Greetings!
I hope this newsletter finds you well and happy. Here in the North Country this is the summer of growing, growing veggie gardens, growing grass, growing rivers and growing tired of all this rain. But luckily it has been warm. Our first veggie garden in quite a few years has been spectacular. I think the pumpkin plants are up to my waist or neck. I have never seen potato plants so big. And whenever I look at the river, or go swimming, the river is getting wider and wider and moving faster and faster to deliver all this rain water to the Saint Lawrence. But I am always grateful that we have so much water here since I grew up in the arid southwest and had to be very careful about using water and never did have a veggie garden.
The above photo is from the Potsdam Festival, the one craft show a year I am doing now. Those are a number of my freeform peyote and Right Angle Weave bracelets. It was the most beautiful sunny day. We have rarely had one so nice since. I saw many friends and met new folks. Thank you one and all for visiting my booth and making my day a success.
This month I am continuing my two new features: Let us Now Praise Famous Beaders and A Book Review section, as well as showcasing some new work. |
Exciting News
I have been participating in a Round Robin Jewelry/Art Exchange with Gaea, Lorelei,Joelle and Jennifer Stumpf. These talented jewelry designers and bead makers have been passing around a necklace that began with a focal bead by Gaea. Each of us has added a part to it. Right now it is on its way to Jennifer. You can see how this project has progressed by checking out my blog.
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News From My Studio
HeH Here is a photo of some of my new work. I am putting a New Work section on my website where you can see individual photos of these pieces. I will leave them in that category until my next newsletter.
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If I If you want to see more about what I am doing you can check out my blog. I am writing about 3 times a week these days, so check it out. You can also get my blog posts by email. The sign up form for it by Feedblitz is on my blog now. Iis o am featuring a few new piece of jewelry this |
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Book Review
Below is the review I wrote of Sherri Haab's new book for Amazon.com
Sherri Haab's new book Beaded Macrame Jewelry interested me from the start since I used to make a lot of jewelry using macrame. In fact that is how I got started making ceramic beads. I couldn't find commercial beads large enough to fit the hemp cord I was using then. Well now things have changed a lot. There are many wonderful handmade beads on the market that have large holes and wonderful new cords and material to use with them. This book is focused on using many of the new large holed handmade beads. Although lampwork beads are usually featured, the new ceramic beads you can find on Etsy and Just Beads on the Internet would work equally as well. And you know I am biased on the subject of ceramic beads. The book shows you the basic Macrame knots in clear large illustrations and then goes on to introduce you to a number of attractive projects. I have been having a lot of fun with the Japanese Cord Bracelet. I was attracted to this project because I had some of this wonderful Japanese Noro cording on hand in several different colors. By the way this stuff is gorgeous. Here is an example of my interpretation of the Japanese Cord Bracelet.
There is another reason I love this book and that is the very simple sliding closure that makes it possible to adjust the size of any bracelet or necklace. She gives you two versions of this very handy adjustable ending.
There are many attractive projects in the book ranging from leather cord bracelets, macrame rings and earrings, to complex necklaces and even a purse using yarn and ribbon.
This book is available from Amazon.com and other books stores. |
Classes:
Both of my classes at the Handweaving Museum in Clayton, New York were well attended and went well. My students were wonderfully creative and a pleasure to spend the day with. Here are some photos of their great work. You can see more photos on my blog.
Right Angle Weave Class
Glazing Ceramic Beads Class
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Let Us Now Praise Famous Beaders
Peter Francis, Jr.
Although the late Peter Francis, Jr (1945-2002) writes from the perspective of a bead collector, (what beader is not a collector as well) I thought starting this series on beaders with Peter Francis, Jr. was most fitting because his research goes back to the many places where beads were first found. He points out that beads are the first known art form of humans, emerging over 40,000 years ago. In fact they predate cave paintings and carved figures.
The Late Peter Francis, Jr. (1945-2002) was a pioneer in the beading movement that we are continuing to experience today. I first became aware of his work when I was surfing the net on Compuserve in the late 80's early 90's. He had a webmall for beaders, he was the first I know of to have shops for beaders to sell their work on the web and he was a very knowledgeable bead collector and researcher. You can visit his original website here. In addition to his extensive research on the history of beads, he had a bead museum in Lake Placid, NY. Here is a link to photos of his museum. There are plans to have his entire collection placed in the Bead Museum in Glendale, Arizona.
I have a copy of his book Beads of the World which is a fascinating look at the history of beads. There are many photos of different beads from all over the world. He also includes some old photos of primitive bead making techniques and some great old drawings of how glass beads were made in the past. I especially love the drawing of three women at a table making wrapped lampwork beads, around 1600. Not so different from now.
Peter Francis, Jr.'s definition of a bead:
" What's a Bead?
A survey of dictionaries and encyclopedias will reveal that the usual definition of a bead goes something like this: "A bead is a small, round object with a hole in it used for necklaces, etc."
I do not find this satisfying. For one thing, many beads are not round. For another, they are not all small. They do not all have holes, and their uses go far beyond necklaces.
My definition would be more on these lines: "A bead is an object capable of being strung and used for the many tasks assigned to it by various cultures. These include (but are not limited to) symbols of status and group membership; ornamentation of people, animals, and things; mnemonic devices; counting devices; amulets and talismans; and others."
I found the following link here that shows a video of Peter talking about African Beads on a UK TV program. It gives you a great sense of his knowledge and love of beads. I found that it would work on my Windows Media Player if I scrolled down to the link for people who can't get it on the screen provided i.e. the 14 mb .wmv file. I hope that you will spend some time getting to know Peter's work, if you don't already, and enjoy remembering him as I have done in writing this article.
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