"Being creative is life - my life!"

Born south of Vienna I grew up with my grand parents most of the time.

In school I majored in science and after graduating I started working in an environmental laboratory.

Since 2007 I work as a safety specialist.

In the late 1990s I started with Native American Beadwork.

All I needed to know then I gathered from countless books and video tapes. In the process of learning the different techniques I made myself a Traditional Dance Outfit with a fully-beaded yoke. All in all it took 3 years to finish it.

(Check out my album "Northern Traditional Dance Outfit").

I decided to put my knowledge to good use and built a website

www.native-american-beadwork.net and put a lot of tutorials and information on it.

These tutorials and my work found favor with a lot of Natives and Non-Natives.

Around 2010 I started with contemporary bead embroidery and other kinds of jewelry using beads and other materials.

You can find my work at:

www.etsy.com/shop/ChestOfBeads

I also use polymer clay to make my own beads and cabochons.

My newest field of exploration is painting – mostly with water-colors. The little trees, flowers and scenes I paint I'm using later to create cabochons for my jewelry.

My other hobbies are reading and watching crime stories, photography, my plants and gardening together with my mom.

Next to different roses, irises and lilac bushes we also plant some herbs like marigold, lavender, chamomille and melissa.

When dried I use the blossoms and/or leaves to make infused oil for balms and herbal cosmetics.

I try to learn something new every day, a new recipe, background information about herbs, oils, butters and other ingredients.

If you have any questions or need something custom made don’t hesitate to contact me.

Thanks for visiting 😊

Alley-Jean

Follow me also on Facebook or Instagram:

www.facebook.com/BeadsFimo/

www.instagram.com/chest_of_beads/