I am going to be offering a Seminar in Intermediate to Advanced Lamp Work Bead Making, Jewelry Design and Marketing, in Bisbee this September.
These are early days in the planning but I think some of you might like to know about it well in advance.
The Seminar will be six days long because I have to much I want to teach.
There will only be four participants because I prefer not to teach a room full of glass workers on torches, but rather,concentrate on giving my all to a few pupils at a time.
I think you may find this Seminar valuable in many ways..
I will be teaching those participants how to turn their beads into jewelry,

How to go into production with other kinds of beads, how to prepare to market their work, and above all, what really sells and why.

The point about a good seminar is that it is not just a series of classes, but rather an exchange of useful information too, so that everyone benefits from the companionship, experience, and tales of adventure we all bring to the table.
I have been making bead jewelry for nearly forty years and during that time, it has been my only source of income.

I will need to see the work of applicants so that I may choose those who will benefit the most and who have already shown themselves to be at a point in their work where my teaching can carry them forward.

Accommodation in Bisbee is varied and charming, and September is a beautiful and vibrant month to be here.

We will be working in my glass studio, which is large and well cooled and then on the upper level we will work at enhancing your techniques in bead jewelry design and construction. 

I do not use a torch in making jewelry, everything is wire work, knotting, working with chain and generally useful for those of you who want to be able to make jewelry on the go, rather than being tied down to another torch and the timeless and complicated work involved with setting stones etc.

You will learn to make beads with Stained Glass Remnants… Mixing those colors is fascinating and of course if you love the work, glass is much less expensive because boxes of it lie under tables in most Stained Glass Art Studios and Stores.
I
I have taught classes at the International Bead Conferences in Washington DC. Sadly there have not been more than three in all. Maybe one day, there will be another…

The Seminar will be Monday Through Saturday 9am -6pm daily.
Tools and Lunch included with two breaks.
Cost: $4,000
For more information, contact us at katedwbeads@gmail.com.

I have closed “Uptown Tribal” my gallery in Bisbee, Arizona.

It was open 7 days a week for eight years. Time for a change. Many of you already know how my jewelry feels in the hand and have visited me over the years, so I hope you will enjoy having more ready access to my work through the Internet, on Etsy, and shortly, back again on Ebay.
Oh.. I am going to keep my original little kiosk in the Convention Center in Bisbee, so you will be able to find my work there too…I felt that simply closing the gallery and disappearing seemed too sudden…
I am going to start offering a few Intermediate and Advanced classes in Lamp Work…Please contact me if you are interested… they will not be frequent and I will only teach four pupils at each six day session. I have not taught glass work in the United States for over ten years… I always taught in England and sometimes France, in the Summers only….so this is another change.

Please visit  KateDW.Etsy.com  … and if you have time, I would love to hear from you and get your reactions or criticisms! We are all in this together…Peace.. Kate.

I took this picture of neon tubing flowing  at Plowden and Thompson while teaching there a few years ago. The process is fascinating, P+T is one of the only genuine neon tubing manufacturers in the world.

I stay every year with the owners, Barbara and Richard Beadman at their home… a special treat.
In 1907, before I taught my first class we had to import 5 Minor Bench Burners from Canada and set up the work room. There was no kiln and so Richard took specifics from me, a totally unscientific me, and in a few days there it was…handmade, lined with fire bricks, but functioning, even though at the time it had the simplest heat timer.

In 1997, there were only four bead makers I knew of, and two of them had been taught by me at home in Arizona.. that year I taught 25 more, in groups of 5. The following year we had a week intensive at Plowden and Thompson for 40 people with other teachers participating, including Diana East, who had studied with me in Arizona and was now a teacher too. Actually, several of my first pupils are now teachers in the UK, and glass bead making has taken off.
Later I was invited to teach at The Old Kennels, in Devonshire, ( www.theoldkennels.co.uk/) by Tracy Bell. Wonderful art center, check it out… they teach all kinds of rare and wonderful traditional English arts… and Tracy breeds Alpaca so I thought you would enjoy a picture of them rather than looking at one of my classes!

Staying there for a few days, teaching both glass bead making, and wire work, was so special because I went to boarding school nearby when I was ten years old and everything brings back memories.

For several years, I taought the making of beads with stained glass remnants at the Old Kennels and I know this is the first time these methods have been taught in the United Kingdom.

Well, I must move on.

Well, as you can see from the link on my web site, I now have a store in Etsy.

Soon I will be back on Ebay too, where Internet selling began for me in 1998.

Here is a picture of the signed tools I have been selling for many years now… they will be available in my jewelry classes.Here’s the Egyptian Clasp.. you can learn to do this too, if you like!

In my jewelry making class we will see how to design elegant pieces giving respect to how the new, the old and even ancient glass beads were made and how to bring them into contemporary, wearable pieces.

Where to start.. Well, I’ve been back for quite a while from another divine adventure in France during July and August last year with glass bead making friends Nadine Piskadlo and Frederic Marey. Just after I arrived in early July, it was time for the exhibition I have dreamed about for ten years or so. It came to be in a beautiful Museum in Berck Sur Mer. It’s really silly for me to be finally telling you about this exhibition now, a few days before it closes, when it opened on July 16th last summer on a beautiful sunny day.
The museum invited any glass bead artists anywhere to submit a piece on Sun Wind and Sea. The chosen beads for this show will stay in a permanent collection there because it is a Maritime Museum and how perfect is that! Read the rest of this entry »

I thought you would like to see this wonderful letter… I do have a photograph of Nancy throwing one bead into Victoria Falls, with a rainbow and the bead clearly flying and I will put it up here as soon as she sends me a copy on my e-mail…

Dear Kate,

When I told you my husband and I were taking a trip with Overseas Adventure Travel
to Africa, you sent me off with five of your wonderful Beads. I was to place each of them in the most beautiful, meaningful location I found in the countries we were to visit. The following is a bit about each Beads placement.

Bead Number One: South Africa

Our first camp was in Kruger National Park in South Africa. It is named Parfuri Camp and, in our opinion, the best camp we stayed in. Perhaps it was because it was our first. Perhaps it was the people. There we found the entire staff very friendly, always cheerful and most eager to help make our stay pleasant, informative and memorable. One woman, Toko, was an absolute dear. She shared many of her native customs with me and spent a lot of her time explaining about her life with her husband, who is Chef at the camp. Her enthusiasm, knowledge of her country and life in general endeared her to me. On our last day there, I presented her with the first Bead. As I placed it around her neck she had tears in her eyes and told me she?d wear it until she died. I was very touched because I believe she will.

Bead Number Two: Botswana

This Bead was given to a young woman with a rather serious young man in her life. They love each other, but perhaps will not be allowed to marry. He must present himself to her Uncle and, in turn, the Uncle and other relatives must decide if this marriage can take place. The young man, if he receives the blessings of the family, must then give the father 14 cows before he may marry. All of this was told to me with many soft giggles and a shy demeanor. I gave the girl the third Bead with the thought this might in some way help her situation. Who knows? Read the rest of this entry »

In the dream
I chased the glass rod
With flame.
Now here I sit, rod in hand
Before its heat…
Glass, slowly softening,
Rotated by shy hand,
Glowing, moving…
My first tear-drops fall.
At last we are together,
Learning Gather and Stress,
Watching small explosions,
The shattering of glass
Heated too fast
In my anxiety to get results.
Slow down…
Take time to learn.

With practised ease
My teacher takes a wand,
The mandrel.
Heating rod,
She slowly winds a bead
A bead,
Before my very eyes…
Time races by,
Colored glass curls round,
Cooling in the soft end
Of the flame.

At the end of the day
My fingers with familiar grace
wed gold and glass,
And, smiling,
See new earrings born…
The dream become reality.