Lenni Cramer is truly an amazing designer. Not only is she prolific, she is also a pretzel bending gymnast of a designer! That makes no sense to you? To me it does. Lenni creates spectacular works of art in tiny spaces. The detail in a small bracelet or a business card holder that Lenni is capable of doing must be one of the 7 wonders of the (beading) world.

    

Lenni was born in Freeport NY. She spent her early childhood on Long Island until her parent's divorce. At the age of 10, Lenni and her mother moved to Inverness, FL. There, she finished High School and continued on with her education at Central Florida College in Ocala, Florida with a major in the Medical Secretarial program and a minor in the Legal Secretarial program.

Lenni lives in Florida as do her two sons Greg (23), Jon (16) and her daughter Chenoa (9). And oh yes, we can't forget her feathered friend, Tweety, a petite pale yellow cockatiel.

Designing patterns has helped support Lenni and her daughter. After a serious motor vehicle accident in 1997, and a subsequent stroke, Lenni found herself unable to continue with her lifelong profession in the medical field.

Lenni was introduced to beading through her son, Jon when he was given a wire beading loom for his birthday. Lenni and Jon searched the internet for help with beading, and were inspired by all the beautiful finished beadwork that they saw. After about a month of beading experience, Lenni offered her first pattern on Bead-Patterns.com. (AMAZING, don't you think!!?) And her first pieces of beadwork were her Starry Night Inspiration, and Jolly Elf Tapestries. I think Lenni skipped the walking part of learning and went straight to the running!

   

Aside from her children, "beadwork is her life", says Lenni. There is evidence of that in every room in her house. Most of the time, she works at her desk where her setup makes many things handy such as a CD burner, Ott-lite, desk lamp, calculator, Delicas, Delica & and seed bead sample cards, various seed beads, container of fringe type beads, colored pencils, and odds and ends of general office supplies. She also has beading looms, macramé boards, an iMac, a Wacom Graphire tablet, comforting CD's, an assortment of Nymo and Silamide threads, rulers etc. Everything has its place so that she spends her time beading and designing rather than looking for things.

Lenni says that she sees life through an artist's eyes. She is very spiritual and values the simple things in life that God has given her. Lenni reminds us that beauty is all around us, we need only to slow our pace enough to appreciate it.

Designing has given Lenni a lot of interaction and support from other beaders. To her, this is the greatest joy she has from designing. Lenni has noted that many beaders seem to have a common bond. Many beaders seem to have turned to beadwork as an escape, or therapy from some difficult aspect of life. When asked what her biggest challenge and accomplishments are, and what she might share to inspire other beaders, Lenni says this:

"By the time you reach my age, you've had your share of bad experiences and you know you've got more to come. I try to learn from my mistakes and, if at all possible, I try to turn any negative experiences into positive ones by helping others in the same situation or by growing on a personal level. In 1991, I was diagnosed with Meniere's disease which is a combination of tinnitus or ringing ears and vertigo. Today, I have an international support group for sufferers of tinnitus and Meniere's Disease that has almost 400 members. That's an endeavor that I plan on continuing as long as I am around. I've also experienced an abusive relationship which has been my biggest challenge thus far in life and I feel like, for the most part, I have risen above those dark times. If I can ever help anyone put abuse behind them, I will do everything I can to help them because no one should succumb to that kind of life or feel that they deserve to be mistreated."

"I hear from beaders that have a hard time with color theory and choosing bead colors for their projects. I suggest that they go through magazines and catalogs cutting out any images that they see that's colors they find appealing. Buy a blank journal or sketch book and glue the cut-out images in it. Next time, you have to choose bead colors use this as a guide. If possible, take it to the bead store with you and lay the bead containers next to the image you've chosen to lock in on the "right" colors."

"Also, I want to convey to beaders that they consider each pattern they purchase as having many applications other than the one indicated. A bracelet pattern can double as a hat band, a strap or a belt. With a little ingenuity and a closer look you might see that you can use just one repeat of the design as an earring. Why not create a matching amulet bag by repeating the pattern to the desired size. Even a large tapestry pattern can be made into one or more lovely amulet bags if you use a portion(s) of it to bead up, add a back if you want a double-sided amulet bag and add strap and fringe. Let your creativity be your guide."

"Lastly, if you have questions or a request, please don't hesitate to ask...beaders and designers tend to be very generous and friendly people who love to share. Chances are we've all asked the same questions."

Examples of Lenni's Designs (click on an image for more infomation):