Erin Shanks is a disabled artist with Metis heritage located in Calgary, AB who started a small beading business during the COVID-19 pandemic as a way to support herself.
Shanks first started beading when the Alberta Metis Nation put together free kits for people between the ages of 12 and 29. Falling in love with the craft, she decided to create an Instagram page that eventually turned into a business for herself selling some of the things she makes.
“I started my Instagram to show my friends what I was doing, and I noticed that people were selling them so I kind of hopped on the bandwagon,” she said.
Shanks has Fibromyalgia and is unable to do many physical things for extended periods of time, which makes having a traditional job difficult.
“My disability was one of the first reasons I started beading because I was so sick and in so much pain that I didn’t do anything all day,” says Shanks. “Beading is a fun distraction when you’re in pain, and you can, like, do something physically to distract yourself … even if it doesn’t last forever. It’s still fun to do.”
Beading has been used in Metis culture for generations. “By the 1850s, beads had become a primary medium of artistry and decoration for Métis women,” reads a report from the Metis Nation of Alberta.
“They talk a lot about how beading is medicine. So, I think, like, not knowing that beading was medicine, I still used it as that, which is kind of a beautiful, full circle moment,” says Shanks. “Unknowingly, I was using it for what it was intended to be.”
Shanks has a self-proclaimed “groovy and psychedelic” style to her beadwork, drawing inspiration from the 70s with her bright colour choices and design.
“Everything that I make, I feel like that’s something that I’d want to have. Flowers with lots of different colours, very inspired by groovy things, very psychedelic things. Lots of colour,” says Shanks. “I just like things that make me happy.”
She has been running her business for just under a year and her first sale was in December 2022.
“I hope to keep it up and have more sales,” she says. “Even when I eventually start to do things in life, beyond my little sphere of beading in my house, on my couch watching TLC.”
