was amazed at how freely they shared what they knew. There were no classes to take or book instructions to struggle with. We met informally around someone’s kitchen table or by a neighborhood pond in summer and beaded together.
My friend Juniper took me under wing. She actually paid me to string necklaces for her craft business, first in a little studio shed on her property and later in one of her two bead shops. While working part time for her, my beaded jewelry evolved into gemstone and sterling wire-wrapped pieces. I developed my own line of jewelry, and for a while I lived the life of a craftsperson. In between raising my sons, I stocked stores, went to craft shows, and sometimes traded my jewelry for other things I needed.
When I began doing full time foster care for adults with developmental disabilities in the mid 90s, my income improved, and I no longer had the time or inclination to make jewelry. But the lifestyle of working at home, making my own hours, and having something concrete to use as currency stuck with me.
After retiring from nine years of providing full-time foster care in my home, I now work no more than one week a month at it. The rest of the time, I write. Writing is my new cottage industry. It’s a natural extension of who I am and how I live. There are even some in-house published books involved. I stock them in stores, have sold some at shows, and have been hosted to do a few book-signings or talk to local book club groups. I even have a storefront, where I put in a few hours of work each day. It’s called Loose Leaf Notes, and you are there.
June 5th, 2006 10:17 pm
And a fine storefront it is!
Hey, two things. First, thanks for your kind comments recently, and second, I just started off a Scrabble game with the 7-letter word, “arguing.” Sixty-eight points, if you’re keeping score at home.
No, three things. I can’t believe I haven’t put your blog in my elite blogroll. Gimme 10 minutes…
June 5th, 2006 11:23 pm
I love your final line–and the photo of the beautiful jewelry. Every time I visit here, I want to move to Floyd.
June 5th, 2006 11:38 pm
Grinning. Beautiful jewelry — and words….
June 6th, 2006 2:49 am
lovely. i just caught up. i love pedicures. polished toes look and make you feel yummy.
i just took the lets to school/playgroup and looked at my phone to see the time and uts set itself wierdly to 02.01.2003 and the time says 16.16. all technology has deserted me over the last 2 days. my satellite signal, my comments, my stat counter, uploading photos, leaving others comments (i’m not sure if you’ll ever receive this…fingers crossed), my blog roll went awol then returned. very wierd. magnetism i reckon!
as for bartering i used to do a lot of that, especially with the massage. for some reason i don’t so often now. its a lovely system in tight commumities. and floyd does always sound so wonderful.
i always enjoy my visits here to your little store. thank you*
June 6th, 2006 10:19 am
Making a living in the Blue Ridge certainly requires invention, if not creativity!
June 6th, 2006 1:53 pm
Had to catch up since I’ve been out of touch since early, early Friday morning. The feet were hilarious and the jewelry is beautiful. Don’t worry about the time thing. After this weekend and gaining and losing an hour each way and driving 30 hours out of 72, I have no clue as to what time it is.
June 6th, 2006 2:29 pm
I love the jewelry you featured. Very, very pretty.
See that is why I live on down below, I can’t do anything with my hands like that. I would have had to starve in the old days….well that or work in the saloon I guess!!! lol.
June 6th, 2006 2:43 pm
I always tell my friends that you made enough money to buy a house by making and selling your jewerly (great picture). Now for you summer home back here in Massachusetts – I’m hoping for plenty of book sales.
June 6th, 2006 9:35 pm
The more I read your blog, the more I think I need to take a vacation up to Floyd someday! The beaded jewelry was just beautiful, Colleen.
Enjoyed your footsie post too, LOL
June 7th, 2006 1:17 am
I spent some time working with developmentally disabled young adults at an institutional school called the Matheny School in New Jersey. I made crucial friendships with the people I worked with. I also worked at a camp for something like 8 years run by the elks. There I met my wife.
Nice jewelry. My daughter Maggie has started making bead jewelry. It’s filling the house.
June 7th, 2006 4:14 am
I am always amazed at the amount of Art that is created in Floyd…Art & Artisans seem to abound there…and I love the picture of all your Jewelry…it is very beautiful, Colleen.
June 14th, 2006 10:15 am
I’m finally catching up on blogs since my return home last Sat.
Loved your post and I know I’ll love Floyd, when I visit there in Oct. The gentler, kinder, slower pace way of life reminds me of my island…except you have the mountains and we have the water.
October 25th, 2012 9:03 am
[…] a bead shop in Blacksburg. I did jewelry repairs and ordered the store’s books. More on that HERE and […]