Bead Arts

Tara’s Tiles, 2007. Glass curtain of 1/2″ square glass tiles in 26 colors, with crystals and seed beads. 28″ deep and 81″ wide. View from my master bath.

Artist: Denise Perreault
Location: Boulder, Colorado

Website:
Denise Perreault
Denise also has a number of articles and two covers published in Beadwork Magazine since 1999, (Interweave Press).

Denise, how do you describe your work?
I’d describe my work as contemporary folk art, since I strive for a hand-crafted, vintage appearance. That’s why I use size 11 Czech seed beads almost exclusively: those imperfect little donuts are an excellent medium for conveying a sense of naivete and humanity in my beadwork, as good folk art often does. Our home has a growing collection of contemporary and antique folk art that my husband David and 10 year-old son Dustin have been collecting on our world travels. I’m honored if my artwork brings as much delight to others as our folk art collection gives to us.

In Prince Krak’s Time, 2003. Glass curtain, 25″ long x 48″ wide. Glass seed beads and crystals on antique train ram rod.

What is your creative process like?
I do plan, but I’ll contemplate a piece for months before I put anything on paper, especially the large curtains or sculptures that can take over a year to complete. Once I have a solid idea, I’ll bead a sample, often around a small bottle, to make sure the idea is viable in beads. Then I’ll use regular and/or beading graph paper or a bead software program to create a cartoon.

Motherhood and a husband who travels for business forces me to work in spurts, often late into the night, when it’s just me and the raccoons and owls trilling outside my window near the foothills of the Rockies.

I’m fortunate that my husband is a true patron of the arts (if you get my drift), so I never mind how long a piece takes to finish — it’s all satisfying time spent beading. Perhaps this is what sets me apart from many beaders: most of us are impatient or need to complete a piece so we can jump onto the next project, but I prefer to create one big fabulous piece of beadwork, instead of many less-inspired pieces, speaking strictly for myself. That’s also what shifted my work from craftsperson to artist: when my signature pieces, the glass curtains, began to receive national exposure and recognition. I’m the only bead artist I know of creating these large beaded pictorial fabrics for windows, and it’s SO nice to finally have found my niche, after 24 years in the fiber arts world.

What kind of training did you have which helped you achieve your current level of artistry?
My mom taught me to sew and encouraged my craftiness as a child, but I was not allowed to skitter away precious college tuition on something “frivolous” like art. So I got a journalism degree from Boston University in 1982. While new to Boulder in 1984 and working at the Boulder Daily Camera, I found a small loom at a garage sale, and immediately became hooked on the fiber arts. I took a few weaving classes and one beading class, so I guess I’m mostly self-taught. However, my son and I are constant visitors to museums and art galleries, and being exposed to many different artists and mediums keeps my mind stirring with fresh ideas.

Butchering ‘La Boheme’, 2005. Beaded sculpture over martini glass armature

Is there a tool or material that you can’t imagine living without?
Nymo size B beading thread, a halogen-bulb desk lamp, my large 8-shaft loom, and a pair of 3X reading glasses. Music is also a must.

What inspires you to create?
Inspirations include medieval art and architecture, historical costumes, international folk art and textiles, foreign travel, refracted light/prisms, and of course color and texture. In the end I can’t NOT create! My fingers MUST thread needles and looms — it’s my meditation, my pride and joy. A day without creativity is like a day without sunshine!

What inspires you to keep going when the work gets frustrating or tough?
Tenacity serves me well in my art because it compels me to view problem-solving as a fun challenge. And when something gets too intimidating or maddening, I know that if I walk away from the problem for a time, patience, an open mind, and a fresh perspective will find a solution. Consequently, unfinished projects are rare.

Tunisian Carpet, 1999. Glass curtain(tm) made of seed beads and findings. This is the one that took 2,600 hours to complete! 14″ long x 62″ wide. Each band is a motif from the Berber carpets woven in my Tunisian village, where I served in the Peace Corps from 1992-1994.

What is your best piece of advice for those who would like to rise in their level of artistry?
Rudolph Steiner, founder of the Waldorf Schools, has guided me through questionable bouts of creativity with the following quote: (he used the word “man” but I don’t think he’d mind if we change that to “woman” for now):

“The woman who works with her hands is a laborer.
The woman who works with her hands and head is a craftsperson.
The woman who works with her hands and head and heart is an artist.”

What takes up the majority of your time besides your art?
Motherhood, gardening, writing, weaving, reading, and volunteering for a wild animal sanctuary, my large local fiber arts guild, and Dustin’s fourth-grade class. I also have a large gaggle of girlfriends who gather regularly for picnics, skiing, hiking, happy hours, and art events.

Tara’s Tiles, 2007. Night-view of tiled curtain in my master bath.

What’s your favorite books and foods?
Favorite foods: bagels and fruit
Favorite books: ooh, that’s tough because I’m a voracious reader and love so many authors. I’ve even worked my way through Radcliff University’s list of “100 Most Important Books of the 20th Century”, (though it took me almost three years to do it!) Some favorites are: Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham, Notre Dame of Paris by Victor Hugo, Arabian Sands by Wilfred Thesiger, Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Baltisar and Blimunda by Jose Saramago, and everything by Willa Cather, Anais Nin, and Thomas Wolfe.

Aspen Alley Basket, 2004. My husband found basket without wooden handles. I “repaired” with glass, wood, and plastic beads, beads from old Christmas garland, and Jamaican seeds. 11″ high x 12″ high.

artist-profile, beads, beading, creativity, mixed-media

I finished the mixed media beaded quilt that began as a class that I took with Nancy Eha back in August. The beaded medallion is so distinctive that it took me awhile to figure out how to finish the piece off.  You can learn to make this great medallion in Nancy’s book, Bead Creative Art Quilts.

bead, beading, bead-embroidery, mixed-media, art-quilts

Denise Perreault makes a lot of really neat stuff, and I love the way her website is arranged…it’s really easy to navigate. That way, you can concentrate on all the gorgeous beadwork instead of trying to figure out how to get “the-ah from he-ah”, as we say in New England. The thing that Denise makes that I’ve never seen done before is glass curtains. They are simply beautiful.

Visit Denise and take a look at her beautiful vessels and sculptures too!

If I Were a Blacksmith by Denise Perreault

beads, beading, mixed-media

You can find links to more of the Bead Journal Project’s participants on Robin Atkin’s blog.

Click on “Bead Journal Project” under “categories” in the right-hand sidebar to see the beaded journal pages I’ve done for previous months.

bead-journal-project, beads, beading, bead-embroidery, journals

There’s a lot to love on Betsy Youngquist’s gallery site! I really love her older beaded paintings, but it’s her beaded objects like the ones below that totally blow me away! Not surprisingly, Betsy’s work has been featured in many books and beadwork magazines.

Little Moon

Sister Loon

beads, beading, mixed-media

Transformer 2 bracelet
Photographer: Greg Mullin

Artist: Tina Koyama
Location: Seattle

Website & Blog: Tina Koyama
e-mail: tina@tinakoyama.com

Tina, your work is obviously very organic. How do you describe it?
My current focus is on self-supported sculptures using off-loom beadweaving stitches. My work is probably most closely related to contemporary basketry: 3-dimensional forms made from flexible materials. I like to keep an open mind about what constitutes a “bead” (technically, anything that has a hole going through it!). I have a series of sculptures made from pasta, which, as anyone who has strung a macaroni necklace knows, makes excellent beads!


No. 5 in the Semolina
Photographer: Greg Mullin

What is your creative process like?
My creative process is completely improvisational and intuitive. I never plan or sketch anything – I simply choose some beads, thread a needle and plunge into it. That improvisational process is both the fuel and the outcome of my work. I am as compelled by the challenge of continually asking, “What happens if…?” as I am by the eventual answer, which always surprises me. Ultimately, it is that surprise that motivates me to continue exploring in a way that implementing a planned design never would.

I always listen to music while I’m beading, and my favorite is the improvisational jazz piano of Keith Jarrett. I can listen to one of his CDs a hundred times and always hear something new – some tiny nuance I missed previously. I’m completely inspired by his apparent fearlessness in appearing in concert before thousands of people to play music he has never played before. My artistic goal is to be the Keith Jarrett of beadwork!

As far as my work habits go, that’s where my background in writing (see below) comes in handy. I get up every weekday morning at 5 a.m. and bead for a couple of hours before going to work at my various day jobs (when I was a writer, I wrote every morning before work – different medium, same habit). On my days off, I bead for 4-5 hours in the morning. It’s not really about looking for or waiting for inspiration – it’s about showing up every day and being there when inspiration arrives. Sometimes it arrives, and sometimes it doesn’t, but either way, I get a lot of beading done (almost 1,000 hours a year).


Soft & Stone
Photographer: Greg Mullin

What kind of training did you have which helped you achieve your current level of artistry?
I have a B.A. and M.A. in creative writing, and before 2002, most of my creative and professional work was in writing (I did corporate communications for 20+ years before I discovered beads). Until 2007 when I earned a certificate in fiber arts from the University of Washington’s Extension Program, I had no formal education in art.

I began beading probably the way many beaders begin: I made a few earrings and strung a few necklaces, but that type of beading didn’t interest me for long. After a while, I got bored, and I almost gave up beads entirely – until I discovered seed beads in 2002. That’s when I realized the amazing potential of beads – the ability to create complex, 3-dimensional shapes simply by pulling thread tightly through them. The book The New Beadwork (Kathlyn Moss and Alice Scherer) changed my life because I suddenly saw that beads could be used for artistic expression in many ways, not just as jewelry. It really opened my mind to the possibilities.

As far as my beading education goes, early on I used books to learn basic stitches, and I’ve taken numerous classes at local bead shops and bead shows. Even though I’ve been teaching since 2003, I still enjoy taking classes myself, because everyone has a different way of doing things, and there’s always something new to learn. I also enjoy the social aspect of classes.

I’d have to say, though, that my primary training is and always has been simply experimenting continually. I have several shoe-box-size boxes filled with tiny pieces of beadwork (maybe ½ to 2 inches wide) that I have made to explore a stitch or technique. I’d say those boxes are equivalent to a painter’s sketchbook.

Is there a tool or material that you can’t imagine living without?
You mean other than beads?  Three things: Beading glasses; full-spectrum task light; triangle-shaped scoop. I am always on a quest to find the ideal beading thread, which, as far as I’m concerned, hasn’t been developed yet!

What inspires you to create?
Curiosity is probably my primary inspiration. I’m always wondering what would happen if I tried doing something different. Beads themselves (the various shapes and sizes) are also a strong source of inspiration because they can come together in surprising ways, depending on the light, finish, color, stitch used, tension, whatever. The continual discovery keeps me motivated.

What inspires you to keep going when the work gets frustrating or tough?
If I run into a frustrating problem, I usually just “bead through it” and keep going until I find a solution. I’m kind of persistent that way. Sometimes I’ll put the problem down and start working on something else for a while, and often that frees my mind enough to go back to the first problem and find a new solution.


Transformer 1 necklace
Photographer: Greg Mullin

What is your best piece of advice for those who would like to rise in their level of artistry?
One of my goals as a beadwork instructor is to help students overcome the fear of working without instructions and discover the joy of working improvisationally. My encouragement is to continually experiment with whatever stitch or techniques you know and go beyond what you have learned. If you take a class or read a magazine article to make a piece of jewelry, take it a step further by changing the design in some way. Another tip is not to feel compelled to always complete something as planned. For example, if you start out to make a bracelet but find that the design is changing in some way that is no longer appropriate for a bracelet, let the bracelet go and follow the beadwork. Even if you end up with a piece of beadwork that can’t be worn in any way, you will have learned more from it than if you had simply made another bracelet according to plan.

[editor’s note: Tina teaches nationally at bead shows, bead societies and other venues and also sell kits for many of her class projects. For information on kits and classes, please visit her web site and see the “classes” section!]

What takes up the majority of your time besides your art?
I have several “day jobs”: freelance writing (feature articles for magazines and marketing writing), teaching beadwork locally and nationally, and customer service for an online bead shop.

What’s your favorite activity besides beading?
Knitting! In the evening when the creative side of my brain is tired and lazy (I do my best creative work in the morning), I like to knit, which engages my hands and a different part of my brain but still feels constructive. At night, knitting calms me so that I can get to sleep (whereas beading would rev me up). I also like to take knitting with me to the doctor’s office to fill the time while I’m waiting, and I like to take it with me on planes, too. (I also love freeform knitting and crochet! But that’s creative and isn’t the same as comfort knitting.)

beads, beading, creativity, designing, bead-embroidery, artist-profile

Winners in the 7th annual Saul Bell design contest, sponsored by Rio Grande, can now be oogled at this link.

Details for the 2008 Saul Bell contest are available now…the deadline is September 21, 2007.

Botanical Bracelet by Patrik Kusek,
First place winner in PMC

calls-for-entries, Saul-Bell-awards

Strawberry Moon

True to form, I did June’s page this month! I just don’t like to work on the current month…I have to think about what the previous month was like in order to really come up with imagery that suits both the name of the moon and my own quirks! You can find links to more of the Bead Journal Project’s participants on Robin Atkin’s blog.

Click on “Bead Journal Project” under “categories” in the right-hand sidebar to see last month’s beaded journal page.

bead-journal-project, beads, beading, bead-embroidery, journals

Pink (Color Study Series), 2006
Photograph by Greg Mullin

Tina Koyama makes beautiful necklaces and bracelets, but what totally captured my attention was her sculptures! I was just thinking about how organic her work was, when I glanced at this statement on her website:

Beads fascinate me because they can emulate a natural cellular structure. A single strung bead doesn’t hold much interest, but multiplied by thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, beads take on a new form – one that I am continually compelled to explore.

Well, that explains it!

Rhythm & Blues (Color Study Series), 2006
Photograph by Greg Mullin

beads, beading, mixed-media, bead-weaving

Grapes

Artist: Diana Neamtu
Business name: Beaded Flora


Grapes, detail

Blogs:
Beaded Flora
Ganutell

Diana, how do you describe your work?
I try to take the beauty of flowers and nature and translate them into everlasting beaded works.


Rose

What is your creative process like?
I tend to focus primarily on duplicating flowers from pattern books. I’ll usually browse through a book and pick out an interesting flower. I then spend some time planning what type and color of beads I want to use. This usually takes the longest time because I want to be sure about my color and texture selections. As for my work environment, I prefer to work with a little background noise (such as the t.v.) for a few hours at a time.


Pear

What kind of training did you have which helped you achieve your current level of artistry?
I’ve never had any real formal training. I found about beaded flowers by accident while surfing the internet one day. I fell in love with them right away and immediately ordered a book. When it came, though, I was intimidated and it took me several months to finally try to make something. After my first flower, which was terrible of course, I realized how truly enjoyable and realaxing beaded flowers are. I continue to practice this art regularly, and I try to make sure that every flower looks as perfect as possible.

Is there a tool or material that you can’t imagine living without?
Floral tape. That’s the first thing that came to mind.


Gladiola

What inspires you to create?
Seeing other people’s incredible creations and wanting to recreate that.

What inspires you to keep going when the work gets frustrating or tough?
This is my hobby; it never gets tough or frustrating =)


Cyclamen

What is your best piece of advice for those who would like to rise in their level of artistry?
Practice as much as possible. For beaded flower artists: don’t be afraid to modify patterns to match your perception of nature.

What takes up the majority of your time besides your art?
Most definitely school (University).


Mint Flower

What are some of your favorite comfort items?
Food: Chicken soup
Book: The Count of Monte Cristo
Color: Green
Other hobby: Ganutell (Maltese craft made in a similar manner to beaded flowers)


Sea Holly

beads, beading, beaded-flowers, mixed-media, artist-profile

The Land of Odds has another contest running, with a deadline of August 31, 2007! It’s the 3rd annual All Dolled Up competition, and unlike the Ugly Necklace contest, you’re actually allowed to make your dolls beautiful…the theme this year is Celestial Reflections. Here’s an example of a beauty from last year:

Light of My Life, by Lidija Fairbanks

beads, beading, bead-embroidery, beaded-dolls, calls-for-entries

Is there any beader out there who has not heard about this project yet? If so, bookmark this site, and make sure that you get in on it next year (I am counting on this becoming an on-going event!). I was fortunate enough to be invited to participate before it was too late. Robin Atkins, beader extraordinaire, has modeled this project on the Quilt Journal Project that many are already familiar with. The blog homepage for the project is the 2007 Bead Journal Project. From the blog site:

About the 2007 Bead Journal Project
We are 239 women and 1 man who are dedicated and committed to creating 12 bead journal pages, one per month, for a year, starting June 1, 2007. We live in 13 different countries, including 37 states in the USA. Our primary goal during this process, is to stretch our creative and technical limits. The BJP is all about visual journaling using any media and techniques, as long as it includes beading. We are free to structure our bead journal pages any way we want, as long as all 12 are the same size.

I have chosen to do the names of the moon for each month. Researching this, I found that there were many alternate names for each month’s full moon, so I put together a list of the names I liked the best. I also decided to do the moon for the previous month each time. I’m not sure why…probably just because I really wanted to start with May, which is the “Flower Moon”. So here is my offering for June:

In July, I’ll be doing the “Strawberry Moon” for June!

bead-journal-project, bead-embroidery, beading, beads, mixed-media

Have you heard about the 2007 Bead Journal Project? It’s a group effort started by Robin Atkins, and I’m excited to be taking part in it. All I want to show you today is a little tiny corner of the piece that I’m making…more later!

bead-journal-project, bead-embroidery, beading

Neither Here Nor There

Artist: Melissa Earley
Location: Spartanburg, SC, USA

Website:
Melissa Earley


4-Eyes

I learned your bead pieces start out as paintings, Melissa, which is so different from most people’s approach. How do you describe your work?
I call my bead pieces “bead paintings.” Then, when people look at me like they have no clue what I’m talking about, I tell them that my bead paintings look like tiny little mosaics, or stained glass. I always frame the work between two pieces of clear glass so that light can come through, so they do often resemble stained glass in that way.

What is your creative process like?
My creative process is generally a solitary venture, especially at the initial drawing and painting stages. I listen to loud, preferably angry, chick music to get my blood pumping and my neurons firing, and while taking time out to play air guitar and sing into my pens and paintbrushes, I do a lot of sketching first. Once I find an image or idea I like, I paint it. Then if the painting has beading potential, I’ll create a template and start choosing my colors. This is the most frustrating part because although I use Delica seedbeads and they come in a lot of great and sometimes subtle colors, they can’t match the nuances of all the millions of possible paint combinations.

Once the beading begins I have to turn the music off because I can’t listen without singing, and if I’m singing I can’t pay attention to the weaving. So I gather all my stuff together and plant myself in front of the TV, which is easy to ignore but gives me some background noise to keep me entertained. When I’m lucky, my husband will provide the entertainment instead, either by talking with me or by way of recording music in the next room, which is usually good to bead by. And Petey, my dog, is usually at my feet during the entire process, sighing loudly to signal his displeasure that I’m not paying more attention to him. Once the weaving begins I work constantly, although since I have a full time job, I can usually only bead in the evenings. I might work 10 to 14 hours on weaving during my days off, which is what I prefer—just pushing straight through.


Self Portrait Blue

What kind of training did you have which helped you achieve your current level of artistry?
Well, I still feel like a hobbyist most of the time, because shows and sales are few and far between, but I have a BA in studio art, and I’ve worked in several “fine craft” galleries, which have inspired me in numerous ways. They gave me opportunities to see a lot of fresh, original work: glass, wood, metal, clay, jewelry, fiber, paper, you name it. There are a multitude of innovative and amazingly creative people working in the US right now, and being exposed to their work, seeing their careers progress, and occasionally getting to meet them, has been a huge motivation for me to continue my own work. My husband is an amazing and prolific artist, and a musician, and he’s always working on something which of course keeps me going, too. And my brother and a lot of my friends are creative types: musicians, writers, quilters, designers, puppeteers, and other types of artists, so being surrounded by that level of creativity, obviously everybody kind of feeds of each other’s momentum and creative excitement.

Is there a tool or material that you can’t imagine living without?
I would be nothing without my pliers. And I can’t do any beading without Thread Heaven.


The making of Neither Here Nor There

What inspires you to create?
I’ve always loved art and I’ve always drawn, from as far back as I can remember, and honestly, creating art is a great ways to exorcise my demons. Whatever life throws at me can be tamed, at least in part, by using that emotion, whether it’s anger, grief, sorrow (and even joy), to create something tangible. There are times when I can physically feel the emotion run down my arm and out through the pencil or brush. It’s very cathartic.

As far as influences, I love 20th century art, especially the Expressionists, Surrealists, Dadaists, and the Fauves. My favorite painter at the moment is Leonora Carrington, and my favorite bead artist is Jimoh Buraimoh. I also love ancient mosaics, African sculpture, and contemporary craft.

What inspires you to keep going when the work gets frustrating or tough?
Well, I’m used to the fact that there will be “dry spells” where I just won’t feel like being creative, but I also know they’ll pass. In the end, I just can’t not do it. It’s not really a choice. And as long as I’m creating the work because it’s an image I want to make, rather than thinking, “Oh, I bet that would sell”, then it will be good. You have to satisfy yourself first and foremost.


Self Portrait in Purple

What takes up the majority of your time besides your art?
In the real world I’m a librarian, so that takes up a big hunk of time but also provides me with health insurance, which, as any starving artist will tell you, is pretty nice to have. It’s also good for keeping me intellectually stimulated, which is always important when it comes to creative endeavors. And, I get to select all our library’s art books, which is kind of a dream job for an artist—they give me a budget of thousands of dollars a year to buy art books with. That’s a nice way to spend my work time.

Who are your favorite authors?
My favorite authors at the moment are Lionel Shriver and Leonora Carrington. Shriver wrote We Need to Talk About Kevin, which is so powerful and just blew me away, really affected me in a manner unlike anything else I’d ever read. It is very insightful and I appreciate the raw openness and sobering honesty of her characters as well as the style of her prose. I also read The Hearing Trumpet by Carrington recently, which is very much like a narrative of one of her paintings: surreal, magical, feminist, funny, and surprising. And despite, or perhaps because of, the weirdness of the story, it’s also very touching and human.


Abstract Green Swirls

Note: Another interview with Melissa can be found in the April 2006 edition of Upstate Visual Arts.

beads, beading, jewelry, mixed-media, artist profile

Of all the beading forms that I find fascinating (hmmm…that would be all of them!), one that I’ve never really tried is wired flowers. Diana makes gorgeous beaded fruit, and as you can see above, lovely flowers. Her blog, Beaded Flora, chronicles her adventures with beads. Well worth a visit!

handmade-beaded-jewelry, wearable-art, beads, beading, jewelry, mixed-media