I would like to announce to the GBUK that I will be coming over the big pond this summer from my home in Bisbee Arizona to spend time with family and friends and to offer Advanced bead making classes.
For the past two years I was too busy taking care of my gallery and writing a new book to make it back, England being my original home.
I will be making myself available both in Great Britain and France throughout the summer, arriving at the beginning of July to give the first course at Plowden and Thompson.
For those of you who don’t know this, glass bead making classes in Great Britain had their origins  at P+T. they built that first class room for me in 1989 and had to make the first annealing kiln, to my rather vague instructions, and I hope this relic is still available to be seen there… It belongs in a museum in my opinion!
Anyway, the next place during that same summer in which I gave classes was The Old Kennels in Dunkeswell, Devonshire. Tracey Bell and family built that classroom also. It was sheer madness. The torches and glass had to be rushed down from P+T to be set up for that week of classes and afterward, the torches rushed back to P+T to be ready for their next sessions.
We were all so keen to get started in helping new pupils find their way into glass bead making. Diana East came to the United States at my invitation to learn not only the craft but also how to teach beginners and her first teaching classes were through Plowden and Thompson. This is all history now and you all know how fast and how wonderfully the glass bead movement has grown,  thanks to the work of the GBUK and a number of renowned teachers both from the USA and Europe,
I have now reached the ripe old age of 70 and can have no idea how many more years I have left to pass on my knowledge not only in lamp work but also in designing jewelry with the beads, marketing and anything else I can share with you.
I come to England at my own expense.  Most teachers from the USA expect their travel expenses to be included in their fees, but since I have family to visit I feel it is only fair to do it this way.
If anyone would like to set up a minimum of three days with me during this summer, please email me at beads@theriver.com as soon as possible because I cannot set them up at short notice. I teach a maximum of five pupils in glass bead making in any class because I feel that larger numbers do not allow true learning.  Jewelry making, design and marketing sessions are welcome to any number of you!

ELASTIC IS THE SECRET!

Well, not exactly a secret at this point in time….

During the past several years, we have seen an increase in bracelets strung on clear or black and for all I know, colored, elastic.  I always found most of them to be a bit delicate, very stretchy and seemed to me to be fairly breakable. If I could break the thread by stretching a length of it as hard as I could, then that would not serve my purpose.

I understood that the elastic had to be thin to pass through various semi-precious stone beads, crystal and many other materials, but it wasn’t for me. 

Now I also avoid  Soft Flex and Beadalon because I feel that the crimp beads on each side of the clasp can be stressed to breaking point, (because sweat seems to weaken the thread…) and then the beads  scatter, never to be fully collected again if the accident happens in a restaurant or on the street. I did experiment with these cords years ago and found that they were inclined to break in bed… an errant big toe…well..

When I opened my gallery, over six years ago, I began using Stretch Magic to make bracelets. I even used it to construct them using wonderful historical trade beads and the best of my own signed lamp work.  If the hole in the trade bead or silver I was using was a little too small, I stretched the first foot of the elastic as long as I could, denting my fingers and stressing both my hands and the elastic until I had pulled it into a smaller circumference.  After snipping off the short length remaining in my hand, I had a smaller thread end to work with. Once the beads were on, I could stretch the elastic enough to persuade them to slide further down the length, giving me room to put more onto the elastic to complete the design.

I have learned to thread up to 15 bracelets on the Stretch Magic without having to cut it into segments until I wish to finish and tie them off one at a time. In this way I don’t have to stress and stretch the elastic for each bracelet. It is important to add here that you can buy round silver beads for the designs with larger holes. I use 2.5mm round seamless silver beads as spacers, as well as the “Balinese” daisies and various kinds of copper beads too.

Now. Stretch Magic changes it’s tension radically between the 1mm and the 1.5mm. The latter was quite hard to find a few years ago and I had to order 25 rolls at a time in order to please the supplier. I suspect it is easier to buy now. I have seen it in smaller rolls than the ones I use, on Ebay. It certainly was not available in any of the catalogs I keep handy. Maybe things have changed… I hardly have the time to check these things these days!

The 1.5mm Stretch Magic elastic is miraculously strong. My gallery sells lots and lots of bracelets and I can remember only a couple ever coming back to be repaired. That is amazing. The elastic can be trusted. I have a male friend who lives in the desert and works pretty hard out there, taking care of his horses and goodness knows what else. I know he digs the ground because he recently found a small Dinosaur and is working with a museum to identify it etc. He wears one of my bracelets, made with 2,000 year old granite beads from Djenne, Mali, put together with copper hishi from the Giriama tribe in Kenya. Last time I checked, the bracelet was at least three years old and he never takes it off. There… does that convince you?!

I don’t have a picture of the bracelet handy but here is a necklace to show you what it looked like.

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. Now there are at least 200, I’m told and more each year.

Four years ago 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 Alpacca 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.

I teach 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. It took me a while to decide join this lovely Internet showcase, and now I will do my best to keep a constant flow of fresh work accumulating in it. This means inventing a 48 hr day instead of 24!

CLASSES IN WIRE WORK AND BEAD JEWELRY DESIGN AT MY BARN/STUDIO IN BISBEE ARIZONA.

The other news is that I have had lots of work done on my lovely large barn/studio and am ready to give classes there.

Various reasons. I want to pass on my knowledge. Time marches on and I have so much to teach.

I am interested mainly in helping those of you who are already in the bead jewelry and/or lamp work bead business and are perhaps in need of some guidance. I want those of you who are working hard and wonder why things are not going quite the way you planned. There is so much to know. We are going into a pretty worrying time now and are having to adapt in many ways.

People are going to do their shopping on the Internet more frequently now as travel becomes more expensive. I think it is wise to sell there, but I want you to know that my gallery is still going strong and that is because many people still love to be able to touch and choose their treasures from boutiques and galleries.

Silver has rocketed in price, so we need to adapt there too. No worries, there are ways of designing bead jewelry that work with copper and silver mixes for instance. I see that PMC is bringing out a new copper product. I love it, though I don’t teach it. Jewelry has always been fascinating to us and we will prosper if we bend with the changes.

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.

CLASSES IN LAMP WORK GLASS BEAD MAKING, INTERMEDIATE .

My lamp work classes will be limited to four pupils at a time. I do not believe in teaching larger classes because obviously I can give each pupil really special attention if the class is really small.

I will be offering classes in making beads with stained glass remnants. I have been promoting this work for nearly fifteen years and I think you will be fascinated with the mixing of colors I have developed. Working with this glass will lead you to new ideas when you return to the rods. I can teach both, but prefer to give classes in one or other glass at a time.

In my studio also have lots of Plowden and Thompson and Lausha glass in case you want to give them a try.

If you are interested in this class, I would like you to send me pictures of your beads so that I can see if you would benefit from it…I don’t teach beginners any more, but you don’t have to be very advanced to qualify, so don’t be afraid!
Please feel free to email me with any questions you might have about the classes. I will have a list of open dates available within the next few days.

I’ts hard to show you how it really was, this is just one little view.. it was wonderful.

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 »

This corner is provided in my gallery for people who want to watch my instructional films but perhaps cannot afford to buy them. There is a little VCR and a bench just out of the frame. Wendi Maloy, pictured here too, persuaded me to open the gallery five years ago, and she designed the interior and stayed to see the gallery thrive. Wendi then returned to New Orleans to sell in a friend’s gallery in the French Quarter called Beadazzled, where she had originally worked for five years. When Katrina hit, she was there and had some pretty traumatizing experiences, including losing her little daughter Lili for a while. She returned to Bisbee and has been my friend and manager ever since.

Now that I have learned to blog my pictures, watch out! Thought you might like to see a view of my gallery in Bisbee. Everything in it is made by me including the pictures on the walls, which are pen and inks of the old Sausalito waterfront in the late 1970s. There is a lot of jewelry made with my beads but also pearls, African Trade beads, glass, and a little line called Bisbee Chain. So here is one  view…

Yes, I’m still here, having a wonderful time of course, and working in the studio/gallery with Frederic and Nadine. I am making beads for the web store and for Uptown Tribal in Bisbee. Fred and Nadine’s new gallery opens in just over two weeks, so I am helping them by making small “stock” beads, so that they can use them as fillers in their own jewelry. We sneak off to the beach whenever we can because at last the sun is shining and all is warm, even hot!
I went to Paris yesterday with Nadine. She goes to the jewelry district to buy stock for her bead shop, not for her glass gallery and wow, it was amazing to see how busy Paris is, traffic unbearable, but still that lovely Parisian vibe.
By the way, my new DVDs are up in my web shop. It has taken some time to go over from the VHS tapes, and they are still available, but I know lots of you can only use DVDS. The Basic Wirework film is still only on VHS because I did not like the quality of the DVD and will work on that when I return in August.
The bead show at the museum in Berck is so amazing. It will be interesting to see how much attendance it gets. A dream come true for me.

Yes, I’m back in Le Treport, Normandy, staying with Nadine Piskadlo and Fred Marey right by the sea. They have a house on the front, and down the road about 5 minutes walk is Nadine’s bead shop, Entree En Matiere.
Up through the town, through old arches and narrow streets, one comes to a road that ends again in the sea, but is overlooked by incredibly high white cliffs. 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 »