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Meet the Maker

Cats Bead Jewelry

Nanaimo,  BC 

I started beading when I made Team Canada with Special Olympics for 10 Pin Bowling in 2011. When you travel with Special Olympics, they provide you with pins to trade with other athletes. There are so many athletes wanting to trade it doesn't take long to run out of pins. When I qualified for Summer Nationals I made school friendship bracelets. After competing at Nationals, I qualified for Team Canada to compete in Greece. I wanted something special to take with me to trade. I looked on YouTube for ideas, and made my first beaded items; keychains saying Canada and Nanaimo. At the games I started to trade, and everyone wanted one of my beaded keychains. They even wanted to buy them, and some of the coaches asked if I could make them in different colours for different teams.

I still compete with Special Olympics in 10 Pin Bowling and my beaded work is very popular with everyone. I have started to do beaded fashion jewellery, including Indigenous designs, small gift items, and special orders for people.