ROAD WARRIORS JOURNEY
iscovering Beads
I interviewed Janine of Esfra,
beader who has taken to
the world. Well at least as
Mercedes Benz long-haul
take her. And frankly, it
etty far. The most surprising
arned about Janine is that
t initially take any jewelry
ools or books with her? She
as a teenager I started makwn earrings. I love earrings,
at time my pocket money
enough to buy all the beautigs for sale in the shops, so I
o make my own. I even did
mithing course and enjoyed
with metal immensely. But
y and work got in the way
got all about beads, jewother crafts. That is until we
p in Dubai during our travels.
re numerous shops selling
d findings and it all started
back to me. I bought some
arted to hoard beads (and
row out clothes to make
them in our truck!) and just
eating jewelry again.”
2008, when Janine and her
sold the house, and their
es, bought a truck and drove
off to Nepal. Not your everyday happening! But Janine explains why they
decided to pack it in. “My husband
and I both had our own consultancy
companies. He is an IT specialist, and
I am a management consultant. We
both worked long hours; every day of
the week. No time for family, friends
or socializing in general. We just
worked and worked, and thought
that was normal. We dreamed about
traveling but regarded that as something to do when we retire. Until
both our dads became seriously ill,
and then a former colleague of mine
lost her husband to cancer. He was
only 30 years old. That made us think,
‘do we really want to live this way?’
Do we really want to work hard our
entire lives, saving money for that
point in life when we finally have
time to travel? What if we don’t reach
retirement age? What if we are not
healthy enough at that age to travel?
Why wait, why not travel now? So, we
did.”
I asked Janine what is it about traveling that excited her most and she
said without hesitation, “the feeling
of freedom and of course, exploring
new countries and meeting people
An Interview
With jANINE lUCAS
By cynthia machata
“I’m often very
insecure about the
creations I make. I
always doubt myself
and I’m really good
at self-bashing. I
guess this is something many artists
have.”
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