Face to Face: Elena Zidaru

At Beadingschool, curiosity is woven into everything we do—just like beads and thread. We delight in asking questions as much as in creating, and we feel grateful to belong to a community where beaders so generously share not only their knowledge but also their inspiration.

This Face to Face interview introduce a beader who, in her own words: ‘Will tell you how a person with zero knowledge about beads manages to create a collection of over 300 pieces of jewelry by great designers in the world in just 3 years.’

Her jewelry sets are remarkable and inspiring, and we’re all learning by watching them in the Beadingschool Club.  The dedication in making the jewel and presenting it in the best possible way is a signature – we all know it’s hers.

So grab your favorite beverage, and enjoy the story of how Beadingschool became part of her creative life.

Meet the Beadingschool Club member passionate for beading and learning,

Elena Zidaru!

Please tell us a bit about yourself! When and how did you start to create? How did you learn to bead?  

I am 65 years old, was born under the sign of Taurus. I’m married, have 2 boys who made me a grandmother.  I lived in Romania since I was born. I spent my childhood reading, and reading became an addiction over the years. To be honest, I did not have an attraction to handicrafts, but I liked collections. I started with collecting buttons, napkins, stamps, postcards, continued with books, old money and later different varieties of flowers. I always wanted to have a valuable collection.

I discovered embroidery in the petit-point technique (continental stitch) on a 22ct canvas at the age of 23, when, following a particularly stressful period, I was diagnosed with an autoimmune skin disease. I needed a hobby that would keep my hands and mind busy. In my country, this embroidery is popularly called “goblen”, because it has some similarities with the famous tapestries. For almost 40 years, I practiced this hobby for an average of 8 hours a day. It was a titanic job, but it also brought me a lot of satisfaction: exhibitions in art galleries, participation as an exhibitor in domestic and international fairs, as well as numerous appearances in the media. You can find recordings of interviews during exhibitions on my YouTube page. 

In order to excel in this field, my motto was: I can do this better if I learn more.

I started this type of embroidery in 2 colors and ended up with 240 colors, over 100 of which were blends. I started with commercially purchased designs, then learned to make them myself using  different software programs.

This is the largest gobelin I have ever worked on. It took 3 and a half years, 8 hours/day.

 

Because I was tired of paintings that required hundreds of thousands of stitches, I wanted to do something miniature, and I worked on jewelry and watches embroidered on 40-56ct canvas.

 

Then I wanted to make a collection of ornaments for Easter and Christmas and that’s how I discovered bead embroidery. It wasn’t until the beginning of the pandemic, when I had nothing left to learn for gobelin, that I felt the need to learn something new, which could be completed in a few days.

 

Behind the eggs decorated with crystals, beads and sequins, you can see another gobelin made by me.

 

I liked working with beads and was attracted by the combinations of different shapes. For several months I bought packages from different manufacturers that also contained jewelry ideas that I could make. I won’t mention the tutorial because at that time (2021) I didn’t understand any of them. It was like they were explained in a language that I don’t understand (like Chinese) and I didn’t know where to find such translations. It’s not easy at all to learn terms that have no way of translating into your language and do not have the possibility to see what that word represents. I decided that I didn’t need such stress.

In January 2022, my husband said that it would be too bad not to learn something that I like. He suggested that we look for a jewelry school. Also, he was the one who enrolled me at Beading School Academy, without me having found out what this school was about and if it suited me. I received the thematic box and then started following Erika’s tutorials. I translate quite well from English, but at first I couldn’t understand even half of what she was saying. I had to learn the names of the beads, colors, sizes, shapes, techniques, metal components, threads, wires, tools, etc.  All of this didn’t exist in my English-travel vocabulary. There were too many of them and I was not able to memorize them.

I can’t learn technical names for new things that I can’t see, touch, and compare. In order to learn, I had to have them at home. So I bought a little bit of everything. My husband bought more because he wanted to be helpful. I rely on an exceptional visual memory, so before I had finished putting them in their place, I knew what each one was called. Then it was a lot easier to learn what they were used for.

Long live the tutorials and the designers who made them!

 

This is my front-to-back work area.

In 3 years I have worked on over 500 pieces of jewelry. First I learned to work according to the video tutorials, then using the codes in the PDFs. Then I became obsessed with learning as many techniques for sewing with beads, cords, strings, and bails as possible, which I consider inseparable from the model of a pendant, on which you work a lot and want to highlight. Now, I know the bare essentials, but I have become extremely interested in the appearance of the finishes and the quality of the accessories. I still consider myself a novice and I am not yet attracted to the design side, except for the final appearance of the jewelry.

The only thing I have not done yet is calculate the real value of a piece of jewelry that I have made. Once a year I participate in the National Crafts and Crafts Fair and I am asked to sell from the exhibits but I didn’t. I was a supermarket manager and chief of staff for a member of the European Parliament. These jobs, in my case, inhibited the desire to make money and politics. In 2014 I founded a non-profit NGO that creates the possibility for me to participate in fairs and exhibitions.

 

Is beadwork your hobby or profession? How does your average day look like? When do you have time to create?   

Because some of you are wondering if I still sleep, I will tell you my daily schedule (except for trips abroad, I very rarely leave the house).

I wake up around 8 am and get to work. I work on a new piece of jewelry almost every day. I only repeat a model I have worked on before very rarely. I am not interested in sales but in learning new things. With short lunch breaks or household chores, I work until 8 pm. After 8 pm I watch tutorials or a TV series. While I work, I listen to classical music, new releases (Teddy Swims is my favorite) or listen to audio books.  I read or play games on my tablet until around 2 am when I go to bed. I don’t sleep more than 6-7 hours.

Many people, including my children, ask me what good comes from this passion, as the previous one – it costs a lot of money, without any financial profit. The answer is very simple: someone drinks and smokes or does drugs. I sew.  A vice like any other. The pleasure of a job well done is a great satisfaction for me. I don’t think about the money spent as long as it doesn’t harm my health, and I do it with great pleasure.

 

Who are your favorite designers? Why? 

It may seem strange, but I don’t have a favorite design or designer. Each designer, through the designs offered or purchased, has taught me something new, and for that, I am eternally grateful to them.

 

Do you have a favorite design by Erika? Tell us about it!   

I like all of Erika’s designs and that is why I have formed a habit of regularly working with designs that she created many years ago.  You can see everything I’ve worked on on my group page or more on my personal page.

 

Which is the bead / component in your stash which you treasure the most? Do you already have plans on how to use it?

I have worked with many types of beads with 1 to 4 holes. Recently I purchased an oval one with 6 holes made of natural turquoise. It is 2cm/4.5cm and 0.7cm thick. It will be a big challenge for me to integrate it into a piece of jewelry. Any suggestions?

 

If you could design something for a well-known person or maybe a fictional character from a film or book, who would it be, and why? 

Although I have taken pictures with all the celebrities (wax from Madame Tussauds London) it never crossed my mind to give them or create something for them. I don’t waste small gestures on big people, instead, I gave gifts to orphaned children from the Girls’ School in my town.

What are your plans for the future as a beader? Is there something you would really like to learn? 

What I want next is to have enough time to be able to learn more about bead embroidery, so that I can create works of the level of those I worked with threads in the petit-point technique.
None of the jewelry I have made so far would have been possible without the help of those at Beading School, Erika in particular, the collaborating designers and my extraordinary colleagues in
the group.

Thank you for all the support you have given me in these wonderful years!

 

 

 

 

Thank you for answering our questions and sharing more about your beading journey, Elena!

We’re very happy you’re beading with us. You inspire us with your passion, the beautiful jewelry sets, creative ideas, and color combinations.  We wish you all the best and joy of learning more every day. We can’t wait to see more in the Club!

 

Dear beading-friends and beadwork admirers, please, use the comment section if you have more questions you would like to ask, or greet our Elena.

Stay tuned for more interviews for Beadingschool.com by Erika Sándor.