In case you don't know me, my name is Karen and I run Somerset Beads. I thought I would explain how my bead addiction led to the creation of Somerset Beads.

Where do I begin, well as Julie Andrews once sang...let's start at the very beginning, it's a very good place to start. For quite some time I had the feeling that there was something creative inside of me trying to get out. You have to bear in mind that my star sign is Pisces and if you belive in all that, I should be creative, well I wasnt. Anyway as I was saying I felt as if I could be creative, that there was something there, I just had to find a way of letting it out.

I tried knitting, the least said about the better. Sewing, I struggle to sew on a button and card making which was more like mess making. Finally I came to jewellery making and beads. It was the beads that attracted me to making my own jewellery.

I soon found out I didnt necessarily want to make anything with the beads, in fact I was happier just lookking at them, playing with them, holding them. I made a few peices of jewellery but quickly ran out of ideas. But and here's the important bit, I kept buying beads with absolutely no idea of what I was going to do with them. Soon I had a lot of beads, It was at this point that I started to suspect I might be a bead addict.

As my bead stash grew and still no ideas of what to do with them, I decided I had to reduce my stash. I started listing a few beads on ebay, they sold well, so I listed a few more. They sold well and it was at this point Somerset Beads was born. I discovered I could have the best of both worlds. I could have as many beautiful beads as I wanted, to look at and play with but without the pressure of having to do something with them.

What happened about being creative I hear you ask..well thats the best bit I now create Inspiration Packs and Bead Mixes for other people to do something I couldnt ...make beautiful jewellery. Do you know what, I'm really quite good at it. There really was something creative in me, I just had to find my thing.