I attended the Charlotte Beadaholics Meetup this afternoon. We celebrated the one-year anniversary of the group. Their first meetup was at the Intergalatic Bead Show last April. I joined the group last month so this was my second interaction with them.

We got together at Expressive Impressions. It’s a Charlotte bead shop that generously donates their workspace to the Beadaholics for meetups. The workspace is just amazing. It’s feels like you’re in a jewelry artist’s studio. Of course, that could be because they regularly hold jewelry classes there. They also sell a myriad of beads, findings and all sorts of supplies.

So who are these Beadaholics? Well let you tell you, this is one lively group of  women. (Not sure why there aren’t any men at the meetup. Where are the Charlotte male beaders? There must be a few out there.)  The Beadaholics have a wide array of interests, skills and design styles. This makes it fun because someone always seems to have something to share that you’ve never heard of or seen before. The Beadaholics are more than happy to help you out with a project, design or technical issue. There’s a genuine  love for beading (whatever form it may take) in the room. Members bring projects to work on, books to pass around, beads to trade and pieces they already made for the rest of us to admire. I love that last part. It’s inspiring and a lot of fun to see what other people have created.

Last month, I made the earrings in the photo above at the meetup. This time, I think I talked more than I worked on my project. No harm done. I can finish that piece any old time. It was more important to take advantage of the opportunity to gush, have a few laughs and learn more about jewelry making.