lo and behold

My name is Lisa Oram, and In some ways, I’ve always been a creative person - not an artist, exactly - but a maker of things: food, poetry, ritual, gifts, a business, some sweaters/socks/skirts, and even a couple of kids.  I have an MFA in poetry and have been self-employed as a freelance writer/editor since 2003.  All of my professional work, and most of my creative work, has been in black and white (with a little Microsoft blue in the background).  And then something changed: in summer 2007,  I learned to bead crochet, and since then, all I want to do is create in color.

In 2009, I launched this blog, hoping it would be a container for the new creative passion and processes that came with my beaded jewelry making. By the end of that year, I realized that what I was experiencing was more than an artistic journey.  I don’t want to say midlife crisis, exactly, but I am, in fact, a woman in midlife.   My children, then ages 10 and 7, were launched, and I felt the pull to launch myself in a new direction. 

When my youngest started first grade, I had just celebrated my 45th birthday.  I gave myself a short sabbatical that fall, to catch my breath and to rest from the marathon of the previous decade.  When the sabbatical ended, and with a gift certificate my husband gave me for my birthday,  I signed up for an art class.  I’ve always been fascinated with glass and my bead crochet projects had lead me into the world of lampworking glass beads, so lampworking it was.  As I had hoped - and feared - there was no turning back from that 8-week class learning how to melt glass into beads over an open flame.  My life was changed, and it just keeps changing.  This blog brings my black-and-white world and my color world together.

I’ve heard it said that the older you are, the faster time moves, and for the first time in my life, I actually understand that.  Here I am, lo and behold, almost 50.  

Thanks for joining me.  Please come back often.

~ lisa