Thursday, November 4, 2021

3 years sober: Beaded Recovery Ideas

"Hi, my name is Jenny and I'm an alcoholic."  

I say that regularly at meetings and one of these days I'll probably slip up introducing myself at some other lecture with that line. I cannot believe it's been 3 years, because 3 years ago it seemed impossible to even go a day or a week without a drink.  But something had to give, I went to my first AA meeting and realized why it exists and there's a whole bunch of people out there struggling with the same types of things I am. 

I could rattle on and on about how much AA has helped me but I'm going to keep this short and simple...the recovery symbol used for AA is a triangle within a circle. I've wanted to incorporate into my work somehow but all I can think of are what the coins look like so I decided to start there.

This thought first came to me when I noticed a ring someone was wearing at meetings that has the recovery symbol, very simply designed in silver. I really liked the idea of incorporating the symbol into something you can wear daily.  I tried 3 different types of seed beads with this coin design, rocaille 15/0s, delica 15/0s and the regular 11/0 delicas (from left to right in the top photo).

I'm still not sure where these are going.  I decided to keep my beaded pieces simple and start with the form of the coins that we receive each month for the first year, then every year after. I have them floating around my house, a few hanging from my car rearview as daily reminders. When I'm having a rough week, I carry one in my pocket.  My sponsor gave me my third year coin today at the meeting this morning and then her and another very important to my sobriety AA member took me out to breakfast.  It's all connected and we all help each other. <3

No comments:

Vintage Rainbow Circlet Earrings and Bangle

This color combination started with just the earrings, but I couldn't help make a bangle to match. A few new seed bead colors always mak...