[Artist Story- 06] Natacha-Beading as a therapy. Get relax and peace!

I am a happy 37 years old mother of two lovely kids from France. I have always been creative. I remember folding a saltshaker at school when I was 6, and then finding an origami book on my dad’s shelf, immediately getting hooked on! I am on almost any craft using paper, glue, fabric, cardstock, thread and yarn, beads and so…

How I discovered fuse beads

I used fuse beads for the first time two years ago. It all started with a bucket of 12 colors midi beads and a bag of glow-in-the-dark ones.

I first created geometric figures and assembled them in a mobile for my baby girl. While doing this, I thought about one of the best pictures of her, and immediately imagined to bead it.

Which led me to mini beads. After buying a couple of color bags from a cheap brand, I made this picture, but was so disappointed by the bad quality of a color portrait: skin tones were not even and too few to get any interesting result.

I then started looking for a rich greyscale and found Artkal.

Working my way to pixel art

Working with good quality beads was an absolute delight, and this 13 tones greyscale allowed really detailed and realistic rendering. After my daughter, I made a portrait of my son, and from then on got addicted to beading.

A couple of more portraits got me to the point I imagined skipping all the darkest beads while working, and sticking the result on a black paper, therefore inventing the floating portrait.

This also made me realize I loved pixel art very much, and I am now starting to experiment with different materials, like wallpaper squares as you can see below.

Beading as a therapy

One important point in my bead addiction is that while assembling the picture, you get that relaxing sensation alternatively obtained through meditation and self-hypnosis. As the body moves in an automatic fashion, the mind escapes from reality and enters a world of calmness, peace of mind and raw creativity.

I use beading as a craft, as an art form and as a healing process. Inner tensions ease and problem-solving get much easier. Hours go by as I set bead after bead. Subconscious gets at work and the result is a beautiful creation!

Beading to communicate and question

I recently felt the urge to display pictures related to these topics haunting Humanity as a conscious and mortal race. Death, love, war, I want to wonder and make wonder about. I guess that beading can be as philosophical as it is therapeutic. It’s all about creating, self-healing and achieving full consciousness!

In order to share my works, I created an Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/bazartdenat/

You also can find me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bazartdenat/

For French-speaking people, feel free to visit my blog: https://bazartdenat.com


I hope that beading will continue bringing joy, peace and pain relief to lots of people around the world!