Lea Paličková is the 2017 Rising Star!
Congratulations on winning the Rising Star challenge. Your necklace is spectacular!
First if you could provide a little background such as where you are from or live now and what your work or career is. Your Etsy shop profile mentions you study geography, are there any favorite places or influences that sparked your interest in that subject?
I come from Czech Republic, the home of well-known Czech glass beads. I’m just a regular girl that grew up in the country. I came to the „big city“ after getting accepted to the University, where I chose to study nature and geography. I wouldn’t say that anything specific led me this way, I’ve been just interested in all the things around me. I’ve always been interested mainly in the abiotic part of nature, and I’m still fascinated by weather… And now, when my university studies are over, this subject of knowledge makes my living. And what do I do when I come home from work? Beading, of course…
In your shop you offer many wonderful pieces of beadwork. How long have you been beading and how much time weekly do you devote to your craft?
I started with beading when I was a young girl, when I was stringing my mom’s and grandma’s beads. As I said before, my country is one of the biggest beads producer. Almost in every house you can find in the attic a huge chest full of old beads… So, it was easy to start playing with beads. I started beadweaving after years, approx. in 2009. This technique charmed me so much that even now I am able to spend most of my time beading. It’s hard to say how much time a week I spend beading, it depends on many conditions. I would say I spend with beading about 10-15 hours a week.
Do you have friends or relatives who also work with seed beads, or are there any beading societies or groups you belong to?
No one from my family is beading. If someone beads something, the initial impulse comes from me. Quite often my sister-in-law asks me to bring some beads along, because she wants to do something for herself. She uses my tutorials to create some floral jewelry.
On the other hand, beading is quite popular in Czech Republic and I’ve met a lot of interesting and inspirational people thanks to beading. Beading societies, like you can know from US, aren’t common here. Here it’s more a question of arranging meeting bead friends for a dinner or a glass of beer and then beading together all night long.
Your work shows a wonderful interpretation of nature, is that the main source of your inspiration?
Yes, mainly I’m trying to find my muse in nature. This is the reason why I enjoy working with nature materials the most. I’m not good at using shiny Swarovski crystals, but psst don’t tell anybody. When I walk outside, I’m trying to perceive all colors and shapes of nature surrounding us. My most favorite season of year is definitely autumn. You can find everything in it: beautiful color transitions and often unsuspected color combinations, mysterious morning fogs and first hoarfrost as well. Anywhere around us is a lot of inspiration, you just have to keep your eyes open.
What artists or bead workers do you admire or feel have influenced your work?
I’m trying, as I always did, not to get influenced by other authors. Because of it, I use Pinterest as little as possible. I would like my work to reflect just my ideas and moods
However, there is a lot of beaders that I adore greatly. One of many is for example Kinga Nichols with her color and material combinations, Apollinariya Koprivnik with her sparkling treasures, queen of sea urchins Joanne Zammit and I can’t forget to mention my best-bead-friend Denisa Kangas
What are some of your favorite materials to work with?
I love to work with any natural material. Gemstone cabochons, druzies, any kind of fossils, pearls and shells, wooden beads, ceramics and so on… I rather work with irregularly shaped material. Glitter and perfectly polished surfaces gets me a little insecure, because I’m not always sure how to work with them to get the perfect result. I really love combination of matt and gloss and Czech glass beads.
Your patterns in your shop are lovely. I especially like the way you use the two holed beads in your designs. What are some of the joys you have experienced or challenges you have faced selling on Etsy?
The greatest joy is when you receive positive feedback of your work. Like when customer send me a picture of finished piece of jewelry made with my tutorial.
Where do you see your work with bead weaving evolving in the future?
My big dream is to have my own studio – room just for me and my craft passions. I hope it will be soon, because we are planning reconstruction with my boyfriend and I hope he will be kind enough to let one room for me in our future home
Anyway in this „dream studio“ I would like to have a craft oven for making ceramic, glass or even copper enamel. I would love to create my own components for my beaded jewelry.
Interview by Patti Parker
