About Nancy

My name is Edita - also known as Nancy. I work as an accountant, but I am a zoologist at heart, I am still gradually working toward a PhD on the beautiful sharks I care so much about. And somewhere in between all of that, I craft - creating, healing, and expressing myself through Nancy.

My journey to this point is long and complicated, but here is the heart of it.

In 2021, I began my research master’s degree on basking shark distribution. The data came from aerial surveys, and I was part of the team on board. On the 23rd of September 2021, during what should have been a routine survey flight from Waterford over the south-east inshore waters, everything changed.

We were almost finished for the day when the first engine failed. Moments later, the second engine failed too. The pilot declared a mayday and aimed for land, but we had no idea if we would reach it. Those minutes felt like forever. I genuinely believed I might not survive. The thought of crashing into the sea terrified me - during survival training I had barely managed to escape the submerged aircraft simulation. I knew that if we hit the water, my chances were slim. I tucked my passport into my survival suit so that, if the worst happened, I could be identified. I zipped up the suit, sat as straight as I possibly could, and waited for impact. I don’t remember seeing the land appear, but somehow, we reached the shore. The impact was hard. We all survived, with no life-threatening injuries. But I was not the same; I never came back that day. My heart was broken; I was broken. Something that I loved doing, research on animals nearly killed me; my safe place was gone.

During my sick leave, I ordered my first set of beads. I started making things, I was just making, making and making, letting my hands work while my mind tried to quiet itself. Crafting became the only thing that stopped the spinning thoughts, the reliving, the fear. For a moment - even a tiny one - it let me breathe.

Four years later, I am here building a website for my creations. When I started, I never imagined anyone would appreciate what I made, let alone pay for it - so to everyone who has supported my work, past or future, thank you. Your kindness means more than I can express, it has been a quiet light in the darker corners of my journey. Every piece carries a part of me, stitched together from the moments when I needed something to hold on to, and every one of them is made from the heart.

I am still crafting, still healing, still learning how to live with the sadness that visits me. I am still searching for peace, for lightness, for the version of myself I lost that day. I never truly understood Beyoncé’s words in Pretty Hurts - “my aspiration in life would be to be happy” - until now. That is my aspiration too.

I will keep creating. And I will keep looking for my forever happiness.

Yours,

Nancy xx