Genevieve's background was filled with creativity and skills passed to
her by family members. Eventually, after a career in teaching theatrical costuming in college and high schools, she was ready for retirement.
"I rediscovered a bag of beads rummaging through my
costume drawers while cleaning out stuff to make room for retirement and files
and filing cabinet. I had bought the bag of black beads at a flea market and
air show somewhere in New York for $20. When I opened and assembled the contents
it was a beautiful 1800s, or earlier, black jet beaded collar," explains
Genevieve. "I decided to find out how to fix it. Browsing a magazine I saw
a beading class being offered and I thought, 'Oh, I haven’t done that since Grandma sat me in the garden.' So I signed up and instantly got addicted.
"I fell in love with the creation process.
Suddenly my brain was sparked. I gave control over to the string, beads and
energy. I saw little glimpses of beads in rows or shapes in my head and I tried
to make what was I was seeing. I didn’t have a drawing; I just learned a stitch
like herringbone and went home and tried to follow what I saw. It didn’t look like
the pieces in class I was supposed to be making. No matter what jewellery the
teacher showed me that I picked to make, it never ended up looking the same.
The piece I worked on morphed on me in process. I let go, I gave control to my
inner instinct and I kept working on my first piece for 200 hours. My husband
thought I was weird because I was making stuff he’d never seen. I had never
seen. My bead count was already into the thousands. I was very shy to bring my
piece to class for show and tell but I wanted the credit," says Genevieve.
"Well, I was not prepared for the reaction. My
teacher, a wise and very knowledgeable beader, looked me square in the eyes and
said, 'I didn’t know why you were taking the course. Now I know. You want to
make Art.' And suddenly it hit me. That’s exactly the gift the universe has
given me in the last quarter of my life. Beading feeds my soul. It re-energizes
me. It gives me solace and comfort and focus for all my obsessive behaviours.
It’s contemplative and meditative and creative. It’s social and constructive
and I meet with many like-minded women and I have a great opportunity to share
and teach and pass on the arts and crafts I have learned and enjoyed for so
many years."
"Nature
and natural processes inspire me," says Genevieve. "Good people and
good action inspires me. Kindness and appreciation inspire me. Hope inspires
me. Creating something out of a little bits of glass and colour inspire me.
Once, I saw a stand of rushes by the shore on a hike one summer on the Bruce
Trail. At the Cellular Level is a piece to be imagined as the inside of a
bull rush cut in half and viewed under a microscope. I imagined the life-giving
nectar moving by osmosis through the chambers and woody cells, to the woven
seed pod, to a quartz crystal wand entangled in the roots of the bull-rush.
Life force moving life force for millennia. Inspiration is a naturally growing
thing we can cultivate. It is everywhere."
Genevieve's advice to others who create? "Go for it. Learn everything you can about
any interest you have whether it’s beading or race car driving. Don’t sit there
blank. Trust your inner passion to guide you. Make friends. Eat, drink, share,
love. Find out what your creative voice is telling you and do it. Have no fear treading into the creative
realm. THE FORCE IS WITH YOU!, to quote
Star Wars.
Upcoming classes with Genevieve Habib:
Sunday, May 8
Hubble Right Along: Hubble Bracelet
12:00 - 3:00pm
More classes will be available soon!
Beads…
