Folksy Celebrities - Mirribeads

Name: Mirjam van vonderen
From:  Worthington, Leicestershire
Occupation: Full time mother, full time bead artist, full time tired
Favourite colour:  The rainbow
Favourite animal:  The sloth
Favourite band:  Quite a few: Belle and Sebastian, Asian dub foundation, Fatal Flowers, Kitty Daisy and Lewis,The left Banke, Ian Dury, to name a few
Favourite book: At the moment the book Thief

Shop / Business name:
Mirribeads

What you make:
Jewellery, handbags, hairclips, anything I can bling up

How did you know you were crafty / artistic?
I didn’t. I was told from an early age and it seemed to make sense. I’ve always been drawn to colours and shiny things. Must be the magpie in me. As a child I used to sit in my bedroom window overlooking the art studio of our next door neighbour and wonder what she was painting there. It always smelled of roses and oil paints and the light coming out of the windows was glowing bright. Enough for me to dream away.

What was the first thing you ever made?
In this incarnation, as a bead artist, I destroyed one of my mother’s old necklaces, which had some of the most amazing dark green square beads with beautiful dark swirls inside. I took those and restrung them with black glass pony beads that I had left from my teenage years. I still love this necklace and wear it to all my craft fairs.

Do you have any formal training or who taught you what you know?
Since I’m rubbish at formal, training or otherwise, I taught myself, from a few books and a lot of experimenting. Every new design I make I’ll learn more and develop further.

How did your craft business come about?
I found my old beads from when I was a teenager in a box in the attic. I discovered that I was old enough now to call those beads vintage and picked up where I left of all those years ago. I started with my mum’s old necklace and went on from there. People seemed to like what I was making, so I had a go at selling, first at small dues, then onto a toe curling cringe worthy first big fair, where I quickly learnt how not to sell (though I did learn an awful lot about non disposable nappies and how to clean them, mind you maybe a baby fair wasn’t the right place for a budding jewellery artist). I did manage to turn that around on subsequent occasions and now manage to have fun and earn a bit to boot.

Where and when do you do your crafting?
At home in my front room or at the kitchen table, where ever I can find a space and a bit of peace and quiet.

Tell me something surprising about yourself:
I grow mushrooms in my cellar (actually not that surprising since if you want to grow button mushrooms a dark moist cellar is the best place for them)

Which Folksy / Etsy shop can you not get enough of?
That’s not fair! There are so many lovely shops on Folksy and I just need a few killer sales to start plundering them. I’ll give you one of the more unusual ones though: Audreys Cat, love the way she uses the vintage fabrics.

Why is handmade / crafting important to you?
It keeps me sane when the world around me is going bonkers. (or the other way round, either way it helps separate the madness from me)

Is it just me or is crafting really hot right now?
Oh it’s definitely not just you! I think there are some fabulous people making fabulous things out there at the moment. People who have real pride in what they are making and there is a growing demand for individual pieces made with love and attention. Combine the two and you’ve got a booming business. Even though jewellery is one of the toughest to be in at the moment, there’s still room for the right pieces at the right prices.

Tell me why I should buy something from you!
Because you’ll find truly unique pieces made with care and attention in any shape or form you could wish for and because above all they’re made to have fun with, to enjoy.

Ok you’ve got me convinced! Where can I find you?
You can find my shop on folksy or find my fanpage or follow me on twitter.